Esophagitis - anyone had/have it? Really uncomfortable and worried..

Thanks for your post. I did check out the other posts.
Yes I hear it can take some time. Roughly how long?
Have you noticed any improvements at all??

Dani0011 said...
Hi I'm 25. I think I may have this. Getting an endoscopy in a week.
My most troublesome symptoms are chest pain and painful swallowing.

Does this thing heal? I'm so scared :(

I'm also worried it's Barrett's.

Please any feedback would be appreciated.

Hi Dani0011,

Welcome to the forum.

Yes, I've been diagnosed (again) with my second bout of erosive esophagitis and this time around it's just as bad, if not worse, than the first time.  I'm happy to hear that you are getting an endoscopy soon because that will shed a light on many things. 

Yes, esophagitis can be healed, though depending on how severe it is it could a few weeks (mild esophagitis) to several years (severe esophagitis) and everything inbetween.  

It took me 6 trips to emergency room in the last four years to finally get it in my thick skull to avoid foods and beverages that were the root cause of my specific problem.  It is my own personal belief that 95% of reflux is caused by what we eat and drink, how often and how much we eat and drink, and how we sleep.

Though my symptoms were severe (mostly pain, trouble breathing, SVT caused by esophageal spasms), I have found sticking to a low-acidic diet, elevating the head of my bed 7 inches plus, eating small meals throughout the day,  keeping a food journal, chewing sugar free gum after meals, taking a daily probiotic, etc. have all slowly helped alleviate my symptoms.

I've seen cases of mild esophagitis heal up in just a few weeks.  However, mine is a grade B erosive esophagitis and I've been dealing with it now for months.  To be candid, once I started feeling better earlier this year I started drinking alcohol again and eating regular foods at restaurants; that combination caused my symptoms to come back with a vengeance.  Now I regret not allowing my body enough time to heal.

Please bear in mind that Barrett's is pretty rare.  I got my first diagnosis of esophagitis back in 2011, though I suspect I've had it for much, much longer, and at my last endoscopy I had no signs of Barrett's, not even a little bit.  Everyone's body is different so there's no sense in worrying until you get the result's of your biopsies. 

Do a keyword search in the search function of this forum and type in "esophagitis" and you will find a lot of other people's stories, tips, and things that worked for them.   Please let us know how your scope turned out.

I wish you the best.  Good luck to you.

You're welcome.

Right now everything I eat causes me pain, though there are varying degrees of pain. For example, if I eat organic baby food, on a scale of 1 to 10, ten being the worst pain ever, my pain is around a 3. Last night I had 4 pieces of plain sushi (salmon and tuna) and the pain I felt was a 2. This morning I had a small banana and half a peeled red apple (always organic) and the pain I felt was around a 2. Last week I had a lunch where I ate too much food (steamed rice, some tiny pieces of lean, red meat, and a small salad) and my pain shot up to a 7 and it lasted for a few hours (aaargh), but the pain didn't go below a 4 for several days.

I don't have any actual problems with swallowing and I normally don't feel pain while I'm swallowing, but only after I swallow. Most of the damage to my esophagus is in my lower third of the esophagus so that might have something to do with it. I usually also eat very tiny portions and I chew my food now until it's almost a liquid in my mouth (I now have the most powerful jaws on the planet).

Where does your pain originate when you swallow your food?

The reason why I'm asking is that when I went to the ER last month, I couldn't eat any solid foods, so I ate organic baby food for about two weeks. It totally sucked, but it was one of the few things I could eat without too much pain.

 

I'm having the same symptoms. I have pain when I swallow and I'm so scared. Had an endo 3years ago and my doc says I don't need another. I'm on medicine 4weeks now I'm feeling a little better but last 2 days I'm back with pain. So worried don't know what to do.