Well, I am in the final stages of getting everything ready for my VSG. I had submitted everything and found out I have a hiatal hernia and a Schatzki ring (which is a birth defect that is a tight band of muscle around the esophagus making it narrowed; which can cause difficulty and painful swallowing- which I have). I am curious if anyone else had similar results and what effect it had on your surgery and the time process. My friend had it done and had a hernia that the surgeon fixed at the same time. I am just waiting now......

Hello,

I had my sleeve done July 20th and I had a hiatal hernia as well that the Dr. fixed while he was in there. I can't really say I have any difficulty swallowing or anything now.

I'm sure you'll be fine.

Good luck to you!

Polly

Well, I am in the final stages of getting everything ready for my VSG. I had submitted everything and found out I have a hiatal hernia and a Schatzki ring (which is a birth defect that is a tight band of muscle around the esophagus making it narrowed; which can cause difficulty and painful swallowing- which I have). I am curious if anyone else had similar results and what effect it had on your surgery and the time process. My friend had it done and had a hernia that the surgeon fixed at the same time. I am just waiting now......

I too had a hiatal hernia - but mine was a para-esophageal hiatal hernia. Over half of my stomach was stuck up in my chest cavity. I also had trouble swallowing, this is how I found out I had the hiatal hernia. I had a problem with food betting stuck in my throat, sometimes for minutes (which seemed like hours) at a time. It kinda' freaked me out so I went to the Doc and they ordered an upper GI. Long story short, this is how I learned about VSG, the Dr. said that if they got in there to fix the hernia and any of the stomach tissue was strangulated they would have to remove a portion of my stomach so that I didn't develop infection from the dead or damaged tissue. I looked right at him and said "go ahead and take at least half of it- I eat way more than I should be able to now" he said "well actually, we could do that, have you ever heard of VSG?" I would say in my case it helped get me approved and for me it happened rather quickly. My Dr. did say that it wouldn't take any longer to recover, just that I would probably have a little more discomfort with deep breathing after surgery. That was indeed the only pain I really had, and even that wasn't bad after the first two days.

I had one and my doctor said the majority of his patients have one somewhere.