Four months post-surgery I’m enjoying my new stomach. Since the holiday eating season began, I’ve indulged in Mexican food and margaritas three times, Middle Eastern food, pizza, cake, cookies, and wine—and my stomach feels great. 

But it definitely is a new stomach. The GERD and its complications are gone, and the delayed gastric emptying remains. What’s brand new is that I can’t burp, I have occasional hiccups, and I have mild gas/bloat.

So, what’s it like to not be able to burp? Before surgery, I belched almost every
time I ate or drank anything. It helped to relieve the constant trapped gas in
my stomach (I now know that with each belch came acid reflux). I was very
worried that I would be one of the people who couldn’t burp after surgery. 
 
The first month or so after surgery, not burping was a very strange experience. When gas was trapped in my stomach, I could feel it expanding uncomfortably, but the only thing I could do to relieve the pressure was walk immediately after eating or drinking. 

By about two months after surgery, though, I had much less trapped gas, and the
disturbing sensation diminished significantly. On those rare occasions now when
I feel like I really need to burp, I swallow a few times, and the feeling passes. That’s it!
 
I do take precautions to avoid swallowing air: I don’t drink from straws, I 
avoid slurping soup or hot drinks, and I don't have carbonated drinks. I eat
small amounts of gassy foods, such as beans, every few days, rather than
consuming large amounts daily (some people swear by Beano, but I can’t tell if
it works). I eat small meals, stopping when mildly full, and I eat slowly (I’ve
been doing this for years, anyway). Taking simethicone as needed with meals
helps a lot.

Many people can burp after a Nissen fundoplication, but some can’t, and you won’t
know until you have the surgery. But, don’t let it stop you, because there is a real benefit to not burping: I know for sure that I’m not having GERD!

In my next two blogs I’ll talk about my hiccups and gas/bloat. 

Tomorrow is the four-month anniversary of my life-altering Nissen fundoplication for GERD. I’m telling you about it because there are so many scary Nissen stories on the internet and few positive ones, mostly because people who are happy with their surgeries don't bother to blog about it.

I'm a 46-year-old woman who has suffered with GERD and asthma for 25 years. Most of those years my GERD was controlled with one daily AcipHex. But over the last decade, both my GERD and my asthma increased significantly.

In early 2011 my GERD became so bad that I had to take AcipHex twice a day and one Axid each day (or two Axids and one AcipHex a day), a lot of simethicone for gas, frequent metaclopramide for delayed gastric emptying, and prednisone bursts up to six times a year (along with a lot of Xopenex) for asthma flareups. Both my gastroenterologist and allergist suspected that GERD played a role in my asthma, but they couldn’t confirm it.

During a particularly bad GERD episode in May 2011, I lost my voice for two months. My ENT said it was caused by GERD and recommended a Nissen fundoplication. I refused, because until this point I had been able to cope with
my GERD by increasing my medications, and previous episodes of voice loss had
resolved themselves within a month or so.

This voice loss was different, however: my voice never returned. I could speak for only a half hour a day. Not only was I feeling extremely ill all the time—the burning in my esophagus was ruthless and constant, food sat in my stomach for hours, and I was always bloated and gassy—but now I was also trapped in my body, without a
voice.

Unemployed, unable to even make it through a job interview without losing my voice, and incapable of talking with my family and friends, I began to despair. A year before I was an outgoing salesperson with an active social life; now I stayed home, avoiding answering the phone and slowly withdrawing into a world of deep depression.

I spent much of 2011 trying to figure out how to cope with my new voice disability. At the end of the year, I went to a motility specialist to get a second opinion on my GERD options. He said that I was a candidate for a fundoplication but that it was essential that the surgery be performed only by the top expert in the field.

In December 2011 I wound up having the first of two unrelated surgeries—the first one a cancer scare, the second, an extremely painful surgery with a long recovery.
Throughout the year, my stomach problems remained unrelenting, but I put them on
the back burner while I recovered physically and emotionally from the surgeries.

But in May 2012, my GERD went to the next level. I began having constant burning in my throat and esophagus, and the reflux was so intractable that I could hardly eat or drink water. I went to a new ENT who specializes in voice disorders; he told me I had scar tissue on my vocal cords most likely caused by reflux. At this point I was so desperate that I began to revisit the idea of having a Nissen fundoplication.

I asked my long-time gastroenterologist for a referral to a surgeon. He told me that he recommended only two surgeons, one of which was in my area. In June I went for a surgical consultation; in late August I was on the operating table.

Four months later, I’m enjoying the best health I’ve had in a decade. I have no reflux, my voice is 75% improved, and I’ve had almost no asthma. My throat and esophagus no longer burn. I eat just about everything (I do avoid caffeine and carbonation, and I limit alcohol to two drinks a week). I take just one AcipHex a day and have not needed prednisone for asthma. I barely use Xopenex. I have a lot of
energy, I sleep well, and my depression is gone. I’m enjoying having a completely normal stomach about 85% of the time.

Until my fundoplication, I had no idea how much suffering I endured because of GERD. I can say without hesitation that this surgery is the best thing I’ve ever done.

Stay posted for future blogs on my consultations with the surgeon, my decision-making process, the healing process, and my current health and lifestyle.