Hi I am 5 years post op for oesophageal cancer,on the whole i am very well and know how lucky i am,but i do get pain especially when i wake

[Mayan]

in the area of where my stomach was before op,i do take gaviscon as i believe it could be wind that builds up during the night,but just wondering if anybody else out there gets this pain?

[zookeeper]

Hello.

I am 8 years post op and i have found over the years that bile and acid have alot to do with this sort of pain.I take esomeprazole 20mg am when i get up and 40mg at bed time. when i get pain at night i increase my dosage using 40mg more . It seems to help. good luck i hope you find a reason and result soon.

[sensus]

Hello. I am five years post and I still get the same feeling you have. As zookeeper says I think it's just a buildup of bile and acid. I take 20 mg of Omeprazole eight in the morning and eight at night. I take a big dose of Gaviscon before I go to bed and as necessary if I wake up in the night. I think the golden rule of little and often is so important. I now have a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits about an hour before I go to bed as I think this gives the stomach something to work on! I think we sometimes forget just how big an operation we have had and that the body will of course never be the same. If you are worried go back to the hospital and ask for another gastroscopy. I think it best to have one of these about every 18 months. Try not to worry and good luck!

[Hidden]

I think you will be a good judge of what is causing this - if it is colic / trapped wind (as distinct from a heartburn / reflux pain/discomfort) then perhaps it is indeed because of you lying down horizontally at night, and the excess wind not being able to rise up in the normal way as it would during the daytime. I do not think it is unusual. It can be painful as babies would testify about colic if they had the words. Is it painful enough to wake you up - or does it come on when you start to move around after you have woken up?

You might think about the timing and quantity of the last meal during the day, and whether all types of food create the problem? I know you will have to be eating 'little and often' but are you eating a bit late in the evening?

Gripe water might possibly help before you go to bed perhaps?

The angle at which you lie in bed might also have a slight bearing on it.

All of the above are probably very minor things when it comes to trying to make an impact on the problem, which is probably your natural digestive functions operating during the night.

You mention gaviscon - are you also getting reflux during the night?

I think in your position I would ask to see the specialist dietician to see whether they have some suggestions about this - it sounds like there should be a solution available.

[Mayan in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for your suggestions,it is such a comfort to have this site as a reassurance to us all,i think we all forget how our systems have been repiped.

[fortunatus]

fortunatus

I am 18 months post the Ivor Lewis ordeal and think on the whole and from all the accounts I read in this admirable log that I may be doing OK given my age (71 at the time of the surgery) and the fact that I had 2 weeks in ITU (leak) out of a total of 7 weeks in hospital. Furthermore I had a very difficult two months immediately following my release with many of the horrid things often referred to in these postings (dumping, fatigue, diarrhoea, loss of appetite etc, etc.). However, as regards Mayan's specific symptom, I have not so much pain where the stomach used to be but rather discomfort/pain in the region of the lungs on both sides. It varies in intensity and is never unbearable but it's there and hasn't really diminished in the time since the surgery. My surgeon thinks possibly scar tissue. Any thoughts?

[Hidden in reply to fortunatus]

I think your lungs get a right bashing in this surgery and the after-effects, and they do take a long time sometimes to settle down. It was ages before I could take a deep breath without coughing for instance, and I did not have an oesophagectomy. I gradually found that gently increasing exercise resolved most of my lung / chest problems. My wife says it was about three years before I could walk up a hill on a country walk without sounding like a traction engine. If your surgeon thinks it is scar tissue, then that sounds logical.

Have you thought about a physiotherapist?

[golfking]

I always find if I don't sleep half sitting up I have a very restless night especially if I sleep on my left side,thats when I would get bad reflux and a pain in my stomach,thankfully its few and far between now and as Alan said you don't want to be eating before you go to bed.

[gutlesswonder]

As Alan says regarding babies, I take care to 'wind' myself every night before lying down.

I have developed the following technique (since my wife declines to put me over her shoulder ):

I flop backwards in a sitting position onto the bed.The fluids in the vertical tube of the pseudo-oesophagus stay stationery relative to my falling body and the resultant upsurge of liquid ejects a satisfying belch.After which I generally have a comfortable night.

Prior to adopting these extreme measures I had pain and often an involuntary burp would bring up reflux.

BUT it took a lot of practice to get the velocity just right -- too fast results in a throat full of foul- tasting, burning chyme.

And of course I sleep on a sloping bed -- head legs raised 5 inches.

22 years post-op and still going strong(ish).