Re: Fundoplication over and over??

December 1, 2004

hi kim, my daughter had a fundo done 7 yrs ago, it has been fine, til maybe

now. we think she is refluxing again. anyway, i was always told that a

perfect fundo, you can still swallow but not reflux or throw up. my suggestion

is

find another surgeon and GI doctor! if it is slipping after 6 mos it wasn't

done right to begin with.

good luck

cathie, mom to erika

December 1, 2004

Kim,

Dylan's fundo slipped once. Of course the tests showed it was still okay,

but his symptoms and behavior clearly indicated he was miserable. My happy

boy could not lie down, he slept on my chest in a recliner for months,

beccause of the reflux. Finally we decided to redo it anyhow. This one has

lasted for almost 6 years now.

I don't know what I would do if it had slipped again early on. Do the

doctors have any info on if it slips twice is it any more likely to slip

again? Are there different methods of doing the surgery? Are you

comfortable with the surgeon?

You are right EVERY surgery is a risk. No matter how " simple " the procedure

is to a surgeon, general anesthesia is a risk. When surgery is not a HAVE

TO, it is very hard for us parents to make the decision to voluntarily send

our child in to surgery. I think it really comes down to you weighing the

benefit and the risk and deciding what feels right for you.

I debated for 9 months when Dylan's Nissen had slipped. There was no doctor

to say if it was clearly needed or not. After the surgery, he was happy

again, and no longer needed all his GI meds.

Kim L

>

> Hi everyone, I have a question regarding a fundo. I don't post here

> often but I ready everyone's postings and they are so helpful. So I

> am hoping someone has experienced with their child what we have with

> our 2 1/2 yr old . He has major reflux and has since he

> was born basically. He had his first fundo at 3 months old. About 5

> mos after he had it done he started throwing up again. The doctors

> put him through a whole bunch of tests which kept proving that the

> fundo was still in place but we kept fighting with the docs since we

> saw at home that he was very capable of bringing large amounts of

> formula up. After about a year of fighting we convinced the surgeon

> of what was going on and he had another fundo done (dec 2, 2003).

> When the surgeon went in sure enough the fundo had come loose despite

> all the tests that were ran on him. Well I would say about six

> months ago he started throwing up again. He is not gaining any

> weight again and is actually losing little by little. The gastro

> doctor would like for us to consider surgery again but the fundos

> just don't seem to last on him. Our question to anyone out their is

> if anyone else has experienced what we are experiencing and when do

> you finally say enough is enough and not put him through another

> surgery right now. We feel we are putting his life at risk everytime

> we do this but on the same token when he is not throwing up we can

> get him to try food little by little by mouth but when he is in

> throwing up mode we can't get him to even try food in his mouth.

> Sorry so long of post but if anyone has any suggestions it would be

> much appreciated.

>

> Kim, Mother of Charger (2 1/2), athan (12) and

> husband

>

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>

December 2, 2004

Hi Kim,

I know exactly what you are going through as we went through it with our

daughter, Ellen. Ellen had her first fundo at 8 weeks. This failed after a

few months and when the doctors finally believed us they gave her another

one at 18 months. This also failed dismally and at 19, she has a completely

loose valve at the top of her stomach.

Knowing what I know now, I would NEVER agree to another fundoplication, at

least unless I was convinced that it would be permanent and that the side

effects would not be so devastating. Ellen has severe dumping syndrome which

we believe is a result of the fundos (and they never tell you that this is a

possibility), still has severe refux and a number of other serious digestive

problems which I believe relate to that early surgery.

If the reflux is still a major problem after you've tried posture and slow

pump feeds and thickened feeds and all the other techniques for reducing

reflux, if you're using a gastrostomy for feeds, ask about jejunal feeds

instead. We used them successfully for a number of years and it can be done

without surgery by passing a tube through the gastro site down through the

pylorus(?) into the jejunum. This has hassles but it certainly stopped

ellen's reflux for a long time. Eventually she had a feeding jejunostomy

inserted and this was good for many years, until other problems meant we had

to stop feeds altogether and go onto TPN for 5 years. At 19 she is finally

back onto gastrostomy feeds which she has very slowly over 20 hours a day.

She still refluxes but we pretty well control it with posture and the slow

feeds. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer and all solutions seem to

present additional problems but further surgery is absolutely a last resort

from my perspective. And if the surgeons insist, get them to specifiy why it

will work this time when it didn't before and what side effects you can

expect from it.

Hope this helps a little.

Marea Howe

Fundoplication over and over??