Turns out I had a stricture in my esophagus.....

So, I'm 7 weeks post op RNY. A few days after my 3 week post op appt with Dr. Starr, my surgeon, I started having difficulty getting food and fluid to go down. At first I thought the problem was in my new pouch. I went and saw Dr. Starr and we agreed that I had probably irritated things when I had eaten yogurt with my crushed meds in it and that possibly something had actually blocked my new "stoma" - the new connection of my intestine to my pouch. I vowed to be more careful, etc.

But it didn't go away. IT was a very familiar feeling and I realized that I had experienced it back when I had the gastric band (not a successful venture for me), though when I discussed with my band clinic on several occasions, they told me it was just air blocking food/liquid from going down.

So, it kept happening. And it seemed random. I'd wake up in the morning and be able to get down a protein shake and some water. Or I wouldn't be able to - the water and/or shake would just sit there, building up pressure until I spit it up or forced myself to vomit. After a routine appt with my endocrinologist, who was the doc who encouraged me to have the bypass and made the referral, I was able to figure out that the "stuck" feeling was not in my pouch...........it was much higher up, in my esophagus, right below where my Adam's apple would be if I had one lol.

Anyway, it was beginning to have some serious effects on me. When I would feel things clear (with no rhyme or reason to it) I would have to decide what was more importan****er, protein, meds or supplements??? Basically, I went with water and protein and even then, that was sketchy. So basically, I haven't been taking my meds or supplements consistently for about 4 of the 7 weeks since surgery.

Made another appt with Dr. Starr and insisted that there was a real problem happening and I needed a scope. I suggested that maybe it was a spasm of some kind in my esophagus. Dr. Starr said that it could be and it could be a narrowing of the esophagus (stricture, basically).

So, though I had to wait another week, I finally had a scope today (totally painless, was knocked out) and it turns out I had a stricture. I don't have more details yet b/c Dr. Starr had to leave before I was awake, but the post op notes said that he had dilated the stricture with a balloon, about 12mm.

So, now hopefully I can get back to "normal"........back to where I can actually eat instead of not being sure if even sips of water would go down. So relieved it wasn't anything more serious!!

Cheers,

Andrea

Wow, I didn't even know that was possible. Thank you for sharing that. Glad that you were able to advocate for yourself and have this resolved.

i hope everything goes smoothly from now on for you!

Cheers!

Wow, what an event! I'm just glad you stood up for yourself and made sure you got the help required!

hi Andrea, so sorry to read that you had this stricture;  I hope that the procedure performed will have cleared that up.

best regards,

Sheila

Oh Jeepers!  I'm glad they were able to dilate it with the balloon during the procedure and that it didn't require something more invasive!

Hope this does the trick for you hun!  Let us know how things progress.  And good on ya for being persistent. 

Hang in there!

Wow so glad that this all sorted out for you now. Good for you on insisting there was an issue.

I had a similar pre-op. I was diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophagitis. It was treated with Flovent(normally inhaled for patients with breathing problems) which I had to swallow, not inhale. It seems to have cleared up the problem and have not had any issues swallowing post-op. But the doctor did tell me that I might have required the dilation if the meds did not do the trick.

All the best as you get back to "normal".

Karen

Glad to know they found out the problem. Hope you fell better now

THanks so much everyone for your great support. Just goes to show you how doctors don't know everything lol. But, I still love Dr. Starr and would recommend him to anyone. And I'm grateful that, in terms of complications, this was a fairly minor one. Today I'm actually able to eat without fear of having to barf it up later cuz it got stuck lol. Yippee!!

Cheers,

Andrea