r/GERD

Looking for some input. I have GERD and RA, and have been losing weight for the last year to try and ease some of the worst of the pain and other symptoms. I'm eating healthier and smaller portions, and have lost my taste for processed foods and most types of sweets.

Which isn't bad. Those foods don't serve me well anyways. But now, I think my GERD is on hyper drive with so many other things that I had been eating just fine. Broccoli and carrots are a new nemesis, even brown rice.

It used to just be greasy and fried foods that set it off, now it's expanding to my healthy alternatives. Gaviscon is still the best medicine, but it only buys me a few hours of relief.

I thought losing weight would help my GERD, jokes on me. 60lbs down and it's worse than ever. Anyone have any suggestions? My doctor seems to think I'm eating too much or too fast and lying about it.

Hey guys,
I’ve been getting dull pain in the centre of my chest that sometimes feels like my heart is aching. I’ve already visited the emergency department and had an ECG, chest Xray, and blood tests done at the hospital, and everything came back normal.
Does anyone else with GERD experience this? It really feels like it’s my heart and it’s been worrying me. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Hi everyone!

First, I (33F) know none of you are doctors, and I'm not looking for a diagnosis. I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and whether your symptoms matched mine. If they didn't, I'd also love to hear why!

Back in late May, I started having a burning/pressure sensation in my chest that would wake me up in the middle of the night. I'd take a Tums and Gas-X, and sometimes that helped, sometimes it didn't. I started paying attention to my diet to see if I could identify a trigger, but it was hard because the episodes only happened every few days. I’d have a flare when I ate well and then wouldn’t have a flare after eating a cheeseburger and chili fries. There was one flare where I threw up because the pressure was so intense. I haven’t had lasagna since.

Then, in early to mid-June, it got much worse. The pain was so excruciating, I genuinely thought I was having a heart attack. I vomited so violently that I burst capillaries in my face, and I'm sure my anxiety made it so much worse. I went to the ER and they diagnosed me with severe acid reflux/GERD and prescribed pantoprazole. I followed up with my PCP, who agreed with the diagnosis and prescribed a week's worth of sucralfate. Unfortunately, my pharmacy was out of stock, so I only started taking it about four days ago.

Since switching to a very bland diet, my symptoms have definitely improved overall. Instead of having severe episodes every few days, I'm now having mild symptoms every day. The day I went to the ER, my pain was a 10/10, which I compared to when I gave birth. Now it's more like a 2/10, but it's become a nightly occurrence instead of an occasional one.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? Is it common for symptoms to become more frequent but much less severe once treatment and diet changes start helping? I'd really appreciate hearing your experiences or any reassurance you can offer. It's been a holiday weekend in the US, so I haven't been able to get back in touch with my PCP since Thursday, but I plan to reach out tomorrow. In the meantime, I'd just really appreciate some support.

So i've probably had GERD for a few years now, just had general heartburn at mornings/during sleep and dysphagia (constant feeling of lump in throat) i did an endoscopy yada yada..(found just mild gastritis) 2 months of nexium.. but now it seems my MAIN symtom is chest pain!? which causes big anxiety constintly? i heart check up (3x ECG's, 24H holter, ultrasound of the heart during effort,chest CT) with no findings.

but my brain won't let go, whenever i get this chest pain, my brain instanly flicks up the anxiety meter and it really fucks with me, anyone have any ideas? im not taknig anything right now, and for the life of me cant seem to put a finger on whats triggering it.. my biggest feeling is maybe empty stomach

I've been experiencing a lot of really bad symptoms even after taking prescribed PPIs (lansoprazole) for a few months now. I've lost around 7-10 kgs since I started taking PPIs and it feels like the symptoms have gotten worse. Difficulties swallowing food / water, constant globus sensation, throwing up spit and food, constant throat clearing, and spit / mucus constantly in my throat. I got an upper endoscopy done and they said that there was nothing abnormal to be seen. No sensation of heartburn. Has anyone else been dealing with something similar?

Waiting for an endoscopy, only flagged this up to my doctors in the last few months as I've just suffered with it but intermittently as it's gone away with intended weight loss over those 6 years a few times but came back bad say 2 years ago. Bad reflux regurgitation of actual foods not just saliva, but I know it's mostly been down to my shit diet and constant smoking of both weed and tobacco.

They say Barrett's is rare in even gerd suffers, but realistically, how likely am I to have it after 6 years of suffering (on and off as I stated)

I fully expect to have it. I've read posts on this sub of 19yr olds having a disease which only really affects over 40s.

So pretty straightforward question really, how likely am I to have Barrett's after 6 years of bad but intermittent gerd.

I'm 30, in UK and on 30mg per day of lansoprazole.

Thanks all.

ate a few bites of food, it felt like it got stuck which happens to me sometimes. I went to regurgitate it as I occasionally have to, and usually when I do that it feels better almost instantly and im able to keep eating. this time the feeling didn't go away. I kept trying to regurgitate, but just a bunch of saliva came up. then I started getting something google tells me is called "water brash" where I hiccup and a bunch of spit comes up involuntarily.

its been about 2 hours, I've taken a few tums, and couldn't drink any water for a while (I haven't chanced it since it didn't go down before). it keeps coming in waves where I feel almost okay, then the sever chest burning and hiccups come back, then the saliva to where I almost feel like I can't breathe if I don't throw it up, but as soon as I do I have relief for a while.

I'm debating going to the ER, but if they're just going to give me more antacids and send me on my way it feels kind of pointless?

has anyone ever had an attack like this and what did you do? also is there anything else I can try to get some relief before I go? I've taken tums, stoped eating or drinking anything, and have been trying to stay standing or at least upright not laying down or anything.

UPDATE: I went to the er because I kept having bouts of acid reflux that were making it feel like I couldn’t breathe and only were fixed if I made myself throw up the saliva. They were closing in an hour when I got there but I still had a check in with the dr. Because I wanted to know if he thought I should go to a 24h ER or not. He didn’t do anything or give me medication but he said it didn’t seem like I had a severe food blockage or anything, and that he thought I could manage at home and just not eat or try drinking anything for at least a few hours until it settles a bit and I tried to rest. So I went home, threw up (a ton of bile because my stomach was empty) and weirdly felt like 10x better after that. After that happened I could also swallow water which I hadn’t been able to do for 5 hours before.

Now I’m just terrified of it happening again. If anyone sees this update: what are your safe foods after an episode like that?! I’m so scared to eat anything.

Hi everyone, I’ve been diagnosed with GERD, barrett’s oesophagus, functional dyspepsia all in the past month and I’ve also been dealing w/ IBS for years. But honestly I feel like when I compare my symptoms with other people on here, I feel that mine isn’t as bad. I mean I guess I’m on a lot of meds, I take motilium, esomeprazole, and clixin. I kind of still eat whatever I want, I’ve avoided coffee, soda, alcohol anything carbonated, but aside from that I kinda still eat whatever I want. Of course symptoms do come, I feel a lot of bloating, I have to go to the toilet a lot, and the most annoying part of all is having to burp but I can’t which sometimes makes me feel like I want to throw up. But aside from that, I don’t really feel heartburn or other symptoms that makes me entirely stop eating the foods I want. However when I compare myself to other people in my life that has GERD as well (My sister, My brother, My friends), mine seems the absolute worst. I have a few questions. Can it get worse overtime? Does this mean everyone’s GERD is different?

Since I was a teenager(25 now)I feel that I've always dealt with trapped gas in both my stomach/throat as well as my abdomen. Recently I've been feeling sharp pains all over my chest, stomach, and back because of this and noticed that my reflux always seems to get worse when I can't pass gas. It's always been a huge problem because no matter what I do nothing works. And I hate to say it but I feel like there are some days where I don't fart at all. And because I have eoe gas gets trapped in my esophagus which makes things worse.

Does anyone else experience this? What could I do to relieve this gas pressure? I still haven't found out what causes my gerd so I was wondering if this could be a problem for me.

Hey y’all,

With the World Cup on and what not, I’ve had opportunities to eat a lot more greasy fatty foods along with alcohol. On June 24th I had the worst case of acid reflux I have felt in years a long with gnawing hunger pains even post meals.

Thinking I was now diabetic due to the hunger pangs (since it runs in the family), I scheduled a wellness visit, and I Requested blood work, an Hpylori test, and referral to gastroenterology to hopefully get an endoscopy soon. Dr. told me that for the moment to take famotidine (Pepcid) and to take omeprazole after the Hpylori test next week.

The Pepcid helped with hunger pangs and the regurgitation of food and stomach acid. And I am much better from the Pepcid 20mins before meals. But now I am struggling with other symptoms that I assume are more LPR-like.

As I wait for all of these things to take place, what do you all do to tackle silent reflux. I assume this is what I have since I don’t have heart burn. But have hoarseness, cough, throat irritation and dry mouth.

TIA

I'm 20 and since im 14 I suffer from severe acid reflux and hiatal hernia syntoms.
This ruined my teen years and still ruining my life 90% of the time.

I've tried anything, specific diets, anti reflux drugs and some of the best gastroenterologist in my city, but in all these years I still didn't find something that stops it, so I constantly live in agony fearing that, in a random moment, syntoms may occur and ruin everything i'm doing.

The fact that everyone tells me that a lot of people have it (even if mostly from a more advanced age than me) and I have to live with it just make it worse. If so much people experience what I have in a daily basis I don't think they would enjoy eating as much as it seems. For me, meals and food in general, instead of being a pleasure, a mental pause or a social moment, it's the most stressful and painful moment of the day as I already know, no matter what I eat, I'll feel miserable during the meal and for the next 3/4 hours.

This impacted my mental health a lot in the last years, and I fear that, when I'll be some decades older, it will be much worse, and the only thought freakes me out.

If I look back at every majour moment of my life I always remember how this ruined them and I really hate this. I don't think that someone this joung should suffer so much from a desease that should appear in their 50s in average (and most of the time not this strong), instead of enjoying the time of its life when health issues should be the last of his concerns.

I already hated a lot spending my teen years always going arond with a lot of reflux medicines in my pocket(that never really worked) and avoiding going out and avoided a lot of important experiences because of this and I don't want to also waste my 20s. I want the freedom that this age should've gived me.

All of this to say that, even if I'm really scared of the anesthesia and most of the thing itself, I want to fix it at its roots, with surgery. I talked about it with my doctor and told me that at my age it's considered a desperate move, and even if I want to do it, I'll need to do more invasive exams like ph-impendance.

Also my parents are against surgery, even if they always see me struggling everyday life and hearing from me all the experiences ruined because of this, so they've never been really supportive about this option. This doesn't help a lot as I'm really scared myself with what I'll need to go through to try fix it.

Is someone ever been in a similar position as mine?
If someone already had surgery and had my similar problems, did it actually work?

Hello,

I don't understand why but I have noticed that eating large meals actually relieves my GERD symptoms. Like yesterday I had a very large meal with a friend and I thought I would be suffering afterwards but I felt totally fine, not even the hint of heartburn. When I do eat smaller meals I find that my GERD symptoms to be far more prevalent.

Does this happen with anyone else or does someone have an explanation? I always thought the consensus was always eat smaller meals.

Thanks.

So, I had a Colonoscopy and Endoscopy last year. Wasn't diagnosed with anything. I'm not sure that test for the stomach opening/closing was done.

I can drink some water, drop the cap, lean over to pick it up off the floor and nearly vomit...

I'll be sitting doing nothing and all the sudden just have the worst breath... Sometimes it doesn't seem like my breath but I smell something bad... I don't really think minty gum is doing much.

Hi everyone,

I'm a 37-year-old male, 3 months after a laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication.

Before surgery I mainly had weakly acidic LPR with normal acid exposure (DeMeester 4), but abnormal impedance-pH monitoring (126 reflux episodes/24 h with positive symptom correlation).

Recovery has been difficult with intermittent chest, hiatal and throat pain. About 2 weeks ago, I developed persistent daily regurgitation, a mildly sour taste every morning, burning in my throat/esophagus and the feeling of fluid coming back up despite taking 40 mg pantoprazole daily.

My symptoms are now worse than before surgery. The pain has mostly improved, but the reflux/regurgitation persists.

My surgeon has ordered a barium swallow and upper endoscopy first. If these are inconclusive, I expect repeat high-resolution manometry and 24-hour impedance-pH monitoring.

Has anyone experienced a similar course after Nissen fundoplication? Was your anatomy intact or was there a problem with the wrap? Did it eventually improve or require revision?

Any experiences or advice would be greatly appreciated.

so I've stayed away from famotidine, omeprazole etc for a while because of my experience on it before. it just didnt really work well. i managed GERD very well with life style, diet and digestive enzymes. recently i went on a trip to Florida, i made sure i had famotidine with me just in case i ate something bad for me. i mean who wants to be out of town and uncomfortable lol. long story short i went on a binge eat run for about 6 days this was during my trip and coming back home from my trip. all throughout those days i was taking famotidine. i started to notice the side effects of it and stopped taking it cold turkey. the dose of it is only 20mg & ive stopped famotidine cold turkey before and i was able to manage it. but im experiencing the rebound acid, dry mouth, sometimes a feeling of something is stuck in my throat. which is weird because i can swallow fine but it feels like im bound to choke you know? honestly tums have been helping but when does this end lol i was completely managing gerd well without medications i feel like i f'd up terribly lol. also famotidine is causing like crazy anxiety anyone else feel that way?

Watching everyone eat whatever they want , laughing celebrating July 4th is so isolating. Meanwhile I am eating my meal prepped fish and veggies with little to no flavour.

I really miss having deserts.

I had a stomach bug earlier this week. Vomiting and the whole nine. Now my stomach PH is so out of wack that I’m in constant pain. I feel it in my jaw and my stomach. My gerd cough is back at night. My voquezna is fighting the good fight, but it doesn’t stand a chance.

Any advice on how to get my ph closer to normal levels??

When I take it and drink water I don't feel it going down like it;s still lodged in my throat. I eat like a small amount of food to push it down but.... idk. I read that this makes it less effective

I have hEDS and have been on Prevacid for about 20 years because the sphincter where my esophagus meets my stomach is always open. I have the trifecta of hEDS, POTS, and MCAS, so I take Zyrtec and am tempted to try Pepcid on days when I have breakthrough acid reflux, but also to help as an H2 blocker. Would that be too much and cause damage?