vagotomy

While we are on the subject of past exploits, I have an update for you all. In my book Diet Wise, I told the case of Cliff (his real name). He is case #2 in the book and I included his story, because at the time of completing the book, I received an e-mail from him. Cliff had been surfing the Internet and found my website and written to me, full of the delights of life and exploring the new technology. He was by then 88 years old. Cliff first came to see me in 1985, when he was 69 years old, with a tale of woe. All his life he had been sick and debilitated. He suffered frequently from what lay people called “bilious attacks” in those days: headaches and vomiting. Nowadays we would call them migraine attacks or “abdominal migraine” when the stomach is so upset. Cliff’s condition was so bad that on the train ride to the honeymoon destination, he had needed to lie down with his head resting on the lap of his new bride (no, he was not drunk, but certainly reacting to food at the wedding feast, as we shall see). In 1953 he underwent a partial gastrectomy, on the recommendation of a local professor who had diagnosed a stomach ulcer. It didn’t work. Twenty-one years later he was subjected to a vagotomy (severing the important vagus nerve to the gut). Again the procedure didn’t work – wrong diagnosis and wrong therapy. By the time Cliff consulted me, he was so weakened that he had difficulty shaving. He would lather up and then have to rest; then shave a little and would need another rest; and so on. He was a very sick old man and felt ready to die.

While we are on the subject of past exploits, I have an update for you all. In my book Diet Wise, I told the case of Cliff (his real name). He is case #2 in the book and I included his story, because at the time of completing the book, I received an e-mail from him. Cliff had been surfing the Internet and found my website and written to me, full of the delights of life and exploring the new technology. He was by then 88 years old. Cliff first came to see me in 1985, when he was 69 years old, with a tale of woe. All his life he had been sick and debilitated. He suffered frequently from what lay people called “bilious attacks” in those days: headaches and vomiting. Nowadays we would call them migraine attacks or “abdominal migraine” when the stomach is so upset. Cliff’s condition was so bad that on the train ride to the honeymoon destination, he had needed to lie down with his head resting on the lap of his new bride (no, he was not drunk, but certainly reacting to food at the wedding feast, as we shall see). In 1953 he underwent a partial gastrectomy, on the recommendation of a local professor who had diagnosed a stomach ulcer. It didn’t work. Twenty-one years later he was subjected to a vagotomy (severing the important vagus nerve to the gut). Again the procedure didn’t work – wrong diagnosis and wrong therapy. By the time Cliff consulted me, he was so weakened that he had difficulty shaving. He would lather up and then have to rest; then shave a little and would need another rest; and so on. He was a very sick old man and felt ready to die.