GERD ruining my life more everyday

Don't be so sure about not taking pills the rest of your life......I never took a pill for heartburn, until AFTER my surgery for hiatal hernia. After a month it all come undone, now I have more trouble than before and have to have it redone.

I had to have the surgery because my stomach was in my chest, and now it is moving up there again. Now I burp up my food,too.

Hello everyone

Finally i found a thread and people who have similar condition as mine. I wish no one else had this problem and i thought i am different.
I all explain my conditions, this condition started when i was 14 years old (now i am 30 yrs old). I used to throw out immedietly after eating (actually after every meal). The condition went away after couple of years and at that time the only treatment i used was chewing antacids. I dont exactly remember when the condition diminished.

But at present it started again 4 years ago, this time a more intense, i am throwing out even a glass of water, cup of coffee, tea, soft drinks and any food i eat. I have to run for some sugar or other sweet stuff after anything and everything i eat.

Every morning in empty stomach, my day starts with dry retching even before i brush my teeth. Have been taking medication for all the time Nexium, Somac, Pariet and other PPI's also Ulcyte and Ranitidine. I have also tried different diets (spicy, not spicy, hot, not hot, with, without salt, only vegetables, only fruits, only liquid drinks and so on) and had taken 1/10th of the daily intake (but maintaining 24 BMI - 75 kilos 1.76m height). But of no use as i am throwing out even a glass of water now-a-days and starting to hate food.

I also started chewing gum habit 4 years ago, after every meal to keep the food inside, this is keeping me going until today. The condition worsens if the weather is winter. I also cant run or do any physical fitness excersice as gasping for air while running will make me dry retch. i dont get the bitter taste while dry retching either. only saliva is spit out as i cant swallow or breathe while dry retching.

Had a Gastroscopy and there is no GORD and also had an excersice test to see if my heart is ok (and it is ok too).

I started using gaviscon 5 ml only (antacids will cause constipation if consumed more) immedietly after i wake up (before brushing teeth), just to avoid the dry retching, it doesnt help a lot.

I get a different feeling in my throat everytimg before i vomit, something like some strangling mt throat and i am gasping for air. But as per the gastroscopy my larynx is ok, no hiatal hernia, no Ulcer, no helicobacter pyroli from the biopsy and further blood test results revealed i have no gastritis.

I started to feel very strange about myself until i found this thread. I wish i will find one food that will stay inside after i ate it. Its been a very long time i had a good, happy and satisfied meal without running for chewing gum or sugar after it. :(

My main question is this thread is in Anxiety-Panic Disorder and as a very easy going person like me and having a dont care attitude, i dont think i have Anxiety or Panic Disorder. Cause when i spoke to my GP about this he refused to refer to a phsyciatric test or doctor as he is treating me for the past 4 years.

Have tried different types of everything, have avoided all the acidic foods (tomato, lime, lemon, ornage and others) and have quit coffee, tea, soft drinks (cant quit water).

Next is ph test to see how much acid i produce in my stomach, will see what exactly my stomach is doing after each meal.

hope i get any answers from anyone anywhere, as i have posted this in 2 places in healingwell website.

thanks & regards

feelsgood (not actually)

Thanks couchtater

i all ask my GP about these tests, we have started one by one. first was Gastroscopy, now i am going for ph testing, i all ask the specialist whether i need the barium swallow test and manometry test. Also as per my GP i dont have stress or anxiety or depression as he is treating me for past 4 years. GERD and GORD are the suspects for my GP as gastroscopy came back negative for GORD. this time we are looking at my acid levels.

regards

feelsgood

I am trying to hurry up the process, i have an appointment with my primary doctor on wedsnesday. i dont know what shes going to say since im already sheduled to see a gi doc in august. this whole not being able to breath thing really scares me and my family is like you cant keep seeing the doctor for the same thing, your insurance wont cover it. im thinking what am i supposed to do just sit here and wait for something worse to happen to me. i never had asthma or breathing problems before this. so its new and scary to me. I cant sleep from the fact that im so worried about my breathing and when i do sleep its for 4-5 hours and then im up, no matter how hard i try to force myself to stay in bed, my body is up and the reflux is awake and active. Im going to tell the gi to go ahead and schedule all the tests i need to determine if the surgery will help me. i just hate playing the waiting game when it hurts so much. And it hurts even worse when i try to talk to my family or friends about it and they blow me off or just say it will be ok, give it time. what do you think ive been doing. Im half the man i use to be. I want to do things and have fun but not at the price of making my health worse than it is. plus im always breathing hard and gasping when i do any physical activity. really have no one to talk to except on here. Well im going to try and find something to do to keep my mind of this.

You are not alone. When this first started for me I was in the same place but have improved via diet and learning how to work around the problems that unfortunately modern medicine ... well it makes me mad.

As for people not understanding ... get used to it. No one knows till they are there and they have no idea how lucky they are but that goes for almost all of us.

This is your digestive system so diet and portion size is going to play a big role in your quality of life. I have to eat small meals like 6 times a day to get my calories in and if I make a mistake or over eat I pay. Even then sometimes you still have to swallow the pain.

Its a battle of will , but your goal needs to be to get the suffering under control. When this started I couldn't eat anything but I had no idea how to eat with the condition. Now I can eat just about anything and be okay pill free.

Careful about pills and dont trust Doctors blindly they really dont know what they are talking about some times, only what they are told. They started me with pills and its just made it a lot worse and I had to get myself off them myself which was not a pleasant experience. There is a multi billion dollar industry pushing pills on them and drug companies dont like cures, they like repeat customers.

Right now your digestive lining may be irritated and you should probably focus on lessening the irritation.

A lot of damage is done overnight don’t sleep till 3 hours after you eat , Tilt your bed up on an angle with whatever it will make a big difference. Gravity keeps the acid in your stomach.

Don’t eat thick skin foods unless pureed. Beans , corn, etc.

Don’t Eat acidic low ph foods if your problem is high stomach acid unless diluted. Apples , orange, lemon. There are lists of foods and their ph on the internet.

Fat takes longer to process so eat as little as possible. Stick to protein and carbs from my experience. When you buy food look at the nutrition and get foods with a good protein to fat ratio. Protein is the only thing that is broken down in the stomach and carbs get in the way of that so you may want to eat your proteins alone or with veggies and carbs in other meals with veggies etc.
If the pain is really bad you may want to get meal replacement shakes ,etc.
Unfortunately there is a learning how to eat again process since this condition does work with eating like avg person eats. You will need to learn what you can’t eat and how much you can eat.

I like to drink a lot of water in the morning before I eat anything push things along for the new day since most of it has reached the colon anyways. Remember cold things liquid or food slow digestion so try and take everything in warm.

EMOTIONS
The digestive tract has a brain much like the one in your head and it reacts to emotion and not in a good way a lot of the time. If you feel sad, angry , stressed listen to music,meditate or whatever you can to bring yourself back to peaceful.

Post Edited (droper) : 7/1/2011 11:21:57 PM (GMT-6)

Breathing has been sucky as usual. Eating is a adventure everyday. Trying to stay strong and relax but thats hard when everyone and everything around me is moving so fast and im stuck in slow motion. I Have people close to me but the only person i trust is 40 miles away and she is my ex fiance. I live with my 2 aunts and cousin. They think i dont need to go to the doctors as often as i do and that my illness is not as bad as i claim. That makes me feel even worse, cause i have no where else to go rite now and they are my only transportation. I dont think ive been tested for anaemia. Im so wore down that its hard for me to fight all day just to breathe. I dont know what im going to do. This isnt how i imagined my life going. Have to figure out something.

 Dear HURTANDSCARED  I have all the same symptoms as you. And mylife is pretty much ruined at the moment. I've had upper GI once ENDOSCOPY 3 times. ULTRASOUND 2 times. And July 20 I go for ph testing.  I've been on sooo many medications and absolutley NOTHING helps. The severe burning never goes away. And now I have bad pains in my chest,back, and shoulders which terrifies me.  Im now having anxiety attacks because im afraid 24 hours a day. My whole body just aches now and the only thing I can do is CRY. Haven't worked in months, neglecting my family and my whole life. And you are right its like no one believes how bad i feel.

KIM24

    HI. Hurtandscared.  I get very frustrated about how long it takes to see the Drs and also gow long it takes to get in for testing. I also have trouble breathing. I'm sure alot of my breathing troubles are from feeling panicky because no one can seem to stop this burning. My heart beats fast also. I feel like the only way I will get help is if I just drop and have to be rushed to hospital sometime. How pathetic is that? I'm going to try to look you up now.         KIM24

  HURT AND SCARED    You can email me at [email protected].  Anytime

  hurtandscared    I am really starting to think i have bile reflux. not acid reflux.  from everything i have read it sure sounds like it. that would also explain why none of the meds work, cause they are for acid reflux

 

i am back again. had ct scan for head, neck, chest, abdomen and pelvis with contrast. everything is normal in scan. so doctor is going to do one more endoscopy, then the manometry test and finally ph test.

will post later about the results of those tests

before i finish, can anyone with early morning dry retching try green tea mint flavor. you only need 1 teabag and 1.5 liters of hot water and sugar 3 tablespoons. leave the tea bag until the water gets back to room temperature. also drink the tea in room temperature. you can make around 6 cups green tea with 1.5 liters and have it every 2 hours.

please try the above and see how you feel. :)

thanks kitt,

i have been posting in both forums at the same time and i hope the green tea works for someone who is suffering from GERD or GORD or acid reflux. It is controlling mine and i wanted to share that to all.

feelsgood (nearly)