Hi Darjman
My first Nissen I swore I would never ever EVER ever get another one. I mean NEVER. It was the worst recovery of my life.
P.S. I'm in Canada (Northern Ontario) also and the success rates are >90%. So your doc is def. persuading you to not get it...
At the beginning, I couldn't even swallow my spit... it would get regurgitated right back up... anything that went down came right back up. It was hell. I lost 20lbs (I only weighed 130lbs going in). I would get frequent nausea, panic attacks and overall became very discouraged.
The chest pain was excruciating... the air they fill your chest cavity with takes about
a week to absorb... this feels like intense branding irons pushing through your chest plate under your collar bones.
Aside from learning how to eat again, anything not "heavy enough" aka water, wouldn't go through my valve. I would need something with substance aka yogurt, to be able to punch through the wrap. Remember, your esophagus can only push so hard to get something through your new valve. So the thicker something is, the easier it goes down.
I was on fluids for over 2 months. Then I went to mashed potatoes for about
2 months. Then my esophagus wasn't working properly- i would get esophageal spasms which feel like a heart attack (the neuronal pathways are the same as those for a heart attack -referred pain) so the intense Charlie horse on your left shoulder and down your left arm... these would only be relieved by taking Nitroglycerine SubLing tabs. I struggled with these esophageal spasms for years. A condition called eosiniphilic esophagitis (allergic response to the stitches holding my wrap in place).
On top of that, due to my allergies to my stitches, my diaphragm would routinely spaz every 2 minutes - constant hiccups. Once we identified that this was a allergic response to the stitches again, I was put on Baclofen (muscle relaxant) 10mg 4x daily. This has worked miracles, and I am still on them today.
As for return to activity- your main question: life will never be the same.
I was a very active 23 year old at the time- swimming, hiking, motocross, snowboarding, jet skiing, skiidooing, running, gym workouts etc. NOT ANYMORE.
When I first woke up from surgery #1, the surgeon told me "you only live once, just take it easy and you'll be fine. He basically told me to return to activities, just lightly. Where it all fell apart? "Light" activity is subjective... what it means to me, is clearly not what it meant to the surgeon.
So here I am, 6 years later with everything blown apart and no tissue left to connect/stitch too. I was given quite the talking to by my surgeon. He made it very clear that I am NOT made of titanium, I only have 1 body, and that the ONLY activity I can do is brisk walking. That's it. That's the rest of my life - Brisk walking. No joke. I am now 30.
So despite me getting on with life after the first surgery , I DO NOT recommend you go back to your daily, regular activities after surgery. It's not worth it. Yes, I got the rest of my 20's to do what I loved the most, but now I am paying for it and I'm not sure if it was entirely worth it...like I said earlier, depression and anxiety are daily struggles of mine because I push too hard, get pain, and then panick at what I could have possibly torn inside of me.
If you get this surgery, please be mindful that a full lifestyle change is in order... no more running, basketball, soccer, high impact sports, no more working or your core (which is responsible for everything!!!)
You are to bring your beautiful soul to parties and sun tan while everyone else does the wake boarding, jet skiing, drinking, play volley ball and do all the other fun things. I now have to get used to being the "mom" of the group and cook for my friends and make lemonade😊
Sorry for the long post... best of luck to you in your decision... if anyone has questions please do not hesitate 👍🏼
Post Edited (Minou87) : 4/3/2017 8:14:46 PM (GMT-6)