My POEM experience

I had my POEM operation 2.5 weeks and thought I would share the experience, as a number of people are asking on these forums. Also a lot of the experiences from people on these forums seemed to have been quite negative, and it's understandable that people with more negative experiences are more likely to share them on a forum like this. To balance it out I thought I would share mine.

I have had issues with swallowing for a long time, but my achalasia symptoms took a turn for the worse about two years ago. It took about 12 months for me to get a diagnosis and another 10 months to have an operation. In those two years my symptoms were getting progressively worse and I lost about 17 kg (37 pounds) in that time period. At a certain point in time I lost my ability to swallow food and thicker liquids all together, until I figured out that drinking very warm, but not hot water relaxed my esophagus enough for some food to get into my stomach.

I was referred for the POEM op by an NHS doctor and then completely abandoned, with all my emails and phone calls being ignored both by the doctor who referred me and the doctor to I was referred to. I then changed over to my wife's private health insurance from her new job, but had to battle with the insurance company to approve the POEM procedure, as it is still on their list of experimental procedures. Thankfully I managed to win that battle and had this op at the end of June (2.5 weeks ago).

2.5 weeks in and I am not able to eat whatever I want, which is incredible. My diet was so limited over the last 12 months or so, that is a real blessing and I have put on about 3 kg since the operation already. For about 4-5 days right after the operation I did have very painful spasm type of pains in my chest for about an hour to an hour and a half a day, which I could only alleviate by drinking ice cold water. My doctor said that it is related to the post surgical inflamation. That pain then disappeared, but I started getting a pressure type of chest pain, which initially confused me, but after a couple of days I figured out is from a post op chest infection which resulted in inflamation in my lungs. What was strange is that I had no cough associated with the infection, although I did have congestion (which seemed moderate). The pains also came in once a day for about an hour and were quite strong, but are now subsiding and are a bit weaker. I do have stronger heartburn issues than before the op, but PPI's are managing them quite well and these episodes are well worth it considering how debilitating achalasia is.

2.5 weeks in, I am feeling so much more energy than for the last two years, where it took all the human strength that I had to plow on with my job, keep my marriage on track and maintain some kind of resemblance of a normal life. So even as I am still suffering a bit from the post op chest infection, I have to say that having the POEM is the best thing that could happen to me and has given me a new lease of life. I would highly recommend it to anyone suffering from this terrible condition. The operation is quite delicate, so based on my knowledge, make sure you get someone experienced to do this procedure as it does require a high degree of skill.

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