Esophagitis: How long does healing take?

I have been diagnosed with grade one esophagitis caused by reflux and have been switched from 40 mg Nexium to 60 mg Dexilant. During my endoscopy, my gastroenterologist also found abnormal motility in my esophagus, which he dilated. I felt like I was able to swallow better for a few days, but then went right back to where I was before the dilation. I feel discomfort when I swallow, and I can feel all food and liquid moving down slowly.

I have a follow-up appointment with my GI doc in a month. Today I called his office because of the difficulty swallowing and he said it would take some time for everything to get straightened out and he will see me at my follow-up appointment. He says the esophagitis is contributing to difficulty swallowing. Does anyone know how long it takes grade one esophagitis to heal?

I feel like this is never going to go away and I will just have to learn to live with it. It's hard to feel positive about anything right now.

I'm eating small meals 5-6 times a day and and chewing my food until it's almost liquid. My doctor has not indicated that I need to stick with soft foods, but I think I will try it with the hope that it may speed up healing.

I was on omprazole (20 mg) for a month and a half, Nexium (40 mg) for 2.5 weeks, and now I am on my 5th day of Dexilant (60 mg). I don't understand how I could have developed the esophagitis while on the PPIs. I guess it's possible that my esophagitis was worse and has been healing slowly before I had the endoscopy. However, the swallowing issues were not an initial symptom. At first I just had the feeling of a lump in my throat. Swallowing became a problem shortly after I started the Nexium.

I have been incredibly stressed and anxious since my GP told me I was experiencing reflux, to the point that I was afraid to eat. Since my symptoms have not gone away with PPIs, my anxiety has increased. I'm 25 and I don't want to live the rest of my life like this. I'm not in agony, and I know this won't kill me, but it sure is miserable. I only get relief when sleeping, so it's all I want to do.

I told my GP how anxious this has made me, and I was given a prescription for Lexapro (20 mg). I was on it years ago, but only 10 mg for a few months. The higher dose made me incredibly nauseous and because I haven't been eating very much, I was throwing up blood and mucus. I bought a pill cutter and took smaller doses for a while without getting sick, but I hate taking medication, so I stopped.

The PA that I see at my GP's office says that the motility issue is not necessarily linked to the esophagitis. The GI doc says that she is wrong. Motility issues can be present without esophagitis and esophagitis can be present without motility issues. But in my case, since I have both, they are related.

I have been on Dexilent for 6 weeks with little to no relief of symptoms (still have lump in throat when i swallow and sometimes i get mucus and throat clearing)

But I've heard varied reports on how long it takes for PPI's to work, and each one may be different. Some people say a week or two for symptoms to improve, others have told me it takes several weeks to months.

My feeling is that it depends on what your symptoms are.  For those who suffer daily discomfort due to heartburn from the reflux,  they may start noticing an improvement or reduction in symptoms quite fast.   But for those who have more 'silent' reflux or LPR  symptoms (such as myself), it may take several months for the esophagus or throat to heal once the reflux has been stopped.

When I started Dexliant, the first two weeks were twice a day (morning and night) at 60mg each.  The pharmacist deemed this as the 'loading' dose.  Then in the 3rd week, I'm down to just one pill at night before bedtime at 60mg.   With Dexilant, you can take it on an empty or full stomach.

Since I have not seen a real improvement after 6 weeks, I am beginning to doubt if I am truly suffering from classic GERD, and it might be something else.  Time and more tests will hopefully give me some more ideas with my ENT, since right now it seems it isn't working fully.

 

Kat -

The instructions given (with prescription) was to take at night before bedtime.  Pharmacist told me it didn't matter if it's taken with food or not.

I usually take it right before bed.

 

@Kat

Good luck, I hope it helps!

my boyfriend has tubes in stomach to use for meds and food for 6 months to heal his!!

allie22 said...
kitkat
i have same symptoms as you. i had an endoscopy done. i was diagnosed with stage 2 esophagitis, and a hiatal hernia. I'm taking 60 mg of dexilant and 40 mg of famotidine its been about 6 weeks and i still feel throat weirdness. I have no heart burn but i do belch a lot after eating,,always did! still feeling the Lump feeling in throat, difficulty swallowing, and at times dry throat. its frustrating and the more i think about it the worse it gets. hoping it goes away soon.

Hi Allie
Not sure if KitKat is still around to tell you how long it took her to get over this, but in my case I had extremely mild esophagitis but it took an age to go away, I think I am hypersensitive.

Are you careful to stay sitting up after eating? I know what you mean about the burping, Im a big burper too and it just seems to bring things up the esophagus all the time. After I burp I try to sit up straight and relax the abodomen as much as I can to let any reflux slide back down. If its really bad I stand up and gently go up on my toes then fall onto my heels to try and shake it back down. Its good you dont have heartburn that can be a real horrible thing to have chronically but the lump in throat is very unpleasent too. My only advice for that really is to try and take your mind off it. You might also try drinking alkaline water, there is a theory that this deactivates pepsin that has attached to the esophagus from reflux. Pepsin is the main thing that attacks the lining and becomes active in acid.

Dear KitKat , And Other Friends,

Please dont take tension regarding esophagitis now , it can be cause of non suitable medicine reactions or very spicy food as well.

But i can understand this kind of situation very hard for a patient and feeling too much dangerious like now going out from world.

but its not very hard to recover , its true its takes some time like 4 to 8 weeks and mostly depends on patient conditions.

In this situation avoid to take junk foods or citric acid juices or fruits due to Acid Reflux

So , try to take daily twice Teff40 (Omeprazol) or Nexium40 ( Esomeprazole ) It will helps you to get better works for Acid Reflux and Stomach Ulcers
1: before breakfast
2: before go to bed

Regular Take Syrup " Mylanta II " Two Table Spoon 3 times in a day , Its for Acid Relfux / Gastroenterology / Burning problems.

Most Effective Tablet Te-pride (itopride) daily once a day it will give you softness in ur esophagus.

And zentic or restoril are options for you , If you feel too much worried or depression.

So , these are perfect and accurate course i am giving to you , Once u will get you will feel better day by day , Its not very hard to recover but it takes little bit time , So next time noted and avoid thats things which u feel that is cause of this esophagitis.

Rest everything will be fine by the Grace of Allah.

Thank you so much ,

Best Regards ,

Ali ,

Please Note :

1: Teff40 (Omeprazol) or Nexium40 ( Esomeprazole ) , Daily 2 times : In morning before breakfast and 2nd Before go to be at night.

2: Syrup " Mylanta II " Two Table Spoon 3 times in a day.

3: Te-pride (itopride) daily once a day.

I seem to have had this for about 9 months now -and yes I often feel shortness of breath -don't know if this usually happens or not ??????
I'm getting tired of all the bloating and passing wind. How long does it last????

KitKat,

I had troubling swallowing and would get choked swallowing food or liquid. I could feel food moving slowly down my esophagus. Many times food would get stuck. A couple of years ago I had an endoscopy. My GI doctor dilated a stricture that had formed because of acid scarring. It helped with swallowing. I, however, was told I’d have to have the ring of scar tissue stretched every couple of years.

I found improvement about a month after the procedure and being on a round of PPIs. There were setbacks along the way, but I've felt better the last few years less choking, an easier swallowing, less esophageal spasms.

I have noticed that I have been choking more the last 4 months and have started having more esophageal spasms. It may be time for me to consider going back to the GI to see if I need the procedure done again.

Your reading about magnesium deficiencies being a link to esophageal spasms is interesting. I'll have to look into that to see if it will help me.

Best of luck. I hope my experience will give you some insight.

Here is my story... On April 16th I was about to go drop off my son with his mom. I had to take my daily meds and decided to get them which were 3, 2 Zarontin and 1 Depakote (thick pill). Anyway, here I go in a hurry and drink them while taking just a bit of water directly mouth to faucet and I start choking. 1 small pill went through the other popped out and the Depakote ended up turning horizontal and stuck in my throat so bad my Adams apple was sticking out further. I felt so helpless and my mom was there but she was to small to help. I coughed forcefully and tried to do the Heimlich on my self and nothing was helping. I was panicking terribly and feeling faint and hot all over. My mom said to try to breath since she could hear me bearly talk. If it wasn't for her yelling at me to calm down I do the know what would have happened. The pill took souch time to go down and that day way the scariest day of my life. Well, the first 4 - 5 days after that I ate fairly well but after I felt like things were getting stuck that I panicked and went to my Doctor. So I got X - rays, nothing. I did feel after a while it went down, although the next couple of days it happened again and I wasn't feeling good from my mid back or so. I was scared fluid would be getting into my lungs and more food or anything would be stuck on my throat. I went to an Acute Care clinic where I used to work and another x-ray and nothing. I was put on antibiotics and prednizolone or prednizone whatever it's called. I have been feeling a bit better but I still feel my throat is dry or taking a while bringing down food and it gets me mad. I'm just turned 36 and I enjoy food so much and never had a problem with anything in my life that this has scared me and I have not eaten much and lost over 22 lbs in a mth. NOW... 3 days ago I just couldn't take it no more and I went to buy little Ceasers pizza and told myself as long as I chew well I'll be fine. A couple of bites I did ok then I saw a piece of cheese and everything went to he**(excuse my language). It got stuck in my esophagus or at least the what I felt because I certainly felt a good enough pressure in my throat and it wouldn't go down and wouldn't come out. Finally at about 5am I think it went down and managed to rest a bit but missed school. Again to Acute Care and NOTHING ON XRAY! WTHECK! I am terribly sorry this is so long I'm just scared and feel alone on this. I'm afraid of an endoscopy very afraid. The NP put me on Esomeprasol 40mg which I'm taking with a bit of applesauce. I'm drinking some special K protein shakes and was able to have some soup last night. Again I am so sorry this is so long. I pray and pray that this goes away. Never had problems w Gerd, have eaten semi spicy to spicy food every now and then. It not until I choked w my pill this all started. I will be going to an Enterprise next week. If you all read this as I did all yours, I feel your pain and sorry any of you go through this for any reason. I feel I will not breath or stop breathing sometimes and just get to scared. Any feed back would be appreciated.

Hey Alcie,

Thank u so much for the info. Although I'm still scared to death of the endoscope procedure. I get a lot of panic because of all this.

Tomorrow I will make appointment with ENT and take it from there. I guess I'll just see how it goes.

One day at a time.

Thank you again.

Hi Alex,

I am experiencing everything you are as well. Pills are difficult for me to swallow. They stay stuck in my esophagus & slowly go down. My esophagus is inflamed to the point I am on a liquid diet and even all the liquids linger or come back up. I have switched to am alkaline diet to avoid and burning from acidic foods. I've lost 10 lbs this month already & I'm at the point the last thing I want to do is eat out if fear if choking or having a brochospasm which completely includes my airway. Waiting to have money up front just to schedule an endoscopy to have my esophogus dilated. Thank you for sharing because I feel all alone when I'm in panic mode. Has anyone ever experienced a severe emergency concerning gerd? I have been having sleep apnea & gurgling in my sleep on top of all this. I'm scared my airway is going to become obstructed somehow between the inflammation, fluids & spasms.