Need advice - 4 months after TIF

Had TIF and hernia repair on April 30 this year. Can barely eat, constant diarrhea, pain behind breast bone, can’t burp. Constant gas, I am sure because I can’t burp. Not burping is NOT supposed to be a side effect with TIF.

Food goes down okay, but there just isn’t ever room enough for enough food to keep weight on. Now 10 pounds under desired weight.

Had endoscopy last week to see if something was wrong. He said it all looked good and that the last of the ulcers were gone too. He dilated my esophagus which helped a bit but not enough. Still can only eat a tiny bit, can’t burp and still pain in breastbone. Oh and I have had a horrible cough ever since surgery. That improved for a few days after dilation but is back now.

He told me to take Imodium and he gave me Rifaximin. The Rifaximin has helped some, but if it was really going to fix it, it should have by now. Some days I am normal, but some days still have severe diarrhea. I only took the Imodium once because I wanted to see if the antibiotic was actually helping. Looks like I will have to rely on Imodium, which I hate because it makes me so tired. I’m already tired, I don’t need more tired.

To make things worse, the procedure did not fix the original problem. I was told I had silent reflux. I never had heartburn, just a burning mouth and later, bubbly foam in the back of my mouth. None of that has changed and last week after scope he told me he has “no idea” what is causing that. I’m like, what the heck did I go through all of this for only to still have this awful burning.

I wish I could go back to how I was. And I was miserable. But at least I could leave the house and eat without being more miserable.

By the way, the price for Rifaximin is $1800 for 2 weeks. Ridiculous. My insurance paid, thank goodness. I just wish it was working better than it is. I’ll be off it next week and imagine I will revert to the constant diarrhea again.

Any help or ideas appreciated!

Yes I changed my diet. Several times.

Things are finally slightly better. It turns out I did not even need the TIF. What they thought was LPR/silent reflux is an infection. Penicillin is getting rid of that and some valium has eased off the stomach symptoms enough to make it bearable. I finally stopped losing weight.

I never should have been given the TIF in the first place. And while I could have had it undone, nobody could even begin to predict what outcome it might have and that was just too scary. So I’m stuck with being unable to burp, which is probably the most painful part of this now. Hopefully the infection will go away and not be a recurring thing because the burning bubbles in the mouth was like a 15 on a scale of 1-10.

Now I probably have to have shoulder surgery. They re-tore my rotator cuff during my hernia and TIF surgery.