Posted 12/8/2014 6:27 PM (GMT 0)
I wanted to give a quick thought on my year plus experience with LINX.
I've followed a few posts here that had claimed some success with this surgery for their silent/airway reflux and I was glad to see it. I was pretty convinced that it would at least help my situation somewhat.
I hate to report that this has not been the case. I really wish this would have worked for me, but it has proved to be almost entirely ineffective.
A little bit about myself:
-I am 24 years old. Been dealing with reflux since I was about 16. I've never had too much of a problem with heartburn but around senior year of high school I started to really lose my voice with no idea of the cause. There was a point where it was completely gone, and now after many years I still have problems with it. Some days are better than others and I still have a hard time pin pointing what is the cause. My problem also has always seemed somewhat cyclical. I'll have a few good weeks followed by some terrible weeks all without a huge change in diet or exercise or whatever type of routine. Most things are static.
-When I was about 21-22 I started working with a GI as I was diagnosed with it. They gave me tons of different PPI's to try all of which didn't seem to help the problem. I still had issues with airways and losing my voice. They ran all sorts of tests on me: barium swallow, manometry, and a few scopes including a 48 hour ph test.. It confirmed the diagnosis.
-On Oct 31st 2013 I receive the LINX surgery in Newport Beach from the USC Surgical Center. I waited a long time to see if it would start to heal. There were some moments of hope, but it was always hard to tell if it was helping or I was just in a "good" part of the cyclical period. It's been over a year and as of now, it's still been a constant problem. I still have vocal issues, I still have airway issues, I still have problems with mucus build up, chronic tickle in throat, etc.
I have been pretty good with avoiding terrible triggers in the diet and I still can't seem to get relief. If anything it seems to just be getting worse and harder to control. I don't really expect any help here, but I wanted people to know my experience with LINX as I think it's important this information is out there and available to others considering the surgery who are in a similar situation. I don't want to completely convince you there isn't any hope, but I want you to be informed that there are people that is HASN'T helped.
That being said, if there is ANYTHING that has a potential of curing or fixing or even just helping this problem, it's almost definitely worth trying at least.
Feel free to ask me any questions that may help clarify.