My full wrap journal.

Keith-

Welcome to Healing Well and the Wrapped Club!

Please do keep going with your journal! the more we have the better other people looking for a true look at what the surgery and recovery is like. Unlike most sites we do have a lot of success stories vs all the horror stories you read else where.

As for eating, try to only eat about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup at a time and eat frequently. It's best to stay away from soft bread and solid meats for a few weeks, but your body will let you know. If you have a set back with your diet just back off to some softer foods for a couple days and things should get better.
I did find that some passive stretching of my belly felt really good after a week or so.

Take care,
Bill

Thanks for all of the support on hearing what I have to say, (unlike what I experience with my wife. And she wonders why I talk to the dog.)

Today is day 8, and it seems like everything is pretty much the same. Sleeping is good, unless you roll over a lot, which, of course I do. So, you end up waking a couple of times a night. Not a deal breaker in the scheme of things. You just have to find a good curl-up position, and try and stay in the zone. No-brainer there. I'll try and cover stuff that I didn't see in the other posts.

Now, one of the things that I didn't see, even though I might have missed it, was a small procedure that my doc did before the surgery. My doc "pre-stretched" my esophagus. He did this about 10 days beforehand, though he said that he likes to do it less than a week before a wrap. (full or partial, he didn't say). He did say that the procedure tightens the area so much, so it's important to make sure that the full width of the esophagus is available; therefore, he dilates you ahead of time. It pretty much was just like a regular scoping. My issue is not narrowing related; it's the corrosive/erosive blues, so he said that it didn't dilate that much.

Another thing that I didn't see on the posts was a post-operative fluoroscope/mammography? Now, I had the mammography procedure before the surgery, and it was to identify if you had good motility, (muscle movement of your food). Basically they shove a tube up your nose, which goes down your throat, and then they give you water and see how strong the muscles in your esophagus push things down. Now, when they ran that test on me originally, it was at the end of a routine endoscopy, so I woke up with the tube in my nose, instead of me having to experience that procedure in all waking fullness, a point for which I am very grateful to my doc. So, I was sweating the idea of them doing the ram-rod thing being wide awake when they brought me down a day after my surgery.

So I'm wheeled down to the radiography department, where I sit and have small talk with someone named "Trainee". I'm guessing that he might go by another moniker, though I didn't ask and he didn't offer. Occasionally another person "Technician" would come out and talk to me about the procedure(s) that I had, though you could tell that it didn't really matter what I had, as I still had to get this done. They were all anxiously waiting for "Radiographer" to arrive.

So I'm starting to really psyche myself for this nasal intrusion. I'm watching "Trainee" moving this really super large machine, up and down, and I'm thinking to myself, "I wonder if he can get me out this contraption if it falls over on me. And why does everyone have large, padded aprons on, and I'm just wearing a gown with blue daisies. I wonder if the daisies absorb the radiation.
Then, "Radiation Man" arrives.

It turns out, that they (the nurses who gave me the information), had it wrong. They were going to give me something to drink and essentially, x-ray my swallowing. No medieval tortures were necessary. Though the did give me some really nasty liquid to swallow. "Technician" tells me that some people say that it's flavorless. Well, I guess that if you put ordinary tap water into a metal sprinkling can, and set it there to evaporate over a month, and then pour the remains into a small-block Chevy radiator, and let that percolate for a few hours, and then strain it through an old sock; that there pretty isn't a definable flavor left to categorize. They should give you a mint afterwards. Upcoming candidates might want to note that.

So, short end, everything seems good from "Radiographer"'s point of view, and mine too.

Hope it helps.

Yeah, thanks Bill.

"Manometry". Got it. I just play a doctor on TV, and not in real life, so I just try and log what happens to me.

I'm a poor speller and even a more poor listener, especially when on medication. Though, I did remember that both times, it wasn't barium, and it looked just like water. I think that it's that water that pours out of your exhaust pipe when you start your car on a cold morning.

BTW, on the barium thing. Serious question here.
Did I read somewhere that you shouldn't visit an airport within a day of taking that stuff, or you might trigger some detection device at the airport?

Don't need any "Manometry" from TSA.


Keith

hello all

I as many have suffered for many years now with GERD and have had test after test been prodded and poked and tried various meds, and finally I will be having my wrap surgery and hernia repair tomorrow,  I can see by a lot of the posts that everyone has had different experiences with their surgery and recovery some good some not so good. however after reading some posts on this site I feel that having this surgery is the best decision, any advice from members will be well received.  

Thank you Keith K

Think everyone experiences different recovery paths and its the unknown what adds to the anxiety of it all, by reading the majority of the recovery journals does put a positive perspective on the benefits of receiving the nissen procedure, again any helpful tips would be well received.

Almac

Day 12
Just left the surgeon's office. He says that everything looks ship-shape, and I should see him in 3 months. He says that by then, I should be able to eat normally with regards to swallowing. He told me that I should be able to resume normal strenuous activities after being one month out from surgery. He did caution to start slowly to see how I tolerate the work-outs.

I asked about whether or not I should continue on the P2 Blockers, and he said "Absolutely not! I didn't do my job if you're on them." Well, that seemed emphatic enough.

He looked at the stitches for a 32nd of second, and said that they looked fine.
So all in all, a good prognosis. Now the bad part of the day.

Earlier:
Came home from work (starving), and grabbed a real small hamburger and microwaved it. For those not from this area, they are from a chain called White Castle. They're about the size of Post-it note, and are very, very soft. I had eaten them a day or two before, with no problems, as I chewed them well.
Well, I was in the middle of eating one, and I noticed that the dog chewed up the leather couch. Angry and yelling, I swallowed too big a bite, and then spent the next 20 minutes in a throw-up fest in the bathroom. I did get everything out or down, but not without a considerable bit of effort.

I have now visited my local food store and stocked up on:
Jello cups
Yogurt
Pork and beans
mashed potatoes
chicken pot pies. (I have had this type before. Very small pieces inside.)
Cheerios.
Peanut butter singles

If I should ever be in a traffic accident, and go through the windshield and lose all of my teeth; I am prepared for how to shop.