This article is very, very much off topic from my usual tips & tricks, but I thought it would be at least informative and hopefully helpful to some to relay a solution to a health problem I’ve been having. For years, I was suffering from severe GERD and Reflux which led to complications and severe damage in my esophagis. After discussions with doctors and surgeons, I decided to have a surgical procedure called a “Laparascopic Nissen Fundoplication.” Though it is still very soon after the operation, the results have been excellent. Read on for more information on this procedure…

I’m 39 years old, and I have suffered from GERD AND REFLUX for many years. I had been taking GAVISCON like it was candy, and carried it with me wherever I went “just to be sure.” About six years ago, the reflux was getting worse and worse, keeping me up at night. On occasion, I would bolt up in bed choking and coughing after having reflux that would choke me. It felt like the back of my throat was burning, and it hurt to breathe. I scheduled an endoscopy that revealed that I had a HIATAL HERNIA and severe BARRETT’S ESOPHAGUS. Biopsies came back clean, but I had to change my eating habits, have an endoscopy every two years, and the doctor put me on PRILOSEC. What a relief. Prilosec was truly a miracle pill. My life literally changed being able to eat and sleep with practically zero ill effects.

Unfortunately, over time, the medication became very slowly less and less effective. My doctor switched me to NEXIUM, and again, life was good. After a number of “good” months, the doctor recommended that I try weaning myself off of the Nexium. Our goal was for me to not have to take medication for the rest of my life. Well it seemed that after several days of “backing off” I would have reflux in some form or another.

In 2004, we moved from the Chicago area to South Carolina. I was trying to wean myself off of Nexium, but I still had occasional reflux. I saw a local Gastroenterologist, and after my scheduled two-year endoscopy, he said that my lower esophageal sphincter muscle wasn’t working properly. In other words, the valve that goes between my esophagus and my stomach didn’t work, thus the reflux. He said that while medication could and did control the acid, I still suffered reflux, and it was medically unclear as to what kind of damage non-acidic reflux could be doing.

We discussed a LAPARASCOPIC NISSEN FUNDOPLICATION, and my wife and I decided that it would be a good solution to attempt to “fix” the problem. So I went into the hospital on a Tuesday in January, 2005, they fixed my hiatal hernia and did the fundoplication. I was discharged the following day. The week following, they removed my staples from my incisions, and now I’m healing nicely. Five small abdominal scars, and just a bit of discomfort. (Note to self: Don’t ever shave your chest!)

Eating has been interesting. In the hospital, I was on a “full liquid” diet, and the day I was discharged, the doctor said that I could immediately start on “soft” foods, avoiding certain foods like meats, breads, etc. I have been very faithful to his instructions, and only had a few “incidents” where food got “stuck” while eating. Each time, it was either because I was eating too fast or wasn’t chewing thoroughly. Fortunately, they are “behaviors” that can be modified. I am able to belch slightly, but sometimes it’s difficult. The surgeon said he did a “floppy wrap” meaning it’s not as tight as it could be. THe upside of this is that I should have less problems swallowing, and limited belching is possible. The down side is that it may or may not actually “fix” all the symptoms I was having. But so far, here’s the great news: since my surgery, I have not taken any Nexium nor have I had any reflux! Something I haven’t been able to proclaim for years!

Now, two weeks later, I’m still eating soft foods, but it’s going down very well. I have a followup appointment with the surgeon this week, so I’ll let you know what happens. My immediate goal: Get to a recovery point where I can finally eat sushi–I miss sushi!

Note of disclaimer: Please understand that this procedure is not for everyone. Consult with your physician or specialist to see what other options you have.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions!

Oh, and by all means, do some research on the Internet to better understand your problems. I found a neat “support” site that has a number of personal “stories” from a number of people who have had a fundoplication operation. The site is:

http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/1632/index.html

Thanks to “Gene” for maintaining that site!

Health & Medical Tips news, tips

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“The Google Deskbar includes a minibrowser that you can use to quickly open your Gmail account in convenient window that automatically hides and can be accessed with a keyboard shortcut. Read on for more information about this tool…

The Google Deskbar is a little Google search tool for Windows taskbar. It can do most of the Google searches using shortcut keys too. (See the link for a picture.) It also include Google’s “Minibrowser” which is fast and cute. If you press Ctrl-Alt-G?by default, you can turn it off?you’ll go right to the bar. Typing a search, by default, will open in the mini browser?again you can turn it off if you want or have it use your default browser (Firefox, etc).

So here’s the tip: Go to Options > Customized Searches > Add. Name it “Gmail” and put in the url: http://gmail.google.com/gmail. For the shortcut I used Ctrl M. So if I press Ctrl alt G, then Ctrl M, instant GMail window in the Google Minibrowser! Awesome.

(Google Desktop isn’t included in the default searches either. (Yet!) But you can also add it in the customize dialogue to search your desktop just as easily. Since the minibrowser vanishes automatically it’s tres convenient to find a file!)

Thanks “Sketchee” for the tip!

Gmail Tips, Gmail Tips - The Complete Collection browser, find, Firefox, Gmail, Google, keyboard

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Moxi’s “Ticker” feature can provide you with lots of great up-to-date weather, sports, and news information. Read on to learn what the Ticker is, and how to get the most from it…

First off, what is the Ticker?

The Ticker is a small banner on the bottom of the screen containing several “tabs” of periodically updating content. The tabs include such items as Weather, Forecast, Sports (news), NFL (scores), News, World (news), and quite a few others. The goal is to provide you with easy-to-read news and information at the bottom of the screen while still allowing you to view your shows, ininterrupted and in obscured.

So how do you know if you have the Ticker enabled? Simple: Press the “Ticker” button on the remote! You will also have a Ticker “Category” along the horizontal Moxi menu. If neither is available, by all means, check with your Cable provider to see if and when the Ticker will be available in your market. It turns out that the Ticker WAS available in my market, but it just wasn’t enabled for me, so a quick call to the Cable company got it enabled.

OK, so you have the Ticker enabled, but how does it work and what can you do with it?

When you press the Ticker button on the remote, the screen image “shrinks” slightly and a banner appears at the bottom of the screen containing the topics and the associated information. Note: this is not the “1/4 size screen” displayed when viewing the Moxi menu, but about a 4/5 or so size view that maintains the full image, but provides room for the ticker. The current Ticker topic is highlighted, and you can scroll left and right from topic to topic. If the highlighted topic has additional information, say News headlines or sports scores, you can scroll up and down, scrolling through the additional information. For example, the “Weather” topic displays your local weather, but scrollung up or down lets you see the weather conditions in other cities around the country. Another example is in the Sports scores topics: Highlight the NFL topic and you can scroll up and down through all the latest game scores.

Pressing the “OK” button on any topic, pops up a small menu offering other options. These options vary from topic to topic, so play around with them to become familiar. Typically, there is a “More Info” selection. Press it, and a larger window opens displaying more detailed information like the full news story associated with a News headline or more detailed weather information for the Weather topic.

Further, the Ticker has a nice “auto-scrolling” feature. After a short, but reasonable delay (5-10 seconds or so–didn’t time it) the Ticker scrolls to the next item. If the current topic has multiple headlines or entries, then the Ticker auto-scrolls through the headlines, scrolling to the next topic after it displays all the headlines. If there is no additional information, then the ticker auto-scrolls to the next topic, cycling through the entire list. If you have ever watched the scores scrolling on ESPN, then you understand the concept. But wait. You say that you just want keep an eye on just NHL scores or a single game score? What to do? Hold on, Moxi provides a solution!

Two of the popup menu selections is “Lock Topic” and “Lock Item”. The first one will lock the highlighted topic and auto-scroll through all the headlines/scores in that topic, never scrolling to another topic. The second option locks the highlighted selection and just auto-updates, never auto-scrolling. For example, with sports scores, just highlight the game you want to monitor, and the ticker locks onto that entry and auto-updates as scores are updated. Unlocking the topics or items is as simple as opening up the popup menu again and selecting the proper selection. Pressing the Ticker button again will dismiss the ticker and revert the screen to full-screen.

Well, that’s it. The Ticker is not a “wiz-bang” feature, but it does provide some excellent information at a button press. Just another example of Digeo’s innovations in Moxi!

Moxi Tips, Moxi Tips - The Complete Collection Moxi, news

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