Stomach pain after esophagectomy

[barbaragmap]

My husband had an esophagectomy (robotically) 14 years ago. Since then he periodically experiences incapacitating pain in his navel. Only morphine or dilaudid relieves the pain. No doctor or hospital has ever been able to determine the cause of the pain. Has anyone else ever experienced this?

[haward]

Hi Barbara. I had an oesophagectomy three and a half years ago. I get this awful pain occasionally. It just knocks me out. I have to lie down until it goes away; taking 20-40 minutes. I was told it was muscles in spasm. I can't predict it. Sometimes it's overeating. It is horrible and incapacitating. Sorry I can't help. But I sympathise. H

[brucemillar]

Barbara

In short. Yes. I also have seen others on here post about "unexplained" pains. In the mornings after my shower (warning this is not a god mental picture) when I lift my left foot onto the bed to put on my socks, I will often get an absolute shocker of a pain. It is like a cramp in my lower left abdomen and does recede over a maybe 5 minutes. At it's worst it will linger for a couple of hours. It makes me jack knife my body when it starts.

I figure it is a muscular spasm or a nerve getting irritated. But then it doesn't happen for a few weeks so I just forget about it again. My left back shoulder pain (under my shoulder blade) is constant and just varies in severity. No amount of scans, puling, pushing, poking, physio etc have touched it or explained it. Dihydrocodeine controls it and allows me to lead a normal life with it.

[toots1951]

Hi Barbara, my husband had his Ivor Lewis May 2014 - recovered well then suddenly out of the blue got this pain in his abdomen last October and we went to A and E. They were extremely thorough - Xrays and blood tests and gave him morphine but couldnt find a problem at all. Then he had the pain about a month later and although quite bad - coped with it. In Feb this year he had his six monthly check to see the surgeon or now usually specialist nurse and we mentioned it then. It just so happened he was due a scan in March so her thoughts were that to see if anything showed up on that - well nothing did and since the scan he has had a couple more episodes. They last - similar to Haward 20-40 mins and he has to lie down - he has a couple of spoons of Gaviscon and not sure if that does help but it seems to go as quickly as it comes and very painful. He does seem to think it is when he over eats but it is very unpredictable. The specialist nurse did recommend Buscapan but he has never tried that. I think probably he copes with it better than me.....

Sue

[gutlesswonder]

My IL was 25 years ago and I still get what I take to be the same pain as the others above.

However it is so occasional and so short lived that I have never bothered to seek investigation or treatment.

My best guess is that it is swallowed air trying to pass down through or flatus gas trying to pass up through the Pyloric Sphincter (which will be out-of-position due to the pull-up) and thus causing a muscle spasm in that organ.

[Lucoid1]

Yes I have this from time to time. Usually if I bend over and get myself in an odd position. It's like a cramp and It goes after a while. I am 3 years post IL

[jessefrye]

My wife has had this issue for six years post op. Radio frequency ablations helped for three years but then stopped working.

The pain seems different from what others are posting because she can't be touched, screams in pain, and it can last for hours (maybe 8-10 hours is the longest) before receiving Dilaudid.

Sorry I don't have an answer but we're in the same situation. Good luck diagnosing it ♥️