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My endoscopy results



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Great news! I'm crossing my fingers, sending prayers, and anything else that I think of to do. I hope that everything goes well and the unfill fixes the problem.

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Glad to hear there is no erosion. Sorry to hear about the dilitation, but I guess you will now join the ranks of us who can speak to that experience. :) I'm sure hoping the rest will be a fix for you. I'll keep my fingers crossed!! :)

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YAY Alex! I've been waiting to hear about how you are for days! I'm so glad it's not erosion or slippage. I'm so glad your optimistic and feel the unfill will heal your esophagus. We know our own bodies better than anyone.

When it is healed up, how can you prevent this from happening again do you think?

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Good news Alex! I've been waiting to hear. Why does the doc think this happened? I am thinking about what you said in your post about his story not jiving with what you think.

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What a relief to hear that you don't have erosion. I hope your esophagus recovers completely so that you can get on with bandster life. Sending good thoughts your way . . .

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:clap2: :clap2: :clap2: Yay!!! Happy Esophagus Healing! Wait, is than an earthquake, phew, no, that's me doing the happy dance too! Best wishes Alex!

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Great news!! But, I also, like Chris, wonder about that part of your post.. Can you share with us..?

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Thanks, everyone! I am indeed relieved.

What I meant about my doc's assessment not really jibing with mine is this. Here's the timeline:

Early September: small fill, everything's fine

Late October: I come down with a bad case of bronchitis that persisted with significant coughing, finally resolved by narcotic medication. Band still feels fine, eating as normal.

Late December: Bronchitis returns, I'm afraid I have pneumonia but doctor says no. More meds, resolves cough. Band still feels fine, eating as normal.

Mid-late January: I start to have the odd episode of heartburn, treatable with Rolaids.

Mid- to late February: Occasional episodes of heartburn suddenly get a lot worse, plus nightly reflux with lots of phlegm. From this point forward I can't sleep lying down. I have pain in my stomach that almost feels like an ulcer, and irritation in my esophagus and stomach that verges on making me panic. There were two episodes of small amounts of blood being vomited up, and by early March I can't eat much in the way of solid food. This is when I see the gastroenterologist.

Mid-March: I've been sticking mostly to liquids since the first week, until my endoscopy and unfill. Prevacid has made me feel much better, and soon I'll try sleeping lying down again. I'm not going to eat anything really solid until next week.

My doctor thinks all of this may be from my band being too tight back in September, and my not knowing it. He suggested that my bronchitis was a result of aspiration, and that the heartburn and esophagitis was because my esophagus was irritated from my using it to store food. He didn't have an answer as to why it would have come on so quickly. Esophageal dilation, he says, happens to some people and not others, and it's unpredictable.

His explanation doesn't take into account what I think are significant factors, to wit:

1. The illnesses I had in October and December were initally caught from my children.

2. I had some very strange hormonal stuff going on in January (I'm getting to be that age, you know) and I'm told gastric symptoms can accompany that sort of thing. So mild heartburn wasn't so off-the-wall.

3. The sudden onset of symptoms in February directly coincided with severe congestion I suffered after staying in a house with pets (to which I'm quite allergic).

4. The irritation wasn't only in my esophagus but also in my stomach, and Prevacid helped a lot. My surgeon seemed to think there was no point in staying on it, since it "isn't doing anything." (I'm staying on it, anyway.)

5. I have always been able to, and can still, feel my esophagus doing its job and food and Fluid moving along.

Maybe I'm grasping at straws, seeking answers that don't involve permanent issues with my band. But I just don't have a sense that this problem all stems from the same thing. The coughing I had last fall wasn't reflux-related--I've had that sort of cough and this was different. This was the full-body, deep-throated, uncontrollable cough that comes with infectious disease. If that made my band slip, I honestly wouldn't be very surprised. A small slip, then, might have combined with the allergy-related excess congestion I had in February to just tighten things up way too much. Clearly an unfill was called for, I'm not disputing that AT ALL. I'm just not also inclined to agree that there's anything necessarily wrong with my esophagus. Hey, I can hope, right? :nervous

So that's my story, and I guess I'll know more on April 5 when I have a barium swallow.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 0 replies
      1. This update has no replies.
    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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    • KimBaxleyWilson

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