In Recovery Mode

Awhile ago in an earlier post, I briefly mentioned under going testing to get my hiatal hernia examined for potential surgery. I have had GERD and acid reflux my whole life and it was mainly caused by this sliding hiatal hernia. Years of stomach acid bubbling up into my esophagus has turned into me also having Barrett’s Esophagus! I have been controlling this with medications, but learning about the long-term effects of such medications, we decided to get this fixed. So after a few consults with my doctor, on April 14th I had surgery, my first in my 54 years on this spinning planet. There are two common procedures in fixing hiatal hernias and I had a combination of the two, called The Hill-Nissen Hybrid Repair which is a fairly new procedure developed to reduce the failure rate of each of the procedures done individually. I had it done at our brand new high tech hospital just a few mile away, Swedish Hospital Issaquah by my highly competent and respected physician, Dr. Ralph Aye. It was done laparoscopic with five small incisions into my abdomen. The pain wasn’t too bad, but the medication in the pain pump gave me a horrendous headache, so I had to take something less effective orally in a liquid form……bummer! I was up walking a few hours after surgery and did quite well. The biggest problem after a surgery like this is the inability to get anything into the stomach through the repair area as it is very tight and inflamed. Getting anything in liquid form was very hard and I had to do it very slowly. This also caused me to stay an extra night in the hospital until I was able to start getting fluids and nutrition.

I am home now and the recovery begins. It will take 4-6 weeks to get back to work, which boredom may set in, it is very nice to have the time off!! I am on a full fluids diet for the first two weeks…..jello, pudding, broth, juices, thin smoothies and I am dropping weight like crazy and every other commercial on TV seems to be related to food in some way! The only exercise I am getting is just some short walks in the neighborhood and fatigue is easily achieved. I’ll go back for a follow up appointment on the 28th and may be able to start eating more foods, yaaaaaa! It will 6 weeks and beyond before I will return to a “normal” diet, but I have a feeling I will be seeing a new normal from now on. We’ll see how much weight I will lose and will I be able to keep it off. Below is a video I took after coming home which is kind of funny! My voice was screwed up from the surgery and Debbie thought it was funny. Apparently, so did I. Don’t worry Swedish, I was just kidding about suing!

 

 

 

 

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