1. < Digestive Health
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GERD issues

Posted by janarose @janarose, Feb 29, 2012

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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Profile picture for Buffy143
Buffy143 | @buffy143 | Jun 19, 2012

Hi there. Does anyone else out there experience acid reflux to the point where your reflux , when lying down/sleeping, enters into your lungs and/ or your sinuses? If so, have you been treated successfully? I have had GERD since high school. I have tried all the PPIs under the sun and I finally found a PPI that successfully treats the burning sensations and pain experienced from GERD. However, I have noticed that over time, my LES (lower esophageal sphincter), the sphincter muscle that prevents back up of stomach contents into the esophagus, is gone. It doesn't do what it's suppose to do anymore. So I fight gravity everyday and when I lay down at all, I get back up to my throat and when in a deep sleep and lying flat it goes into my lungs and sinuses and inner ear cannal. I sleep propped up with a million pillows but it seems to just be band-aide. So some side effects are: coughing/productive coughing, pneumonias, yellow sputum, post nasal drip, inner ear pain, dizziness from inner ear pain, vertigo, and the most serious, spontaneous pneumomediastinum. Anyone have any inspring stories of treatments, excercises, natural treatments, special doctors they've encountered concerning this? Anything? Thank you so much 🙂

REPLY
13 replies
Profile picture for Bettyann
Bettyann | @bettyann | Jun 20, 2012
In reply to @buffy143 "Hi there. Does anyone else out there experience acid reflux to the point where your reflux..." + (show)
Profile picture for Buffy143 @buffy143

Hi there. Does anyone else out there experience acid reflux to the point where your reflux , when lying down/sleeping, enters into your lungs and/ or your sinuses? If so, have you been treated successfully? I have had GERD since high school. I have tried all the PPIs under the sun and I finally found a PPI that successfully treats the burning sensations and pain experienced from GERD. However, I have noticed that over time, my LES (lower esophageal sphincter), the sphincter muscle that prevents back up of stomach contents into the esophagus, is gone. It doesn't do what it's suppose to do anymore. So I fight gravity everyday and when I lay down at all, I get back up to my throat and when in a deep sleep and lying flat it goes into my lungs and sinuses and inner ear cannal. I sleep propped up with a million pillows but it seems to just be band-aide. So some side effects are: coughing/productive coughing, pneumonias, yellow sputum, post nasal drip, inner ear pain, dizziness from inner ear pain, vertigo, and the most serious, spontaneous pneumomediastinum. Anyone have any inspring stories of treatments, excercises, natural treatments, special doctors they've encountered concerning this? Anything? Thank you so much 🙂

Jump to this post

Buffy, I hope you have been visiting with a doctor... I know it must be awful to endure this. I have a close friend who finally ended up getting better and sleeping comfortably at night because they finally 'found' a med for her that actually worked...plus, she went through the 'food elimination' diet and by keeping track of the times she was worse, she learned to eliminate trigger foods. Even though I have not gone through this, just hoping my friend's 'getting better' experience will encourage you! Good luck to you.

REPLY
4 replies
Profile picture for piglit
piglit | @piglit | Jun 20, 2012
In reply to @bettyann "Buffy, I hope you have been visiting with a doctor... I know it must be awful..." + (show)
Profile picture for Bettyann @bettyann

Buffy, I hope you have been visiting with a doctor... I know it must be awful to endure this. I have a close friend who finally ended up getting better and sleeping comfortably at night because they finally 'found' a med for her that actually worked...plus, she went through the 'food elimination' diet and by keeping track of the times she was worse, she learned to eliminate trigger foods. Even though I have not gone through this, just hoping my friend's 'getting better' experience will encourage you! Good luck to you.

Jump to this post

Hi Betty Ann how are you

REPLY
Profile picture for piglit
piglit | @piglit | Jun 20, 2012
In reply to @bettyann "Buffy, I hope you have been visiting with a doctor... I know it must be awful..." + (show)
Profile picture for Bettyann @bettyann

Buffy, I hope you have been visiting with a doctor... I know it must be awful to endure this. I have a close friend who finally ended up getting better and sleeping comfortably at night because they finally 'found' a med for her that actually worked...plus, she went through the 'food elimination' diet and by keeping track of the times she was worse, she learned to eliminate trigger foods. Even though I have not gone through this, just hoping my friend's 'getting better' experience will encourage you! Good luck to you.

Jump to this post

Hi buffy i have at times had bouts of extreme reflux. Check with your dr as there are certain medications that will help to eliviate this problem. Also what you eat has a lot to do with this as well, speaking to a good nutrinionist maybe able to help you with this. Hope thimgs improve, please let me know how things go for you. Take care Piglit

REPLY
Profile picture for Buffy143
Buffy143 | @buffy143 | Jun 20, 2012
In reply to @bettyann "Buffy, I hope you have been visiting with a doctor... I know it must be awful..." + (show)
Profile picture for Bettyann @bettyann

Buffy, I hope you have been visiting with a doctor... I know it must be awful to endure this. I have a close friend who finally ended up getting better and sleeping comfortably at night because they finally 'found' a med for her that actually worked...plus, she went through the 'food elimination' diet and by keeping track of the times she was worse, she learned to eliminate trigger foods. Even though I have not gone through this, just hoping my friend's 'getting better' experience will encourage you! Good luck to you.

Jump to this post

Hi Bettyann, thank you for your encouraging words. I have seen many doctors and GI specialists about this already. The problem is not so much the acid burn feeling, because the medicine I was prescribed takes care of that. The biggest problem is the actual reflux itself, my stomach contents basically going all the way up to my sinuses and also into my lungs via my trachea. So I'm going to go see another GI specialist soon too see what that they think. I met another doctor that said one way to fix this is to get the lap-banding surgery since my LES is gone; I really don't want that at all. So we'll see!

Thank you so much,
take care 🙂

REPLY
Profile picture for Buffy143
Buffy143 | @buffy143 | Jun 20, 2012
In reply to @bettyann "Buffy, I hope you have been visiting with a doctor... I know it must be awful..." + (show)
Profile picture for Bettyann @bettyann

Buffy, I hope you have been visiting with a doctor... I know it must be awful to endure this. I have a close friend who finally ended up getting better and sleeping comfortably at night because they finally 'found' a med for her that actually worked...plus, she went through the 'food elimination' diet and by keeping track of the times she was worse, she learned to eliminate trigger foods. Even though I have not gone through this, just hoping my friend's 'getting better' experience will encourage you! Good luck to you.

Jump to this post

Hi Piglet, thank you for the advice. And you're right about watching one's diet with this. There are a lot of foods that make it worse, which I do my best to avoid. However, technically it doesn't matter what I eat. If all I ate was 3 rice cakes in one day I would still get reflux, not the burning, but the backing-up of whatever is in my stomach. It's the worst when I sleep though. So I think I'm going to see someone soon about this, again, just to see what they say.

I really appreciate your post,
thank you and take care 🙂

REPLY
Profile picture for lovinJesus
lovinJesus | @lovinjesus | Jul 8, 2012
In reply to @buffy143 "Hi there. Does anyone else out there experience acid reflux to the point where your reflux..." + (show)
Profile picture for Buffy143 @buffy143

Hi there. Does anyone else out there experience acid reflux to the point where your reflux , when lying down/sleeping, enters into your lungs and/ or your sinuses? If so, have you been treated successfully? I have had GERD since high school. I have tried all the PPIs under the sun and I finally found a PPI that successfully treats the burning sensations and pain experienced from GERD. However, I have noticed that over time, my LES (lower esophageal sphincter), the sphincter muscle that prevents back up of stomach contents into the esophagus, is gone. It doesn't do what it's suppose to do anymore. So I fight gravity everyday and when I lay down at all, I get back up to my throat and when in a deep sleep and lying flat it goes into my lungs and sinuses and inner ear cannal. I sleep propped up with a million pillows but it seems to just be band-aide. So some side effects are: coughing/productive coughing, pneumonias, yellow sputum, post nasal drip, inner ear pain, dizziness from inner ear pain, vertigo, and the most serious, spontaneous pneumomediastinum. Anyone have any inspring stories of treatments, excercises, natural treatments, special doctors they've encountered concerning this? Anything? Thank you so much 🙂

Jump to this post

Buffy, I have acid reflux but it's controllable. I take Prevacid and it helps tremendously. I have the bed elevated, looks odd but helps, six inches. A stack of pillows will make it worse. You body is bent, not elevated. You need to elevate your bed. If your doctor does not have you on Prevacid or something else, you need to ask for something. Also, no spicy foods, fried foods and don't eat anything before going to bed. Sweets make it worse so if yu want something sweet, eat a fruit; you can train yourself i time to eat right and healthy. above all, no fast foods. They would kill a healthy person. Carbinated driks are bad; drink water and herb teas. This will help but you still need to get your doctor to put you on something for the reflux. After so much reflux, it will damage lining of the esophogus and turn into cancer. I have seen this. I hope this helps. LovinJesus

REPLY
1 reply
Profile picture for Buffy143
Buffy143 | @buffy143 | Jul 19, 2012
In reply to @lovinjesus "Buffy, I have acid reflux but it's controllable. I take Prevacid and it helps tremendously. I..." + (show)
Profile picture for lovinJesus @lovinjesus

Buffy, I have acid reflux but it's controllable. I take Prevacid and it helps tremendously. I have the bed elevated, looks odd but helps, six inches. A stack of pillows will make it worse. You body is bent, not elevated. You need to elevate your bed. If your doctor does not have you on Prevacid or something else, you need to ask for something. Also, no spicy foods, fried foods and don't eat anything before going to bed. Sweets make it worse so if yu want something sweet, eat a fruit; you can train yourself i time to eat right and healthy. above all, no fast foods. They would kill a healthy person. Carbinated driks are bad; drink water and herb teas. This will help but you still need to get your doctor to put you on something for the reflux. After so much reflux, it will damage lining of the esophogus and turn into cancer. I have seen this. I hope this helps. LovinJesus

Jump to this post

Hi LovinJesus,
Thanks so much for your suggestions. Luckily I do take Prevacid which works very well to neutralize the acid but does not solve the reflux of food. I will have to try elevating the head of my bed without pillows b/c, ur right, all it does is contort the body and by the time you wake up ur body is in an uncomfortable position. Gotta love gravity! lol

Thanks again,
take care,
Buffy143 🙂

REPLY
1 reply
Profile picture for beatasthma
beatasthma | @beatasthma | Aug 14, 2012
In reply to @buffy143 "Hi there. Does anyone else out there experience acid reflux to the point where your reflux..." + (show)
Profile picture for Buffy143 @buffy143

Hi there. Does anyone else out there experience acid reflux to the point where your reflux , when lying down/sleeping, enters into your lungs and/ or your sinuses? If so, have you been treated successfully? I have had GERD since high school. I have tried all the PPIs under the sun and I finally found a PPI that successfully treats the burning sensations and pain experienced from GERD. However, I have noticed that over time, my LES (lower esophageal sphincter), the sphincter muscle that prevents back up of stomach contents into the esophagus, is gone. It doesn't do what it's suppose to do anymore. So I fight gravity everyday and when I lay down at all, I get back up to my throat and when in a deep sleep and lying flat it goes into my lungs and sinuses and inner ear cannal. I sleep propped up with a million pillows but it seems to just be band-aide. So some side effects are: coughing/productive coughing, pneumonias, yellow sputum, post nasal drip, inner ear pain, dizziness from inner ear pain, vertigo, and the most serious, spontaneous pneumomediastinum. Anyone have any inspring stories of treatments, excercises, natural treatments, special doctors they've encountered concerning this? Anything? Thank you so much 🙂

Jump to this post

Hi Buffy. I have LPR as well. It aggravates my asthma immensely and even with meds and the bed raised I had no luck. I can feel the food and acid come up at times. What works the best for me is changing my diet and eating habits. I eat very small meals though out the day and bought a great cookbook. It's called Dropping Acid (clever, huh?) and is co-written by a doctor and a chef. So far, everything I have made from it is very tasty (and I don't like cooking.) I also need to exercise a lot, which is difficult with asthma and reflux. Best of luck to you!

REPLY
Profile picture for MSW
MSW | @msw | Sep 3, 2012
In reply to @buffy143 "Hi there. Does anyone else out there experience acid reflux to the point where your reflux..." + (show)
Profile picture for Buffy143 @buffy143

Hi there. Does anyone else out there experience acid reflux to the point where your reflux , when lying down/sleeping, enters into your lungs and/ or your sinuses? If so, have you been treated successfully? I have had GERD since high school. I have tried all the PPIs under the sun and I finally found a PPI that successfully treats the burning sensations and pain experienced from GERD. However, I have noticed that over time, my LES (lower esophageal sphincter), the sphincter muscle that prevents back up of stomach contents into the esophagus, is gone. It doesn't do what it's suppose to do anymore. So I fight gravity everyday and when I lay down at all, I get back up to my throat and when in a deep sleep and lying flat it goes into my lungs and sinuses and inner ear cannal. I sleep propped up with a million pillows but it seems to just be band-aide. So some side effects are: coughing/productive coughing, pneumonias, yellow sputum, post nasal drip, inner ear pain, dizziness from inner ear pain, vertigo, and the most serious, spontaneous pneumomediastinum. Anyone have any inspring stories of treatments, excercises, natural treatments, special doctors they've encountered concerning this? Anything? Thank you so much 🙂

Jump to this post

Buffy, My question to everyone and no answers is this: During exertion, I get a burning in my throat and then into my chest. Then I get so exhausted I have to go sit down for a while. Do you think this is from acid Reflux? I am taking Proislec (sp). It helps for a while, but then it starts all over again.

REPLY
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