My husband has started getting bad acid reflux 15 months after his oesophagectomy.

[Tescogran]

He is on 30 mg Lanzaprozole daily and the reflux happened occasionally in the beginning but its now several times daily and at night. No change to his diet but he seems to be going a bit backwards with his recovery and it is getting him down. Any one else had this happen?

[Hidden]

It might be that you need to adjust the timing or dose of the lansoprozole? Sometimes changing to a different sort of PPI medication helps, and you would need to talk to your doctor about that. I presume that you have tried the usual things like raising your head at night and so on?

Is it definitely acid rather than bile? Bile reflux is an alkali and lansoprozole would not combat it. Does having extra over-the-counter antacid tablets (like Rennie's) make any difference? If it does not, then that might increase the possible suspicion about bile.

It can indeed be very debilitating, and it is best not to put up with it, so I would check back with the hospital team who will be able to sort something out I am sure.

[Tescogran in reply to Hidden]

Hi We have contacted the hospital and he is having an endoscopy next week, I strongly suspect it is bile as he says it tastes dreadful. The GI nurse thinks it could be scar tissue causing swallowing difficulty too.

[quince]

Hi

I am 18months post op I use Ranitidine tablets (150mg) twice a day

These are an older type of tablet but my GP advised these some months ago due to symptoms and they have worked for me no reflux.

[Tescogran in reply to quince]

Thanks for the suggestion, endoscopy this week so we shall see what it shows.

[jay2908]

It's worth trying a different PPI, ranitadine worked best for me in the evening. It would also be good to find out why the reflux is occurring. Our digestion post op can be influenced by other illnesses, for example, if I have a runny nose/cold the my digestion isn't as good as usual. Also, maybe your husband is stooping or lifting heavier objects, all which push on the gut and can encourage reflux. One last thing that works well for me is to drink some water or a warm drink an hour or so after eating to help push any food down.

I hope some of this helps,

Jay

[Tescogran in reply to jay2908]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. We have an endoscopy next week. He has had a dreadful cold which made him cough a lot and this seemed to bring on the reflux even more.

[Spikey]

If it is bile, rather than acid, then something similar happened to me. I was fine for the first couple of years after my op, apart from the occasional bout of acid reflux. Then, all of a sudden, I started suffering regularly (once or twice a month) from bile reflux in the middle of the night. I found it was largely triggered by eating anything with a high fat content, e.g. cheese, cream sauces and some red meat. However, if your husband is suffering several times a day, it is unlikely to be due to diet and is more likely physical. Having the endoscopy is almost certainly the right course of action.

[margie1]

Hi I am 15 months post op and suffer with reflux which keeps me awake at night. I will try the Ranitidine and hopefully they will help. i am taking omoprazole at the moment plus Gaviscon but i still keep waking up with a burning horrible taste too hope you get sorted out soon x

[Hidden]

Bile tastes vile! And it does have a burning taste even though it is alkali not acid. I believe that they can do something called impedence monitoring to check whether bile is an issue, and there will be medication (eg cholestyramine) that they can give to counteract it. So there may be some extra things as well as the endoscopy.

It is something that needs to be checked up on because there may be something not quite right with the gall bladder and the way you digest fats etc. Another thing to look out for is light coloured, oily floating stools that indicate that the digestion of fat might be an issue. Some people take creon for this.

But you are doing the right thing because it is the medical people rather than us who will work it out!