A message of encouragement

On the 13th of March of next year I will be 10 years post hiatal hernia repair and a full floppy NF. The results of the surgery were wonderful.

I was originally diagnosed with a possible Hiatal hernia in 1966 but at that time there was no endoscopic surgery and the condition was simply called “heartburn”. They treated it with antacids and Donatol. So, for about 40 years I just had to live with it.

During an interview for a colonoscopy in about 2008 the Doctor asked me if I had any other digestive problems and I told him about the “Heartburn”. He prescribed Nexium and I began taking it. Nexium controlled the acid but did nothing for the reflux itself. I also followed his recommendations for the routine things like elevating the head of my bed, diet, etc. Five years later during my next Colonoscopy the Doctor told me about Endoscopic surgery and scheduled me for an interview with a surgeon.

At my age (73), I could have lived out my life without the surgery but it was the quality of life that was the issue. As a senior, eating is one of the few remaining pleasures of life and my eating was restricted to bland things. Even then, meals had to be eaten early because as soon as I reclined to sleep the contents of my stomach would freely flow back into my esophagus. During the initial barium X-rays prior to surgery, the Radiologist told me that he could watch the reflux flowing into the esophagus on the fluroscope when he moved me from vertical to a horizontal position.

So, I elected to have the surgery. I had about a two month wait between diagnosis, recommendation, and the actual surgery. So, I had to decide whether the operation to cure it was worse than tolerating the daily reflux. During the interval prior to surgery I studied everything I could find related to the operation. As you may know, the internet has many websites and Youtube has a multitude of videos available concerning GERD and NF. I studied them all -- negative and the positive. Here on HealingWell.Com the historical archive has years of questions and answers related to NF and GERD in general. I read almost every one of them that applied to conditions like mine. I was well grounded in the positive and negative aspects.

To summerize my post-op experiences, I did have to eat small, frequent meals for a period of time. All of my food had to be pureed or liquified for about three weeks. I also had to restrict types and amounts of the foods that I could eat, By the end of the first month post-op I was back to eating small amounts of the same food that everybody else eats--no restrictions. By two months, I was eating normal portions.

I hope that if you decide that surgery is for you, your recovery and post life is as good as mine has been. I would be happy to try to answer any questions you have regarding surgery.