- dilation (was: What is pickering?)

[Guest guest]

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So glad to hear that you found success from a dilation. I remember well the feeling of FINALLY being able to eat in public, of FINALLY being able to eat something besides oatmeal and cream of wheat, etc! )

I'm wondering exactly who told you the 70% and 90% success rates, though... was it the doctor who performed your dilation? I'm really curious as to where he's getting his numbers -- I've seen a dozen doctors in three different facilities in two different states, and none of them seem to think that dilation is a lifelong "fix" for any but a small minority of patients.

The majority of the literature available (medical journals, etc.) don't indicate that dilation has lifetime effects, and the majority of the people on this site who've had a dilation in the past haven't found it to be a lifetime "fix" either. I've had a couple dilations, a couple stretchings, and a botox, and never was I led to believe that any of them would be a long term solution to the problem. I've even been told that surgery isn't a permanent fix for everyone, and that it may need to be repeated over the course of a person's life.

I'm just really interested in who it was that told you that and where they got their information from -- can you follow up on that for us?Thanks!Debbi in Michigan

PS -- I'll probably be traveling to Boston sometime in the next year (my husband travels there usually twice a month or so, and we've been saying for a year that I need to accompany him sometime for a mini-vacation) -- I'd love to meet a fellow achalasian in person, if you're up for it!

-I had a dialation at the Brigham and Woman's Hospital with Dr. Car-Locke two weeks ago-it's one of life's modern miracles-I am perfect-what a wonder!!! I have been told that one has a 70% chance that one dialation lasts a life time and with two there is a 90% chance that it lasts-but I'm taking every glorious day as it comes- from Boston