Posted 2/13/2014 2:57 AM (GMT 0)
Ill give you a quick back ground into my story. I am 23 years old. I am about 100lbs overweight, but I am working on that. I am not the most active person out there, but I am not a vegetable either. My job is fairly active (landscaping and snow plowing/shoveling.) about 2 years ago I tweaked my shoulder pretty bad and was prescribed Naproxen 500MG two times/day for 15 days. Following the prescription I started having chest pains and talked to my doctor about it. Took some blood work and ordered a ultrasound of my heart. Everything came back good, except for a small murmur but said that is fairly common. He figured it was GERD and prescribed me 40MG of Omeprozol 1x per day. Fast forward about 2 months and I was still having problems. He recommended me to a GI doctor who ordered a endoscopy and determined I had GERD and changed my prescription to 1 20MG omeprozol 2x per day. I also changed my diet somewhat. Removed soda limited coffee and things got better. After about 6 months or so I was off the meds and going about my business just fine.
Right around October (2013) I started drinking soda and coffee again in moderation(I know stupid me.) I would only have a 12oz can of soda with lunch and a small coffee with creamer at breakfast. The coffee was more frequent then the soda. In November I started having GERD symptoms again and had my omeprozol refilled. Around the same time I also came down with a bad infection and my primary care Dr. put me on a round of Levofloxin that I ended in early December. In early January I ended up in the walk-in with some really bad abdominal pains (lots of snow plowing and not following the best diet while plowing.) Dr. figured I had a small infection in my abdomen (appendix already out) as well as IBS and prescribed me Bentyl (as needed) and Ciprofloxin. I finished the cirpo, but only needed a few of the Bentyl before symptoms went away. After finishing this round of medication is when I noticed my GERD coming back more (roughly about a month ago or so.)
I have been taking my omeprozol regularly since the beginning of January when the GERD started coming back and have not had any relief. I even take a swig of Maylox as needed and that may help for a while. I don't get really bad heartburn, but I do have the frequent burping and the pressure that is only relieved by burping. Often after eating I am burping up part of that meal. In the mornings as soon as I wake up, I burp. I get the pressure left and left center in the chest, with an occasional spasm down where my esophagus meets my stomach. I have removed coffee and soda, and still have the symptoms. Some throat swelling (not closed or and difficulty swallowing, just felt like right where my breast bone ends was inflamed.) I was getting gassy too, but after realizing I was getting that after drinking milk I removed that. Some of the pain in my chest is tough to tell whether its from my GERD or a pulled muscle. Last week while working I over extended my arm backwards and so my shoulder/neck/arm and under my armpit into my chest has been sore.
I went back to my GI doctor today and he was shocked that I was still having GERD symptoms while on the PPI. He wants me to change to a really bland diet and taking a probiotic for the next 3 weeks. He also ordered a test for celiac disease (which I am really hoping comes back negative.) He said that being on those antibiotics certainly could be contributing to me having the symptoms again since that's when I started them. He also said I could have an infection or inflammation in my esophagus. If I am not any better in the next few weeks he would want to order another endoscopy to look and see what's going on.
I know its a long story, sorry, but just curious if anyone else has experienced anything along these lines, especially the GERD with antibiotics and the PPI's not helping. What were some of the things you did to help?