Posted 1/13/2016 11:20 PM (GMT 0)
Hi all, been off here for a little bit but I thought I should come back and give an update on how I'm doing now I'm past the worst of the post-op recovery.
I had an anterior fundoplication (180) on 3/12/15. The recovery for the most part has been pretty smooth. I no longer have any reflux or regurgitation, don't have to take any PPI's and best of all I can sleep lying down again!
I did hit a few problems along the way, as most people do I had really bad pain in the second week, to the point that even oxycodone barely took the edge off but I eventually found that anti-inflammatories (which I had been avoiding because they wreak havoc on my stomach) rather than straight narcos worked a lot better. Aside from that the pain has been pretty minimal, even right after the surgery. As I have started eating more foods I have gotten pain around the wrap site but this has always been because I either haven't chewed something well enough, or I have eaten or drunk too much at one time.
I have had quite a problem with diarrhoea post-op, even in the first week when I should have been constipated by all the meds. Its not normal diarrhoea, it can come immediately after a normal bowel movement, happens after meals (not every meal) and is pretty much water. As I started eating more it did improve slightly but its not gone. It had my surgeon stumped and he thought I could have picked up a C Diff infection, but I saw my GI yesterday and he said the C Diff test was clear, and he was fairly certain that the problem is bile acid malabsorption and luckily the treatment for it is pretty straight forward and should work immediately (nice to hear that for a change!). I had my gallbladder out in May and was getting bile reflux before my surgery, so its not surprising that its causing troubles again. So for anyone contemplating surgery, fear not because its not a common complication of a fundoplication, its a result of my gallbladder removal.
Overall I am very glad I had the surgery. I still feel pretty run down, but thats thanks to the BAM as it also causes malnutrition. All the major symptoms I was hoping would disappear have gone, and most importantly I can get back to living a normal life again.