GERD part the Fourth, I think
9/21/10 06:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wobblerlorriWent to see the high-powered surgeon at Emory University Hospital today. He's not sure if it's acid reflux or bile reflux; apparently if the Y limb of the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is not long enough, you can have reflux of bile into the pouch and thence up into the esophagus. I'm pretty sure, from his description, that is going to be my problem -- I know that the quack surgeon who did my WLS only does proximal, or short, Y limbs. Essentially what that means is that the rearranged small intestine bypasses either 30 to 60 inches of the small intestine (proximal) or almost all of it (distal).
Before he does anything, though, he wants to do a pH study and a manometry study on me. The manometry study measures how motile my esophagus is, and will take about 30 min. The pH study will record how acid (or basic) my stomach gets at the lower esophageal sphincter, and is done over 24 hours. This is scheduled for Thursday the 28th.
So I can't take my Dexilant and Zantac until the test, which is going to be a Special Kind of Hell. I can however eat and drink all the antacids I want, which I will do. Then on the 28th we will trek back to Emory (which is in Atlanta), I'll lay on my back and have the manometry done, then I'll get the pH study catheter snaked down my nose into my esophagus, get hooked up to a jolly little portable device which will take readings on my reflux, and go home.
I'm supposed to eat normally and do all the stuff I normally do, and one meal is supposed to be "high fat". I generally don't eat a lot of fat, because of both the cholesterol thing and it tends to give me vicious heartburn, but you know what? I just might get one of those KFC Double Down (2 fried chicken breasts, 4 slices of bacon, and cheese) (but no cheese) and some greasy fries for that high fat meal. If that's not high fat, I don't know what is.
Based on what the tests show, we'll know where to go next. I have to go back the next day after the damn thing's been in for 24 hours. You know, there's nothing I like more than driving 130 miles round trip two days in a row to have medical procedures... and Mike likes it even less.
So there it is. I wonder if the cats will try to pull the catheter out of my nose? The main thing I'm worried about is they won't find anything. But then I always worry about that, because deep down inside I'm a fraud about everything. Even physical abnormalities, you know... like my vestibulopathy? Even though I'm a classic text book case, there's a little naggy voice that tells me I'm faking it, when in reality I'm not.
What would that be, Munchausen's in reverse? Where you believe you're faking conditions that you actually do have? Jesus, I'm fucked in the head...
Before he does anything, though, he wants to do a pH study and a manometry study on me. The manometry study measures how motile my esophagus is, and will take about 30 min. The pH study will record how acid (or basic) my stomach gets at the lower esophageal sphincter, and is done over 24 hours. This is scheduled for Thursday the 28th.
So I can't take my Dexilant and Zantac until the test, which is going to be a Special Kind of Hell. I can however eat and drink all the antacids I want, which I will do. Then on the 28th we will trek back to Emory (which is in Atlanta), I'll lay on my back and have the manometry done, then I'll get the pH study catheter snaked down my nose into my esophagus, get hooked up to a jolly little portable device which will take readings on my reflux, and go home.
I'm supposed to eat normally and do all the stuff I normally do, and one meal is supposed to be "high fat". I generally don't eat a lot of fat, because of both the cholesterol thing and it tends to give me vicious heartburn, but you know what? I just might get one of those KFC Double Down (2 fried chicken breasts, 4 slices of bacon, and cheese) (but no cheese) and some greasy fries for that high fat meal. If that's not high fat, I don't know what is.
Based on what the tests show, we'll know where to go next. I have to go back the next day after the damn thing's been in for 24 hours. You know, there's nothing I like more than driving 130 miles round trip two days in a row to have medical procedures... and Mike likes it even less.
So there it is. I wonder if the cats will try to pull the catheter out of my nose? The main thing I'm worried about is they won't find anything. But then I always worry about that, because deep down inside I'm a fraud about everything. Even physical abnormalities, you know... like my vestibulopathy? Even though I'm a classic text book case, there's a little naggy voice that tells me I'm faking it, when in reality I'm not.
What would that be, Munchausen's in reverse? Where you believe you're faking conditions that you actually do have? Jesus, I'm fucked in the head...
