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Nissen fundoplication recovery

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Posted 5/27/2017 10:10 PM (GMT 0)
Hello I'm new to the forum. I had my robot laposcoptic nissen fundoplication surgery on May 8th. The first week was rough with the liquid diet. But I managed. Second week and 3rd week soft diet. I started to notice towards the end of week 2 I couldn't swallow as good because while I'm swallowing I'm belching continuously. So bad that the food or drink usually get stuck and hard to go down. I would have to slightly throw it back up. Week 3 I started having pretty bad diarrhea. I'm curious to know if this is normal and how long would this last. I go back up the doctor on Tuesday. Meanwhile he told me to continue taking my ppi's. Haven't spoken to him about the diarrhea because it started after my appt with him on Tuesday. I'm eating almost anything that's soft that I can tolerate. So I don't know if it's food related or not. Any help would be great. 😊
Posted 5/29/2017 3:53 PM (GMT 0)
I have my surgery on May 31st and will let you know how my symptoms are and what is recommended. I wish you a great recovery. The consistent advice I see here is to be patient-tough when we feel lousy. Take care.
Posted 5/29/2017 5:17 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you so much. Please let me know. I am impatient with these kind of things. Plus the eating is depressing sometimes. But I'm starting to find ways to cope. But for me the process itself is a strain at times.

Biggest advice chew food all the way and small bites. Allow the food you swallow first to go down properly. So it' doest the bill up and you end up choking and possibly vomiting.
Posted 5/29/2017 6:54 PM (GMT 0)
That is definitely good advice. Small bites, chew really well, swallow and wait for it to get past the lower esophageal sphincter before taking another bite. If not, it builds up and won't go down, for what seems like forever, and it HURTS! If that does happen, take small sips of warm water, and wait. It worked for me. (I also tried bouncing, to try to help gravity, LOL) Now I'm at day 26, and I'm doing so well! Eating is much easier, and every day I'm getting more brave about what I try to eat. I actually ate pretzels and cheese yesterday!
Posted 5/29/2017 7:07 PM (GMT 0)
Lol at you Maggie. Yes it does hurt and usually when that happens I have to belch which doesn't help. I can't wait to start adding other things into my diet. How did your process go?
Posted 5/29/2017 9:05 PM (GMT 0)
Hi janjanmoo

By process, do you mean my recovery? It seems to be going pretty well now. I had numerous issues in the beginning, similar to everyone's. I had a longer surgery compared to some that I read. I had a large paraesophageal hiatal hernia that had to be repaired before the fundoplication. One third of my stomach was stuck in my chest. I was in the hospital for 3.5 days, and only had ice chips for first 2.5 days. Then went straight to full liquid diet, which I stayed on until day 14 or 15. My surgeon then told me to go to a soft diet. Around day eight I was having trouble getting water down. It seemed to take like 20 seconds for a swallow to gurgle down into my stomach. My Dr ordered another barium swallow, which showed that my lower esophageal sphincter was really tight. It looked like it just came to a point right above my stomach. He considered stretching my esophagus at that time, but we took a wait and see approach. I'm glad we did. And now, just 26 days after my surgery I'm eating everything except meat and raw veggies. I've tried little bits of chicken, but even after chewing forever, it still lodged right at the bottom of my esophagus. Can't wait until I can have a big salad, and a steak or a taco! Seems like all the commercials on TV are for food that I can't have 😐
Posted 5/29/2017 9:11 PM (GMT 0)
Oh, janjanmoo, forgot to say I WISH I could belch! I had a few tiny burps while I was still in the hospital, but I can't now. Sometimes i think I'm going to burp, but I just get the hiccups.
Posted 5/30/2017 2:18 AM (GMT 0)
Oh wow. I know you're glad that everything is okay at this point. I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only one who's had those issues of swallowing liquids. I had/have major issues with it also. It seems to be getting a little better. That's what my doctor told me he would order another xray. Im lord I hope I don't need to do anything else with my esophagus. 😔. But it seems to be doing a little better with the swallowing. And I'm not looking forward to the no hiccups lol. Heard about it. And i agree all of the commercials Have food i cant eat. But im looking forward to eating meat, salads, and bread. Basically anything that's not soft. Lol. Also did you experience chills and diarrhea?
Posted 5/30/2017 6:18 AM (GMT 0)
I didn't experience chills. I only had diarrhea the day after my surgery, all day. Not since then, though. Oh, I haven't had bread yet, either. The three things I'm missing is meat, salad and chewy French bread.

When you drink water does it take a long time to go down, and does it sound like water going down a drain, LOL?
Posted 5/30/2017 9:19 AM (GMT 0)
Yes it's getting better with the water. But yes it did take a while. And seem like it goes down sort of strange. Can't quite remember if it sounded like that but it was strange. Lol. The chills part scared me a little but I didn't worry too much because I knew my body went through a major change. Yes your food list sounds like mines. Lol.
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