After two years battling dysphagia, regurgitation, and spitting up foamy messes, I’ve finally gone and met a surgeon. I was reccomennded to Dr. Carmine Simone by my GI specialist, Dr. Sam Friedlander. It took about 3 weeks to get an appointment with Dr. Simone.
Dr. Simone went over the procedure, and basically told me what I already knew. From my tests I had zero peristalsis and a LES pressure slightly above the mean. He recommend that I get a laparoscopic Heller myotomy, but without a fundoplication due to my complete lack of peristalsis.
I’ve booked the surgery for January, as to not interfere too much with the school term. Apparently the doctors do not perform surgery during exam/christmas time, which basically makes them unavailable for most of December.
I also asked Dr. Simone what he though about POEM as a surgical technique. He said that there were POEM trials held by Dr. Marylin at another hospital in Toronto, and that he would not recommend it. He also said that his opinion was biased, gave me Dr. Marylin’s contact information, and suggested I should contact him myself.
I will be continuing reciving treatment from Dr. Chen at AC99 until the surgery. I’ve had noticeable improvements since I’ve started acupuncture. Next week I will be starting a combination of acupuncture and herbal extracts. Dr. Chen seems to think he can restore peristalsis, so I will continue with his treatments.
I also requested a second manometry test to see if the acupuncture has had any unbiased measurable effect. However I believe I was put on the low priority waiting list for this test because I had it done once before.