Closing the Valve: Anti-Reflux Surgery Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe surgery for severe reflux and hiatal hernia. Writers came after twenty years of omeprazole, a six-year cough that was not their lungs, years on an asthma inhaler, three trips to the emergency department fearing a heart attack, a dentist who noticed acid on their teeth, a Barrett's report, and a stomach that had moved into the chest. They include a voice teacher, a retired postie, a long-haul trucker sleeping in his cab, a fire captain, a blackjack dealer on nights, a preacher, a trombonist, a Navy veteran, and a retired teacher who had surgery at seventy-eight. They write from Leeds to Lagos and from Omaha to Hobart. Operations include Nissen and Toupet wraps, a procedure done through the mouth, a ring of magnetic beads, emergency and planned hernia repairs, and a lengthening procedure for a short oesophagus, while one writer chose to wait. Writers describe six weeks of soft food, gas and bloating, not being able to burp or be sick, feeling full after three bites, losing too much weight, and two years on a waiting list. Outcomes are mixed: a wrap came undone, a magnetic ring had to come out, swallowing needed stretching, one lighter procedure faded after three good years, and one writer describes a big improvement rather than a clean slate.

Who it's for

For anyone with reflux that tablets no longer control who is weighing a wrap, a magnetic ring or a procedure through the mouth, and for the partners who cook the soft food.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 250 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.