This isn't meant to scare anyone but here goes my story. I'm 19 days post op and since day 1 I have struggled to liquids. 1 bottle of Isopure and 8 ounces of water was all I could drink in a day. As the days went by, it got harder and harder for me. I had the sensation of suffocating and drowning at the same time. At my 10 day post op appointment my surgeon said it was normal to struggle with drinking liquids and to focus on staying hydrated. This past weekend I was feeling so sluggish and out of it that I spent the entire time sleeping. So by Monday I couldn't take it anymore, I could barely finish a 12 oz bottle of water in a day and my anxiety kicked in big time so I called my surgeon and left a message. He called me the next day and I told him all I had been going through, he said it wasn't normal and so I had to get something similar to the leak test done the next day. I had the test this morning and it turned out the fluids I drink get stuck in my esophagus and take forever to go down. I went to my surgeon right after and he told me there was a narrowing where my esophagus meets the stomach(lucky me) and the solution would be to stretch out that area. So he sends me immediately to the GI specialist and the first thing she notices is that I'm extremely dehydrated, it was so bad they couldn't find the veins to stick the IV in that they had no choice but to use the veins in my inner wrist(very very painful). While I was knocked out, the GI doctor informed my dad that it looked like my esophagus was a bit bent(still trying to figure how that's possible) and due to my surgery having been recent, she did not feel comfortable stretching out the narrow area. Instead she has prescribed me some medication that's supposed to help. So the moral of the story is if you're recently post op and can't drink much, call your surgeon or go to the ER...it could be nothing or it could be something. If anyone has had a similar experience, I would love to hear about it

Thank you! It makes me feel a little at ease knowing it will get better. Were you given any medication for the stricture? I'm curious to know what your surgeon did to help' date=' if you don't mind me asking.[/quote']

I didn't get any help from the surgeon it started clesaring up on its own. I don't think it is a stricture either just swelling that takes time to go down. I keep seeing hiatel hernia repairs take a bit longer to heal.