Surgery w/o erosive esophagus or barrett's?

I am in the same boat. I have been dealing with this for 7 years. My endoscopies show mild inflammation of the esophagus. I think it is difficult for people like us to get approved for surgery because there is no "damage" even though we are suffering. I am not sure what the requirements will be for the LINX, that one looks promising, but I know there are specific criteria you have to meet. The Nissen seems to have complications and also has complications. I have not pursued the surgical route because I just have not been sure about any of the procedures. I am waiting to see how the LINX does, as it is reletively new. But I am not thrilled about any of the options.

I think it really depends on the severity of the damage. People have reported asthma/lung issues, esophageal ulcers etc. A lot of people on this forum have been dealing with GERD for years and years, I think I saw someone posted 20 years. I think everyone's situation is different. If you trust your GI, continue with his/her recomendations.

17 years is a long time. It seems to be intermittent, one day ok the next not. I have been able to get all my original symptoms under control, now I have a new one (sore throat). This is nuts! Sorry to hear you are depressed. I get depressed and anxious too. Not sure what is going on with the water....

Infregret,

I had barretts with no dysplasia dx in June, by March I had reversed the barretts. Here's what I did.....

1.diet changes; all the normal.....eat 90% chicken and turkey for meat (fish if I could choke it down). Sweet potatoes, raw carrots, broccoli, spinach, blackberries, whole grains, . I stay away from soda, coffee, choc, chips, dairy, pizza, beer etc.
2. spirulina (loaded with chlorophyll)
3. sleep inclined on left side
4. manuka honey (the higher the active+ the better)
5.aloe vera gel (lakewood brand has NO citric acid)
6. carafate (coats and protects from more damage)
7. Tums or gaviscon as needed
8.dexilant (ppi)
9. zantac in the evening (h2 blocker)
10. dgl (when i can't time the carafate)
PS: I know the honey and aloe will not stop the gerd, however they are proven healers so I believe they played a huge part in my progress of starting to heal my LES.

Good luck and best wishes,

Doggbones

This is just anecdotal, but from what I gather it seems that many people are Barrett's free after 5-10 years, but that most people who post on here noting that they have struggled 15 years + tend to have Barrett's. In addition, they seem to have it diagnosed late fairly frequently, as opposed to after their first scope. No idea what to believe on this. As I have noted, my doctors have all said generally mucosal state doesn't change after first scope, and I've seen studies where after 10 years of even daily symptoms only 10% of erosive esophagitis patients get Barrett's.

DOGGBONES, thanks again for your info. I do most of those things but am now going to implement new ones (i.e. spirulina). Just curious - did you notice less symptoms from when you had Barrett's to now? In other words, did your symptoms get better as your esophageal mucosal state did?

I am on week 2 of the Koufman diet (for the 2nd time), follow all GERD friendly behavior 100% and am taking Prilosec and it seems to make absolutely no difference. I have had the same symptoms when taking no medication and eating pizza. Even living as far as I can tell the perfect GERD friendly life, last night was potentially the worst GERD night of my life.

Post Edited (theacidrefluxman) : 5/23/2012 11:58:22 AM (GMT-6)

ARM,

To be honest I had less symptons before they put me on daily high doses of ppi's starting last June. I was put on ppi's years ago, but they never really explained anything to me about as to what was really going on or what could happen. So, I would take them off and on, I even went months at a time and took nothing. My dr. would always ask "why don't you take your meds" and I would tell him "why would I when I don't feel bad", and then he says...nothing.

As my esophageal mucosal state improved my symptoms have remained the same ever changing daily, however I do feel like my throat is less sore. My symptoms are about the same even when I eat bad as well.

erica,

I eat 7/9 grain flaxseed bread a few times a week, soy cheese once a week or so and soy milk my cheerios every morning.

I've only had a couple drinks since June......oh, how I miss my beer.

 

ARM, if you are an upright-only refluxer (0% acid time when supine) then please check out my thread about isolated upright refluxers. On mobile now so can't link. That study had a theory explaining how body position can affect reflux in certain people, and those people even with mild esop. damage and low demeester scores, benefitted from surgery. I will be taking that article with me into the surgeon for consult. Even a small hiatal hernia can be implicated.

Manometry is done at the hospital as it requires a number of small tubes to be placed through your les and water is pumped through to establish the back pressure that your les exerts. This is done by a nurse and takes around 30 minutes. I wont lie and say it is no problem as it is not at all pleasant but for me the gastroscopy was much worse. The test is normally followed by a 24h ph test.

As for a week off ppi's I recently had four days and it was uncomfortable but I am still here and I look at as a necessary evil. I can only suggest what helped me when I had to stop before my last test was that I could take gaviscon upto 3 days before and I drank only milk and ate mostly yoghurt, again not pleasant but I looked at is needed in the long term. Good luck.

Hi ARM, Whenever I had an endoscopy my esophagus was not even inflamed.  (I had been on 40mg PPIs twice a day for years, and they obviously were doing their job in regards to the safety of my esophagus.) My PCP pushed and pushed for the surgery against my GI docs better judgement, because he was certain that my reflux was causing my lung issues to be far more severe.  Finally, after 5 years of suffering and my PCP's haranguing , he finally gave in and gave me the option of "continuing on the medication or see a surgeon".  The medication wasn't working, so I chose the surgical option.  My surgeon's only concern was my DeMeester score, which was very borderline.  Still, he was willing to go forward on the information he received from my docs.  He assured me that if my asthma was being caused by reflux, then my asthma issues would improve.  I had surgery 3 weeks later, and the rest is history. I always knew it was a crap-shoot and that it might not do the trick for me.  Still, I was out of options and couldn't go on living the way I was.  So I decided to take the chance that it might help, and if it didn't, at least we could cross that option off the "To Do" list.  Thankfully, it did work.  If I needed a redo, I'd have it in a second because I don't want to go back to the way I was. Good luck with your quest for a solution! Denise