Posted 7/23/2018 3:25 PM (GMT 0)
Hello to all. I had surgery for a large paraesophageal hernia with lengthening of esophagus 9 months ago. I had to have an open surgery for this. I had the surgery due to shortness of breath, mucous in throat and hoarseness. Being 70 years old and having to have the open procedure with incision from sternum to navel made it a difficult recovery. I posted quite often with my concerns and was very discouraged. I was able to eat okay but the original symptoms seemed to persist.
Well, good news -- at about 7 months, I finally started to feel better and feel hopeful. I was eating well, had gained back weight I lost, and although I still had some muscle soreness from the abdominal surgery, I was almost back to my old self. And, finally -- at 7 months, my breathing and the mucous and hoarsness was so much better.
Now at almost 9 months, I have a set-back. I have continued to be very careful about any heavy lifting but I felt so good that I increased my walking program. I was walking about 2 miles a day at a brisk rate and I also started including mild inclines of some moderate hills in my walk. After a few weeks of this, I am now having mucous in my throat, hoarsenss and shortness of breath and the muscles around my abdomen and incision sight feel sore and tired and heavy.
Do any of you think that at 8 months out from this open surgery, that the pressure of brisk walking up inclines could have irritated things, maybe put pressure on my stomach or hernia repair and be causing these symptoms to come back. I don't feel I have done anyting vigorous enough to tear out the stitches or cause a re-herniation, but I do have the old symptoms back again.
So, I'm writing this to see if any of you have had similar experiences. And -- to say that despite my earlier negative feelings after the surgery, --I did have a couple of months that I felt it had helped and was very worthwhile. So, to others -- keep hope and hang in there. My having had the open surgery at my age was probably part of my slower recovery. I am just worried now about if any strain I put on things with my more active walking could cause a permanent set back or if I can hope for this to let up with time and with me backing off of walking up steeper inclines.
Thanks for reading all of this. Best wishes to all. By HIs Grace