My Fundoplication with Hiatal Hernia repair journey

They said it is normal. I really can't this is the 10th day I've missed. And I'm a senior in high school so this is an important time. The surgeon sees no reason for me not to be. And honestly it's more stressful missing school than being there.

You poor thing, it makes recovery more unpleasant thats for sure. Did anyone warn you about dumping syndrome before your op? Dont ya just love that name! Your bodys ability to process/tolerate some foods gets affected after many surgeries which involve the digestive tract. I had it pretty bad after my gallbladder removal, but thats pretty common with that surgery, but usually its things like dairy, high fiber foods and spiced foods. Your body adjusts to digesting these things again, it just takes a little while. Maybe if you try sticking to quite bland low fiber food during the day at school it might lessen the occurrences? It could also be from antibiotics if they gave you any for the surgery, in which case it should go away once you finish the antibiotics, after a couple of days.

No it doesn't. After having a surgery that shortens, or somehow alters the digestive process, sometimes you can't process more complex foods as well as you may have pre-surgery. Foods with high fat content, spices, complex carbohydrates etc. can trigger it and it can occur as soon as 10 mins after eating up to a few hours after. It only lasts until your digestive tract adjusts to the change. After my gallbladder removal I was fine for 2 weeks, but after that I couldn't tolerate anything even remotely fatty, salty or dense but over about a month it drastically improved. I do still react to eggs sometimes, but other than that everything else is fine again. I think it can last longer with gallbladder removal though because of the change to the amount of available bile.

No problem. It sucks that surgeons aren't more honest about stuff like this, mine never even told me it could happen, it was my GP confirmed by my GI who told me that it's relatively common after GB removal

I'll post a link for some diet recommendations for it at the bottom of this. Some habit/lifestyle things you can do to help are:
- eating small meals more frequently, which I imagine you are already doing because of the wrap
- avoid drinking with meals, its recommended you dont drink an hour either side of eating but this might not be feasible for you
- don't move around after eating, movement/exercise helps to speed up digestion and you want to try to slow things down, its the rapid transit of food from your stomach to the small intestine that causes dumping syndrome
- dont eat/drink anything too hot or cold. Room temp water is good.

As I've said before dairy can make things worse in some people, so it might be wise to avoid it for a little while. The specific things I found which made mine worse were caffinated drinks, tea was the worst, raw/under cooked garlic, eggs, some dairy products - yoghurt and hard cheeses were ok. It would still be worth seeing your doctor about it if you haven't already. Do you feel like you are able to keep in any food? I know taking something like immodium wouldn't be ideal while you are healing, but it would be a good idea to have something like Enerlyte or Gastrolyte, to restore electrolites, you may find even that is enough to help slow things down. Try to stay away from things like Powerade or Gatorade because the high sugar content is likely to cause more problems than the electrolytes solve.

http://gicare.com/diets/anti-dumping-post-gastrectomy-diet/

Pain killers can help with diarrhea, if you keep taking the codeine ones it may help

If they're just cocodamol then you're really unlikely to get addicted, just once a day should be enough to slow down the diarrhea. I've been taking them on and off for years and have never had addiction issues.

Ok thanks guys. I'll see what my doctor says.

Thats good, and bad, to hear. The cheese could have caused that. Don't worry though your body should adjust to those foods again soon.

Hi there. You and I are very close to surgery dates and recovery process. My surgery was Oct 1, done lap, 180, and hiatal hernia repair. My surgery was 4.5 hrs and my hospital stay was 5 days. (ON Can)

I was scheduled to go back to work this week, but did not feel ready, and today was definitely proof of not being ready. Went out and ate pho with my husband and I am at home on sofa trying to recover!

I started on soft food two weeks into my home recovery and I like you was very happy to start eating that, from the full liquid diet. But it still gets boring, and trust me, with two grown sons and my husband, all with big appetites all looking for "mom's" cooking - it's been difficult, and tempting.

I too suffered from loose bowels but it only seemed to last about a week.

Some days, I wonder if it has all been worth it, however I must keep reminding myself that being able to sleep at night and not having my food and drink constantly coming back up-it definitely is.

We can keep checking in on ea other. All the best

I haven't had that happen yet - and I hope I don't.

When it comes to when, I eat when I get hungry. What - I found a great site for the ok and avoid foods and when I
Showed this to my dietician (before leaving hospital) she was very pleased and was also familiar with the site. She only found that the caffeine, chocolate and banana restrictions to strict and if they were tolerated then look at them as ok.

As for how much to eat, I use the sample diet as my guide for portions

Hope it helps: http://www.upmc.com/patients-visitors/education/nutrition/pages/diet-after-nissen-fundoplication-surgery.aspx

Sorry about any confusion. It was a Nissen. But my doctor had said something about a partial wrap.