7 Days Post Op - Hiatal Hernia/Gerd Surgery

Enrage - so glad you decided to have the surgery. You won’t regret it. Your big next step is the expel the gas in your abdomen, which takes several days for your intestines to wake up. When it happens, you will know. I felt like I had a rocket going around in my stomach. At this point, call a nurse because she can give you something to make it easier for you to pass the gas. Make sure you are in the restroom. No stool softeners are needed. The good thing is that you are finally out of intensive care and can walk around without the nurse. Your shoulder pains will subside, by this point. I was unaware that the diaphragm and stomach share the same nerves. I thought they were gas pains up in my shoulder. But anyway, you are on the road to recovery.

Now you can start eating, and you can start on wonderful water. I never though that I would love water so much. They start you on liquids, then move you on to Farina, and then soft foods. At last, you will be cleared to go home. It was only four days for me, but it seemed like forever. Look out the window at about 9pm. You will be able to see the Disney fireworks which go off in every park. You will find the nursing staff very attentive. Dr. Gee wants the best for his patients. - including that private duty nurse you had while in intensive care. This may sound odd, but isn’t the Disney hospital (in your private room) a wonderful place to have surgery?

When you go home, you will be a hurting buckaroo for about a week. Then it will be easier to start moving around. You will heal pretty quick. The nurse practictioners tell you exactly what to eat - what you can and cannot do. Make sure YOU DONT LIFT anything, or exercise for 3 MONTHS. I started out with jello the first day, then graduated to soft foods when I was sure that I could keep it down. A soft diet is anything that you can chew. I ate everything but steak. I believe I was on the soft food diet until I went for my postop visit when they removed the outside staples. I still chew my food very well and take my time eating. I will never forget how sick I was before surgery. I had a very large hernia with my stomach through the hernia and upsidedown in my chest. Dr. Gee wants to get patients earlier so they don’t have to go through what I did.

Keep in touch.

Post Edited (Yellow1955) : 11/22/2017 12:05:33 PM (GMT-7)

Enrage, The WONDERFUL World of Disney lol. I followed the instructions to the letter about lifting. I did light stuff like laundry, and dishwasher. I tried to get help whenever possible. Having kids so young is tough. Not being able to swim or exercise was difficult for me, but 3 months goes by fast.

The slight sensation of burning sounds like inflammation or a “flare up”, and I would explain it the same way you did - not heartburn but a slight burny gnawing sensation. Don’t get off the PPI’s as long as you have that feeling, but double check with the Nurse Practicioner. I believe Wes (Fitboy) was off medicine too. He had slight inflammation but I don’t think he went back on the medicine. I’m not a good example because the night I had surgery, I found out my brother had lung cancer and he lived for six months. I was so stressed that I ended up getting the highest grade of inflammation (grade 4 esophagitis and gastritis). I thought the burning was from the healing process and I went off the medicine.

Dr. Gee’s team put you on the Nexium probably because you were on it before surgery. I am on Pantoprazole, which works for me. I started out with 80 mg per day and now I am down to 40mg. There was a individual in the waiting room who was totally off PPI’s by his postoperative visit. Everyone is different. It takes 3-6 months to heal from my condition. It has been three months, but eventually I’ll go down to 20 mg then off — and try to stay calm.

I eat whatever I want, drink coffee and alcohol, but we do have to keep our weight down. It sure is great not to have heartburn, regurgitation or any of the symptoms that I had before surgery. I am so grateful to Dr. Gee. After reading the posts in this forum I’m so glad that I had the gastroesophageal valvuloplasty because there are so many intolerable side effects with the Nissen wrap.

Take care and check in. Hopefully we can get others to consider this surgery too. Diane

Post Edited (Yellow1955) : 11/24/2017 9:15:11 PM (GMT-7)

For those who haven’t had surgery yet or are considering a redo, please see my thread called

Robotic-assisted gastroesophageal valvuloplasty with Vicryl closure of the hiatal hernia- no wrap

There are references and other threads to view where individuals have had the valvuloplasty.

Post Edited (Yellow1955) : 11/29/2017 5:00:59 PM (GMT-7)

Hello cnrage,

Can you please keep us updated with how the recovery is going and if you think this was the permanent solution for gerd. I also have a hiatal hernia with gerd and I have an appointment with Dr. G coming up soon to talk to him about it. I really am just looking for a permanent solution (I am 19 years old) to my gerd and would like to see how others are doing.

Thanks for the reply. Why did you get a drainage tube and a catheter? And do you know if a lot of the patients get a swallow patients done after the surgery?

Yes to all 3 questions. Catheter, drainage, and swallow test. It's not too much fun, but it's not all that bad either. Just remember, it's totally worth it to change your life!

Ranger - You will need to have quite a few more test performed than just the endoscopy. You will have to do a swallow study (which to be honest is a nightmare) and you will also have to do a barium swallow and potentially an acid monitor for a few days (they hang nodes down your throat to check for reflux). All of it really sucks but is well worth it. Note that Dr. G's team has to review all of these data to even consider you as a candidate. These aren't services they would ever perform as part of the surgery (as you might not even be a candidate). Hope that clears it up and good luck on working out the logistics.

By the way, I'm over 3 weeks out now and pretty much feel normal (minus the reflux). A bit of fatigue and have to be careful with the lifting requirements for 5 more weeks, but this surgery is such a miracle so far. I just had a plate of BBQ, 2 diet Cokes, on top of tea an coffee in the morning. No reflux. It's insane. I could never eat that before. I probably need to ease up on it honestly. That said, it's so incredible not to have that awful burning.

Hello Yellow1955,
I spoke with Dr. G and he told me that I needed to get another endoscopy done to see the hiatal hernia again so that heI can know if I can do this surgery. He told me to do it with Dr. Atiquzzaman. I just made an appointment with Dr. Atiquzzaman and I am worried that he will tell me to do more tests along with the endoscopy which I really do not want to do. Should I go to Dr. Inayat instead so that I can be assured that I will only do the endoscopy? I see that you said your GI wanted you to do more tests but you ducked them so I don't know if I should go to Dr. Inayat Or just stay with Dr. Atiquzzaman.

Diane - I have a quick question for you. So I have been uber careful not to lift anything. And I haven'! That said, I have had a return of some shoulder pain throughout the day for the past 4 days. Did you experience any recurrence of this? I'm close to a month out at this point (tomorrow) and am not sure why this pain is staying with me? I did email the nurse, too, but am curious if you had any shoulder pain return? I'm sure recovery is different for every person though, so perhaps this is just something I need to work through.

Gotcha-Thanks. I haven't had the inflammation I don't think? I have had what feels like a bit of heartburn at times, but nothing like before. I'm wondering if that might be the case? Anyways, the shoulder pain has lessened. No response from Dr. G's nurse, but that's okay. I could call her if I want to. But like I said, it's better.

Thanks for the info--Have a great Christmas!

All of you- thank you so much.

I have had a hiatal hernia for 30 years. Don't tolerate ppi meds.

I have moved from thinking to having called Celebration, Florida. The Holidays were VERY hard on me.

I think the biggest test I had was a gastro cocktail close to a year ago in ER. It stopped the cough and pain about 5-10 seconds after swallow. Lidocaine and maalox really helped!

I am sole caregiver of my husband but we moved here because his Daughter has offered to help.

Caleb - you are 1,5 months out now, hopefully you recovering well. Could you please update you present condition. Thanks in advance.
Yury

Felixer - You got it! In a word, fantastic! Honestly. This surgery has been a life changer. I'm eating whatever I want to eat (not necessarily a good thing--too much soda right now) and having zero heartburn. I think my wife is getting sick of me talking about how grateful I am for the results of this surgery. I can have margaritas, coffee, beer, crazy spicy food and no heartburn. All of this would have just lit me up in the past--even with the meds. Speaking of meds, I've been weaning off the PPI's. Now taking 20 mg's every other day of Nexium. On the days I don't take Nexium, I have no heartburn. On the days I do, I have no breakthrough. I expect to be completely off in less than a month. I scheduled my follow up endoscopy with my in-town GI doc who has absolutely no clue what the valvuloplasty is. She's fascinated by it and is actually telling her surgical team about it. They are supposed to be contacting me at some point to discuss my procedure.

Anyways, my only ill side effect is an infected incision in my abdomen. Currently on antibiotics to clear that up. I'm sick of not working out at this point, but as of Friday I will be 8 weeks out and will resume my workout routine. I can't say the surgery was a 100% success until I am fully off the PPI's with no ill results, but so far I am absolutely thrilled. Having this surgery was one of the better decisions I have ever made.

Post Edited (cnrage) : 1/10/2018 8:34:54 AM (GMT-7)