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Need some help/advice from people who have GERD

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GERD & Acid Reflux
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Posted 5/13/2013 10:34 PM (GMT 0)
Ever since i turned 21 I've been having issues with chest pains, I went to the doctor had a xray ekg everything was fine. Since then things seemed to have gotten better a little bit, i was smoking I've stopped sense then. The chest pains have gotten tolerable how ever there is always a constant feeling of pressure in my throat in the morning my symptoms are generally worse and the past 3 days around noon time i develope an itchyness that goes up from my chest to my throat, it generally goes away in an hour or so though.

Now on a good day i am a bit of a hypochondriac (how ever you spell it) I've been driving my wife absolutely insane with my worries of having esophigal cancer, i keep telling myself if i did they would have gotten it on the xray of my chest (Right?) I've had these symptoms for a month and a half now my anxiety has skyrocketed i find myself crying during the day begging and pleading for my problems to just go away.

I've tried using over the counter heart burn medication it's done little to nothing for me. I was just wondering if any one else has had these symptoms I am just over burdened with anxiety and my wife gets rather annoyed with me for constantly worrying.

Sorry for my awful grammar and thank you to any one who posts.
Posted 5/14/2013 12:19 AM (GMT 0)
hi, i dont know if this will help....but when we quit smoking ...like i did a month ago....cilia start to regrow,...could be the itchy feeling you mentioned. they are moving phlegm and tar from the lungs. i would take an over the counter guafenesin syrup...thins the mucus a bit.,. as for the reflux..watch...and i mean WATCH what u eat. i am a man of junk food, fast food, fried food, cola, dairy, late night binges....etc. no more of that. if something is acidic...we pay for it. the longer food stays in the stomach, the more the acid will be working to digest it. i would go for stuff high in fiber and avoid excess protiens and fats. and wher your anxiety is high...watch the caffiene and sodium. im going thru the same but with slightly different symptoms, so you have my empathy. i hope this helps.
Posted 5/14/2013 1:36 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you, this helps alot actually. I just want to stop being paranoid of having esophigal cancer. Generally i want it all to stop, i suppose i really have to watch what i eat until i heal or what ever this is.
Posted 5/14/2013 3:53 AM (GMT 0)
I've been crying a lot too. This stuff sucks... I wish I lived in Japan. They don't have the same kinda issues over there. Whatever you do don't be put on reglan.. That stuff will make your anxiety and depression skyrocket... oh boy. I'm on that right now. I hate it.

When I first started having my problems I went to walmart and bought the generic version of Zantacs called ranitidine. I was able to buy like 120 pills for less than 8 dollars, but I would take that twice a day. One in the morning and one before bed. That seemed to help a lot until I made the mistake of surgery... Found out after my surgery that I have gastroparesis and that my surgery was useless to prevent my reflux... Anyways, taking ranitidine, eatling ramen noodles, cinnamon pop tarts, bananas, soy milk, melons was pretty much my life. PPI's are quite a bit more effective, but zantacs always worked just as well as the PPI's for me and coust a fractions of the cost less.

Watch out for side effects though, I know I had some blurry vision when I took zantacs right away, but after a while that got better. another thing is If you go to school, don't resell your books! use them to jack up your bed a good 8-12 inches or try sleeping on your left side. I currently sleep on a 30 % angle, doesn't help much, but I can't breath laying flat.
Posted 5/14/2013 3:56 AM (GMT 0)
another thing is, if you do get anxiety meds or depression meds from your doctor. I know most of them made my reflux worse. Just a heads up. Some of them may not be so bad, but I've been on elavil and lexapro, both made me feel worse.
Posted 5/14/2013 4:33 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks Sixness I think the anxiety is killing me at this point. On a daily basis i think i have cancer or heart disease or who knows else. I am finding myself too anxious to complete my daily house hold cleaning and i generally feel like i am being a huge nuisance to every one.

Just being able to type this all out makes me feel better.
Posted 5/14/2013 8:27 AM (GMT 0)
I have suffered anxiety and depression as a result of GERD, before this I was the kind of person that NEVER worried, so I understand what you are going through.

Your symptoms sound similar to mine except I also have heartburn pain almost constantly, varying in intensity. I have simply had to learn how to live my life and ignore them for the moment. Unless you've been through it it is really hard to understand the emotional turmoil this condition causes, I know exactly what you're going through. We've all been there, the tears and hopelessness.

Your symptoms sound like typical GERD, you should go to the doctors and they can prescribe you with stronger medication to relieve the symptoms. If you want to you can also ask to have an endoscopy to see if you have something like a hiatus hernia, they can also take biopsies to rule out cancer so you dont need to keep worrying about it. That is how they test for esophageal cancer not xrays, but to be honest with you your symptoms sound quite low on the scale (not to downplay your suffering, even slight symptoms are soul destroying, but count yourself lucky because some people have it a LOT worse, I know Ive been there) so cancer is like 1 in a million.

ANd remember that anxiety makes the symptoms worse, so try and stay relaxed, do some relaxation exercises a few times a day. Things like that definitely help, not only with the mental anguish but also with the physical pain.

Post Edited (Andy1986) : 5/14/2013 2:34:25 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 5/14/2013 4:37 PM (GMT 0)
I woke up with my throat being soar on the right side this morning was kind of wierd. Not sure if i'm healing or not at this point. Still paranoid of cancer but one thing that makes me feel like it's not cancer is i smoked a cigaratte for some dumb reason 3 days ago and my symptoms worsened.

Can a thing like smoking one cigaratte give you lasting effects like that when you have acid reflux?
Posted 5/14/2013 4:56 PM (GMT 0)
Hello, stress and anxiety make everything worse so you should try your best to continue with your daily activities and forget the reflux. It's very hard, I know, but it's the best thing you can do to allow yourself to heal. Also, Gaviscon helps a lot with heartburn! Have faith, I used to have a lot of throat pain caused by acid reflux, burping, nausea and all these have left me without me realizing it. Hope that heartburn will leave as well. Wishing health to everybody
Posted 5/14/2013 5:18 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks so much Saggitaurious! Makes me feel hopeful.
Posted 5/16/2013 12:34 PM (GMT 0)
I have been having the feeling of pressure or gas in my throat from morning to night for almost a month has any one else had that?
Posted 5/16/2013 12:47 PM (GMT 0)
Green, cigarettes are VERY acidic. I remember my biology teacher at school showed us an experiment passing cigarette smoke through some kind of litmus water. It went deep red almost instantly.

I used to occasionally smoke cigars (not inhale) but just from swallowing occasionally while smoking and the acid being in the saliva i used to wake the next day with TERRIBLE pains in my stomach that would last all day. When I finally figured out what it was and spat instead of swallowed I never had the problem again.

Does the gas thing feel like a lump in the throat? I have that pretty much all the time, but tend not to really notice it now (too busy focussing on the heartburn!)

You should try sleeping on an angle with the head of the bed raised, you should wake up feeling better in the morning.
Posted 5/16/2013 12:52 PM (GMT 0)
Yes it feels just like that! This is really helping me believe i don't have esophigal cancer lol! I do notice that if i lay down for awhile then get up almost immediately I have to burp really bad.

I guess the one thing that just freaks me out is I've not smoked not drank caffiene not eaten anything high in salt or spicy. I've eaten eggs and white rice with butter for the entire week and not much of a difference has occured.
Posted 5/17/2013 11:35 AM (GMT 0)
It's so frustrating sometimes. Doing everything correctly but still having the burning! The same here when I had the lump feeling in my throat I couldn't feel the heartburn but now that I don't have the lump feeling anymore I have constant burning! Like I Should be having a pain somewhere cuz otherwise it wouldn't be ok! Arghhhh
Posted 5/17/2013 10:19 PM (GMT 0)
I have the same problem too, when lump in throat is gone chest pain is back. Also do any of you have trouble swallowing?
Posted 5/19/2013 3:27 AM (GMT 0)
Greenbeard - Chest pain, lump in throat feeling, difficulty swallowing - sounds like esophageal spasms. Get an appt. with a good GI doc ad go for a manometry.
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