Re: impacted food

[Guest guest]

Dear Kim,

Look through all the old messages here. IN GENERAL.... it is considered better

( about 85%, I'd guess, of us) to have a heller myotomy instead of the balloon

dialation. Assuming you are in otherwise good health. The dialations don't

last as long as surgery. READ READ READ. Go through the old messages, search

and search. Also, go to Pubmed.com and type in achalasia and read the summaries

of articles.

The MOST important thing is to make sure you are seeing achalasia specialists.

There are probably only about 10 gi/surgeon pairs in the US, that have enough

experience to do the best jobs. There are many, many stories here of people

that started w/ local gi's or surgeons and had to be retreated.

Surgeons and gi's will gladly and quickly call you back or email you if you

reach out to them. Achalasia increases their prestige. They love us.

Tell us more about yourself, where you live and all that.

In the pubmed site put in your doctors' names and see what they have putlished.

Almost always our doctors are the heads of departments at major teaching medical

centers.

In general, you want to get the most effective treatment to prevent your

esophagus from stretching due to food blockage. The stretched and looped

esophagus seems to be what causes trouble in the future.

This group seems to be just the right size to provide you with new friends,

great advice, and enough other views to give you the chance to really research

your disease.

Be aware though, when you research achalasia, that research even 5 years old may

not have the same results as today, when minimally invasive procedures have

greatly improved. That is why the heller myotomy is generally considered

" better " for first time compared to a dialation. I've had both. But after the

dialation, the symptoms came back after about a year. For some it may last much

longer, but often with issues. I'm over 5 years after surgery and eat

everything, with only a small glass of water needed after a meal.

Good luck. Ask questions... but if you read through the old posts, you will

learn a lot. Type in your doctors' names even in this website and maybe

someone here has already seen them.

Sandy

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> Hi I am new to the group.. I came across it while looking up info on

achalasia. I am a victim of the awful thing.. I was just in ER last week with

horriable pain on swallowing. ended up that I had impacted food. rotting in

there which caused inflamation.. has anyone ever experienced this... I am do to

have ballon procedure done next week any responce on that would be helpful.

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