Advise on Living with Gerd

willo32586 said...
I have been having a lot of heartburn over the past year, I would just chew a couple of antacids and and move on about my day. Well, it got to the point where I was taking them five to six plus times a day. Now, I am 28 and work in the Ems field and was a heavy smoker (one in a half pack per day). One night after work around two in the morning I had a real bad chest pain in the middle of my chest felt real dizzy, like I was going to pass out, and felt like I could not breath. (Later thins was found to be a panic attack) I went to the er, they did EKG's, X-rays, Blood Work everything. It all came back Good. I was told then that it was a vagle responce.

Since then I have had Chest Pains everyday. sometime it hurts behind the sternum all the way from top to bottom. Sometime it is in the top of my chest on the left side all the way under my arm. Sometimes it is right at the bottom of my chest right at the left rib area. Sometimes it is in the top of my chest on the right side, (it does not cause much anxiety there). The pain is always in the center of my chest below my sternum. It is always a bad sharp pain there almost constantly.

Now I am on Protonix 40mg X 2 per day, Radantatine 150mg X 1 per day, Sucrafate 1gram X 4 per day and Ondenestron 8mg as needed, tylonol 325mg for pain. I have stoped smoking (for 28 days now), changed my diet to a gerd diet, changed the way I sleep (when I am able to) so I am inclined, added oatmeal and ginger in my diet, totally cut out coffee and soda and almost all caffinee. All it does is seem to get worse.

Now I also have Generalixed anxiety disorder and depression. I take Buspirone X 6 per day for that and was not sleeping and now taking Trazadone for that.

I finally had a scope a week and a half ago and found I have a Hiatal Hernia but everything else looks fine. I need help with things to do to help my symtoms of Gerd or to get rid of it. I am not going to get rid of my anxiety untill I do. It has me to the point I can not even leave the house, I can not make it to work, I need Help. Please any advise will be aprectiated. also has anyone had anything similar?

I'm new to this part of the forum and I don't know if I officially have gerd so I do to really feel comfortable giving advice. I wonder if your symptoms arnt improving because of the hiatal hernia? What did your doctor say about that? I have had really bad chest pain for years sometimes constant for a week and I am wondering if it is all from heartburn. I've had experiences where I have felt dizzy, shaky like I'm going to pass out and short of breath after eating.

I'm sorry you haven't been feeling well especially since it sounds like you are doing right by diet, sleeping inclined and meds. I have been unable to truly eat or sleep for a week now due to my esophagus I constantly feel like food is stuck in my throat and it's hard to swallow. I have been ill for five months now and it really does mess up your life. It's to the point I can barley function at work, very depressing. You should maybe book another appointment with your doctored possibly more test can be done just to rule out any other causes.

Hi Willo:

I've had all the symptoms that you've described before. I've been suffering with this for about 20 years now. I've visited the ER several times with extreme anxiety, and feeling like I'm going to have a heart attack. That is a side effect of GERD. The EKG is always normal, and a blood test for heart stress came up negative. I'm 48 years old, and I don't normally feel like I have heart problems. Doctors are of little help.

In desperation, I found the cure for it.

After my last ER visit, I was so scared of this condition, that I ate only rice, corn and peas. I ate small portions about 5 time per day. Also, I took a mild "over the counter" dose of Prilosec to allow my stomach to heal, and small amounts of antacid. This is a very neutral diet that allows your stomach to heal.

After the first day removed from ER, my stomach stabilized. After day two, my stomach was ok, but "hanging by a thread". Day three, ok most of day, then a little scary in the evening after driving which jostles stomach. Day four, stronger. By day 6, I was feeling much stronger. I noticed that I was much more calm (one of the first things you notice) More patient and relaxed too. I started adding other foods, lox, salad, chicken, fish, dried mango, avocado. But I always added some rice, peas and corn. Right now, I'm on day 8. My stomach feels ok, but I know that I still have a condition. I can tell that I will be at full strength soon because I feel a little better each day.

This has been an incredibly valuable experience because now I have a "safety net" for when my stomach is in trouble. If I ever get massive burping attacks or panic attacks etc, I can revert to this emergency diet.

I have found doctors to be of no help. I would suggest that you use this emergency diet for a few days to see if you get the same results. Then start adding other food to see how it goes. Also, its always possible that you have the H. Pylori bacteria. You can get tested for it.

My major malfunction was also drinking too much beer. It lead to big stomach problems. I later quit beer (and everything else) and then my only vice was diet pepsi. I drank about 2 litres per day as I sat at my desk. That stuff is toxic too (more ER visits) Then I quit diet pepsi, and switched to tea (my last ER visit) The lesson here is that drinking excessive liquids all day is a really bad thing to do for your stomach.

I'm now just drinking about 2 glasses of water, and a little probiotic juice during each day. I feel 100% better. I know that people often say that drinking lots of water is good, but I've personally experienced several situations where I've had burping attacks, and more water just aggrivates it. Your stomach doesn't want all its good acids and bacteria washed away by excessive drinking of any liquid.

Eat small portions of food and water, and give your stomach time to work.

Also, I'm off any medications as of today. None of them are good in the long-run.

Don't worry, you have the power to fix this. You just need to be serious about it, and be willing to take a disciplined approach. This is going to take a long time to completely heal, and you can revert back as I have done many times before.

If you'd like my input on this, please list the foods that you eat regularly. What do you drink regularly? Be as complete as possible.

Best wishes,
Eric

Beagle123 said...
Hi Willo:

I've had all the symptoms that you've described before. I've been suffering with this for about 20 years now. I've visited the ER several times with extreme anxiety, and feeling like I'm going to have a heart attack. That is a side effect of GERD. The EKG is always normal, and a blood test for heart stress came up negative. I'm 48 years old, and I don't normally feel like I have heart problems. Doctors are of little help.

In desperation, I found the cure for it.

After my last ER visit, I was so scared of this condition, that I ate only rice, corn and peas. I ate small portions about 5 time per day. Also, I took a mild "over the counter" dose of Prilosec to allow my stomach to heal, and small amounts of antacid. This is a very neutral diet that allows your stomach to heal.

After the first day removed from ER, my stomach stabilized. After day two, my stomach was ok, but "hanging by a thread". Day three, ok most of day, then a little scary in the evening after driving which jostles stomach. Day four, stronger. By day 6, I was feeling much stronger. I noticed that I was much more calm (one of the first things you notice) More patient and relaxed too. I started adding other foods, lox, salad, chicken, fish, dried mango, avocado. But I always added some rice, peas and corn. Right now, I'm on day 8. My stomach feels ok, but I know that I still have a condition. I can tell that I will be at full strength soon because I feel a little better each day.

This has been an incredibly valuable experience because now I have a "safety net" for when my stomach is in trouble. If I ever get massive burping attacks or panic attacks etc, I can revert to this emergency diet.

I have found doctors to be of no help. I would suggest that you use this emergency diet for a few days to see if you get the same results. Then start adding other food to see how it goes. Also, its always possible that you have the H. Pylori bacteria. You can get tested for it.

My major malfunction was also drinking too much beer. It lead to big stomach problems. I later quit beer (and everything else) and then my only vice was diet pepsi. I drank about 2 litres per day as I sat at my desk. That stuff is toxic too (more ER visits) Then I quit diet pepsi, and switched to tea (my last ER visit) The lesson here is that drinking excessive liquids all day is a really bad thing to do for your stomach.

I'm now just drinking about 2 glasses of water, and a little probiotic juice during each day. I feel 100% better. I know that people often say that drinking lots of water is good, but I've personally experienced several situations where I've had burping attacks, and more water just aggrivates it. Your stomach doesn't want all its good acids and bacteria washed away by excessive drinking of any liquid.

Eat small portions of food and water, and give your stomach time to work.

Also, I'm off any medications as of today. None of them are good in the long-run.

Don't worry, you have the power to fix this. You just need to be serious about it, and be willing to take a disciplined approach. This is going to take a long time to completely heal, and you can revert back as I have done many times before.

If you'd like my input on this, please list the foods that you eat regularly. What do you drink regularly? Be as complete as possible.

Best wishes,
Eric

Eric, thanks for sharing. I'm going to cut back on drinking water for awhile and see if it helps. I don't drink anything but water but I do drink a lot of it. It's Healthy for you right!? Well that's what we are lead to believe. But perhaps we are not meant to drink it as much as we do. I'll update if I find any difference in my problems. Cheers.