I have suffered with GERD's for over 16 years and found out this year after choking on a piece of chicken that I had a polyp in my throat and hiatal hernia. When the surgeon went to remove the polyp she could not find it after 3 times of barium swallows, scopes, and says its gone and don't worry about it. So I decided to get the surgery done because I wanted to sleep through the night without issues.
I have been having trouble with swallowing soft foods for first while, and still at times. They told me that if its hard to swallow stay on liquid diet for 2 weeks. That's hard to do when you are too hungry. So I tried to stay with a more liquid soft food diet. I have Special K or Rice Krispies or oatmeal porridge with milk for breakfast, soup like chicken noodle with out chicken or tomato soup for lunch and suppers vary, most times mashed potatoes, or a pasta dish. I have drank lots of water and starting to drink more juices. I do not like lots of variety of foods so it is pretty boring diet. After eating, I have lots of bloating and gas, and sometimes diarrhea. It can last for more than an hour sometimes. The pressure feels horrible.
I am lucky to get more than 3 hours sleep at a time still. I know its only 10 days in, but I still have lots of hope that it will get better. I do not want to be the 2 out of 10 people that it does not work on after all this pain, I hope there is the gain. :)