Re: Peggy, PureDakota & Lung function after myotomy

[Guest guest]

Peggy- I agree with you on the ability to vomit. I don't have a wrap either, and caught the flu bug 2 days out of the hospital. Hugging the porcelain was not a problem. Dakota-As Debbi indicated, I had been misdiagnosed with asthma for many years, until I kept losing lung function capacity. I practically lived on prednisone, (steroid) and fought to keep out of the hospital. It progressed to feeling my lungs fill with fluid when ever I drifted off to sleep (I wasn't even sleeping in a bed, but sitting upright in a chair), and I was sick all the time. My primary care physician found evidence of the true problem when he ordered x-rays to confirm scoliosis. A diagnosis of Achalasia was confirmed after endoscopy, menometry and barium testing in September. December 5 I had Heller Myotomy (no wrap), and have not taken any asthma medications since the day I was discharged. My lung capacity has improved dramatically, and I

can sleep all night without choking once. Eating again after losing 40 lbs is nice, but breathing is truly amazing. By the way, are you from one of the Dakotas? Jo Peggy Cordero <pegster@...> wrote: It has been very interesting to catch up on posts from the past few days -- lots of good information shared and communicated -- about achalasia AND golden retrievers, of which I only have the former!It has been five months since I had my VATS myotomy, no wrap, with great success in return of swallowing. I recall our discussion about the ability to vomit after myotomy. I have late breaking news on my own capacity to do so.I was in Redding CA at an unnamed hotel establishment with 35 trainees this week. After two days together at

the hotel for a class, the morning of day 3 found that 11 of us had severe gastrointestinal problems in the night with nausea and vomiting. Was it food poisoning or the stomach flu?I was fully capable of projectile vomiting (sorry, folks) -- which was the only glimmer of good news I had the whole week. I guess the lack of wrap makes this possible.My whole digestive system has suffered, and is still making efforts to come back to normal, as you can imagine, from this experience. While I figure that most of what I am experiencing can be written off to the effects of irritation and upset from this bug, I had two scarey symptoms over the past couple of nights since falling ill: I had an aspiration when sleeping on the first night (it was acidy, bilely stuff -- sorry again) and coughed and coughed like the old days. Last night, after a bowl of cream of wheat and a few hours sleep, I had funny spasms in my

esophagus that felt like my esophagus was closed off. After my system settled down some in the night, things were better.Just adding my experience to the tome being collected on this site.Peggy, who hopes 2006 goes better after this week.

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[Guest guest]

Poor Jo:

Here I am worrying about tearing something 5 months out and you were puking 2

days

later!

Peg

> It has been very interesting to catch up on posts from the past few days --

lots of

good

> information shared and communicated -- about achalasia AND golden retrievers,

of

which

> I only have the former!

>

> It has been five months since I had my VATS myotomy, no wrap, with great

success in

> return of swallowing. I recall our discussion about the ability to vomit after

myotomy. I

> have late breaking news on my own capacity to do so.

>

> I was in Redding CA at an unnamed hotel establishment with 35 trainees this

week.

After

> two days together at the hotel for a class, the morning of day 3 found that 11

of us had

> severe gastrointestinal problems in the night with nausea and vomiting. Was

it food

> poisoning or the stomach flu?

>

> I was fully capable of projectile vomiting (sorry, folks) -- which was the

only glimmer of

> good news I had the whole week. I guess the lack of wrap makes this possible.

>

> My whole digestive system has suffered, and is still making efforts to come

back to

> normal, as you can imagine, from this experience. While I figure that most of

what I am

> experiencing can be written off to the effects of irritation and upset from

this bug, I had

> two scarey symptoms over the past couple of nights since falling ill: I had

an aspiration

> when sleeping on the first night (it was acidy, bilely stuff -- sorry again)

and coughed

and

> coughed like the old days. Last night, after a bowl of cream of wheat and a

few hours

> sleep, I had funny spasms in my esophagus that felt like my esophagus was

closed off.

> After my system settled down some in the night, things were better.

>

> Just adding my experience to the tome being collected on this site.

>

> Peggy, who hopes 2006 goes better after this week.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Just a point of clarification -- it really isn't poop smeared on door knobs,

just the microbal

shedding -- we are living in an invisible world and it is all around us!

Peg, who is also washing her hands every 10 seconds since getting the horrible

stuff.

> I just wanted to sleep forever. The thing is, I had a flu shot, so didn't

think it was fair to

get the flu!

>

> Just for clarification, the flu shot is for preventing INFLUENZA -- an upper

respiratory

illness involving fever, aches, and cough. What is generally called " stomach

flu " (nausea,

vomitting, diarrhea) is either food poisoning (bacterial or viral contamination)

or a

gastrointestinal virus of some sort that was not acquired via food.

>

> For anyone interested, what Jo experienced in December was a very

contagious

form of Norovirus that has been traveling our county for the past couple of

months.

Fortunately it's only about a 24-hour version of gastroenteritis (whereas

rotavirus can last

a WEEK with the same symptoms!). , if you remember hearing about Lake

Center

Elementary being shut down for a complete decontamination in mid-November

because

60% of students and staff called in sick one day, that's the same virus you

had... it just

took a few weeks to make it south to you, or else you picked it up at the

hospital.

>

> Norovirus is also known as Norwalk-like virus -- it's what shut down some

cruise ships

last year. It spreads like WILDFIRE, which is really disgusting when you think

about it,

because it spreads by the feces-to-mouth modality. As in, someone gets their

poop on

their hands and doesn't wash it off and they touch something and leave some of

their

poop on it. Then you come along and unknowingly touch their leftover poop and

end up

touching your mouth. Next thing you know, you're praising the porcelain god (or

better

yet --joy of joys-- you're praising a bucket while sitting on your throne,

always a fun

adventure!).

>

> I was so proud of hubby and me for not getting the virus when our

kindergartener had it

in November. I was very strict about handwashing for all three of us, as well

as

disinfecting doorknobs, toilet flush handles, faucet handles, handtowels, etc --

anything

that could have been touched by a hand that hadn't yet been washed. A week

later, hubby

and I came down with it a day apart -- we both picked it up from somewhere else

in town

(probably the hockey rink, since we practically live there!). This strain has a

24-48 hour

incubation period, so we know our case wasn't from our son, and hubby didn't get

his

from me b/c we were only about 16 hours apart in symptom onset (we probably got

exposed to it at the same time, but his immune system is a little hardier than

mine and he

didn't succumb as quickly -- either way, he developed it too quickly for him to

have

caught it from me). Like I said, it's so disgusting to know that we both ended

up putting

someone else's fecal matter in our mouths!!!

>

> And now that everyone's completely grossed out, I'm going to go WASH MY HANDS

and

prepare dinner for my family! LOL

>

> Debbi in Michigan

>