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sneezing and Nissen

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Posted 1/4/2012 2:17 PM (GMT 0)
Hi All,

Happy New Year!!!

I had a Nissen 14 months ago.  Just recently I sneezed while lying on my front in bed, half asleep.  It wasn't a huge sneeze, but the position of my body was different and, unusually for me, I think I held my breath as I sneezed, as opposed to sneezing with an exhalation through the nose/mouth.  The sneeze brought on an extremely sharp pain at my wrap site.  Since then, my wrap site is sore/burning and I have some aching/soreness through my back and into my right ribcage.  I also had a very small amount of blood come up into my mouth a little later.

Paranoia makes me think I have disrupted the wrap.  My question is - is it possible to "upset" a wrap through physical activity, without actually damaging it, so that is becomes sore and produces reflux like symptoms (retro sternal discomfort, heartburn, sore thoat) for a period of time.  Or do wraps typically settle down post surgery then become stable and resilient thereafter?

Where folks' wraps have been damaged through exertion, eg vomiting, does the patient feel the pain of the broken wrap, or just the reflux that results?  I am trying to account for the pain at the time of the sneeze and my subsequent symptoms.

Many thanks in advance,

Simon

Posted 1/4/2012 4:02 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Simon,

Happy New Year to you, too! Welcome to the Healing Well forum. 

I also had am experience with a very painful pain post-Nissen (I had my surgery in February 2009)sneeze, but I chalked it up to an adhesion.  Mine pain was farther down...closer to the incision above the belly button.  It was excruciating when it happened, though, and quite scary.

Here is a link with adhesion information:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002462/

See if it makes sense.  As far as the blood...it could have been from sinus mucous, couldn't it? 

From what I've heard, when a wrap is disrupted the huge reflux symptoms start immediately. 

Again, glad you've joined us!

Take care,

Denise

Posted 1/4/2012 5:22 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks so much for responding Denise. The adhesion link was certainly interesting and your experience is reassuring. I do worry though that my pain was precisely at the wrap, as opposed to elsewhere and that I have had reflux symptoms since. I have in my head that I have undone a stitch/staple and that the wrap has been compromised, but perhaps not totally failed. I guess only the ph monitoring will identify this (I am not convinced about the accuracy of barium swallows picking up v small amounts of reflux).

Thanks again for responding,
Simon
Posted 1/4/2012 5:30 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Simon,

I can just tell you this in regards to reassurance.  I had severe asthma before and during my recovery...even during the early days and weeks.  You can't even know how severe my coughing was, and it was almost constant. 

There were times when my husband did lung PT on me, as I coughed harder than any non-asthmatic ever did.  And this was when my wrap and hernia repair were in their healing infancy.  On top of that the surgeon told me that my internal tissue was extremely fragile due to high steroid usage for my very sad lungs. 

I was certain that the success of my surgery would be compromised.  My coughing was as strong as any sneeze.  It was very painful as well.

So...I can't tell you what happened in your situation, but I can say that the odds are in your favor.  Keep in mind that a Nissen does not eliminate all reflux...it simply attempts to keep it at "normal" levels.  To get reflux levels to zero, you wouldn't be able to swallow.

Could you have irritated your wrap and created some swelling?  Certainly.  You might want to go on PPIs until things have a chance to get back to normal.

Those are my thoughts...

Hope all turns out very positively for you!

Take care,

Denise

Posted 8/28/2018 3:49 AM (GMT 0)
I had a toupe wrap and a paraesopahgeal hernia repair 4 weeks ago. I've been having back and chest pain after I eat semi solid. Just this weekend. I sneezed and felt a sensation and heard something in my sternum region. Since then I'm not getting the food sticking feeling although I still get the sensation of wanting to burp but nothing comes up. So I feel my wrap is intact. I'm so worried that it's been undone. Also a day or 2 after the sneeze, my shoulder and neck we're completely sore. I think that was because I was sitting in an awkward position but boy was it painful. Any thoughts please. I'm losing my mind here. Along with the back pains, my lpr still hasn't healed. My throat still hurts some when I talk and swallowing is painful.
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