Gastric Pacemaker: 4 Months

It’s been just about four months since I had the gastric neurostimulator implanted at the Mayo Clinic.  Unfortunately, there have been some complications and I’m now on my way back to Minnesota for a follow-up surgery.

For several weeks, the results from the treatment were really promising.   After the first follow-up appointment though, I began experiencing abdominal twitching (video here) and a flare-up in the GP symptoms.  The device settings were manipulated in an effort to relieve the twitching and I now have just infrequent “fluttering” and “pins and needles” feelings.   Unfortunately, over the past few weeks, the nausea, regurgitation, pain, and fullness have all returned to pre-surgery levels.

The thought is that one of the leads might be displaced or fractured, which is causing the shocking/fluttering/twitching.  They’re planning to do surgery on January 19th to fix the problem.  How exactly that’s affecting the symptoms, I’m not sure but I hope to find out at my pre-surgery appointment tomorrow.   Because my results were so promising at the beginning, it seems to me that once the device/leads are working properly, I should see at least similar results again (and hopefully more!).

On one hand, I’m dreading another surgery.  On the other, I’m anxious to get it over with and get things back on track.  Now that I’ve had the experience of getting a bit better and then getting worse again, I realize just what a difference even small improvements can make!

Related Posts:

• Let’s Talk About the Gastric Neurostimulator: Part II
• Let’s Talk About the Gastric Neurostimulator: Part I
• Gastric Pacemaker: One Year Later
• Update: Gastric Pacemaker
• Gastric Pacemaker: 2 Months & 3 Cupcakes Later