7 weeks post TIF

Glad to hear that it's going well so far! What were your symptoms before having the procedure? Did you have throat problems? LPR? What were the results of your pH test and manometry? I wonder if the burning you are experiencing is just soreness as result of the esophyx device being passed through your mouth/esophagus and will probably go away in time.

So here is my story so far since I had my procedure 7 weeks ago. This is a bit long but pretty detailed in my experience.

Week one was difficult being on only liquids. A lot of gas and bloating, pain in my left shoulder that came and went, and a lot of nervousness.

Week 2 was better when I could start eating some solid foods like yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. my tummy was most happy to get some real food! After about 10 days the pain in my shoulder finally went away. I did have that white film/oral thrush on my tongue after the procedure. That was due to having all the antibiotics during the procedure and continuing after with taking 4 times as much prilosec for the first 2 weeks as I was taking before. I got rid of it by eating a lot of yogurt (a couple single serve containers a day) and probiotics twice a day until it was gone. Since there was very little acid in my stomach and all my good bacteria killed by the antibiotics, that why it is there. This is common especially whe taking PPI drugs.
Week 3, I started on more types of food per the brochure schedule such as soggy cereal, moist fish, pasta, soft eggs, etc. By now I was starting to get very impatient. I JUST WANTED THIS TO BE DONE WITH!!! The difficulty swallowing was starting to wear on me and I just wanted to get back to normal. I was very impatient even though this really is a 3 month process. I am not a superhuman and at age 43 things take longer to heal than you may think. I had a cup of coffee then later freaked out about it knowing I really shouldn't have had that just yet thinking I may have damaged something by stirring up some acid with that. Of course it was after I drank it I called my dr to see if it was ok to have at that point. He said I should wait till about week 5. DUH! As it turns out I don't think I damaged anything as I now feel pretty good at this point.

Week 4 was more of the same thing, but I was sslllooowwwwlllyyy getting better. I had to take my time chewing my food very thoroughly, swallow, and wait for it to go down. still taking a little while for food to pass but I began to notice that after I got the first couple bites down, the following bites were easier to swallow. Feeling this I became more confident that this was getting better! I was still having bloating that I thought would be lessening by this point yet it started getting worse for some reason even though I tried cutting out some of the dairy I was eating.

Week 5 I was done with the meds. Bloating was still there so I took some BENTYL (which is prescribed for IBS) my dr previously gave me to help with abdominal cramps. VOILA! after taking just 2 pills the bloating pain I was having is gone! I get a very very tiny amount of bloating but I consider this a normal amount. I was very excited my doctor wanted me to move on to meats! He said I had to have some filet mignon! Darn it (can you sense my sarcasm?). He wanted me to progress from filet, to dark meat chicken, to white meat chicken to bread. I have since eaten all this and it all went down pretty good!

Week 6 things continue to get better. I began to take more seriously the need to eat 4-5 small meals a day and stay off of the trigger foods mentioned in the TIF patient instructions. I had to train and dedicate myself to eat differently so this heals properly and i don't mess this up. I am craving coffee everyday but I have to be stronger than that! I did have one bit of a setback when I went to a Benihana type restaurant though. I felt my progress was going very well and treated myself to this type of dinner.When I was having my rice appetizer it got stuck in my esophagus. I think I just wasn't paying attention to my eating when this happened. I thought it would pass thru soon enough as anything else that sort of got stuck evenyually did. This didn't until after a lot longer than I was used to. I got myself and my wife very nervous. Even water wasn't going down. Everything just stopped. I wasn't choking or anything like that and did my best to not panick. I went to the restroom and squeezed the water back up and spit it out. If I could get to the point I was burping a little, I knew I would get better fast enough. After I got the water out the rice slowly moved thru into the stomach and I was relieved of the chest pain. That was the scariest moment I had had so far. While I was bummed out this happened, I got back on my horse and rode on determined to get better. I have been having also some painful gas feelings in my chest area at night. I think it is especially smart to eat a light dinner and don't necessarily sit on your favorite chair or couch all night. I noticed that when I ate less and walked it helped quite a bit. (I did treat myself to a half priced frappy from starbucks that week to test how I was doing. It did lead to that painful gas feeling and I felt some added burning in my throat after that so, note to self).

Week 7 is going pretty good so far. I need to keep reminding myself to take it easy and follow instructions. If there are just a couple things I could tell you to deal with this process it is this: Be very patient and expect this to go on for 3 months. I wanted this to be over with after 1 month but it just doesn't work like that. Also follow the diet very closely and ask your doctor if there is a certain type of food you may want to eat if it isn't listed in the brochure. I am still getting a tiny bit of what I call fumes coming through which is what my first part of this thread is about, but I am not giving up hope this will eventually go away. After all, this is a 3 month process right? The brochure talks about this process being 12 weeks so I will behave and be patient. I have not gone back to work yet as I work in the grocery business and I have lost 10 pounds doing this and seem to have stabilized around this much weight loss.

I appreciate any comments and am happy to share more. If there is anyone that kind of feels or has felt what I am feeling with the fumes, I'd certainly like to hear about that and how long it took for you to not have that anymore.

Craigster