Update

[Guest guest]

I had my surgery a little over a year ago. I had a barium swallow three

weeks ago. The good news is that as far as swallowing goes I have no

reason even remember that I ever had achalasia. I generally don't even

need to drink with a meal. I ate too much over the holidays. The

radiologist said the wrap looks like it is working and there is no

longer any dilation of the esophagus. I am happy about that. Now for

the bad. Not a real big deal, but I have been holding this back because

I didn't want to get into speculating about it, and at first I did not

believe it. This goes back to last summer when, and you may remember, I

had a CT (CAT scan) for another problem. The thing about CTs is that

they can find a lot more than what you are looking for. In my case

there were three things besides what it was looking for. Among those

the report noted that I had a large hiatal hernia. When I saw that I

thought no way. First it is rare to have achalasia and have a hiatal

hernia. It does happen but you have to really be unlucky. Also, with my

myotomy I received a wrap. Not just any wrap but a Toupet. Unlike the

DOR which many have received the Toupet wraps around the back and

almost all the way around the esophagus. One of the benefits of the

Toupet is that it is suppose to prevent hiatal hernia. Or, so I

thought. It is kind of true. It prevents the typical hiatal hernia

because it acts like a knot at the bottom of the esophagus and prevents

the LES from moving up through the hiatus. My LES is where it should

be, so in that regard it worked. However, the barium swallow confirmed

that I have a less common kind of hernia called a paraesophageal hernia. Half of my stomach

has been pushed around the wrap and up through the hiatus into my

chest. Half is above and half is below. This is not a good thing. I

will see my GI tomorrow and I suspect that he will advise me to have

another surgery. I will let you know.

Don't let this worry any of you that are thinking about treatment for

achalasia. This may have had nothing to do with my surgery and I may

just be very unlucky. I don't remember this happening to anyone else in

our group. Even if it turns out that there was some connection to the

surgery it has to be an uncommon one. I just hope this doesn't effect

the good results I have had up until now. I am having heartburn now and

the radiologist said that is probably from the hernia and not the wrap

going bad. In time that can be a problem though, so I am hoping for

some good news tomorrow. Oh, I also had another CT two weeks ago and it

has nothing to do with all this. With the holidays and all I have not

yet gotten around to getting my results. No news is good news, I hope.

No more surprises.

notan