Tests, tests, and more tests!

Things are still going the same as far as pain and eating. My pain is continuing to increase daily and my level of eating/appetite is gradually decreasing.

I am still continuing to lose weight despite my massive efforts at maintaining my weight (yes, I have resorted to chocolate!!)

We go over everything from the last visit. We do a review of symptoms and pain. After hearing all this and about my follow up with Dr. Frech, Dr. Rasmussen wants an upper GI series (barium swallow) done. I tell him that Dr. Frech and I decided not to do this test and went with the EGD instead because of the false positive the barium swallow seems to give. He insists on having one done because he will be looking at the test from a different perspective than Dr. Frech would be. He wants to look at the anatomy of everything versus the function of the stomach and why all the reflux. He said this test will give him an idea if the anatomy is the source of some pain or problem.

Dr. R says that if the hiatal hernia is causing all of the problems that it will be very hard to fix. I don’t have enough stomach left to properly do a wrap (nissen fundoplication) so he would have to come up with some way to fix the hernia by not doing a wrap. He says that he can also go in and release the intestine that is attached to the abdominal wall but I run a very high chance of that intestine having a hole in it from the feeding tube placement/removal. If there is a hole in the intestine it will have to be repaired so it won’t leak. As far as removing scar tissue/adhesions, he said he can clean up what’s there but seems reluctant to go this route. He wants to wait on the tests before he decides what to do. I don’t want anyone jumping in to doing unnecessary surgery.

So the plan for now is to have the EGD done on Monday with Dr. Frech, have the barium swallow done after EGD day at UVRMC and then see him again on Thursday to review all the tests and make a decision about future surgery.