Too much medication?

Hi all

I don't know about anyone else here, but I'm sometimes uneasy with the amount of medication I'm taking. My doctors have pretty much thrown everything they can at me to try and ease my symptoms which Im grateful for, but I'm now left on, as my GI described it, 'industrial' amounts of medicine.

My daily meds are

80mg Nexium
4g Carafate
60mg Domperidone
Max ranitadine (I stopped taking it recently though, just because I felt like it was too much)
Co-codamol (pain killer when the heartburn is too much)

Does this seem a lot? I just don't like taking so much medicine, but the symptoms are still there, although nowhere near as bad as when I was on no medication!

I only recently started Carafate so hoping it will help relieve the symptoms, but not sure I noticed much difference on and off domperidone.

I would really prefer to get the fundo than take all this but because my symptoms are still here even on all this medicine the doctors said theres a chance it will make my symptoms worse!

Also my pH test came back negative, one doctor said I wasn't off PPIs long enough, another said he doesn't think it is acid reflux. I had a barium swallow and felt heartburn like symptoms during it but they said I had zero reflux! Could it be my esophagus is just inflamed so it always feels like heartburn?

I asked for another endoscopy to rule out EE, if thats negative I may ask for a bravo to get a final answer on whether I do have reflux or not, because I cant face being off PPIs again and the pH test was hell for me having a tube down my throat all day.

Thanks, sorry for the long post

Hi Andy, with the exception of the pain killers I was on a medication schedule pretty close to yours in the beginning. I only took 30-40 mg of Domperidone. Like you also, I just stopped the ranitidine. I don't think it even helped anyway. The carafate will not relieve your HB sypmtoms, It is not an antacid; it is just to heal the stomach. You say you don't notice any difference on or off domperidone.....did you have a gastric emptying test? To answer your question, I think it is a lot of meds, but at the time I needed them. My esophogus was in really bad shape, but it didn't burn unless I was having a reflux episode. I would think that burning in your esophagus is from refluxing/heartburn.

SaggitariusGirl, the burning you are feeling is most likely reflux. You don't have to have regurgitation or burping to have reflux. I didn't have either of those symptoms. The esophagus can't heal until the refluxing stops.

I agree on the meds. I was on a PPI for about 3 weeks, and when I stopped taking them the acid rebound was terrible (and the heartburn even more). It's sad though, cuz we're dealing with a condition that its difficult to cope and medicine can not be taken for very long because it may be dangerous for your health as well. You can easily get discouraged with that!

andy,

IMO, you would have to be insane to get surgery with a normal working les! If your les isn't "broken" there's no surgery out there that is going to help fix something that isn't broken. All the surgerys are for bad les, unless you have a large herina.

andy,

Have you considered getting a second endo by a different dr to see if they find a herina or not? I understand desperation, have you tried diet changes, inclined sleeping, natural supplements? How long have you had this?

"Your symptoms sound similar to mine, it is very rare that I actually feel any reflux, sometimes when I burp I feel a lot of liquid come up though. All I feel is pain, heartburn and it feels like my esophagus is constantly inflamed. Is your burning sensation constant?"

Andy 1986-

I have symptoms that are similar to this. Only when I burp do I feel my symptoms, but when I do burp the the burning sensation can last all day. I also will have gurgling in my esophagus and liquid will come up as well as gas.

I have been diagnosed with non acid reflux and gastroparesis. Currently my symptoms are not manageable by any meds.

Yes Andy, the burning/pain is constant, it's not at the heart area but above that in my esophagus under the collar bone. I eat healthier now, and made some lifestyle changes so I don't know what else I need to do! Everybody is telling me that I need to be patient, that its like a wound that needs to be healed over time but its easier said than done! The other time I was reading an article about the correlation between anxiety + heartburn and it looks like that its like a vicious cycle-when you are anxious you get heartburn (sth about the stomach muscles being tensed and applying pressure on the les) and when you get heartburn you get more anxious! And I suffer with lots of anxiety/fears so maybe that's why it just won't go away..Don't know just thoughts