Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Another bump in the road

My bandwagon hit another bump in the road in April. After my surgeon removed my band, she was unable to pass the bougie (calibration tube) through my esophagus into my stomach because of a stricture, so I woke up with 6 incisions, no band, and no sleeve. Extremely disappointing.

Since then I've had the stricture dilated from 13 to 17 mm (the bougie was 13.3 mm) by a gastro-enterologist who says my problems were caused by longterm "silent" reflux. I can remember going to an ENT doc in mid 1980's who said my chronic cough was due to reflux, not a throat problem. Since I'd never had any recognizable reflux symptoms (heartburn, acid regurgitation, etc.), I didn't believe him. Now I wish I'd sought treatment for the reflux, but I can't go backwards and somehow I'm determined to move forwards. I'm taking omeprazole every day and aside from regaining 20-25 lbs, feeling fine. I plan to take another shot at the sleeve surgery in August.