Fed Up With My Doctor

Hi,

Anyone else getting fed up with their doctor?

I've been so many times about my acid reflux and just not getting any REAL help. I'm in agony every day and all he gives me is another bottle of pills. Now I'm being told I should have surgery. Do you feel like me, they just don't understand what it's like? They just seem to be guessing at what the problem is.

Well, today I've decided enough is enough! Surgery is out of the question. It's not a REAL solution, just plain lazy diagnosis.

Surely we're not all suffering because of something that needs surgery. There must be something more obvious like what we eat or a food allergy or something.

Before the end of the year I'm going to sort out my acid reflux and I'm NOT going to have surgery. Now I've just gotta work out how to do it!

If you've got any great ideas, let me know here. I'm completely open minded about how to sort this so let's share some ideas.

Thanks for listening to my little rant. After years of this it's starting to get me down.

Markko

Hello, that's me!

I'm doing the EsophyX procedure because I'm a wimp when it comes to surgery.

I'd coughed with reflux for three years and went through three doctors before they found out why I was coughing.
I get frustrated with doctors, too. I see five specialists for my assorted problems and you're right, you do feel like they shove pills at you.

But I feel like the choice I've made is the right one. I want the surgery to fix my problems.

With the Esophyx procedure it's not as bad as the Nissen. They go down your throat with a special scope with something like a stapler. They then Staple a small flap of the top of your stomach around your esophagus thereby strengthing your weak LES.

You're left with a very sore throat for about a week and a special diet for about a month.

good luck in your choice

Joy

Hi Markko,
I totally know how you feel about surgery. (You too, Joy) I struggled with GERD (not all that severe, but enough to cause me to have terrible, uncontrolled asthma) for years, before I finally got the courage to get the surgery. I read so many scary, hysterical posts on the internet, and I was afraid of the surgery. It sounded like a horrible thing, and my first GI doc was pretty negative on it as well.

In the meantime, I continued to get worse and worse (both GERD and asthma). I fired my first GI doc (he didn't help me at all--didn't even do any tests to see what was going on), and went to another, who was more positive on the procedure. My family doc and allergy asthma doc were both very confident that my uncontrolled (HORRIBLE) asthma was caused by GERD. Although the tests did not show GERD at the level that generally leads to surgery, my new GI doc took the opinions of my asthma and family docs, and suggested that I see a surgeon.

I decided to get the surgery--I figured that I was suffering too much, and needed to give it a try. I carefully selected a surgeon (the MOST important piece of the equation) and had the surgery on February 27th. An excellent, VERY experienced (in the Nissen surgery) surgeon will make all the difference. My surgeon was great, and my recovery has been much better than I had ever hoped. I would do the surgery again without hesitation. (Joy--it wasn't bad at all!) My asthma has recovered, and I'm breathing easy (except for some expected allergy asthma problems--NOTHING at all like I experienced pre-surgery.) My family doc was the one who kept pushing me towards the surgery. He's been my doc for 25 years, and knows me very well. I'm so glad he did. My health has increased tremendously since the surgery.

I know you're determined not to have surgery, Markko, but I would caution you to try to keep an open mind. It can make all the difference in your life.
Good luck with finding an answer!
Denise

Markko, I believe that doctors work for you and if they arent dong their job or putting in work that is up to your standards, you need to move on to another one. But if your getting worse and worse and your meds are stronger and stronger then the problem is defenitly physical. I had a surgeon get mad at my GI specialist because he let my problem go on for so long with just PPIs as treatment. It was funny how he caught him slef questioning the specialists credibility and experience and then felt emberrased afterwards.

I would sugest you have some tests done, if you havent allready.

As far as being born with a leaky LES, I think I caused my problems because I was the kind of person that would not fell full unless I felt like my stomach was going to explode. I'm tall but not big and by no means did I eat a whole lot, so a burger and fries from a place like TGI Fridays would give me that satisfying pain letting me know I was full. To the point that I would throw up frome being so full at times. I also have a bad gag reflex and could throw up allmost on cue just thinking about it and have read that that is no good as well. What ever caused it, its fixed now!!

Good luck and let us know what you come up with.

Rafael