IRCAD tour. Surgery + 8 days

We are home in Oregon now.  It has been 8 days since my POEM surgery and all signs are still pointing to a very positive outcome.  I am happy to be eating lots of fruits and vegetables which I have not been able to enjoy for quite some time as they did not offer me the calories I needed and I also found them very difficult  to swallow.  When I did manage to get down an apple or banana, it would require so much water that I would be full after only a small amount of fruit, therefore limiting my caloric intake (starving) which made maintaining  my energy and weight that much more difficult.  For the last 8 months I have been eating very high calorie foods, it works, I fluctuated between 137 and 140 lbs for the last 8 months.  Upon our return from France I weighed 138 lbs. but that will soon change.  It takes me a couple of weeks to see weight gain or loss after a change in diet and/or exercise.  I am eating pretty much whatever I want with the exception of hard sharp foods like tortilla chips.  Small bites, lots of chewing.  Looking forward to enjoying a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables.   I have had the sensation of food not passing directly through to my stomach 2 maybe 3 times since surgery always while eating bread products.  I simply waited several seconds and it would eventually pass.  Not anything which concerned me in the slightest.  No Tylenol since day 4 only the Nexium to help eliminate any acid reflux for the first couple of weeks and then I will be medication free. 

I have some hesitations about eating certain foods right now but I have to say my entire esophagus, stomach etc. feels as if nothing ever happened and all of my swallowing functions are exactly as they were 5 years ago.  Amazingly successful.  I am not sure if the typical POEM patient experiences such a flawless outcome but I am sold.  

I believe my exceptional outcome is directly related to Dr. Swanstrom's expertise.  Perhaps my outcome is not exceptional simply typical for the POEM surgery.  I feel exceptional :)  

Dr. Perretta gave Kelly, Joelle and myself a tour of IRCAD last Tuesday.   What an interesting facility. It was started in 1994 and has grown into one of the world's leading centers for minimally invasive surgical research, development and training.  They offer onsite training as well as Web Based Courses.  

IRCAD is directly next to but not connected to the New Civic Hospital in Strasbourg.  So, my surgery was not technically performed at ircad since it is exclusevely a research and training facility.  I was operated on at the hospital next door which has HD links to ircad for recording surgeries and I suspect may be used for telesurgery but perhaps not.

In the above picture this lady is doing artwork on an esophagus which must be part of some type of upcoming course or Websurg.

This is a training room where there are 6 - 8 surgical stations.  I think she said there are teams of two surgeons at each station during a training course and they are permanently accompanied by a senior surgeon for the duration of the course which is not typical I was led to believe.  It is more typical for a senior surgeon to float around the room and help as needed.

The Da Vinci surgical robot is part of the modern surgery room.  The above surgeon from Denmark is actually performing surgery on a live pig in the background during a training session.  The screen below shows him sewing up something inside the pig.  I got to walk over to the patient and saw a cute pink belly with a few laparoscopes entering it's abdomen from different angles (no pics allowed of the pigs) all connected to the robot being controlled by the joysticks in the surgeons hands.

The robot is superior to a human since it's hands (tools, cameras, knives etc.) are only 5mm in diameter and have a far greater range of motion than ours do.  Therefore, the surgeon can reach into tiny areas without disturbing the nearby tissue.  It seems like a pretty intuitive device. $2 million is the number I remember.

So, cool web technology, amazing robotics we got to see in person, but the pigs!!  Dr. Perretta says prior to opening a set of doors, "I apologize it might be a little smelly in here because of the pigs".  I was thinking flesh type of smell not unlike a butcher shop or something. . . then the aroma of a barn enters my head.  We raise all the pigs onsite she informs us.  Piggy condominiums and an ethics board which must clear each and every decision prior to any changes.  They are the best cared for pigs and when they get too large they are sent to an upscale farm in the country to live out their life.

There are a number of pieces of art throughout the ircad building, a reflection of Prof. Marescaux's appreciation of the arts.  Time zones of the world are in the background as well as a door to a Mosque for Muslims which may be visiting and need to pray.  Thoughtful.

Nouvel Hospital Civil photo taken from outside ircad.  I think the hospital opened around 2006.  It is very modern.  Both were about a 4 minute walk from our Hotel.  The distances looked farther on google maps but the hospital, hotel, petit france and all of the old part of Strasbourg were with in a 10 minute (very pleasant) walk of each other.

I was asked to do a short interview on camera for ircad to edit into a statement of sorts on my experiences with the POEM procedure.  I always thought an interview involved an interviewer.  Not in France.  It was fun, I just told my story and how I felt.  Awkward.

Saying Goodbye to Dr. Sylvanna Perretta.

What a great experience and outcome.  Thank you again.

I will be posting occasionally or as needed to log progress, Dr.s visits etc.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions at all or if you want to chat a little about my experience or what to expect.  Leaving a comment with your contact info. is the easiest way.