Positive fundoplication experience

I recently had a nissen fundoplication. I had a hiatal hernia and acid reflux every day. I would wake up in the night with stomach acid in my mouth. I had to sleep in the same upright position every night propped up by pillows. If I ate too much or had too many liquids I knew that I was in for a long night.

Before my surgery, I read a lot of doom and gloom here and on various other forums. I honestly had myself worrying constantly the weeks prior. I though I'd add a positive post. This isn't to discredit other peoples bad experiences - its to bring hope to those who are about to have this procedure done.

Just for the curious, I'm 38 years old with a BMI < 22

My surgeon has done ~7000 surgeries, ~ 2000 of them fundoplications, with no "coming undone". Permanent sutures are standard for this. In addition, around 150,000 people have this surgery each year. Weigh those numbers against the number of bad experiences and it really isn't that bad. Remember, nobody complains when they are not having issues.

I was only tired the first few days. If you get enough protein you shouldn't be tired. I was off the pain killers on day 5. I went back to work after 18 days. I worked a half day on days 13 and 14. I work an office job, so your mileage on this may vary. That isn't to say it didn't suck. Surgery sucks. Brace your gut to sneeze... I'm warning you.

The liquid diet is tough but just do it. Its only a few weeks of your life, and the mental food craze settles after the first week. Don't cheat; I seriously regret getting food stuck in my esophagus for 10 minutes. If you do cheat then resort to popsicles, ice cream or chewy fruit snacks. Stuff that ends up liquid or close to it. Don't forget your sodium - beef or chicken broth. I lost about 13 lbs from all the right areas, so no problem there. Expect gas and bathroom issues, mild burping, difficulty swallowing. All normal.

After that, eat slow and remember to take small bites. Get carried away and it might get stuck. Had this happen - its scary and painful. To be honest puree was harder than liquid; its difficult to come up with puree ideas EVERY DAY to take to work. I was still taking the muscle milk to the office as that's easier. STOP WHEN YOU ARE FULL

Its been 8 weeks. I'm sitting here eating chipotle. As others suggested, I don't feel normal yet. That's the point - normal was terrible. I can't eat as much as I used to, and that's a good thing. As they suggested, I can't burp anymore either. That means less soda and beer. Neither one is very good for you anyway. It is odd because I burped small amounts during the liquid diet.

I am a new person. No acid reflux since (knock on wood). I can sleep in any position I like. I can lean over to pick up something and not have acid in my mouth. Surely, any "downside" to the surgery is better than what I was living with. It has also curbed my drinking at the bar; fear of throwing up keeps me around 2 drinks. It would take much more than that to throw up, but I have a small complex about it (LOL)

So think about it..... my 10 years of acid reflux and thowing up versus 2 months of eating inconvenience and limited carbonated beverages. We'll see how it goes the next 5-10 years.

If you were suffering as bad as I was, I hope you find your resolve.

YamahaR1

Thank you for the info. How long ago did you have your surgery? You just said you just had it recent. I am suffering from gas and bad pain for the gas in my shoulder and chest area close to my left shoulder. The day after surgery before going home my anesthesiologist came to check on my and I told her about the pain in my shoulder and she said it was from the anesthesia and it travels up and into you shoulder. Well had surgery 12 days ago and the pain has gotten worse as it was just in the shoulder but has also moved into the chest area and shoulder. So very painful. I have tried everything. Ice, heating pad, moving arm around, gas X and crying....nothing works. Also I think I may go back to only liquids as now after a week I have notice most of the soft diet I eat gets stuck in the esophagus without knowing and then dumps into my stomach with a lot of pain. I did not even feel it was still in the esophagus until I got the pain in my stomach while eating. I eat like a bird and chew until there is hardly anything left before I swallow. Some things just take longer to chew. Pasta seems good. Sometimes when eating green beans I small green been will get stock in my throat and it takes a lot of small sips of liquid to finally get it to go down. I see my surgeon on Thursday the 2nd. If you or anyone else has any suggestion they are so welcome......especially the pain in the shoulder and chest area.

Thank you and be well.

Hey! There are people out here but if they are like me, they don't come on every day usually! I'm glad you're seeing the surgeon tomorrow so you can get some answers. it can be so worrying when you get symptoms you don't expect and aren't sure what they mean. I totally get that, I'm still in that phase myself! I've had pain in the shoulder but it wasn't too bad, but it did come and go over about 4 weeks. Not experienced much problem with eating though, except if I eat too much or too quick and then i get pains from my stomach to my bowels for several hours as it digests! Ouch!

Do come back and tell us what your surgeon says, it might help others. Sorry I can't shed any light for you.

[Edit]

Today marks 2 months 6/6 to 8/6. Mostly smooth sailing. Carbonated beverages suck. Stuff like biscuits and thick breads give me a lot of grief so I'm still avoiding those. Tried sausage gravy and biscuits yesterday; no good. Everything else is pretty good. No pain; I was literally pounding some fence posts back into the ground with an 8lb sledge this weekend. Looking back, I probably shouldn't have, but I forgot all about the surgery thing. A good sign I suppose

paperbackwriter said...
Thank you for this! I see the surgeon this week and he'll probably say I need the Nissen. I'm miserable and just want to feel better. I can't tolerate PPI's and they're bad for you anyway. I know the recovery will be bumpy and am already preparing for that. I bought a bullet blender on Prime Day and have been experimenting with various protein powders and discovered I'm allergic to whey. As bad as that headache was, I'm glad I found out before surgery rather than have the horrid headache on top of post-op stuff.

Yes, I did all of my puree in a magic bullet. Here's some ideas I used.

Cook an Italian sausage, puree it (requires frequent shaking, adding some beef stock helps) Add to half can of cambels cream of cheese soup with a dallop or two of queso chip dip. Heat and stir for a mexican flavored slop

Puree cooked ground hamburger, add to cream of mushroom soup

Cook chicken breast in the instant pot (or slow cook it), puree it with 1/2 cup of chicken broth, spread BBQ sauce over the final product

Cream of wheat, made super sloppy with milk for protien.

I was also able to eat sunny-side-up eggs almost every day. I'd chop and roll the eggs into a relatively consistent mash with the fork. Some people do that anyway. After a week, I was able to add bites of crunchy bacon. Soft chewy bacon was very bad, it just gets stuck. But crunchy bacon can be crunched down pretty thin and swallowed with the egg. At your own risk etc etc

kitkat1956 said...
YamahaR1

Thank you for the info. How long ago did you have your surgery? You just said you just had it recent. I am suffering from gas and bad pain for the gas in my shoulder and chest area close to my left shoulder. The day after surgery before going home my anesthesiologist came to check on my and I told her about the pain in my shoulder and she said it was from the anesthesia and it travels up and into you shoulder. Well had surgery 12 days ago and the pain has gotten worse as it was just in the shoulder but has also moved into the chest area and shoulder. So very painful. I have tried everything. Ice, heating pad, moving arm around, gas X and crying....nothing works. Also I think I may go back to only liquids as now after a week I have notice most of the soft diet I eat gets stuck in the esophagus without knowing and then dumps into my stomach with a lot of pain. I did not even feel it was still in the esophagus until I got the pain in my stomach while eating. I eat like a bird and chew until there is hardly anything left before I swallow. Some things just take longer to chew. Pasta seems good. Sometimes when eating green beans I small green been will get stock in my throat and it takes a lot of small sips of liquid to finally get it to go down. I see my surgeon on Thursday the 2nd. If you or anyone else has any suggestion they are so welcome......especially the pain in the shoulder and chest area.

Thank you and be well.

I'm sorry Kitkat. Life got really busy this past week. I posted at 7 weeks. It was on June 6th. Sorry to hear about your shoulder pain. My left chest and shoulder hurt very badly in the hospital whenever the pain meds wore out. The surgeon said it was my stitched diaphragm, and "reference pain" due to the proximity to the vagus nerve and swelling around it. (That incentive spirometer wasn't fun...)

Again, due to the posts on the internet, I was so scared he "damaged by vagus nerve" but it went away completely in about 6 days, with only "mild discomfort" sometimes after.

Post Edited (YamahaR1) : 8/6/2018 11:45:00 AM (GMT-6)

Thank you dencha for the wonderful information!! I will get on my treadmill today and start walking. I live in New Orleans 2 blocks over from the park and usually walk there but it is just too hot to do that right now. I may not make it back home. Tomorrow will be 3 weeks since my surgery and yes I chew, chew, chew very small bits of food but not to a liquid form. Maybe I should chew some more. I do eat slow and it takes me about 45 min. to eat a meal. As for the shoulder pain it is getting better except when I bend down and over that seems to hurt, Funny how the body works. I agree with you on the shoulder pain. My surgery did not hurt but my shoulder hurt so bad I wanted to cry. Nothing I did helped. I iced it, moved it all around, and put a heating pad on it to do advail. I will start the walking today. That is the first time I have heard that the diaphragm could cause the pain. My anesthesiologist came in to see me in the hospital the next morning and I was in pain in the shoulder and told her and she said it was from the anesthesia and the gas they filled me up with. She said when it starts moving it always goes up and to the left causing the pain in the shoulder. I will look up the info on the diaphragm as I feel that the gas has to be gone by now. I do not use straws now and hardly ever had a soda even before the surgery. I am a big water drinker and still am. When I saw my doctor last week he was really amazed that I had only had two doses of my pain meds. I took one dose the day I got home and another dose several days later for the pain in the shoulder. Even that did not help!

Thank you Denise for your world of information.

Hi Kit Kat,
Hopefully the walking works as well for you as it did for me. Here’s an excerpt from an article about post laparoscopic surgery and shoulder pain:

”Simply stated: when the CO2gas irritates the diaphragmatic nerves, that pain is referred upwards through nerve connections, eventually landing in - and aggravating - the shoulder.

To be more specific, the diaphragm and shoulder share some of the same nerves; predominantly, the Phrenic nerve. The Phrenic Nerve arises on each side of the neck, from the 3rd, 4th and 5th cervical spine roots. It passes downward between the lungs and the heart to reach the diaphragm.”

As far as pills go, I did ask my allergist for a smaller alternative to the Allegra I was taking. I now take tiny Xyzal. When possible I got the dose reduced—two 150mg instead of one 300mg. I still cut some enormous pills, but can take most of them fine. When?? Once your swallowing feels more normal.
Best wishes!!
Denise

Just curious if anyone can help me. I've 18 months post op and I've been doing great. I've felt no heartbearn or reflux sensations but last few days I've felt food going past my wrap but it still goes down is this normal at various stages. Like I said, for 18 months food has gone down smoothly but occasionally i feel it gone but not get stuck.

John.

Denise,

Wow! Ten years this February that's incredible. The years must have flown by for you and it's great everything is going well for you. I've been relatively symptom free of anything since the operation the swallowing worries me because it feels like it's going to lodge but passes. I had that effect before my operation but I didn't know at the 18 month mark. Those type of symptoms could appear again. Like i said, no signs of reflux or burning, no pain. It's just since Thursday. I was eating something and i had that sensation again but it's all foods. I hope it passes but with you saying you have something similar where food actually sticks then goes down perhaps it is normal but its just worrying you know but thank you for your response, i appreciate it. 😊

John.

Post Edited (JoHnGaMeR90) : 12/10/2018 7:24:04 AM (GMT-7)

dencha said...
Hi John,
That’s totally normal. My wrap was done 10 years ago this coming February, and there are times when I eat too fast that things get a little stuck feeling. You’ll always need to eat more slowly and chew more carefully. It doesn’t happen often, but it definitely does, and it’s uncomfortable.
Best wishes!
Denise

I can't seem to figure this out. Friday I had a cheese steak hoagie for lunch. Ended up trying to clear / regurgitate in the bathroom for an hour. But then I came back later and was able to eat the entire thing without issues. Saturday went to hibachi with friends, and the steak pieces got stuck and I couldn't eat my meal. Sunday we ordered pizza for football and the pizza got stuck. I often have to chug liquids between bites to force things down.

It has been six months, and I can't eat a hamburger. Its not happening. Too thick and dense. A life without McDoubles what a terrible way to go. That and the gas, frequent diarrhea, I'm losing hope. =( I don't know why, but Chipotle is the ONLY THING that never gets stuck. Even without a drink. But can't eat chipotle every day.

To boot, my digestion has become so inconsistent I'm paranoid I have colon cancer or something. I can't blame the wrap... I can't see how a simple wrap would cause so much mayhem; unless the gas causes it. Don't know

SharonZ said...
YahamaR1:

You are still in the healing process (yes, even after 6 months). The gas is something that you are going to have to deal with by using anti-gas medications containing simethicone. You still really need to continue to chew until an almost liquid consistency. If this is continues to bother you, call your surgeon's office to discuss your concerns.

Sharon

I suppose I am defiant about taking gas meds because I traded taking PPI's every day for gas pills every day like... okay this is stupids. >.< still making trips to CVS and still giving them monies yanno