Acid reflux

easypeasy

Well-Known Member
I was speaking to my Doc the other day, he claimed that 1 in 4 people suffer from acid reflux.
Ive had it for near 20 years, Its not pleasant. I have to take tablets everyday to keep the acid away.
Do any other fellow members suffer from it and have you any remedies?

Cheers

Al
 
Yes 20 years now due to hiatus hernia! 30mg Lansoprazole keeps the burn at bay but a fiery curry does need managing!!
 
Without wishing to be alarmist, if you don't have any obvious cause for your persistent acid reflux, such as a hiatus hernia, then please see your GP and ask for an endoscopy referral, rather than just taking antacids for prolonged periods. Aside from the possible negative side effects of drugs like Omeprazole, continuous heartburn, indigestion and acid reflux can often be a symptom of something more serious such as an ulcer or even stomach / oesophageal cancer.

Caught early these slow growing cancers can be perfectly treatable but sadly have much less happy outcomes when caught late - my father swigged antacids for 20 years without any medical consultation, right up until the point where he was diagnosed with the terminal oesophageal cancer that killed him 9 months later. His oncologist said he was likely to have had the tumour for 20 years and that the continuous acid reflux he'd been ignoring all that time was a classic symptom of the disease.

Adam.
 
Without wishing to be alarmist, if you don't have any obvious cause for your persistent acid reflux, such as a hiatus hernia, then please see your GP and ask for an endoscopy referral, rather than just taking antacids for prolonged periods. Aside from the possible negative side effects of drugs like Omeprazole, continuous heartburn, indigestion and acid reflux can often be a symptom of something more serious such as an ulcer or even stomach / oesophageal cancer.

Caught early these slow growing cancers can be perfectly treatable but sadly have much less happy outcomes when caught late - my father swigged antacids for 20 years without any medical consultation, right up until the point where he was diagnosed with the terminal oesophageal cancer that killed him 9 months later. His oncologist said he was likely to have had the tumour for 20 years and that the continuous acid reflux he'd been ignoring all that time was a classic symptom of the disease.

Adam.


Spot on Adam, my dad bless him, ignored similar symptoms and we lost him at 55!

Ive had two "uppy downys" and keep an eye on things! A change a couple of years ago and another check resulted in a diagnosis of diverticulitis to add to the issue.

Watch out for the "irritable bowl syndrome" non diagnosis!

If if your in the slightest worried get up the quacks!
 
Don't over eat or over drink especially before bed. Lay off the coffee, fizzy drinks, and spicey food.

If the doctor demands an endoscopy, make sure its the oral one.
 
I took Omeprazole for 4 years about 13 years ago for acid reflux, had 2 years of different tests but they couldn't find anything and then in the end it sort of cleared up but then the last few years it came back, more so if I ate fatty food or was on holiday either eating out everyday or on all inclusive, I would have to make sure I didn't eat or drink anything (apart from water) after 6.30-7pm otherwise it would keep me awake all night even with the aid of indigestion remedies.

I'm now on Lansoprazole 15-30mg (dependent on how I am) since January but mines for Bile reflux as I had to have my gall bladder taken out in November, this stores the bile the liver produces and then excretes it into the stomach to aid digestion of fats, now the bile just drips continuously into my stomach and did give me slight acid reflux symptoms along with nausea in the mornings but that is all now under control thanks to the Lansoprazole but I have to make sure I don't eat or drink (apart from water) within 3 hours of bedtime.
This all came about in December 13/January 14 when I had a lot of acid reflux over the xmas period of 13 and resulted in a 2 week stay in hospital early January 14 due to a liver infection caused by an infection in my gall bladder from gallstones, on investigation the course of action was to remove the gall bladder due to the amount of stones seen on ultrasound scans, this they attempted in March 14 but was cancelled while under anaesthetic in theatre due to a previously undetected heart condition, the op finally went ahead mid November 14 after getting all clear from cardiology (I have an irregular heartbeat, every 3rd beat 2 extra get thrown in along with high blood pressure) only for the surgeon to find my gall bladder was necrotic and 75% dead and non functioning, so that was another 4 days in hospital instead of day surgery. Anyone wanting to experience the pain of a gallbladder/liver infection just needs to get one of those rachet straps (used for securing loads) put it around your lower ribcage and then tighten it up till it feels painfull, then tighten it a bit more, takes a morphine drip to kill the pain.

All this and i'm only 42, oh I nearly forgot I've been suffering from gout for 18 years too, i currently take 6-7 tablets a day, 2 for gout, 2 for high blood pressure, 1-2 for bile reflux and now we are back into hayfever season, so one of those too, what joy life can be.
 
I've taken Ranatadine for years for indigestion, (no ulcers etc) in January this year, I started having some serious indigestion style pain, so much so I took myself off to the Emergency Dr (out of hours Dr at the hospital) she said I had Acid Reflux, gave me different tablets, (Omeprazole) a week later my Dr said the same, as condition unchanged.
A week later, a trip to A&E as in lots of pain again,(spasmodic just below the Sternum, as before) X-Rayed, said I was full of "excrement" I said I know, but what's wrong with me:D (sorry couldn't resist that one)
I was given laxatives to shift it, yes I did have a "backlog"
Fast forward 2 weeks and back up the Emergency Drs, (11pm) in pain again, won't go into the gory details, suffice to say, I had an appointment with a Consultant first thing in the morning.

Spent the next day (Tuesday) having tests and CT scan and didn't go home, an operation was booked for Thursday afternoon, and they removed a foot of my bowel, 7 day stay.
Still got another 3 weeks before I can go back to work
It was a thing called Intussuseption, uncommon, no cancer

I have no complaints at all with the way I received treatment, I didn't have any symptoms that would of set off alarm bells, other than the spasmodic pain.
And I have nothing but praise for the Drs, Surgeons, and Nurses that looked after me, and the Hospital was great, clean and hygienic

So yes Acid Reflux could be a cover for something more serious
 
Ouch you have my sympathy mate, you've had a rough ride, glad your "better"
Bile is a horrible word to me ( re my problem)
Take care, the panacea is more shooting and fishing :D



EDIT
This post should of had a quote from Primer in it, but did it on the phone, didn't see the quote had not materialised, DOH!!
 
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Ouch you have my sympathy mate, you've had a rough ride, glad your "better"
Bile is a horrible word to me ( re my problem)
Take care, the panacea is more shooting and fishing :D

Ooh ouch yourself Croc, I ended up having virtually 6 months off work last year in 3 blocks.

I unfortunately can't say the same about my experience with my hospital, some of the staff were excellent, others not so from waiting 20hours for some proper pain relief after being admitted to A & E, to being attacked on the ward by a dementia patient who's care home didn't want him back (as he attacked the staff daily), to waiting 2 weeks for staff to communicate to each other in the same hospital when being referred to different departments, to a foreign anesthetist putting the intravenous needle through my vein and filling my left forearm with saline (that took 2 weeks of sitting with my arm up in the air to drain), having the same anesthetist not administer any of the available drugs to bring my heart arrhythmia under control meaning the 1st op didn't go ahead, to waiting 3 months to see a cardiologist who didn't have any concern over my irregular heartbeat and didn't see it as a reason for not continuing with the op (only due to no drugs administered where they should have been), then going to the end of the waiting list again and waiting 6 months to finally have the op, to the vomit they call some of the food in that place.
I must say though that the staff were excellent when I finally had the op, same surgeon but different anesthetist who did a sterling job, all the staff on the ward were excellent apart from the nurse who virtually ripped my chest drain out the morning after my op.

The funny thing is after my op the surgeon came to see me on the ward after to say how difficult the op was in the end (4hrs instead of the usual 1hour ish) with finding my gall bladder had attached itself to my liver aswell as being necrotic, he said had they realised how bad it was they would have taken it out in the January but I did point out I was in for 2 weeks and on morphine pump for some of that time, so not like I was only in with a bit of indigestition, he said the only good thing is that my body must have already adapted to not having a working gall bladder so I shouldn't get any complications during recovery.
 
Don't eat within four hours of going to bed. Raise the front of your bed up on blocks (4-6") as well. Mind the greasy food, alcohol, and carbonated drinks.~Muir
 
I had a hiatus hernia op about 16 years ago due to reflux problems. A surgeon in Bristol had pioneered an op (key hole) whereby he created an artificial donut valve, sometimes called a wrap I believe. I never looked back - three weeks off work but worth it and now murder vindaloos rather then the other way around. I thought that this op was now common place - shocked to read some of the experiences - reflux is the pits.
 
While are all talkin man problems,I have a inguile hernia not sure of the spelling,doc says live with it,not to big,some times it goes away.
My question is guys if I do have surgery how bad is it,ie did it fix your problem,recovery rate etc,
The other daft thing is I have never had an operation,so how the hell do you let a complete stranger inject you,knock you out,and rely on another complete stranger to bring you round.?
I can live with the hacking and slashing bit,its just the initial not being in control that scares me,please advise.
Tod, ooh,ah.:old:
 
Tony mine turned out not to be Acid Reflux, but I've had no indigestion (yet)
As for the op, don't sweat it. Its ok, just relax and have some pleasant thoughts before you go under, thinking happy thoughts before, you don't wake up with unhappy ones
I had my appendix out 20 odd years ago, which in comparison is a minor op, it took me longer to recover than this one, which is a major op
Brian
 
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