Since my last blog entry I have been on holidays. I just had time to relax, to take my life a bit more easy and to do things I wanted to do, but I had no time. I even went on a cruise to the meditarean sea, I just had a great time. But it was also a time where I was able to eat normally and to observe if I have some troubles with some kind of food. Just to say it short, I felt great, I had no problems at all and I was able to eat and drink everything I liked, so I should not wondering why my weight went up for 3 kilos!
The bed on the ship was big and rather plane, so I was a bit afraid that I could get problems with reflux or coughing in the night because some liquids are coming up the esophagus, but this was not at all the case. Only twice I felt around 6 o’clock in the morning a bit acid down there on the stomach, it was not really burning, just a bit strange. So I went for drinking water and the strange feeling went away. All other 9 days I hadn’t at all problems.
I was able to eat all kind of food, fruits, salad, fish, meat, bread and even pizza! All went straight down and I never had a feeling that some food is stuck and I have to drink something. Now I am drinking less while I am eating than before the operation.
So I have to say that I am very happy about the surgery and that I feel so fine and can do again my normal life. POEM is just a great surgery method and really very soft intervention for the body.
I still take twice a day 40 mg of Pantozol and on 28th of may I will have a control of my esophagus, so for then I will tell what my doctor thinks about all the development and if the clips have already gone.
Achalasia 
What is surgery POEM? In which country do you live? I never heard about that Method. Is it myotomie de Heller? I live in Canada.
Diane
Hi Diane,
POEM means Peroral Endoscopic myotomy. You will find more information in the internet (search using poem achalasia surgery). It’s different than myotomie Heller, in my opinion it’s not such a big trauma for the body as ‘Heller’ method. The only negative to say is, that there is only a 3-4 years experiance after the surgery using poem. So long term results are still unkown, but as fas as I understand the method and I now myself one can even do another POEM surgery in the future in case the first was not enough succesfull.
At the moment I feel 100% good and all my problems I had before the surgery went away. So I think very positive about POEM.
I live in Switzerland and I had the luck that Dr. Inoue (first doctor to use the method to humans in Japan) was my surgeon.
I wish you luck and that you will find a way to get ride of the effects of achalasia.
best regards,
Roger
Roger can you please send me your email or any other contact so i could ask you a bit more about surgery it self and where did you did it?
Petar
Thanks for the blog. I need a myotomy and know that a doctor near me has done @ 30 POEMs. While I plan to see a guy at Columbia who I believe does the standard Heller Myotomy, I will now get a second opinion from the POEM doctor. If I proceed with it, I’ll let you know how it goes.
Hi Steve,
It’s a good idea that you get a second opinion from the doctor which did the POEM surgery. I will provide on the blog a link to a lot of information about POEM I found just the other day.
I wish you good luck and hope you will feel soon well. It would be nice you could exchange your experience here on this blog, so a lot of people can learn about our experiences.
Best regards
roger
Hi Steve,
the link I told you is:
http://www.achalasia-poem.net/index.html
There you will find all the information about POEM.
best regards,
Roger
Sir,
My only son aged 19 having the same problem.I am eager to know how do you feel now. He has undegone dilation once.
Please read all my blog, there you will find all my story.
Best regards
Roger
From what I’ve read, dilations are a temporary fix and can lead to scaring which will make the myotomy more difficult. Get multiple opinions and do not wait too long. Left under treated, the E will expand and may lead to other problems. Check out the several Facebook sites that have active groups discussing A and alternatives.
Steve
Roger, sorry for not writing back sooner, but I’ve been busy now that I can eat again. I had my myotomy via POEM on Sept. 12, 2012 and it went very well. I just had a belated follow up and all food is dropping to the stomach quickly. I do take a PPI to control reflux, but I was taking that for @ 20 years beforeI developed A. I had my operation at Wintrhop Hospital in Mineola, NY. Dr. Stravopoulos was the doctor. He was the second doctor, after Inoue in Japan to do PEOM, he has now done @ 70 of them. I have started a database of the doctors and hospitals that provide POEM. It is on the Facebook group page and can be downloaded here:
https://www.facebook.com/download/162863303886027/POEM%20Doctors.docx
BTW: Dr Inoue and Stravopoulos have done several “joint appearances” where they present at conferences around the world demonstrating the latest development in POEM to other doctors who what the knowledge. So, I am sure that there will be more locations where this is an option.
Hi Steve,
Thank you for your story, I’m very glad that the POEM procedure was a success for you. It would be nice if you could write your testimonial on my forum, so people can discuss better and give advises and so on, you know the forum achalasia.freeforums.org, right?
I meet Prof. Inoue last Saturday in Zurich and I was able to watch his live procedure on video conference how he took a tumor out using the same technic as POEM. The tumor was located between the mucosa layer and muscle layer in the esophagus. He did a great job. He is a great person and a doctor too!
Best regards,
Roger