Hi April,
Has your Gastrointerologist ever bothered to figure out WHAT WAS CAUSING your GERD / Reflux? Probably not. My father has ulcerative colitis & GERD, my mother has IBS & GERD, my brother has Barretts (spelled wrong,) & I have GERD. We are all on different medication. Prilosec, Nexium, Protonix, and Prevacid. Yup, bad genes. And, my little 9 year old daughter was recently diagnosed with GERD after suffering from hearburn, stomach aches, reflux, constipation,
gas and indigestion for years.
Pepcid & Zantac did nothing. Finally they put her on Prevacid 2 mos. ago. It helped a little, but not much...she still had stomach aches, gas, constipation and still had reflux at night. The first GI Dr. added Sucralfate at night & the reflux finally subsided a bit. But, she was still constipated (went once every 4 days) and she still had
severe stomach aches and TONS AND TONS OF GAS!! I FIRED her Doctor and found a new one!! After a (normal) ultrasound and blood work, he ordered a "modified lactose breath hydrogen test." It tests for lactose/sugar malabsorbtion or BACTERIAL OVERGROWTH OF THE UPPER INTESTINES. I thought he was nuts
because after reading about
BACTERIAL OVERGROWTH, it made no sense. She was not thin, she did NOT EVER have diarrhea, nor did she suffer from malnutrition. WELL, HE WAS RIGHT!! SHE TESTED POSITIVE FOR BACTERIAL OVERGROWTH!!! Yippie!! Finally, a diagnosis AND a cure!! He put her on a high dose of Flagyl (a strong antibiotic) for 10 days to DESTROY ALL of the bacteria (even the good ones) in her entire intestinal tract. Now she is taking VSL#3 to restore the right bacteria to the intestinal tract. She's only been on the VSL#3 for 4 days and guess what? NO STOMACH ACHES, NO REFLUX, NORMAL BMs EVERY DAY (which she doesn't like...LOL)
AND NO GAS, NO GAS, NO GAS, NO MORE GAS!! 
She started to get better on her 6th day of the HIGH DOSE of Flagyl, and has been getting better and better. Thank God...I can sleep through the night again. Poor little darling. Well, needless to say,
the Dr. thinks the BACTERIAL OVERGROWTH caused the reflux. So eventually, she will no longer even need the Prevacid in the AM or the Sucralfate at night. Oddly enough, my father said he had the exact same problems as a child, but they had no test back then.
And, if BACTERIAL OVERGROWTH goes untreated, it almost always causes Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's disease. So this is NOT a coincidence in my opinion.
You should DEMAND THE TEST! All you have to do is drink some sugar & water stuff, then blow into a different bag every 15 minutes for about
4 hrs. They label the bags and if there is a hydrogen "spike" in one or more of the bags because of the "time," they can tell right where (in your intestinal tract) the problem is, if there is one. If there is too much bacteria in a certain area, it causes excessive amounts of hydrogen (gas) to actually go into the lungs from the digestive tract. It's not an invasive test and it could be your answer. I will keep you posted as to how she is doing.
P.S. If anyone has Ulcerative Colitis and reads this, let me know if you would like a list of "what to eat and what not to eat." My Dad has been in remission for over 55 years. His colitis has been under control due to "his" diet only. You'd be surprise what you can actually eat!! He has it down to a science. Good Luck April.
