My fundoplication story

Hi!

I found this site about 6 months ago and have read voraciously - and I have to say that reading all your posts (especially the success stories) was a life-saver to help keep my anxiety about having the surgery at bay.

I've had reflux for as long as I can remember - I distinctly remember at about age 8 telling my older brother about it - he said "oh that's called Acid Burps - just eat a slice of bread and drink some milk and you'll be fine."

Turns out I have a 3mm (cm?) hiatal hernia. My father had one. My daughter has one. Apparently it's genetic.

Anyway - I had 3 kids and went through a bottle of Tums per week during all 3 pregnancies. I've had a bottle of Tums on my bedside table my entire life. That seemed to be doing the trick until after Thanksgiving about 5 years ago. I was eating a turkey sandwich - it was so good I was wolfing it down - 4 bites in rapid succession when to my horror I realized they weren't going down! I looked at my teenage son and said - the food is stuck in my throat. He said - quick - drink your juice! It was grape juice.

Bad idea.

I ran to the bathroom - made it through the doorway when it all came back up. Hahaha. What a horrible mess! Grape juice and turkey sandwich everywhere.

Anyway - I had a couple more episodes of food getting stuck before I made my first gastroenterologist appointment. I was scheduled for an endoscopy. This was when they discovered the hiatal hernia, and said I had an esophageal stricture, which they used a bougie to stretch out.

I was put on Prilosec and sent on my merry way.

Prilosec worked for a while in keeping my reflux somewhat under control. I still had constant throat clearing on a daily basis, and still ate Tums like candy, but I wasn't having swallowing problems. Until Dec. of 2016. I started having the worst chest pain, and would wake up in the middle of the night aspirating on acid.

Back to the gastro - another endoscopy, another stricture, and increased PPI dosage. Things didn't get any better, so I decided to get a second opinion. (Meanwhile I got diverticulitis - which is another story for another day) - and the new GI doc said - you have Barretts esophagus. You need a Nissen Fundoplication. (The first doc did NO biopsies during his second endoscopy - completely missed the Barretts)

So we asked all around and found a surgeon who does them locally. My husband went with me to our consult - he told us he's done this surgery around 3600 times!! We thought we would be confident he knew what he was doing if he'd done several hundred. Haha!

We scheduled for Nov 17, 2017 - and all went well. I had a really easy recovery. I am so used to the sensation of having food get hung up in my esophagus that the feelings while eating post surgery didn't bother me in the least. Gas pain in shoulder was manageable - I got off pain meds after about 8 days.

By 3 weeks I was eating soft foods and now I can pretty much eat what I want. I can belch. I went to a wedding the other day and even had a beer with no bloating or issues!

I still have a bit of reflux at night - still sleep with my bed elevated, and I'm still on PPI's because of the Barretts. They reduced the dosage by half, though, and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get off them entirely - once the Barretts goes away.

I HOPE the Barretts goes away! I had another stricture before my surgery so I told my surgeon and he used a bougie while doing the wrap - I think this might be why 1) my recovery was so easy, 2) I can eat without food getting stuck and 3) why I'm still having reflux - particularly when I sleep on my right side.

I'm trying to just relax and let the healing process happen - it's hard not to get nervous about it. But I'm way better off than I was - and am very happy I had it done. I should have done it years ago before I developed Barretts.

I do get esophageal spasms quite often - but they're not bad - totally bearable, and not worrisome, since i knew to expect them.

I'm very thankful for this forum and for all your wonderful input, so thank you so much!!

Cindy

Thank you, Pxxiegirl! I hope your recovery continues to proceed apace without too much difficulty.

I felt positive I could tell the difference between spasms and reflux - but the more i think about it - the less sure I am that I'm having reflux. I will get spasms just by rolling over in bed, or standing up, or any change in position - so - maybe when I roll onto my right side, I'm getting a spasm. Although sometimes I can definitely feel/taste that burn that only acid can produce.

I never had a ph test done prior to surgery. I had the godawful swallow manometry, and a gastric emptying test. I think when they did my endoscopy and saw the Barretts they felt they didn't need further proof of reflux events?

At any rate - in the next couple months if I still feel like I am refluxing I might ask my GI doc for a Barium swallow to see how the wrap is doing.

6 days in the hospital - that's a long time! Did you have complications?

Yeah - as others have said - you're still really early in your recovery. Just take it easy.