17 years old

Hello BGdancer2010, and welcome to this great and informative board. Here you will find information and be prepared to ask your doctor specific questions and some time sugest to him/her tests that have helped others find the cure they needed.

I'm really sorry to hear about your problems at such a young age. You have the rite attitude by not givivng up dance especially since it means that much to you. You will need something to focus on through this little journey. I want you to know that your not alone and there is plenty of ways to treat this desiease to get you back to enjoying life.

An endoscopy can be helpfull to find ulcers and in my case it was the first procedure that showed my eroded esophogus and my hernia. What it cant tell is if you have a leaky Lower Esophagial Sphincter(LES). That may be the cause of why you are getting the reflux. If you havent allready, find a GI specialist who can do the necessary tests to see if that is the problem. They can order you to have a barium swallow which simulates the swllowing of food. They do this with you on an xray video machine and it records the movement of the barium through your upper GI systmem. They can see if and how much comes back up. They kind of shake you around and have you lay flat and on your sides as you swallow to try and simulate reallife scenarios.

The other test is a Motility test. This test is very acurate at measuring the oressure of your LES. If your LES in not working properly the Specialist can then decide how they need to treat you. If its severly defective then surgery will be the answer. I had the surgery 5 and 1/2 weeks ago and I can tell you first hand that its very much worth it.

Allways keep in mind that doctors work for you and some times you have to push them to perform the necessary tests. If they dont seem to be intrested in helping you them find another one. When you get test results, ask for them in writing or get copys of the results. This will allow you to take them to another doctor for a second opinion with you having to explain what was done and what the other doctor told you. Some people have found that doctors some times mis interpret tests results.

I hope my reply helps answer some of your questions. Please feel free to ask as much as you can. You can also read through some of our posts to see what our progress after surgery is like. Its different for every one since we are all unique, but this disease doesnt discriminate. I have read on this forum about infants having the surgery so if it gets to that point know that you will carry on afterwards better than ever for the rest of your life.

I'm glad you found us. You seem to have a great attitude for dealing with this at such a young age. Just know that you will get past this. Its just a bump in the road.

Thank you guys so much, your support means so much to me. Today I had blood work and an ultrasound and should get my results of that and the biopsy from yesterday within a week. It is good to know that I am not the only person out there having this problem! As for pushing the doctors, that is my next step. After my clean endoscopy, my doctor just told me that basically it could be nothing (which by the way makes no sense what so ever because if it was nothing, then why doesnt it go away). I dont want to give up becuase I can not keep trying different medicines for the rest of my life! I really hope that there is a reason behind all of this :( Dance becomes harder and harder but I will definitely suggest the Barium Swallow at my follow up appointment. I am afraid that he and my mother no longer believe that there is a problem...I wish I knew what to do. Thank you guys again for your support and suggestions. I will stay updated :)

Some times we forget that though they may be very educated in their fields, doctors can some times be stumped when it comes to diagnosing something they have never dealt with.


I was lucky enough to find a General Practitioner that promised me he would not give up untill he "fixed me" from my "mystery illness". After checking evry other oragn in my body, He sent me to a G.I. Specialist that didnt believe that I was in so much pain "because young people dont suffer from hernias". He had never encounterd someone my age, 34, with a Hiatal Hernia. He later said all his patients with a HH are 50 or over. So just because he hadnt encounterd that it didnt meen that I was ok. It didnt meen that he didnt care eather. Some doctors dont like to think out of the box and those are the ones you have to push and sugest things that have worked for diagnosing other people.

I drove my G.I. Specialist crazy by visiting him up to 3 times a week untill be got the ball rolling. He orderd the Motility test but wasnt too happy because he thought he was wasteing our time......and it concluded my LES was severly damaged and needed surgery.

BGdancer, have your mom read through this forum so she can see the different forms and symptoms this desiease carries with it. One test is never enough. My barium swallow didnt show my hernia, just the reflux. My CT showed a small hernia.

Rafael

Welcome BGdancer2010 and kitri27

I am Kitt and Dancer you have met some of our great members plus a brand new member who has posted a warm and wonderful welcome for you as a fellow dancer.  That warmed my heart to see another dancer reach out to you.

I hope this next week goes by quickly and you have the results of your tests.  Do continue to be your own best advocate and seek a second opinion if you do not get the answers you are looking for.

Again a warm welcome to HealingWell.

Kitt

i feel the same as you did, at 22, every doctor i saw laughed and met old me i had heart issues.. anxiety issues, it was all in my HEAD. I finally got a good doc and a good gi doc (though ive only seen him once), they ran tests, and boom my les is defunct and havign surgery on sept 28th, week from mon to hopefully fix most of my problems (most heh lol).
we're all here with ya dn let us know how your doing:)
griff

I know exactly what you are talking about!!

I really hope that they can too! My boss said that she was having all of the same symptoms as I am, and it ended up being her gallbladder. They removed it and she has never been better! She also is giving me the number of her doctor because she said that he will not give up and will figure out what is wrong, unlike the idiot doctors out there who could care less. A few more days until I get my test results, wish me luck :)