HM and fundo at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN

[Guest guest]

Just wanted to document my experience for those who might be interested...

I'm a 26-y-o female who suffered with horrible NCCPs and progressive swallowing

difficulty for 2.5 years in MS before I'd had it with the doctors here. Upon

urging of friends, we flew to MN and saw Dr. Katzka at Mayo Clinic in

Rochester...(we just LOVED Dr. Katzka - sweet man). In just two days he

diagnosed me with " vigorous achalasia " and set us up a surgery consult with Dr.

Mark . Bear in mind I'd gone undiagnosed for 2.5 years here in MS and was

diagnosed there in 2 days...

Dr. Katzka told me that there isn't much they can do about the NCCPs

(nitro/levsin/librax haven't helped me), but he said what he typically sees is

that with achalasia, the NCCPs tend to lighten up over time, while the

swallowing gets worse.

Dr. Katzka said we needed to find a surgeon who had done the HM and fundo >200

times. He insinuated that would be hard to find outside of high-volume centers

like Mayo. We decided to proceed with the HM and toupet fundo at Mayo under Dr.

Mark .

We flew back up for a consult, and I had the surgery on July 13th. I awoke in a

recovery room, and I vaguely recall a nurse asking my pain level. I told her a

6, so she kept pumping meds until it was probably about a 0. They put me in a

private room with a morphine pump I could use as frequently as every 10 minutes,

and OH BOY did I take advantage of that. ...I don't recall being in much pain

at all initially, except for when I tried to inhale deeply, which resulted in

chest pain. Predictably, I slept a lot. Most of the nurses went above and beyond

for my family and me.

The PA who had been working with us, Jim, encouraged me to get up and walk 4

times on the second day, which I did...slowly with a bit of pain. My husband and

mother had to lift me out of bed and lay me back down, as it hurt too much to

use my abdominal muscles...they were still doing that a week after surgery.

We were told that Dr. made a 15 cm incision...longer than usual, with the

hopes of stopping some of the NCCPs. Unfortunately, even on all the meds, I got

the NCCPs in the hospital. I was able to stop them by eating pudding, though.

I've still had the NCCPs several times in the past two weeks, but they've been

less severe and shorter-lived than they used to be.

I ended up staying two nights in the hospital, since I still couldn't urinate on

my own without a catheter after the first night. My mom wheeled me back to our

suite with a big bottle of percocet.

My recovery has been pretty unremarkable, with the exception of the occasional

NCCPs and headaches (I believe the latter to be a withdrawal symptom of the

percocet). I was AMAZED at how swollen my belly was for the first week or so. I

looked about 6 mos. pregnant! I also had to use an enema to go to the bathroom

for the first time...TMI, maybe??? haha..thought someone might benefit from that

for their surgery.

Long story short...highly recommend Dr. Katza and Dr. in MN. Dr.

isn't the chattiest guy, but I do believe he's very good at what he does. I

heard he'd had the same surgery team for 20 years?? Maybe that was just all the

meds, but I could swear someone told us that!

I'm just HOPING these spasms stop altogether once I heal! Spasms have always

acted up after doctors have done anything with my esophagus in the past, so I

really feel like they'll maybe close to go away after a while, since they

haven't been too severe lately....