Heller Myotomy at year 6

Six years already? I thought I'd write something at five years but I guess I got distracted. If this post is of interest to anyone I guess it would be someone considering a Heller myotomy. So here's my status six years out. Your mileage may vary... I'm glad I had it done. I remember pondering the choices of more botox, getting a balloon dilation or the Heller myotomy surgery. Hindsight being 20/20, I can say I would have avoided some grief by having it earlier. The surgery was not a great ordeal (not to minimize any surgery, but I was in and out over a weekend), recovery went smoothly and I was quickly eating stuff I had avoided for over a year. I occasionally still get blockage but it always clears in a few minutes and does not require an upper endoscopy to clear it like it did before surgery. And I can usually avoid blockage if I don't eat too quickly and I take care to chew stuff, especially chunks of meat, thoroughly. The last thing that got stuck was some turkey meatball that was pretty dry inside... not my best choice. Still, I drank some water, I coughed some of it up and some of it passed and I was fine in about 10 minutes. No fun, but it's the rare exception now. In the last six years I've eaten whatever I wanted to eat. Recently I'm doing the Whole 30 diet. I start every day with a glass of lemon water and a probiotic (VSL DS#3 when insurance will pay for it, otherwise something over the counter). I probably still have underlying inflammatory issues but for now, they don't bother me. If you're dealing with Achalasia, I hope the info in this blog helps. Good luck.