PPI and making my GERD worse?

Hi there,

I'm new to the GERD club. I've read lots here already and realize everyone is different. I get scared sometimes as I read threads and never hear positive results. So it's my goal to report back with great results within a few months/year.

I'm a 43 year old Canadian Male. This is a long post as I want to document what I have in case anyone can relate. And like I said, I want to report back my improvements.

My problem started in February 2017 after not being able to swallow food properly. It would stick in my upper throat and I needed a sip of water to get it down. I went to the Doctor's immediately and he had me get a blood test and a Barium swallow test.

I didn't have any symptoms of heartburn, just a mild nausea. I was also a heavy tea drinker, lover of chocolate, beer and salsa, and tended to lie on the couch after dinner.

Barium swallow showed reflux so he prescribed me Sandoz Rapabozole 20mg. No instructions on food, diet or lifestyle change (which probably won't surprise many of you) I didn't take them right away, as I thought if I cut black and green tea out, and alcohol and greasy food, I'd be fine. And I was fine for a bit and felt like I was improving, but had a few missteps in that I still grazed on chocolate, and ate cheese, tomato based foods like pasta, hamburgers and had chinese food one night. All I needed was a tiny sip of water, and food would go down no problemo

One day I just thought I'd have some toast, and try to swallow it without water. I put butter on it to help it go down, but halfway through, the bread got stuck near the top of my mouth in my throat. I didn't panic too hard, just drank a bit of water, and it rumbled down. I wasn't scared, I just knew something was up so I thought I'd try Zantac first before the PPIs The Zantac made me feel really off, like a burp was always trapped in my throat. I didn't like it but gave it a shot for a week.

One day I swallowed a Zantac and it wouldn't go down. It just stayed in my mouth no matter how many times I tried to get it down. Freaked out, the next morning I took my PPI.

Within a week, my symptoms got 100 times worse. I could only 1.5 liters of water in me in a day, and that was a struggle. Food would not go down at all as I felt always full. I lost 5 pounds that week. I went back to the doctor and he told me to stay on the pills to let my throat heal. He made me an appointment for an endoscopy.

After two weeks I had to leave work early as I was constantly feeling like gas was trapped in my throat and I couldn't burp. I just had shallow burps that went nowhere. So I'd go home and finish up work at home so I could walk in privacy and try to burp. During this week I bought the Dropping Acid book and followed an even stricter version of her diet. However my reflux just seemed to show more and more symptoms. I started getting mucous in my throat after every meal that lasted for hours. I started choking on my saliva. I was lucky to get 600 calories in a day. I was also heavily constipated.

My diet for the past 5 weeks is
1) a vegan protein shake made with almond milk
2) Vegetable soup with rice (where I take alkaline veggies and slow cook them, purree it and add cooked rice)
or Home made Chicken and barely soup with the fat skimmed off with peas and carrots
or Lentil soup
3) Gluten free cereal at dinner with almond milk

I can't get any snacks in to help with my weight loss as they cause burping. Raw vegetables are too difficult for me to eat.

Three weeks in I started crying frequently. But I had no tears as I was severely dehydrated. I no longer looked at food with any love. I was never hungry, I had no urge to pee. If I ate anything with a trigger in it, I'd go into burping spasms for a half hour and found I couldn't breathe.

Week four I had my endoscopy and took myself off the PPI as I wanted to see if I would improve without it.

The first week off, I had a burning stomach and throat. I guess this is acid rebound. I was able to drink more water though (2 liters) and I got my calorie count up to 800 calories. The mucous in my throat decreased considerably but was still there. I started having more frequent bowel movements. I used the Canadian version of Gaviscon to help with the burning, but whenever I took the Gaviscon, I'd get more mucous in my throat.

The second week, which I just wrapped up, and I can get 900 calories in. I dropped the Gaviscon (but ordered the UK version). No more mucous in my throat unless I have a bit of fat like olive oil or coconut oil. No more crying every day either. One day I looked at food and actually missed it! My digestive system seems to be making noises now too.

Got my endoscopy results back today and the doctor told me from the biopsy there is no cancer, but my throat is inflamed and I have sever reflux. He wants me to take the PPI twice a day. I told him of all my troubles and he did not care. He said, fine don't take it, but you're going to need to eventually.

I'm very lost right now as I don't think I was imagining my troubles on the PPIs. I have an esophogeal mamontry test on May 30th and I have to be off the PPIs for 7 days prior so I'm riding out the remainder of May not taking them. In June 2017 I'll reevaluate if I should go back on them. For now it's nice not dealing with problems swallowing my own spit. But there's a little voice in my head that makes me feel like my throat is on fire all the time and that I'll lose the ability to swallow all together.

My hope is if I stick to the Acid Rebound diet, don't eat four hours before bed, use my DGL licorace, and sleep on a slant (my bed is slanted at 7.5 inches) I should be just fine and get my swallowing strength back.

I'd appreciate any advice, reflections, encouragement or solutions. I was a little angry my doctor didn't really listen to me or offer any suggestions about why the PPIs may have messed up my digestive system, and made it difficult to eat. Or why he couldn't put me on another PPI, just to experiment, but I understand that this is the way it is too. I know there are lots of people who are worse off than me, so I'm grateful. I'm just really starting to figure out how awful GERD is and my heart goes out to everyone who is suffering.