Advice really needed please 2 years after Nissen Fundoplication Surgery

[Sammy05]

Hi,

I’m new to this site so forgive me if I’ve posted in the wrong section.

I had severe acid reflux for approximately 5years and after several tests I had Nissen Fundoplication Surgery 2 years ago.

In all fairness I was happy with the results overall, completely off all medications but since the surgery I now suffer with excess gas ( not good when you’re on a night out and have cramps as you’re trying your hardest not to let rip in public!)

Over the last 4 months I’ve developed this cough and a shortness of breath ( not sure if the shortness of breath is caused by me coughing) and even if I laugh I cough. Recently this cough has now got a lot worse it’s constant and worse after I eat and especially in the evenings. I also feel as if I have a lump in my throat and a tight pain in my oesophagus and like some food is stuck in back of my throat after eating.

Could this be a sign my acid reflux has returned.. I’ve been to my GP 4 times in the last couple of weeks and he’s put me back on 30mg lamsoprazol first thing in the morning and 300mg Ranitidine in the evening. These tablets seem to be having no affect at all unlike years ago when I used to take my lansoprazol on its own it would work.

Forgot to mention had a lung X-ray which came back normal and tomorrow having a Spirometry test.

I’m a real worrier and worst thing I could possibly have done is looked up oesophageal cancer and that’s all I keep thinking I have and tumours.

I’m so worried... has anyone here had similar symptoms ?

[rayw55]

I suggest you go back to the doctor and ask for an endoscopy I had a fundoplication around 20 years ago and at that time was diagnosed with Barrett's has this been mentioned to you at all? There is no point in surmising but an endoscopy should show what is going on. Particularly as you feel food is getting stuck you shouldn't get fobbed off with tablets if necessary see a different doctor. Good luck and let us know how you get on , in the meantime stop looking for the possibilities what will happen will happen and when it does that's when you deal with it. We would spend our whole lives worrying otherwise ,

[Sammy05 in reply to rayw55]

Thank You so much for your advice rayw55.

No Barrett’s wasn’t mentioned to me at all.. the reason I was a candidate for surgery is because I was Graded a Grade C and a had a hiatus hernia and then had a test where they monitor your acid over 24 hours (sorry can’t remember the name of it) and that came back with a reading of 54 and apparently normal is within a range of 7 and 13.

Have you been ok since your operation?

I will keep going back to my doctors and insist on an endoscopy... wish me luck!

Thank You again

[rayw55 in reply to Sammy05]

It's good that barrettes wasn't mentioned as if you had it thy would have said. The gas side of things is nature I'm afraid . I would err on the side of safety and get an endoscopy purely because of the food sticking it's very unlikely to be anything serious but if it does turn out to be early diagnosis is key. I am now very healthy having had my oesophagus removed over 7 years ago but my circumstances were somewhat different from yours but it should be reassuring that even when bad things happen there are experts out there to help us so don't worry unnecessarily

[Sammy05 in reply to rayw55]

Thank You for your kind reassuring words Raye55

I’m so pleased yours was successful makes me have more faith 😊

[geraldine60 in reply to rayw55]

hello. Interested to know what surgery you have, because I thought removal was never an option? Am worried as over years had endoscopies, some normal and some mild oesophagiitis. Recent worse symptoms, acid in throat, pain and unable to eat heavy or sticky food. Put off going to doc but will have to go . I have been on PPis so long they are probably not working anymore.

[Hidden]

The gas has to go somewhere, ether up or down, and one of the effects of the fundoplication is sometimes that it always goes downwards.

I think that the only way of establishing what has happened recently is an endoscopy and/or scan and I would be inclined to return to your surgeon. It might be that the fundoplication has loosened, and might need to be adjusted.

I would not think of cancer from what you have described; it might be that there has been some form of disturbance of the nerves in that area.

The reflux could be causing your cough; and the laughing could be jogging your system so that it allows reflux upwards.

You could try Gaviscon Advance as a quick way of establishing whether that has a beneficial effect against the apparent reflux. This works differently from the other medication.

It sounds like you did the right thing in having anti-reflux surgery, and this may be something that has developed afterwards from that surgery.

[Sammy05]

Morning OPA_AlanM

I have actually tried the Gaviscon after meals to see if it helps and at the moment it hasn’t.

I had a smoothie for breakfast this morning and it just feels like there’s something stuck at the back of my throat and then the coughing started.

I have taken your advice and I’m bypassing the GP and I’ve spoken to the surgeon’s secretary and told her all my symptoms and she said she will pass the information on.

The problem is I also suffer with health anxiety and I do panic when something is wrong and I know I shouldn’t but when your GP know you suffer with anxiety and it’s on your records they don’t tend to want to take someone seriously. I’m not one of these that go to a doctors surgery every 5 mins I literally only go when I do have something wrong.

My very first diagnosis of having acid reflux was completely ignored by different GPs and put it down to anxiety so I had to go private in the end to be diagnosed.... I actually thought I was going mad but I knew I had symptoms... it was quite sad because one doctor asked me what I thought was wrong with me... I suppose that has scarred me ever since.

My health anxieties started when my father had a prescription given to him for his heart in milligrams when it should have been given to him in micrograms and caused him to have a heart failure, thrombosis, kidney failure, this should made me very aware of health.

Thank You for taking the time to answer.. it’s very kind of you

[Nb88]

Hi just wondering if you got to the bottom of the issues you were having? I’m 4 weeks post op and really suffering with the gas issue but today a new pain, dull aches under ribs liver and spleen area and random stab pains under breast bone anyone experience this?

[Janf58 in reply to Nb88]

I am 3 weeks after op and have really bad pains in left shoulder. I endedup having to stay extra days in the hospital as i got a bad chest infection. Still have pain under ribs..

[jwcastel]

I have had 3 Nissens. It sounds like you have developed LPR or silent reflux. I get it sometimes. I usually get over it in a few weeks. I call it a flare. I elevate my headboard at night. The best advice is following info from book, Dropping Acid, which explains all of this. I restrict my diet to foods with a pH of 5 or higher. I also drink alkaline water with a pH of 8.8. This water will deactivate the pepsin in reflux which causes the damage. I usually will take Ranitidine at night when I am in a flare. I cannot stress enough how important it is to follow the diet to get the LPR under control. I have found chewing sugarless gum also helps. There was a follow-up book written by the same author regarding the LPR cough.

[TisOnlyMe]

Hey Sammy, I had my surgery in 1998 and I have a lot of the same problems you mentioned in your post. I know for a fact if I'm coughing it's because I have gas just below the diaphram. I also know the coughing sounds chronic and I've had my good friend really afraid for me. I had to explain to them since I've had this surgery the things I've learned. Coughing equals gas so I will get out of bed and walk around my apartment until I burp and relieve the build up of gas. I feel like I have something tightened in my esophagus it's all gas related.. I get rid of that all these other feelings go away..