Post-Nissen Fundoplication Problems: What helps?
<p>I had a nissen wrap operation in 1999. I still have problems at night after about 4 hours of sleep. I've tried all kinds of drugs to help relieve the gas. Right now I am on 40 mg of pantoprazole in the morning before breakfast. Most of the time days are fine. I have problems being regular on bowl movements, so I have a high amt of gas from the meds I take to go number 2. At night is when I have real problems. Any kindred spirits out there?</p>
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I had a very similar experience, the pain under the left ribs does not sound "normal", and I had trouble three weeks post nissen, that two years later, finally found two surgeons who are figuring it out.
What did your surgeon ignore?
he ignored what I told him, several times, that something was wrong, something snapped or broke a stitch, I still don't know, exactly. He kept saying that all this was normal, gas X and miralax, blah blah blah, and I kept insisting that it wasn't. So CT scans, ultrasounds, small bowel follow though, gastric empty, and two years later, found two surgeons that put their fingertips into my tummy and one said "spigelian hernia, very rare" and the other thinks that it might be a porthole or portiste hernia, but it's there, and it's a hernia and that's what I kept telling them all along, and they kept denying it and missing it, emergency docs, surgeons, GI docs, all of them
I had a hyneal hernia type 111, no other health problem no reflex, no tummy problems ever, i use to say i had a cast iron stomach.... Not any more, i'm finding myself have to hire just about everything done, i can't afford that... Now i'm looking at seeing my home and moving ? I am a car buff, i have 5 of them, i usually washed one or two every morning... not now, my cars are dirty, something you would never see... i can't find any help for my problem, as the surgeon washed his hands because i went had some kind of near death problem in surgery MH and had to be placed in a coma.... for what was to be a day surgery and i would of gone home by 3pm same day.. i now have no life can hardly keep up.... At times i wish i had not awakened when they trying to wake me from the coma... I feel bad for persons that go thought any of what i read, i have never been sick, always active, busy... no i'm a problem to all... and i feel lousy and can't get things done... i thought i had another good 20 years of living, but not after this... Why was i given gas when i said NO....... LOST IN THE MEDICAL WORLD, and did i mention the hernia is back at 80 percent and the no surgeon will touch me, because i could or would die.... THIS SUCKS.
@ohno, @dragonfly123
I have written in Connect several times .. look them up.. but I had a Nissen surgery to reduce GERD as I had taken Nexium for a decade...the local Iowa surgeon damaged nerves that empty stomach back in 2015 .. that cannot be fixed or undone .. Mayo MN diagnosis was "post operative gastropanesis ".. they figured out the problem in a day as the locals could not in 2 months.. as I lost 50 #.. Mayo gave me a way to cope.. but every meal is a challenge.. I drink Pedialyte as a way to stay hydrated without drinking so much water.. I drink Kiefer as a probiotic/... I have to sleep on a steep wedge to keep stuff in stomach from coming up.. gravity must be recognized as the way to move food through the digestive system.
I am going through the same thing whereby, i have lost 80 LBS and feel the same way you do.
I had 2 Nissen hiatal hernia surgeries in 2 days 10 months ago. the first surgery resulted in the complete inability to swallow and all I could do was regurgitate foam. Tests showed that liquids would only go down to the sphincter and stop. The second surgery involved removing a suture to loosen the opening to the stomach. I have had serious problems at night with reflux so bad that I wake up choking from inhaling acid (never had this before surgery). I feel quite normal all day, but nighttime is torture every night. I feel pressure at night like I have to burp but it's liquid most of the time. I can control it during the day but when I'm asleep I can't control it. I sleep with a wedge, eat NOTHING after 6 pm and drink as little as possible till morning. The sensation I get is like squeezing a water balloon. Anyone have these symptoms? Despirate for answers! Doctors are baffled.
I don't notice gas as a problem but at night I feel pressure like squeezing a water balloon which results in reflux that wakes me up choking due to inhaled acid. The doctors are baffled.
I also have experienced extremely painful spasms for the past 28 years after a laparoscopic Nissen Fundoplication performed at the Cleveland Clinic. Recently I found a young doctor who thinks "out of the box" and he prescribed nitroglycerine and I have successfully found almost instant relief from the pain after taking one sublingually. Give it a try!