Hi everyone. My name is Jaime, i'm 33 years old, and was officially diagnosed yesterday with Barrett's after my follow-up visit to my GI.
This first came to be last June (2009), when I felt a pain under the right side of my rib cage after a night of eating bad (we were on vacation and I over-indulged on a massive burger & fries) and I thought it was just some bad gas. 4 weeks later I was still having the pain, nothing sharp, just more annoying than anything really, but it was through to my back. My regular doc did an ultrasound on all of my organs, and found nothing except a hiatal hernia. They also did a HIDA scan on my gallbladder, but that came back normal.
In July 2009, I had an endoscopy and colonoscopy done (had a bit of rectal bleeding due to constipation, but they figured they'd do the colonoscopy as well while I was under), and they found a few small ulcers, gastritis and the beginning phases of Barrett's, as well as a colon polyp that had they not removed, would have turned cancerous. Put me on Protinix initially until my insurance bumped that RX off of the list, so I've also been on Nexium, AciPhex, Prilosec and now I'm on PrevAcid, twice a day.
I started working out again and excercising intensly this past January (2010) and started feeling the pain again in my ribs, so the GI wanted to follow-up with another endo. That was done on March 1st, and I had my follow-up with him yesterday, in which he indicated I had a very small portion of Barrett's (he also told me that the ulcers are now healed due to me taking the acid-reducer each day, so that's a good thing). I'm scared to death, as everything I've read about it is just too much for me to handle. I have 2 kids, a husband and I love my life, I don't want to die young :(
I also take Celexa for anxiety, as this whole thing has caused me to freak out a little bit. Also taking a very strong multi-vitamin with 1000% of every daily thing I need, as well as fish oil and extra calcium.
I'm 5'3", 164 lbs (been dieting for a year, was up to 224, so I've done pretty well), caucasian and only 33 years old. I used to smoke, maybe about a total of 6 years tops, but I quit after I had my kids. GI said it was unusual to find this is someone so young, but we'll do the 'watch & see' approach. My grandfather (maternal side) had quite a few colon polyps that he had removed inb his lifetime (he's since passed on, but not due to cancers or anything, natural causes).
I'm just scared, and need some reassurance from people here, I know I won't die tomorrow, and my GI actually said i don't need another endo for 2 years, so he's obviously not too worried about it, but I am.
Thanks for listening
Jaime