Re: Hershey Medical patients

[Guest guest]

Hi Cindi and welcome. Just thought it might

make you feel better about the decision you made

if I told you I had two Boxtox and neither of them

worked at all. I agree you've made the right

choice.

Maggie

Alabama

[Guest guest]

Cindi, welcome to the group. I don't know of anyone right off the top of my head w/ experience at Hershey, but you never know who is lurking out there in cyber-space. If you aren't happy w/ the experience level at Hershey, you could look into treatment at The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio -- many of us drive to TCC from out of state because of the expertise of the doctors there. (experience of the surgeon seems to be a big factor in the success of surgical treatment.)

I'm surprised to hear you've already had 4 dilations if you've only been recently diagnosed with achalasia. Does your doctor have a lot of experience with achalasia? Did you notice any changes at all from your dilations?

Personally, I would also choose surgery over botox -- surgery has a success rate well over 90% with an experienced surgeon, whereas I've not heard of a single case of botox working for much more than 12 months, and even the initial short-term (6mos) success rate can be much lower than 50%. Again, I'm surprised that botox is being offered to you as a treatment, esp. since you've had so many failed dilations.

You can get more info about the different types of treatment in the Links section of the website -- there are hundreds of links there, many of them broken down into folders by type of information. I would suggest you start in the folder called Achalasia Treatments, since there are a few links there that describe dilation, botox, and surgery all in one article. Then there are individual folders for each of those treatments, too.

I've been dealing with achalasia for over a decade, but I only found this group about a year and a half ago. I wish I'd had access to all the support from this group back when I was first starting out, too! Please feel free to post any questions or concerns here -- often there is someone who has been in your shoes and/or someone else who wanted to post the exact same question.

Debbi in SW Michigan

[Guest guest]

I read an article about Dr. Fowler someplace in my research. Thank you for your reply & I wish you the best on Wednesday. Let me know how it goes!

I just got off the phone with a surgeon at Hershey & he seemed very knowledgeable & well-practiced with this procedure. I think I'm going to start by setting up a consult with him. I meet with my GI Doc next week to review the dilation & tests I had last week & I think we are on the same page.

Thanks again & my prayers are with you for great success! Cindi

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