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GERD issues
I am 22 years old. I don't smoke or drink. Growing up I can remember having a slight hoarse voice in the morning if I ate to late at nights. But never anything too miserable. It would go away within a hour after drinking water.
March 2011 on a Wednesday. I woke up with a hoarse voice that never went away. After a few weeks I started to get slightly worried so I went to my family doctor. I went 3 times over a course of 5-6 weeks and they had no idea after giving me multiple steroids and antibiotics that did nothing. I also had no pain in the beginning my throat didn't hurt at all. My only symptom was the voice. So they sent me to a throat specialist. (Audiologist) He did a throat endoscopy and told me I have GERD. He prescribed me omeprazole 20mg once a day. I changed my diet. I stopped eating hours before I went to sleep. I have never been a soda drinker, I am not a fan of fatty foods. The fattiest thing I like to eat sometimes is chocolate.. So I gave that up. I don't eat big meals. I have always been a snacker. But I didn't seem to get that much better so back as planned in 6weeks. He told me to start taking it twice a day. my throat started to hurt and become really sore around this point. I would wake up in severe pain, and it would hurt through out the day. I would take 2- 20mg omeprazole and I would also drink baking soda mixed with water whenever I couldn't handle the constant burn anymore.. I wouldn't drink the baking soda/water at the same time as taking the omeprazole. I made sure I did that hours apart from one another.
So about 10-12 weeks later my symptoms got much worse. It wasn't working. Nothing seemed to work.
So I went back to the doctor. They did another endoscopy and my throat is more swollen than the first. It's starting to swell up even higher around where my thyroid is.
I started having chest pains and it has become hard to swallow anything.
My heart rate gets insanely high in random occasions.
I feel a knock/thump whenever I swallow.
My throat is always hurting.
I am nauseous when I eat.
It's painful to eat or drink anything; I have lost almost 30lbs because of it.
So I have had a endoscopy twice now,
I got a barium swallow done and he told me I have acid reflux. probe test done,.,Blood work....How many more test need to be done?
I haven’t heard my voice in a year now. It's to the point where I am becoming depressed and I ignore talking to people. I ignore hanging out with friends, because if I talk to much my throat becomes incredibly sore to the point where I won't be able to sleep. I can't yell or whisper. I have one tone. If I yell then I’m pretty much out for the rest of the day because my throat hurts so badly.
I am thinking about going to the Mayo Clinic. Has anyone else been through this? Do you think they will be able to help? Could it be something else?
Im desperate.
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Depending on the cause of your esophagitis, I suppose surgery may be helpful. But a lot of us use diet and lifestyle changes instead of surgery and drugs. There is a lot of free info at https://jamiekoufman.com. There is also a FB group with a ton of recipes for eating a low-acid, whole food diet: https://www.facebook.com/groups/199013402360712. There are also free videos by Dr. Aviv. As mentioned previously, a food diary also would be helpful. A few lifestyle changes would be sleeping with your head elevated, wrap up eating at least three hours before bedtime and eating more frequent, smaller meals. I feel for you about your food world getting smaller. If you like to cook than the FB group will broaden your food choices for low acid, whole food meals. Good luck!
If you keep a food diary, marking down everything you eat, with a place to comment a couple hours after eating, you can often discover the food or foods which cause the problems, Often it is one of your prescription medicines which bring on the GERD. It was for me. Soon as I quit using that med, the GERD went away. I really did not want a ppi, because that had to have been what caused my husband to get pernicious anemia. It affects your stomach lining. He got very fatigued and never recovered from that fatigue, no matter what we did.
Thanks so much!
Good luck.
Yogi Stomach Ease is my long time morning tea. It really seems to help. I call it my ‘I’m Sorry’ tea because I will have a cup of coffee- then the Stomach Ease to make up for it.
Steep by Bigelow is an organic lemon ginger caffeine-free herbal tea. I order from Amazon. Thanks for your reply. I hope it helps and you like it.
ese,
Yes, I too am having the worst GERD attack ever. I am scheduled for an endoscopy tomorrow. I’m had them before and the gastro stretched the ring at top of esophagus each time which helped. This problem has been going on for many years, so I’m worried about having Barrett’s Esophagus. Also, worried that I might not be able to get symptoms under control.
I’m on Protonix and prescription Pepcid. Sometimes, I have to take a Gaviscon. That actually seems to help.
ese,
Are you able to manage your symptoms of Barrett’s esophagus?
I have no symptoms..never have had. Discovered on Endoscopy. I have managed to totally heal my GERD without any continuing use of ProtonPump Inhibitors which wreck havoc with your body and its ability to use nutrients with long term use.
Most people with GERD suffer from acid insufficiency not excess. Therefore the mass use of Proton inhibitors is exactly what is NOT an effective treatment with awful long term consequences.
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1 ReactionIf you would like I can save with you what I did. I now only very rarely get GERD if I eat in Chinese restaurants that use dreadful seed oils. But generally no GERD symptoms whatsoever, even without use of supplements I used to cure the GERD.