Barrett's esophagus = mental distress

Hi dwstuart,

Sorry to hear this is troubling you so much. BE is perfectly treatable. In fact, my 4cm ring of BE cells have completely disappeared after a year of treatment. While my treatment included fundoplication surgery (which caused the BE cells to appear), reflux maintenance and treatment of your gastritis/esophagitis will help resolve that.

What course of treatment have your doctors recommended? Have you seen a thoracic surgeon?

Best,
-TonyG-

Well, it might be that you need to try a different course of medications. For me, omeprazole did nothing. There are other medicines out there to try; don't feel like you're stuck into taking just one. Ablation is not usually necessary unless it's metastasized or dysplastic past the inner lumen of the esophagus. My surgeon indicated that typically once the condition causing the BE cells to appear (in my case, a weak LES causing my esophagus to be constantly bathed in stomach acid), then they should resolve on their own.

I only had an endoscopy at one year following surgery. Since the cells were gone, I have no reason to have a follow-up endoscopy again. I have no reflux symptoms and am no longer on medication so my reflux and GERD are completely under control.

Hopefully your surgeon will give you favorable feedback about a treatment plan. If you are not a candidate for surgery, I would seek out a GI doc for a more aggressive medication-based treatment.

Be well and take care,
-TonyG-

So, basically the takeaway from that is that your surgeon doesn't think the BE occurrence is bad enough to warrant surgical intervention. That's great news, for sure.

I'm 42. For me, I had been through the gamut of medications to the point where I was taking the maximum Protonix dosage 4x's per day with little to no relief. The only solution for me was surgery and it not only solved my severe reflux, but because the reflux was immediately under control, it gave my esophagus time to heal and therefore the Barretts cells disappeared. Given that the BE cells were completely gone on a one-year post-op biopsy, my surgeon and GI felt that future biopsies would not be needed.

Do you have a GI doc that you can get a consultation with? At this point, it would be best to aggressively pursue a course of medication changes.

Hi there

I do sympathize with the worry element, hence my thread on Barretts and how our risk of other things is far greater. That said, it's hard not to worry. I had Barretts and no chance of surgery - only a tiny hernia and normal manometry etc. I took zantac for a year before my last scope as I have a lot of trouble taking ppis and although I felt well, in my head the barretts progressed every time I so much as burped! Surprisingly at that scope there was no Barretts and I was discharged.

Symptoms don't always match the actual pathology and worrying doesn't change what they are going to find, I figured.

Barretts can regress on its own and between scopes you have to focus on feeling well and controlling symptoms, not just to protect your oesophagus but to get the best out of life that you can. I found the more I was aware of symptoms the more I worried. And I do think we are better off knowing we have Barretts and taking care of ourselves that those people out there who have Barretts and no symptoms and therefore no monitoring! You've found your Barretts and you're on its case and that's not a bad position to be in!

MMM

Hi

I've been discharged as there was no Barretts on my last scope. However my GP tends to ask for gastroscopy if I so much as turn up with an in growing toenail, so I don't imagine it'll be many years before I have another!!

MMM

I keep getting the runaround from my doctor. I do suffer from anxiety already and other health problems. I'm trying to get a second opinion as this experience has been bad for the last couple years with poor explanation from the doctor.