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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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It is a ring like device that is surgically put on your esophagus, it has a magnet and keeps closed but allows food to go down. I would diffiently try diet first. Cut out food groups a few weeks at a time, such as diary, fruit, gluten and all carbs ect. I eat Paleo now but no fruit and it has made all the difference.
Thankyou so much for your quick response. I have eliminated gluten and dairy. Don't like to eat anything anymore because whatever I eat hurts me. Just got the FODMAP app so going to try that. I'm severely constipated so started eating prunes. That didn't go too well. I'm willing to try anything. Don't understand why food seems to trigger this. I used to be able to eat everything. I'm 67 so maybe age is against me. But I always had a bum stomach. Just getting so much worse. Thankyou so much for replying
@nanny23, if you do consider the LINX procedure be aware that they cannot do it if you have a hiatal hernia that is too large (i.e., 3-4 cm) and that some insurance companies won't pay for it because they consider the procedure to be too new.
I hope you find some relief soon, and I'm hoping the app you are starting to use is beneficial. Please keep us posted with how that works for you.
I had a small hernia and my insurance did not cover it even though I had pre approval! Also if you eat foods that produce gas can be very painful as it is difficult to pass the device to blech. Sometimes so painful feels like a heart attack!! I highly suggest changing your diet first.
Try cutting out the fruit and fructose. I'm 65 and after 20 years on meds and surgery, that worked for me.
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1 Reaction@saucy, egads! That's awful. I hate that insurance companies can do that. 🙁
That may be why the prunes hurt you so bad. If your uping your fiber intake due to constipation you may have a difficult time digesting it. I can't eat anything high in fiber, it sits in my small intestine and ferments causing gas and acid.
Thanks forgot prunes had a lot of fiber just thought they'd help constipation
Thank you so much for reply. I will keep you posted
@doron, what supplements do you take? Did the Dr tell you to take them? No sometimes they dont work. When my GERD is bad, its bad. If i can't get relief at home i gotta get it somehow. Good thing i went because i was having a HA not GERD.