Nissen Revision

Shawn here again, going to do a quick post on Thursday's nissen fundoplication procedure. The surgeon who performed the operation was actually a stranger to us, not a part of the Rosemurgy/Ross round up of rock star residents, and despite the extreme cynicism and distrust of the entire medical industry that I have developed over the last two years, I like him. Unlike the original Rosemurgy team at TGH, who would do nothing but test- we need a bravo ph test, we need a barium swallow test, we need a CT scan, we need another bravo ph test- and after all these shiny new experimental tests that lead to more tests, and all the waiting and waiting for the results of the tests, and after all the pain and agony of this brand new one-incision laparoscopic surgical procedure, and all the inevitable check up (learning experience) visits in the hospital room (class room) by bright eyed, bushy tailed (complete fucking asshole) GI residents (kids), they still didn't do the thing RIGHT.  When we first met this different doctor at the consultation for the surgery, we came in, he asked a bunch of questions, said "Okay, let's do this- come back next week" and now here we are.  Done. 

On the day of the surgery, the doctor came out about 11:45am and told us that he tried to go in with the scope and couldn't even find a plane where the wrap was attached because of all the scar tissue, and ended up having to take the whole thing apart by hand and start over, doing a 270 wrap instead of the full 360. "This was a hard one," he said.  Yeah. What else is new. .He also fixed her "2nd bellybutton" scar from the peg tube, and overall we are under the impression that the procedure went well, despite him having to resort to "plan B," which involved open surgery instead of laparoscopic. The closing statement is that the wrap is very loose, and she should have no problem getting food down now.  We'll see.  They let her have a fentanyl patch yesterday and that seems to be helping more than anything else, but as of right now the pain is still terrible. The thing about Tanya though, is that she's Tanya, and even though the torturous pain is obvious on her face, she's getting up and walking and talking, and her doctors are hoping to get her out of there by Monday.  I'll do my best to keep posting the progress- in the meantime, if anyone wants to visit her, the room number is A822.

Update for May - Fixing the wrap

Well, after 3 dilations the docs have agreed that I need surgery to repair the Nissen Stomach wrap. I go in for Pre-op on Friday the 13th, haha. My surgery is scheduled for Thur. the 19th. We are using a different GI surgeon this time b/c my doctor doesn't have much faith in the one that did it. This surgeon seems much nicer and doesn't have the crappy holier than thou attitude. Unfortunetly I'll be getting cut in 5 places. Normally they are small incisions but he said they might have to be bigger if there ends up being a lot of scar tissue. The first surgery I had the doc only did one small incision through my bellybutton but I find out that it hasn't even been researched or normally done. I guess I was just one of their guinea pigs. Thanks again docs :( Of course they gave me a long list of risks. The normal stuff you hear including death but some other ones that I really didn't want to hear was that there's a chance they might not be able to fix it, they could screw up the nerves being that they are harder to find after the wrap is done, may not get any relief, could damage the stomach, etc... Oh I really didn't want to hear that. PLEASE let this surgery go right and I get some good relief. If it doesn't, I'm gonna totally loose my mind! I just can't handle much more! I still can't believe all of this has happened to me! Why couldn't things have gone better so I can enjoy my new lungs without all the pain! I don't understand why so many of the good people suffer and the bad ones seem to get by so easily! Life really is so unfair! :(