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I had a Barium Swallow today

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GERD & Acid Reflux
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Posted 9/25/2018 4:11 PM (GMT 0)
I just got home from my barium swallow. I didn't find it was too bad. At the end, they had me lay down on my side and eat some marshmallows. They asked me to keep swallowing. I asked if it was stuck and they said yes and to keep swallowing. They gave me some water and it went down. Does this mean my dysphagia is confirmed? It's weird because I didn't feel it really sticking and I thought my dysphagia had gone away. Is it normal for a regular person to have to sip water to get it to go down? I mean, my mouth way dry from no food and water and that barium stuff. I guess I'm just worried because I thought I was getting better sad.
Posted 9/25/2018 4:41 PM (GMT 0)
Please don't overly stress and try to interpret your test results, wait until you can discuss it with your doctor.
Posted 9/25/2018 9:09 PM (GMT 0)
I believe you will get better bro. I worry occasional myself, but we are all in this together and just have to push through.
Posted 9/29/2018 8:20 PM (GMT 0)
In my experience, the esophagus takes a long time to heal. I'm almost at the 5 month point, and just yesterday I experienced severe dysphagia, where even mushy vegetables like zucchini were getting stuck in my throat. Don't be discouraged by the marshmallow getting stuck, especially since it is sticky food, and on the bright side it did go down after you drank liquid. As long as you continue to eat slowly and carefully I am certain that you will heal after a while.

Please let us know how the results turn out, hoping for the best.
Posted 9/30/2018 6:10 PM (GMT 0)
Hello Mauricesr,

I have read a few of your posts mentioning about bubbles in your throat. I too experienced it in the past 5 days after I took a drink or swallow saliva. The difference in our cases is you are still on ppi and I got this condition when weaning off ppi. I am currently on Zantag 150 X4 per day. In my case when I burped gas my throat became more irritated and slowly over a period of 15 days or more I got the throat bubble condition.

I am contemplating going back to ppi and heal the throat first then restart the weaning process again. May I ask from your experience will the throat recover? I hate go give up the 3 weeks of weaning effort for the throat. I have mainly expereinced only gas burping and small amount of acid fume racing up the throat. I think there is no warranty that once the throat is healed it won't be affected by the gas burping once I restart with the weaning again.

Thank you
Posted 9/30/2018 10:47 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Vdang2k,

From my experience, yes your throat will recover but it will take a long time. The throat is more sensitive to acid than the esophagus, and therefore takes longer to recover. When acid first burned my throat, although I never spat up or coughed blood, I lost my voice for an entire month, and then for another month I had voice hoarseness every morning and randomly throughout the day.

As for whether or not to return to PPIs, it depends all on how much you are acid refluxing. I don't know if the fumes or gas will cause damage to the throat. I get similar fumes and gas every day, and I have not lost my voice again, or have had any hoarseness in my voice. Based on this experience, I would assume that the fumes or gas maybe do not do as much damage as the acid itself.

Also when it comes to the burps, if I feel gas in my stomach I do my best to not "force" a burp, because forcing it might cause reflux, or at least it does in my case.

If you are able to maintain a strict diet, and do not get any acid reflux, then perhaps you might not need PPI. If you feel better now that you are weaning, and if you choose to continue this weaning, perhaps it would be a good idea to get an endoscopy in a few months to make sure you are on the right track.

Best of luck!
Posted 11/6/2018 9:25 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Mauricesr

I experienced a few reflux incidents in early Oct while on H2 blockers. They did quite a bit of damages to my throat (tense muscles at neck) and the swallowing became difficult. I made a decidion to go back to 40mg ppi to nurse my throat. Overall I could feel a small improvement in swallowing. My esophagus is probably inflamed as I felt a little pain after swallowing. I figure the nerves at the throat are damaged and they tend to tense up if I burp.

I am so bloated and do not feel hungry all the time (foods not digested for at least 6 hrs.) just like when I took pantoprazole for the first time (I tried to wean off 1 month after on ppi for the first time. The wean off period lasted for 3 weeks) There was so much gas in the stomach and I beltched quite a lot. I had so many rectal discharges also. My diets are only vegetables (broccoli & cabbage) soup with salmon, and white rice (easy to digest) with shreaded dried lean pork. I am currently enduring these conditions and I don't know if taking 40mg ppi to nurse the throat back is the right thing to do? The tenseness at the throat is still there but it is a little bit better than 1 month ago. I am contemplating on dropping the ppi dosage down to 20mg to lessen the bloating, gas and indigestion issues but am scared of putting more damages to the throat.
I have never been this sick before in my life after taking ppi. My mental state right now is quite low as I experience all the symptoms associated with acid reflux from taking ppi daily. My goals are to heal the throat and retry the weaning process. Its depressing not being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Post Edited (Vdang2k) : 11/6/2018 2:28:00 PM (GMT-7)

Posted 11/7/2018 12:30 PM (GMT 0)
Some vegetables, especially broccoli and cabbage, are extremely gaseous. This is definitely contributing to your bloating issues.

Sharon
Posted 11/7/2018 4:10 PM (GMT 0)
Hi SharonZ
I noticed that when I was weaning off (still on H2 blockers) I had way less gas and bloating. My diet back then was only vegetable soup, nothing else. I usually burped once after meal.

This morning I burped about 5 times in 1 hour after drinking half a glass of boiled ginger water, tumeric and papaya. I have not had vegetable soup in a few days. The burpings can be strong at drinking or eating times and also can look like hicups at other times. Rectal dischareges are frequent now. I'm sure that is the effect of ppi. Foods stay in the stomach too long.
The only way to get rid of these symptoms is to wean off ppi. However, I need the throat to heal and it can take up to 6 months. I am only 1 month into retaking 40mg ppi. With the frequent belchings I don't know if the throat will ever heal. Thinking about dropping the dose to 20mg to lessen the symptoms but I don't have the courage.
Posted 11/7/2018 7:07 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Vdang2k,
I understand how you feel because for 4 months straight I was in constant pain despite being on both ppi and h2 blockers. I saw no light at the end of the tunnel either, and I was certain I was going to die because my chest and throat hurt so bad 24/7. It didn’t matter what I ate, my chest burned all the time. Now I am on my 6th month of taking PPI (pantoprazole 40mg) and my pain is finally gone, even though there is still a soreness in my chest. I am a lot happier now during the 6th month than I was earlier. Still at the end of the day my stomach is absolutely bloated so I have to be careful with what I eat.

First you need to stop eating vegetables that cause a lot of gas. Broccoli and cabbage will cause much gas. So it’s better to switch over to green beans, and other leafy greens like kale, collard greens, carrots, celery, cucumbers, fennel etc. Also be careful with the anti-inflammatory stuff like ginger and turmeric, they are good but too much of it can be bad. I only eat ginger and turmeric as seasoning, and only one time per day of a small dash of both.

Also be careful with the amount of liquid that you eat per day. It is better to sip liquid slowly and between meals, and do not drink with meals (its ok if it soup, but don’t drink til your stomach is full). The less liquid in your stomach the less chance for you to reflux.

Salmon is good, but it has a lot of fat relative to other fish (yes it is a good fat, but fats are still more difficult to digest). Try to switch over to a fish that is lower in fat than salmon like Cod fish – this is the fish that saved me, and I ate it everyday.

Please don’t lose hope. You’re going to heal, it’s just going to take a long time. I am still wondering how long it’s going to take for me to heal. I’m really not sure, but it does seem like these changes have helped me for the better.

Wishing you well.
Posted 11/8/2018 8:11 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Mauricesr
From reading your story I understand that your conditions are stable within the last 2 months. That is good news.

I gave up the soup around a week now. I am mainly on rice with shreaded dried lean pork. I also supplement my meals with glutten free breads + almond butter. I eat some green vegetables but not that much. I am seriously underweight (5'6" at 120 lbs) and craving for fat. I do have Cod but they don't offer that much calories. I drink boiled ginger water in between meals (used to drink alkaline but felt bloated too much and caused some refluxes) now. I think I have delayed gastric emptying and that is the cause of the reflux. I am lucky if I can put in two meals per day.
I think my throat is healing and the swallowing is getting a little better slowly. The neck muscles feel tense everytime I burped gas. Maybe the nerves there are still damaged and will take time to heal. Did you have any problems swallowing during your first 4 months while on ppi?

I heard from a famous naturopath (Dr. Eric Berg) on Youtube that Kerry Gold's grass-fed cow butter has good amount of animal fat that can aid to the healing of skin lining tissues such as the throat and offer calories to underweight people. I am not sure if this is a good idea but willing to try to stop the weight slide.
Are you considering weaning off ppi at a later time when everything gets better? The longer I am on ppi the more anxiety I will have. I can't seem to shake the anxiety off.

P.S. I had my first ever reflux in June and took ppi 2 days after pcp doc. told me to. I quit ppi a week later due to bloating and experienced heartburns for the first time (did not know ppi rebound effect at the time). I had a normal endoscopy two weeks after the heart burn incidents. Felt like I made a mistake taking ppi. Now I can't get off of it due to throat problem. It's a viscous cycle.
Posted 11/12/2018 1:21 AM (GMT 0)
Vdang2k,
Yes I had trouble swallowing for my first months of taking PPI. For the first 3 months, I felt food getting stuck in my throat, almost every single day! Even during my 4th month food kept getting stuck in my throat. Finally on the 5th month, food would only get stuck every once in a while. And now food no longer gets stuck. The last few weeks I can swallow normally.

I don't know much about naturopaths, but I would avoid anything high in fat and dairy, with the exception of Kefir maybe (kefir actually makes me feel pretty good lately).

I am considering weaning PPI at the end of this month. If your endoscopy was normal then why are you taking PPI? Make sure that if you wean you only take half a dose for a few weeks at a time, and keep reducing the dose by half, then switching over to zantac.
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