in Va

[Guest guest]

Hi ,I was born in Brooklyn, grew up in East Williston, college, 6 years in Flushing, 25 years in Dix Hills, 4 years in Jericho, and I'm still only 39 years old! (I wish). Seems so strange for you to have a marshmallow in place of barium or corn flakes. Next thing they'll have you do is to swallow the Pillsberry Dough boy, then see how long it takes to regurgitate him!Perhaps your being 20 had a lot to do with your quick recovery from the open Heller. I was 42 at the time, (oops, blew my being "39" slip), and my recovery was right on (their) schedule. I don't recall any setbacks. Funny, they never tell you ahead of time about the recovery process from the "open," just what the surgery is intended to do. Where did you have your operation done?I do sometimes wonder if there is some kind of "alternative medicine" cure that could have been used before having the operation. One can surmise that we lose peristalsys due to nerve cells in the esophagus failing. Perhaps Eastern medicine, by exploring energy centers in the body could "jump start" the nerve cells and restore them to their prior function. Something caused this disease. There should be something that could reverse it.Despite the rarity of it, my next door neighbor's father had it; the husband of the couple we dine with each week has it, and my parents' friends' daughter has it. What is going on here?I would add one caveat to the undiscovered "natural cure." Anyone is free to explore the possibility of it, but if one waits too long to have the surgery, their esophagus is going to look like world famous Lombard St. in San Francisco. When the balloon dilatation fails, its time for the surgery!, maybe we can reserve a time in the chat room to catch up with NY sometime. > > Hi - so glad you found us, welcome!!> > > > I live on Long Island, a suburb of New York City.> > What part? I lived on LI- Ronkonkoma until age 12 and then in the > Albany area until 11 years ago, I now live in Virginia> Not everyone would agree but I always feel you can NEVER have too > many New Yorkers around!! > > > > I have had achalasia since 1982 (at 32 years old) which started a > > month after I went thru an extremely stressful period at work. > > (Coincidence?) The very first symptom happened when I lay down > after > > dinner, only to find a "liquified" portion of my dinner > regurgitated > > up thru my nose! > > Me too. I was diagnosed in 1982, at age 15, but had been having > symptoms for about 3 years. Definately feel that there were some > stressors in my life that 'caused' it to happen.> > > > > > (and if nothing else I've said so far is important, to newly > > suffering achalasia patients this will be), is to give suspected > > achalasia patients a "corn flake" study.> > Never had corn flakes but at a military hospital here, I did get a > barium pill - which I'd never had before or since and I did a > marshmallow swallow - same concept - they take a piece of > marshmallow, dip it in barium and I was to swallow it without chewing > much. I guess they did it to see how the walls of my E were moving. > It was very interesting to watch.> > > > Major thoracic surgery, ICU, chest tubes, feeding tubes, rib > > expansion and compression, lung deflation and rehab. 10 days with > > nothing crossing my lips, and then ice chips seeming like a feast > to > > me. 12 days in the hospital seeing the cardiac patients come and > go > > was depressing enough, and then another 2 months to recover.> > UGH - was that the norm or did you have some kind of complication? I > had the open Heller in 1989 and spent 6 days in the hospital but went > back to work after only 3 weeks. I was only 20 at the time.> > > Skip ahead 14 years to the present, and I have not had > > additional surgeries. Yes, I still have trouble, food gets stuck, > I > > gasp for air, I get the "heart attack" level esophageal spasms. > > There are so many other diseases out there worse than ours, and yet > > every time we eat we are reminded of what we can't do as well as we > > once took for granted.> > Ditto, there aren't many of us 'long timers' out there right now. I'm > 17 years post op and I hope you'll join me in telling everyone that > we are proof that surgery is the best long term solution.> > Good to meet you .> > Happy Swallowing!> - in Va.>