Posted 1/3/2018 7:52 PM (GMT 0)
Nissen redo - 27th September 2017.
Can anyone recommend a good Nissen surgeon in Europe? I am really desperate for help, since i think my surgeon has given up on me and im starting to get real bad depression and suicide thoughts because of my story:
I had my original Nissen on the 10th December 2015, which removed all my symptoms at once. In August 2016 i put too much pressure on the wrap area, which caused a sound to happen inside the left side of the wrap area. Since then acid leaked through the wrap and up to my esopghaus, which just became worse and worse. Unfourtantly, there were no proofs of that by the tests, however, one year later my surgeon decided to open me up and see how the wrap had become loosened. It turned out that one of the stitches had become loosened. Instead of doing something about the one stitch that became loose, he just decided to add another stitch at the top of my wrap to my confusion. Before the reflux would sneak through the passage and after the second surgery I still had reflux after the surgery, but this time it just came straight up. The symptoms slowly decreased, even though i was a non-acid diet. I talked with my surgeon on the 7th of December and i asked him whether I could start rehabbing the tight muscles between my shoulder blades and a horrible posture. I already started stretching my necks and throat muscles and the first weeks after the surgery; I could not do it so much before, because the acid reflux at the bottom of the wrap pushed more upwards. My surgeon told me go for it, because it was highly unlikely that the wrap would be damaged again. I made a simple mobilization exercise the day after and I could feel some extra reflux come up and some pain and cramps in the wrap area, almost as bad as when the fundoplication became loose the first time. It did not initally worry me, but the day after I had intense heartburn and more reflux in the esophagus, which did worry me, because usually when that happens then it lasts hours and then it is gone.
Some days after I drank liquids and I could feel it tended to move towards the left side, which really freaked me out, because that was the side, where the wrap had become loosened. I do notice that the acid comes up from the middle and not sneaks through the left side, which I consider a more positive sign. My surgeon told me to relax and it was highly unlikely that it would have become loosened, but my increased reflux and heartburn might suggest otherwise. In general, i always have had more pain on the left side of the wrap than the right side, after the second surgery but that is maybe because that was the side of the passage was biggest.
Here in January, the symptoms has not improved and there has been times, where my symptoms have been as bad as before the first surgery.
I really don´t know what to do. I have had problems with reflux since 2011 and that has only became worsened as time went by. Im having difficulities focusing, bad depression and suicide thoughts because of that. I don´t know whether i can go on more, because i don´t want to live with acid reflux. I considered assisted suicide in Switzerland, if there is nothing that can be done about it.