Hi @bborth that must be frustrating finding no successful treatments for your bile reflux.

I am hoping @judipogo will return to share her experience with this surgery.

I also wanted to introduce @rosemarya who has had a roux procedure, though not the Roux En Y, and she may be able to share her experience.

Back to you @bborth, is this surgery something your doctor is suggesting?

Thanks Ethan, it would be good to connect with others who have had this surgery performed. My meeting this coming Friday with the GI surgeon is to see what he thinks about my situation, and how surgery may benefit me. I guess I am not sure what could possible make this better other than Questron (power medication I mentioned earlier) as it is the only medication I have yet to try. I need to nail down the diagnosis of course, but the one red flag so far is the bile that was seen in the "entire stomach area" and this inflammed stomach mucosa. Not sure outside of bile reflux what this could be as we are eliminating things like gastroperesis and such. Just feels so acidic inside me. To accept how I am feeling now for the long term won't work for me.....too much reduction in quality of life plus being on so many medications can't be good long term. What a journey.

@bborth
I have had a roux en y “with a twist”. ... just means it was a little different than the normal one, I do not know how it is different. Mine was to fix a paraesophageal (sliding) hernia. The reflux that came from the hernia .. which kept pulling my stomach into my chest.. did a lot of damage. I had some complications with the surgery... not the surgeon's fault; just my body. My esophagus shortened and caused a leak.. 1% chance of that happening. It also pulled one loop of my intestines into my chest. I was too weak to have more surgery then and left the hospital with a feeding tube. About 6 months later 2 more loops pulled up into my chest and pushed my left lung against my ribs. I had to have another surgery to repair this.. very high risk, but less than the risk of not having it. It had to be an open surgery and because of the cut they had to do a long recovery.. This surgery was in 2015 and I am in still a lot of pain. I stayed on the feeding tube for 5 more months after the last surgery.. a little over a year from when it was first put in.

Please do not let my experience dissuade you from the surgery. Mine is just an odd-ball case. Weigh all the information and do not hesitate to get second or third opinions.

Best of luck,
Zaroga

Thank you so much for sharing. So....if you had to do it over again, would you? I plan to have my GP recommend another GI surgeon so I can have consultations with 2 such surgeons. From what I have read, the surgery for bile reflux is less complicated than that for weight loss per se. Basically rerouting the bile duct from the stomach to the small intestine. At this point if the surgery can get me 50% better without too many risky complications I'll take it.

Just trying to prepare for my appointment tomorrow with this GI surgeon. Seems like I have run the list of medications to take, metoclopramide being the only one that has helped a bit. Of course you can't take this long term, so this isn't a plan for the future. Carafate seems to help the pain in the chest, but nothing else. Plus make me really spaced out and off balance. So.....getting to the point where I need to try something to gain some quality of life back, and symptom relief to some degree. Not sure how surgeons look at that, but my not being able to work much longer in a career I love (engineer) or do things I enjoy isn't a way to look at the future. One more question.....whenever I compress my abdomen (bending over/twisting the torso a lot) really aggrevates my symptoms, especially in the area my GB used to sit. Any idea what is going on? Could I be moving the bile in my stomach around more? Just feels so acidic down there.

@bborth

I am sorry I did not read your last post until today. A rough few days with my 91 year old mama.

I hope all went well with your appointment. So many gastro conditions have the same symptoms and a gamut of test and experienced doctors is the only way to find out what is going on,

No kidding. I am down to one more test this week.....injecting something into me to see how the bile flows. I had the bravo test last week with the monitor and such for the PH level indicator. I will go over that and this next test this coming Friday when I meet again with my GI surgeon. Given my history, and my lack of any real success with medications he is leaning towards surgery. 2 endoscopic procedures a month apart both show too much bile pooling in the stomach, and the related mucosa thickening/inflammation. I will get a more detailed explanation this Friday, and most likely a date for this surgery. Bascially putting a drain in at the bottom of the stomach to get this bile out quicker. All my symptoms certainly seem to relate to bile being the culprit. After 5 years of dealing with this to varying degrees I am ready to take this step......status quo isn't acceptable for me at 55 years old and a lot of life left to live.

I go next week for more testing. So far just a swallow test and endoscopy and doctor visit. It was suppose to be over two days.. now it is 3 days. The doctor who was to do the endoscopy had an emergency. I have achalasia and Barrett's esophagus. I doubt the latter is any better the way I feel. I have other stomach problems too. I am having more stomach and chest pain.. sphincter going into stomach does not always open and food and water will not go down when that happens. Three times within the last two months I thought I would have to go to ER.. that would mean an airlift to Jacksonville. It is about a 5 hour trip by car to Mayo in Jacksonville.

I wish you the best and please update me when you find out anything.

I had a gastroectomy (80%) with the roux en y but mine was for severe acid reflux. I was getting stomach acid into my lungs. I am 6 weeks out of surgery and getting better every day. I had a Nissen fundoplication surgery 2 years ago that did more harm than good. I was told having the roux en y there's a slight chance of getting bile reflux so I'm not sure how in your case it would stop it. You're opening up a straight shot from your intestines to your stomach. I would get another opinion. Do your homework and search for a doctor that specializes in digestive surgery. Good luck.