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Since I’m appending to my old operation blog, which some people may still be following, and we’re having a rest day, I thought I would use the free time to mention some post op long term symptoms since over five years has now passed. I very rarely mention them these days as I have learnt to live with them and I’m just enjoying life too much to worry about them.

When my surgeon warned me I’d wouldn’t be the same after my surgery, I thought quietly to myself, rubbish. I WILL be the same. But of course he was right, so I have found a way to manage various niggles.

Since I no longer have an oesophagus, my stomach now sits above my diaphragm in the same space as my heart and my lungs, so I can feel quite sick when I exert myself too much . I guess it’s because my heart pumps more and my lungs work harder using the space my stomach shares. This is where the electric bike is absolutely brilliant. I try not to use the assist power too much as I would like to get fit, but when I feel my heart rate going up, I simply press the turbo button and cycle gently on avoiding any unpleasant symptoms. This generally happens on long hills as I sail past poor Neil slogging away! I still feel I’m cheating with an electric bike, but thank heavens for it.

I can also suffer from something called dumping. It happens if I eat too much sweet stuff as it passes too quickly through my stomach. My body quickly creates loads of insulin to deal with it and I get a diabetic type of hypo, feeling woozy, hot and sick. This usually passes after about an hour. Life is too short to skip on ice creams, especially during this trip, so I just carry on knowing it will pass.

And lastly, I can get extremely painful reflux as I have no valve preventing food from coming up from my stomach, so I can no longer stand on my head ! Haha. But if I eat the wrong food, up comes the burning bile which flows down into my lungs and I end up coughing painfully for weeks. However, we’ve solved it!!! It usually happens if I eat creamy cheese in my meals or lots of creamy desserts which gives me dumping anyway, so I tend to avoid them if I can. Also we bought an adjustable electric bed at home so I sleep with my upper body elevated. Definitely worth buying!! When we camp, we park the campervan on an uphill slope. And when we are travelling like this, I just use lots of pillows and try to sleep with my body elevated. Fingers crossed I have not had one of these horrible episodes for almost 2 years. It’s great having learned how to avoid them.

So I lead a perfectly normal happy life (if you call cycling from St Malo to Nice normal). My praise for the surgeons and teams at Plymouth Derriford NHS Hospital will always be endless.

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