in Boston

[Guest guest]

Hey , yes, after my -ectomy I had to have quite a few dilations at the

anastamosis but I've only had 2 in the past almost 2 years. In the beginning I

had really tough scar tissue build up but my body has adjusted and I eat very

well now.

I was seeing Dr. at Digestive and Liver Disease Specialists in Norfolk

for dilations but honestly, in the beginning - he was not nearly aggressive

enough and I went back to Pittsburgh a couple of times - Dr. L's dilations

lasted a lot more and are far more effective.

My current plan is to see Dr. L every year or two for routine scopes and

possible dilation tweaks but in an emergency - I would go to either Norfolk or

Va Beach.

Are you coming to Duck sometime soon? I don't know if you remember that I live

on the OBX - I'm in KDH - if you come to visit - let me know and we'll cookout

or something!!

If you have an emergency on the OBX, unless truly life threatening - drive to

Norfolk or Va Beach general. OBX hospital is just too small and they don't have

anyone on staff who routinely does endoscopies or anything. I had a bad

experience there when I was about 6 weeks post-op from my ectomy and I had a 200

mg. motrin tab that got stuck at my anastamosis. I explained to the ER attending

that I needed an endoscopy to clear it and was told that they have 2 surgical

attendings and only 1 of them does scopes and he wasn't the one on call that

afternoon so they tried to give me this cocktail of glucose and cisipride and

sublingual nitro that they give to people with food boluses - combined they open

up the LES, relax the smooth muscle and increase peristalsis - let's just say

she was NOT listening when I explained to her - more than once - that I had just

had my E removed and I have NO peristalsis to increase and no LES to relax, the

pill was hung up on scar tissue!! Needless to say - we drove up to hampton roads

and had it taken care of then.

I did have quite the fit with the billing dept. a month later when they tried to

bill me a $150 co-pay.

If you do come for vacation - let me know - it's always great to meet face to

face.

~ in NC