wobblerlorri (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wobblerlorri) wrote2010-06-28 05:10 pm
wobblerlorri) wrote2010-06-28 05:10 pm
GERD and surgical intervention, Part the Third
Well, just got back from the new surgeon I went to about my never-ending problems with GERD, and he impressed me. He said my case was just too complex for him, and that I needed a surgeon who was smarter than he was -- his words! Can you believe it, a surgeon admitting he couldn't handle something! The world must be coming to an end or something...
Apparently my multiple hernia repairs, my hysterectomy, my Caesarian section, plus my gastric bypass all make my situation (hiatal hernia and pouch that slides up and down from my abdomen to my chest) much more complicated than he wants to mess with.
So he's referring me to John Galloway, a surgeon at Emory University in Atlanta, who apparently eats these sorts of cases for breakfast. They'll call me tomorrow with an appointment.
Emory University is the medical school/hospital for bizarre cases like mine. If it can't be done at Emory, it can't be done anywhere. So I feel pretty good about going to Emory for a consultation. I just hope they can figure out what to do. Noises were made about a possible partial or full takedown of the gastric bypass, and I told Dr. Griffin (today's surgeon) that I'd thought about it, and that was fine -- I couldn't go much longer like this. He said yes, something needed to be done. I asked him if it could be redone later, and he said he didn't know.
If it can't, I'll just try to keep eating like I still had it, and make a real effort to ramp up my exercise. I refuse to weigh 343 lbs again. Maybe weighing 260 is no huge prize, but I feel so much better here than I did there, so I'll fight to stay here...
I don't know if they'll just take down the pouch (the restriction part) or the pouch and the small intestine parts (the malabsorption part). Hopefully they won't have to take it down at all. But if they do, that's fine -- I've got to get this fuckin' golf ball out of my throat (how it feels), and I'm scared to death that the next round of reflux aspiration will result in aspiration pneumonia....
Apparently my multiple hernia repairs, my hysterectomy, my Caesarian section, plus my gastric bypass all make my situation (hiatal hernia and pouch that slides up and down from my abdomen to my chest) much more complicated than he wants to mess with.
So he's referring me to John Galloway, a surgeon at Emory University in Atlanta, who apparently eats these sorts of cases for breakfast. They'll call me tomorrow with an appointment.
Emory University is the medical school/hospital for bizarre cases like mine. If it can't be done at Emory, it can't be done anywhere. So I feel pretty good about going to Emory for a consultation. I just hope they can figure out what to do. Noises were made about a possible partial or full takedown of the gastric bypass, and I told Dr. Griffin (today's surgeon) that I'd thought about it, and that was fine -- I couldn't go much longer like this. He said yes, something needed to be done. I asked him if it could be redone later, and he said he didn't know.
If it can't, I'll just try to keep eating like I still had it, and make a real effort to ramp up my exercise. I refuse to weigh 343 lbs again. Maybe weighing 260 is no huge prize, but I feel so much better here than I did there, so I'll fight to stay here...
I don't know if they'll just take down the pouch (the restriction part) or the pouch and the small intestine parts (the malabsorption part). Hopefully they won't have to take it down at all. But if they do, that's fine -- I've got to get this fuckin' golf ball out of my throat (how it feels), and I'm scared to death that the next round of reflux aspiration will result in aspiration pneumonia....