Nissen or Fibromyalgia ?

[Maltaguy]

Around 5 years ago I did the nissen fundoplication open surgery. All went good.

I am having though these kind of problems that if I recall back I think I used to suffer from them even before I did the nissen. When I bend in a certain position and sometimes when I laugh I get these cramps on the left side and sometimes even right just underneath the ribs. This is very painful and I feel as if something is bloating up and going to explode and I need literally to keep my breath and calm down so it fades away. Sometimes it fades for around 30seconds and I get the pain back.

This week I visited the surgeon that did my nissen and explained to him this problem. He examined my chest with his hand and told me to cough and he said that I might have an unwrapping of the nissen (another hernia in the oesephagus) so he suggested a gastroscopy followed up by a surgery if this happened.

Do you think this pain is caused from an unwrapping of the nissen of it can be some other sort of pain maybe fibromyalgia ?

[coughting]

It sounds like the surgeon thinks that is what it happening.  I had the Nissen done in Oct. and everything is going well.   So I will be very interested to see if that is what is happening.  Why did you have the Nissen done open instead of Laproscopically?  Just wondered.

[Maltaguy]

to be perfectly honest I went to around 7 surgeons here in Malta and nobody wanted me to do the nissen..everybody was strictly against it since success rate is very low. Unfortunately anti acid medications did no help (Ranitidine etc etc). After around 6 times gastroscopies I found the main surgeon Profs. Godfrey Laferla here in Malta that is very capable and he suggested the open surgery. I was never mentioned about laparascopy (most probably not available here ? ). I know that before they confirmed me the surgery the got some equipment from Italy and I tested this equipment for the first time in Malta. All they do is to put a tube from nose to stomach and this tube attaches to this machine that is put onto your neck with a sort of collar. You need than to stay 24hours with it and live a normal life at home and when you feel reflux you press a button. After this test they told me I had acid in my stomach more than acid in a car battery :) . Thus I had to do the nissen.

But to cut the story short I still doubt that even if the surgeon maybe felt a new hernia or unwrapping of the nissen I still dont think the other pain is coming from the same thing since I used to have these pains before I did the operation. The pain is as if a muscle underneath the ribs is being inflated and tries to burst out from the ribs. I am not a medical guy but this is what I feel.

[coughting]

Ask him if there is a cat scan or another test that can see if it is unwrapped.  I would think that they could find it that way.  Good luck.

[1949greenlady]

I have pain in about the same place, I thought it was adhesions, from a old galbladder surgery.  But I just had a laparscopy but that was not it either, they had wrapped around the old gyn surgeries.  after a week I have not pain in the lower half, but still have the other pain.  It is like muscles twisting.