Posted 8/17/2018 4:48 PM (GMT 0)
I posted this a few weeks back but so far no responses so hoping that a change to the subject line might help...
My wrap is almost 5 years old and had been working wonderfully. about a month ago I had extreme nausea that led to dry heaving on and off for an hour and a half or so. I took 16 mg of Zofran but it would not touch the nausea. At first I thought I was fine, then two days later had some very uncomfortable bloating that lasted about a week. The following week I had pain whenever I dry swallowed and started to experience reflux up to my throat, as well as pain in the middle of my back.
Surgeon ordered a barium swallow which showed no reflux and no structural abnormalities. I was put on 6 days of steroids and also told I could take ibuprofen for the pain/inflammation. The first three days on the steroid I continued to eat solid foods and was in a lot of pain. Finally I decided to put myself on a liquid diet. It worked like a charm at first. Pain was controlled and reflux stopped (surgeon had explained this was likely food stuck in my esophagus, not contents coming back up from my stomach). I was almost convinced my surgeon was right about the wrap being intact but inflamed.
Two days ago I had nausea so I ate a few saltines (chewed A LOT) and had some flat ginger ale. Nausea stuck around for a while but no dry heaving/pressure on the wrap. Also started taking Zoloft as prescribed by my GP because this whole thing is causing a lot of anxiety. That night, for the first time ever, I had heartburn (I had silent reflux pre-nissen). It was so painful that it kept me up all night. I had it again when I ate the next day, but today it is no longer an issue. I have stopped taking the Zoloft so I suspect that caused the heartburn. However, I have had an episode of regurgitation in my throat again and right now am terrified to eat a lot or anything that isn't a soft food (i.e. applesauce, pudding). The lump in throat feeling is also starting to come back; this was the one symptom medicine did not help and the reason why I had the surgery.
I see my surgeon on Monday for a follow-up and I'm already at the end of my rope with this. I had forgotten how miserable I was with the reflux and am praying this is a temporary set-back.
I know no one on here is a doctor, just wanted to see if others experienced dry heaves post-nissen and if they had symptoms flair up afterward and then subside. Also curious as to what kinds of tests need to be done to check on the wrap (other than the barium swallow). Will an endoscopy show anything? I'm dreading the esophageal function test and especially the 24 hour pH test but really think I need to insist on more testing to truly know what is going on.
I'm down 15 pounds and really anxious/depressed about all of this. I think my wrap may structurally be intact but loose enough to cause reflux and recurrence of all my pre-nissen symptoms.