Nissen Fundoplication

Two weeks ago today, Kyle under went surgery for a nissen fundoplication. This is a procedure where you wrap the top of the stomach around the esophagus this reinforces the lower esophageal sphincter and stops his reflux. His reflux was no longer being controlled by the maximum antacid medication. In August, on his yearly scopes for the first time we saw damage to the esophagus and stomach in the form of chronic inflammation and the beginnings of ulcers.

It was only a two day stay in the hospital; however, it is the most intense, invasive, and painful procedure that he has had done. It causes such internal swelling that until days ago, Kyle was only eating soft food like yogurt, ice cream, and smoothies as much else caused intense pain in his esophagus. He was even on round the clock oxycodone after release from the hospital for several days. 

This picture was taken in the playroom at Primary's. The OR was running 90 minutes behind. Kyle for the first time was interested in the video games. He played every time we went to the playroom---and we even had a PS2 in our room, although it wasn't working and lucked out by scoring the only Xbox on the floor. We do play Wii Sports at home, but nothing more than that---so playing Lego Star Wars and Disney Cars was a huge treat for him.

In recovery.....he was quite a sleeper.

This was on our way to the playroom on Tuesday morning, the first time he was out of bed since the surgery. He had been waiting for about 4 1/2 hours for the room to open and his meds to be fully dosed so he could go---yes, that does put him awake at 4:30 in the morning.


He is, as always, a trooper. It was a real horror of a stay for the first 16 hours. We have just never had the kind of problems with any procedure at Primary's like we had this time. We now have a follow up with the surgeon next week, we aren't sure how this is going to affect his pain, but at least it will keep further damage from happening to his esophagus and stomach. Plus, after a few more weeks the expensive meds will not necessarily be needed and we will be down a med (if the GI doctor agrees with the surgeon).