Doctor, doctor, gimme the news....READ WHOLE QUESTION PLEASE?

Question

Since June, I have had increasingly severe heartburn. They discovered my gallbladder was bad (the outtake was at 6%) and removed it. The heartburn has not gone away. They went down inside my throat with a scope. Normal. It doesn't matter what I eat -- everything hurts. I do feel best, however, when I refrain from eating altogether. Tests show my heart is fine. Heartburn meds DO NOT help -- I've tried them ALL for several weeks each. Zelnorm doesn't help. Procardia doesn't help. Only Vicodin helps. Now my very capable gastroenterologist wants me to go to the Mayo Clinic or Iowa City -- he's stumped. Any ideas? Also, any thoughts on which Clinic would be best to help me with this? Thanks so so much.

Answer 1

How high in your throat does it go? Do you wake up in the morning with a funny taste in your mouth? The most logical test to do for someone with intractable heartburn is to test and see if it really is heartburn, and not just something that has similar symptoms. Did they already give you a cup of barium and put you under an x-ray? What did they find? I would say you have Barrett's esophagus, but unless your doctor is blind or ignorant the endoscopy would have found it.

http://www.gicare.com/pated/ecdgs40.htm

You could also have a hiatal hernia, which should show up on the barium test or a CAT scan. This is unlikely, because any competent gastroenterologist would already have checked for this one because it matches your symptoms pretty well.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hiatal-hernia/DS00099

And heartburn meds don't work that well to begin with. Keep trying different ones because not everyone responds well to the same one. It may be normal heartburn, only you may be abnormally resistant to the medications!

Answer 2

I have had yrs of discomfort with GERD. I thought I needed more medicine etc. Then I got a new Dr. and for the first time he explained some critical things to know. If you over eat, fill your stomach with greasy food and alcohol, add a lot of fluid to the mix and go to bed, then you have put a acid reflux problem in motion. I was told to eat my last meal and my last drink of any kind of fluid 3 HOURS BEFORE BEDTIME. This was the best advice I had gotten. No more waking up with acid running in my throat. And don't ever use milk to settle heartburn, it makes it worse. Your body only recognises it as a source of protein and sends out the heaviest acids the stomach has.But unfortunately milk is almost all liquid, and now the acid has nothing to digest once the trace amounts of protein are gone, so it goes to work burning up your stomach. You can also try sleeping with your bed on 6 inch blocks at the head of it to keep your body elevated. And stay away from alcohol, it will cause heartburn as fast as greasy food will