Heartburn

Hi @gjuister and welcome to Connect. That must be awful having these medications cause so much pain.

@maryschaffler @josht @tracy0129 and @fracturedd have experience with Nexium and may be able to share how the medication affected them.

Back to you @gjuister, how long has this pain been going on? Is the medication effective in treating your heartburn?

I am on 40 milligrams to help control reflux acid and possibly bile reflux after my gallbladder removal. Right now I am one week into treatment and yes it is helping. I don't like some of the side effects for me, everyone is different. It make me drowsy and sometimes occasional dizziness. However do take in account I am on a serious dose right now, of 40 mg. which is only temporary until the reflux issue settles and my body chemistry adjust to having my live do the work of bile release now that the GB is gone. So I don't know if your reflux is related to GB removal or not? I will start reducing the dose after a month or so to 20 mg then get off it for good asap. PPI's have many determental side effects including liver and kidney affects, sapping the calcium our of your bones and even possible stroke issues. My doctor wants me to get off these asp. I am 62 and in otherwise good health.

I had reflux so bad that my 2 doses a day of 40 mg a day of protonics did absolutely nothing. I was to the point of getting stomach acid in my lungs. I went to a doctor that told me Nissen fundoplication was my answer. This Dr came highly recommended. I had the surgery 2 years ago and I was good only for a month. Then I was worse than before, in addition to the reflux I now had delayed gastric emptying, painful bloating, gas, and flip flopping between diarrhea and constipation. I was in misery. I did a lot of research on doctors. I got 3 more doctors recommendations on what should be done. 2 doctors were close to each other on what to do. I went with the doctor that had 30 years experience with digestive surgery. He told me exactly what he was going to do. It was a 4 hour surgery. I had my surgery 5 weeks ago and feel better already. Before surgery I felt like I was going to die now I feel i have a good outlook. I guess my point is even if you get a referral to see a specific doctor do your own research on doctors that specializes in digestive surgery. See more than one doctor, validate what is being suggested, do your own research. Don't be afraid to question the doctor. I went with what I was told because I trusted the doctors and it was a disaster. I'm not a doctor but I would never recommend getting a Nissen fundoplication. There's too many problems that can happen after. Get other opinions. Hope you get better soon

Can I ask, who did your digestive surgery?

Dr. Vincent Chang in Rochester NY did my most recent surgery that fixed everything. He's awesome.