The plague
I hope to help others who have had the surgery to remove their esophagus and have been dealing with bile reflux and aspiration into the brochial tube. I have lived with this since January 2007, almost 8 years in three days!!!
My surgery was at Duke University even though I lived in Virginia I had a total hiatal hernia. (Stomach had moved through the diaphragm completely into my right chest compressing it and leaving me short of breath. My options for surgery were Duke and John's Hopkins. To cut to the chase the surgery to move the stomach back where it belonged eventually caused my esophagus to fail and it had to be removed. The stomach was pulled up to form a conduit and food goes down by gravity. I have no valves to keep acids and bile from coming back up if I am not elevated. I tried wedges on my bed at first, then elevating the head of the bed with blocks....Nothing seemed to work. Nightly I was up with burning bile slipping into my bronchial tube. I would be up for up to 3 hours at times before I could return to bed. In the years tha have followed I have learned that the queen size adjustable bed was a Godsend but still not perfect. I continues to occasionally have the bile back flow even though I was elevated 45 degrees in my bed. I have been on PPI's but not sure if they even help reduce acids or not but am afraid not to take them. I have learned that FAT in the diet is the culprit...My biggest tip to anyone with this plague is to avoid fat in your diet unless you eat a tiny amount early in the day. At night I limit my intake to not more than 8 grams. I now have a new physician after moving to this area who immediately put me on one teaspoon of Carafate liquid at bedtime. I will take Gaviscon if I suspect I might have ingested too much fat before going to bed. A small apple about an hour before I go to bed may be a home remedy but it also seems to eliminate my plague.
I now have a small area in my lower right lung that they are watching and I cannot help but think of all the irritation from bile and acid in my lung hasn't caused a lesion of sorts. The stomach lining can handle it but the lungs and bronchial cannot!!
I have gone a couple of months without an episode but I never know what precipitates a problem and when I might have another . If anyone else has this problem following this type surgery I would love to hear from you. I hesitated to join not actually having cancer but having had the same surgery feel I might help someone or someone might help me. I have looked for a support group for this for years and stumbled into this wonderful place by accident.....
See why I put I rambled????
My surgery was at Duke University even though I lived in Virginia I had a total hiatal hernia. (Stomach had moved through the diaphragm completely into my right chest compressing it and leaving me short of breath. My options for surgery were Duke and John's Hopkins. To cut to the chase the surgery to move the stomach back where it belonged eventually caused my esophagus to fail and it had to be removed. The stomach was pulled up to form a conduit and food goes down by gravity. I have no valves to keep acids and bile from coming back up if I am not elevated. I tried wedges on my bed at first, then elevating the head of the bed with blocks....Nothing seemed to work. Nightly I was up with burning bile slipping into my bronchial tube. I would be up for up to 3 hours at times before I could return to bed. In the years tha have followed I have learned that the queen size adjustable bed was a Godsend but still not perfect. I continues to occasionally have the bile back flow even though I was elevated 45 degrees in my bed. I have been on PPI's but not sure if they even help reduce acids or not but am afraid not to take them. I have learned that FAT in the diet is the culprit...My biggest tip to anyone with this plague is to avoid fat in your diet unless you eat a tiny amount early in the day. At night I limit my intake to not more than 8 grams. I now have a new physician after moving to this area who immediately put me on one teaspoon of Carafate liquid at bedtime. I will take Gaviscon if I suspect I might have ingested too much fat before going to bed. A small apple about an hour before I go to bed may be a home remedy but it also seems to eliminate my plague.
I now have a small area in my lower right lung that they are watching and I cannot help but think of all the irritation from bile and acid in my lung hasn't caused a lesion of sorts. The stomach lining can handle it but the lungs and bronchial cannot!!
I have gone a couple of months without an episode but I never know what precipitates a problem and when I might have another . If anyone else has this problem following this type surgery I would love to hear from you. I hesitated to join not actually having cancer but having had the same surgery feel I might help someone or someone might help me. I have looked for a support group for this for years and stumbled into this wonderful place by accident.....
See why I put I rambled????
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