Hello, I'm a New Member

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Hello everyone, I've been meaning to join this group for a while. I read the messages periodically & although nice to hear of people with the same problems I wish each & every one of you hadn't had to go through all this as I wish I hadn't. I found it really hard to cope with at times in the past but once I'd had the surgery things were so much improved. Its now just a bit of a nuisance rather than before the surgery where it had started to really interfere with my life. I do think its good to be able to get in touch with people who know exactly what you're going through as this sort of problem is one that people who haven't suffered it find it very hard to understand. People tend to think that you look fine, so everythings ok.

I live in Norfolk, England and am 36. My problems started in 1996. To cut a long story short, I had two dilations which worked temporarily and then had the myotomy. I was lucky enough to be able to have the operation at my local hospital (The Norfolk & Norwich). The surgeon was a brilliant man specialising in thorasic matters called Mr Vaughan who I hear has since moved to a larger hospital. I still feel food entering my stomach from the bottom of my oesophagus and also have occassional heartburn (which sometimes I can relate to something that I've eaten) but on the whole things arn't too bad. I have never suffered from spasms that some of you mention. The surgery was done by keyhole procedure and didn't really cause me much discomfort at all. I had a chest epidural put in my spine during surgery and could feel no pain at all when I came round. I was home in two days. I stayed off work for a couple of weeks, and was told to liquidise my food and be on a very sloppy diet while things healed. I can only recommend it to anyone not sure about having it done. I can now go out for a meal with others and although I eat slower than most people (although I can now eat faster than my father-in-law who has no problems!) and I drink a mouthful of water after every couple of swallows of food to help things on their way, no one would really know there is anything wrong with me. After how I was eating (or not!) when I went for the surgery, anything was an improvement. I still get a bit down sometimes that things will never be the quite the same as before and who knows what the future may bring. I'm lucky that I don't require any medication at the moment. I just take the occasional heartburn remedy (although just drinking water will sometimes clear the heartburn). I have started seeing a homeopath recently. I used to suffer panic attacks and still get occasional anxiety - the homeopath has helped with this - the achalasia is something she's working on - she hasn't come across it before - of course!

I didn't know a thing about the disease when diagnosed and I didn't have a computer at the time. I am so pleased to find this group.

I wish you all a good new year. .