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Advice/experiences 5 weeks post Nissen Fundoplication - Reflux!?

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Posted 6/20/2018 3:06 PM (GMT 0)
Hi all,

I hope you are all well. Around just over 5 weeks since my Laproscopic Nissen Fundoplication, I wanted to ask your experiences as since my surgery a few things have started to develop which have concerned me a little.

1. For the last 4-5 days I seem to have started to develop reflux symptoms! I started with the pain in my chest area and has continued with other indications such as a warm/hot mouth. I rang my surgeon's secretary for advice and he came back to her saying 'just go back on the PPI's until your follow up appointment...'. To say I am disheartened and demoralised is an understatement. The whole point of this surgery was to get on with my life positively without having reflux! My surgeon even told me after I was leaving hospital you shouldn't need to take PPI's anymore! Has anyone else had reflux post nissen fundoplication? Is it just a temporary thing? Will it get better? I'm clinging on to this maybe being temporary? At first I thought the pain might just be at the surgical site and might be mirroring reflux pain... how long did it take for pain at the surgical to go for others?

2. Gurgling bowels and diarrhoea? Since having the surgery, my bowels seem to regularly gurgle a lot. Now I've read that this is normal as the gas from my stomach has nowhere to go but down due to being unable to burp properly but this has also been accompanied by diarrhoea. Not always, sometimes I go to the toilet fine for a week or so, but I seem to just have these episodes where I'll have to rush to the toilet and it's really watery/loose sometimes a one off and sometimes more than once . Again, is this normal?

3. Over the last week, which coincides with when my reflux symptoms started, I have started to eat considerably well. I am still eating soft foods like potatoes and vegetables and bits of fish but it doesn't seem to be getting stuck anymore and generally goes down well. Is this normal for around 5 weeks post op?

I'm sorry it is a long post but I'm getting really anxious about all this and whether it will even help reflux long term.

Any advice/response is appreciated,

thank you
Posted 6/23/2018 7:20 AM (GMT 0)
Hey there,

I am 7 weeks post surgery and unfortunately can't give you much help from the long term perspective. I have also developed reflux again and am back on Rennie as a short term solution. It's not as bad as it was prior to surgery but it's definitely present - I've also experienced a little bit of regurgitation, although I think that might be food stuck in the oesophagus that is coming back up rather than from the stomach.

I gleaned from info on here that it might actually be oesophageal pain rather than reflux and that it is wise to cut back on the more solid food for a few days to allow some more healing. That seems to help me a little, although not entirely. On good days I can eat a fairly normal diet albeit in much smaller quantities and taking three times longer than pre surgery. However, food still gets stuck if I forget to chew enough, pause between bites or eat something a little too challenging!

Sorry I can't help with more long term insight, but hopefully one of the more seasoned members here will be able to help us out on this. Make sure you let us know how things are going. I'm seeing my surgeon on Wednesday so will hopefully hear some answers too - hopefully more than simply, "go back to taking your lanzoprazole"! The surgeon caught my liver during key hole surgery, and had to open me up to fix it - if I've been through all of this recovery period plus the nice scar from my chest to belly button, only to be one of the unlucky ones for the wrap not to 'take' then I'll be pretty gutted.

All the best with your recovery!
Ben
Posted 6/25/2018 6:50 PM (GMT 0)
Neo:

All of the symptoms that you have mentioned are quite normal. Unfortunately, some people need to continue PPIs post-surgery - usually it's temporary. The bowel movements and gas are a common problem, you may want to read about something called "dumping syndrome." Your symptoms are coinciding with your diet advancement, I would go back to soft foods for a while. You are really early into your recovery, please don't expect so much too soon. It took me 6-months to start to feel better, and roughly a year until I felt like the "new me."

Sharon
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