I am really getting tired of heartburn. It's just ridiculous. I have had heartburn for as long as I can remember, but it's definitely gotten worse with time rather than better. When I was younger, I thought it was just how everyone felt when they were hungry. Little by little I began to pick up that I was not normal. It wasn't until I was married and in college that my dear cousin J called it heartburn and a light came on. Since then I've been fighting a losing battle with it, and I'm fed up. (so to speak)
I don't get it when I've eaten, which is the weird thing. I get it when my stomach is empty. If it's empty for too long, then it takes me a good 24 hours of normal eating to get rid of it. It comes back every night and I have to eat crackers and drink water and Maalox to get rid of it. Last night I was up for an hour trying to keep it away.
Ugh! I've tried Prilosec, Prevacid, Zegerid, Nexium, Zantac, Pepcid, Pepcid Complete and something else that starts with a P. Not to mention Tums, Rolaids, Maalox and Mylanta. None of them have ever worked. I can't even take them properly to find out if they'd work, because you have to take all those one-a-day pills on an empty stomach and then wait one hour before you eat. I can't do that! My stomach is imploding at that point, and I have to eat unless I want to be the sickest most pathetic wreck you've ever seen.
All that to say, I think I'm going to have to go for the nasty scope down the throat thing sometime soon. I've been avoiding it for lots of reasons, but I really don't know what else to do, and I don't want to live like this for the next 75 years.
11 comments:
yep, schedule the scope. I think you've done everything you can up to that point.
Not that I have any room to talk. ha ha
I think you should try one last thing, or two. Some naturalists say to use vinegar, that the acidity is actually because you do not have enough acid. You'd have to look up how to take that, though.
But what worked for my husband was easy and not that expensive, and a huge health benefit for a woman anyways! Coral Calcium! Not kidding! He took that daily for 3 weeks and it was GONE. He didn't believe that was the reason, but he stopped taking it and it came back quickly. Then went away when he resumed the calcium. I think it does matter that it is coral calcium, though.
Trying that has got to be better than the scope, right? And you can take it with your food! Give it a few weeks. Your bones will thank you, too.
I'd at least give the Coral Calcium a try before doing the scope. It would be awesome if it worked and you didn't have to do the scope.
Yuck...I have only really experienced heartburn when I was pregnant with Caden. I could not imagine dealing with that everyday! I sure hope that you can find a solution to your problem!
BTW--come visit my blog...there is a surprise there for you!
Another thing to try...it is painless, but it is a pain! Try the food allergy elimination diet for a few weeks. The 6 big things to avoid are Wheat, Nuts, Dairy, Eggs, Fish & Shellfish and Soy. Of course, you could be reacting to some fruit or vegetable, but those are the 6 big ones.
Also...try taking over the counter probiotics (available at Wally world, etc.) My gastroenterologist has me on those daily in addition to my prilosec. He says that many people have had success with resolving digestive problems after a month on probiotics.
After all this time, I agree with Lilibeth - do the scope. If there is something else going on in your esophagus, you need to know it, and it certainly isn't going to harm you... if you do want to take the coral calcium, let me know. I think I have some that I got and never took because of the other ingredients.
I get the same thing, when I'm hungry, not after I've eaten. Gaviscon works wonders for me!
This kind of thing seems to run in our family. Alli and Ren have it too. Keep us up to date on what you decide to do. I'd give the coral calcium and probiotics a try, it couldn't hurt.
I went through much of what you are doing, as you know. Not until a doctor scoped it did I get relief and a clear treatment plan. You've tried this and that for far too long. If other ideas appeal to you, why not try them AND get a scope? :)
I had the scope done awhile back...they found no major prob in the heartburn area, even though heartburn was bugging me quite often, but I had some inflammation in the stomach and chronic inflammation in the duodenal area. The prilosec plus probiotics does seem to have helped a great deal. You do need the scope...it's been several years now, hasn't it? Chronic heartburn and/or reflux can start to cause damage to that valve area.
Something to consider is to ask your gastro if he is familiar with eosinophilic esophagitis and eosinophilic gastroenteritis and whether he is going to do an overnight ph probe and also biopsies with eosinophil count.
Some docs are clueless about those 2 things...the probe and the esophagitis eosinophil count...but the ones who are better informed should be paying attention to them. In GERD, the eosinophil count is often elevated, but not to the same degree as in eosinophilic esophagitis.
http://www.gicare.com/pated/epdgs43.htm
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:lWm9NFgqVwQJ:www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/cd-734633.pdf+esophagus+%22eosinophil+count%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=20&gl=us
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