Esophageal Cancer Worries

I am a 38 year old female. I am overweight. I have suffered from heartburn/acid reflux since about 2003. I rarely get heartburn during the day. It tends to only happen at night. I will fall asleep fine then wake up a few hours later with my throat burning from the reflux. I have always self treated with fruit flavored chewing gum.

In June 2016, I was eating lunch then I choked on my food. This has happened twice since. I am concerned that I could have esophageal cancer. I have a call out to my doctor for an appointment, but in the mean time I am so scared and I don't have anyone to talk to without sending them into a panic.

I am very high anxiety. Dietary changes help my reflux immensely, but when I am extremely anxious as I have been lately (started a new job in May, left a long-time career) the reflux gets really bad. Is choking/feeling like food is stuck a GERD symptom? Is this something that after so many years could happen suddenly?

Thank you! I feel foolish that I've let this go on for so long. I'm trying to make some diet changes. Hopefully that will help too.

Tristessa,

I had the same issue. Rarely any heartburn during the day, but occasional reflux at night when lying down. But it was so occasional, maybe 6 times over a 10 year period, that as nasty as it was when it happened I never worried about it doing any real damage. It wasn't until I had some severe stomach pain due to overuse of aspirin, alleve, motrin, etc, that I had an endoscopy and learned about the Barretts short segments in my throat.

Its a scarring of the esophagus due to stomach acid or bile getting up there where it doesn't belong. While it can lead to cancer, it is very rare and happens to less than 1% of those diagnosed with Barrett's. Your doctor will probably send you to see a gastroentologist, who will do an endoscopy and then you'll know what's going on.

If you get a similar diagnosis, the standard treatment is to put you on on acid blocking medicine, recommend dietary changes, and some other suggestions specifically related to your nighttime reflux issues. Depending on the results, these latter suggestions could be the most important. What I did was to eliminate any food or drink within 3 hours of bedtime, and raised the head of my bed 5-6 inches. Do this by raising the mattress, not with pillows. This lets gravity help keep any stomach contents where it belongs. Based on what you say, I would do this now. No need to wait for your doctor visits, which between Primary Care and Specialist could take months before you get results.

For a while initially I took acid blocking drugs, but stopped them as soon as my stomach was healed, Long term use of these drugs is dangerous, as the package inserts will warn you. If you use them for longer than two weeks, supplementing with calcium, magnesium, and a good multi vitamin and mineral is essential. Dietary changes may be necessary if your daytime heartburn is an issue, but if you can control the nighttime reflux with the 3 hour gap and raising the mattress, then you maybe able to avoid most of them unless you also have damage to your stomach lining.

It's all very treatable, so don't worry about it. Let us know what they say after the tests. There are other treatments people at this forum have had experience with and can suggest.

Post Edited (rjdriver) : 9/5/2016 8:49:11 AM (GMT-6)

I'm glad that you are experiencing some relief from the annoying heartburn and acid reflux.

Good luck with your consultation and let us know what the outcome was.