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Upper abdominal pain and still having trouble swallowing - 1 year 3 months after Nissen

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Posted 9/29/2015 6:12 PM (GMT 0)
Hi,

I am just over 1 year post op and have been having trouble swallowing as soon as I was able to move on to more solid foods. I try to chew, chew, chew and then chew some more, as well as eating small portions, but there isn't much that will go down easily. Almost on a daily basis, food gets "stuck"...I describe it as rolling around in my esophagus and it won't go down and I have to regurgitate it back up. Not a pleasant thing to do! What comes out is usually a ball of food and thick saliva mixed together...I think this is called a bollus.


Last week, I started having pain in my upper left abdomen. Feels bloaty and full, but no gas passes. I tried pepto, gas-x and milk of magnesia. Nothing really helped. A friend suggested that it might be heartburn, so I tried Pepcid. Symptoms relieved temporarily. I didn't think I was supposed to have heartburn after the nissen.
anyone else have this problem?

I went to a new GI, who thinks after seeing all of my test results, that it my nissen might be too tight. He has ordered an EGD, so we will see what the results of that are. When I asked theGI office about getting an appointment for the upper abdominal pain, I was told that they don't have any appointment until November 25!!! Definitely going to talk to my Primary Care doctor today.

Looking forward to hearing any feedback!

Katrina
Posted 10/1/2015 11:03 PM (GMT 0)
I usually warn against getting a wrap stretched, but this new doc may be right. You should have been able to swallow OK by now. It sounds like some things are not able to get past the wrap.

But is the problem a weak swallow? You don't want to start getting reflux again. I have a weak swallow, had it before the wrap. I just can't swallow some foods normally. I find that water is no help, but warm tea or something slippery like milk help me a lot. I had one green resident who insisted he was going to stretch my wrap and I walked out without letting him even look at it.

Textures can be a problem. Toast is not easy for me unless I have my nice half-milk coffee.

Do you make enough saliva? That's another of my problems. I'm on opioids. Just another reason to drink a lot while I'm eating.

A feeling of gas can be a symptom of specific food intolerance. I wouldn't expect that, but you might keep a food journal and document foods that give you problems. You might try Valsalva Maneuver.

Is the new GI doc thinking of doing a stretch when he does the EGD? I'd want to be absolutely sure stretching is necessary before possibly wrecking a good wrap. Have you done a barium swallow? They can see a lot on those.

Primary doc probably isn't specialized enough for this problem.
Posted 10/2/2015 7:20 AM (GMT 0)
Did you have any motility problems before the surgery?

Where does food get stuck is it at the bottom or somewhere in the middle?

It does sound like its too tight, you shouldn't have these issues so long after the surgery.
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