Why I’m having “elective” major surgery.
On December 13th of this year, if all goes as planned, I will walk into my local Children’s hospital, go to sleep, and hopefully wake up with a successful working Nissens. Now some background.
I’ve had Acid Reflux (GERD) since I was born, but was not diagnosed until the age of 8. I used to ruin clothes as a baby, and could barely eat anything. This included all forms of formula, cows’ milk, goats’ milk, leaving my family with the only option of soy. They just thought I was a fussy eater, who spit up a lot. My mother couldn’t produce breast milk and was generally just lucky to be able to conceive me. I gave her Acid Reflux while she was pregnant.
As I grew my food fussiness grew as well, but I did drink more milk when I entered school. I love cheese to this day, and will torture myself with it I don’t care. My body just rejected everything. By 2nd grade I was on Nexium, a miracle drug for me, it meant I could eat without puking acid, and getting “seconds” hours after lunch was over. Unforchantly, it also effects Bone loss, so when I was 11, they took me off of it due to my family history of Osteopenia, and sudden development of scoliosis. I was promptly put on Prilosec, which in my experience, has been the half-assed version of Nexium, but at least my bones aren’t brittle, right? My stomach over the years became immune to the dosages, and developed more intolerances, meat was a major player.
I became a vegetarian at age 12 to cope with it, they bumped my meds, and I hit the max dosage before entering high school. At this point, they added on a secondary medication (I forget the name) it might have helped, but I don’t remember, because my main focus was on my joint pain, not my stomach. Soon though it became too hard to ignore. Sophomore year, I start looking for answers, and solutions. Turns out there is jack shit you can do for acid reflux. You want to meet the person who has tried everything, here I am.
I’ve done gluten free, vegan, vegetarian (still practicing), liquid diet, adding more of certain minerals/vitamins, and don’t get me started on alkalized/alkaline water (your body is good the way it is, don’t mess with you pH peps). The only other option was to up my meds, which literally wasn’t an option, the doctors were already upset by the fact I was on the adult max as a teen, so that left surgery. I’m no wimp, but I’m certainly not a gluten for punishment either. So, no, surgery was not my first thought, nor was I ecstatic when it was my last remaining option.
I sat on it for a long time before I made my choice, but hat ultimately made the decision was my father’s declining health. He also had GERD all his life and had been on anti-acids for longer than I had (which is impressive as I’m going on 10 years), and was recently diagnosed with Cirrhosis. My dad might drink, but he doesn’t drink-drink, if you know what I mean. He has never consumed enough alcohol to induce the kind of damage they found to his liver and pancreas, nor does he have Hep C. The doctors think that the extended exposure to the medication caused it. Don’t get me wrong, the Medicine was a godsend for my dad, it completely reversed his Barretts, and saved his life, well for 20 years at least, then it started to kill him.
Please do not take this as fear mongering, or some weird form of medical McCarthyism. I’m obviously not a doctor, nor do I ever plan to be one (at least not for people). The mass majority of people can live their entire life on PPI’s (the medication) and have so side effects, my dad just wasn’t as lucky. Plus, our family is weird, we have so many f-up genetics that we could be our own season of American Horror Story (Literally, I have a cousin with gigantism [we just call him The Giant, I think his actual name is Tony?], and there are three sets of twins [this is why I’m not having children] all of which were more than 8 pounds each when born as PREEMIES!). So, yes I’m glad my dad was put on PPI’s or else I probably wouldn't have been here, or wouldn’t have gotten to remember him. They gave him and me those extra 20 years, instead of the 1-5 he was looking at with the threat of cancer. Now we’re just starting that process over again. Cirrhosis will kill him, whether it be liver failure from liver disease, or liver cancer, or many even something with his pancreas, we don’t know. We also don’t know when. Could be this year, could be 10.
From all of this, and talking to him about his life, I’ve decided that I don’t want this to happen to me. My medication has stopped working, the reflux never stops, but the acid is less acidy at like a pH of like 4-6, instead of 3-4. It’s not really ideal to digest foods, but it also prevents me from getting Barretts, because it can’t actually burn me. That doesn't mean I don’t feel it though. I guess it’s like a sunburn, vs a 2nd-degree burn.
If you’re thinking, “Well, why don’t you just stop taking the meds, then you won’t get sick like your dad,” it’s because I can’t just stop. If I did I would get Barretts for sure, and with how extreme it is in my family, ultimately Esophageal cancer. With my meds I get reflux over 100 times a day, if I went off, that would double, if not triple, and the acid would be at full force.
I’m 17, while I’m not scared of death, I’d rather not die before I reach legal drinking age yeah know? And in case you aren’t up to date on your cancer statistics, Esophageal cancer is the 5th deadliest cancer out there. Less than 20% of people who get it live. It kills 83% of its victims. Chemo, radiation, and most likely death aren’t really how I want to spend the last of my teen years. Plus, my mom is pretty animate on not barring her only biological child (its a long story involving the adoption of my best friend, let’s just say it’s complicated).
So if I don’t want to die in five years, I stay on meds. If I don’t want to die in 10-15 years, I get off meds, you see the problem here. The solution, trap the acid, thus the Nissens. So yeah, that’s why I’m having “elective” (even though it’s not so elective) major surgery.
*A Nissan is classified as major surgery, I’m not sure why, I guess because they are rearranging organs, and cutting through abdominal muscle. But they don’t cut the organs themselves, but whatever, it’s still surgery. I’m most likely having open surgery instead of laparoscopic. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the biggest one for me is comfort level. This makes recovery time longer, but it goes mean shorter surgery, so less time under the knife, a.k.a less anesthesia. Something I don’t do great with.
Thanks for reading Guys, I know this one was a lengthy post, but I thought you guys deserved an update, and maybe a little background/story time. See ya later alligators.
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