JerseyJoeN

Hi everyone. I'm new here and just had surgery on March 27th. In general, I feel great. I can get outside and walk the entire neighborhood, which helped dramatically with reducing the gas pressure and discomfort. I've read a lot about stomach gurgling. Everything I put in my stomach causes gurgling. I'm on a clear liquid diet for the first week and following it to a tee. Swallowing very slowly and small amounts but my stomach begins to gurgle immediately. I'm also experiencing what I think is mild dumping. Within 10-15 minutes I'll have to pass gas and then have a small amount of diarrhea. Should I call the Dr. or does this happen at first due to the swelling? Having researched post surgery experiences, it looks like some of my gurgling can be attributed to my acid reflux. I'm getting some pressure in my upper back too and noticed when I crush up my medication (generic Protonix) that goes away. I also feel hungry very often but read that could be the acid reflux. The medication is not lasting the entire day. I wonder if I should discuss this with my surgeon and get something stronger or time-released? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Joe

I called the surgeon's office and left a message for him about it. He called me right back and told me that it's very common for up to the first month to have worse acid reflux than when you started. I asked him about timed released or additional OTC meds and he confirmed, as North25guy said, that timed released are no good. I asked him about supplementing with my current medication and mentioned Zantac 150 and he said that would be perfectly fine. I've always tolerated Zantac and Prevacid in the past but can not take Nexium at all. It gives me IBS, which I sure don't need now, right? lol I drove for the first time and picked up some flavored waters (zero sugar), more decaffeinated tea bags, sugar-free jellos and the store brand of Zantac 150. After that, I went for a 40 minute walk around the neighborhood. It's almost 60 degrees here in NJ, gotta take advantage of it!

Wow! Thanks everyone. I have a call into my surgeon mainly about the reflux. I want to see if there's something stronger or time-released that he recommends or maybe supplement the generic protonix with OTC Zantac? Now that I know that gurgling is very common, I feel a bit more relaxed and I think it even eased up a bit. Could have been a little nerves exacerabating the problem? Probably. This isn't an easy journey, but I know it'll be well worth it!