It all started with acid reflux for about a year and a half, taking Tums and thinking everything is alright. Until I started noticing my acid syotoms getting worse. After all that time, I finally went to see a gastroenterologist and performed an upper endoscopy. He found my esophagus swollen from the acid creeping up past my sphincter. He also saw small erosions in my stomach. He perscribed Omeprazole 20 mg. They worked for about 3 weeks, then all of a sudden, the symptoms got worse, I went back to him 2 days ago and he doubled the dose and tolde to take 40 mg. I feel as if they are too strong and my stomach acts funny. I also get occasionally chest muscle spasms, esophagus swollen, trouble swallowing, and think I'm having a heart attack. I've been to the emergency room twice, and they do all types of test and everything comes up normal. I don't know what else to do an d think it's the Omeprazole m a king it worse. I changed my diet completely and stopped drinking caffeine all together. Anyone have any related issues that can help a young guy out? I would greatly appreciate it.
Bad case of esophagitis: It all started... - Oesophageal & Gas...
Bad case of esophagitis
I was on 80 mg of omeprazole for GERD and Barrett's esophagus. I started on 40 mg. It controlled my acid, but the side effects were extreme. I had to stop taking it. I had terrible stomach pain, making it impossible to eat for days. I also had dumping syndrome and became very malnourished which caused lots of other problems. Read up on the side effects. If you're experiencing them, ask your doctor for a different med. I'm still struggling to find a new med that controls the acid. You know your body. Talk until the listen.
Ask the doctor to switch your acid reflux medicine to Protonix (aka Pantoprazole). I was first on Ranitidine for a while until my symptoms got worse. My Gastroenterologist did an endoscopy where she found I have Barrett's Esophagus. She changed my medicine to the Protonix and I also take Carafate to coat my stomach. Ask your gastroenterologist about these two medications. They've helped me tremendously.
how long it took to see improvement? how long can you take the carafate and how many times per day?
Alost immediately. I take the Protonix once a day and Carafate three times a day or right before I eat a meal. It helps alot!
I've been on protonix and carafate for 1 month now, I tried not to take as much but symptoms come back, even with diet, this is very discouraging, I get side effects from them and it's hard for me to continue on the high dose 
How long have you been on them? I still feel my esophagus is inflamed
It may very well be. What do you eat or drink? Sometimes certain vegetables can aggravate it too. I had to cut out coffee (not easy), sodas, spicy or heavily seasoned foods.
Carots, potatoes, chicken, had aome peas tonigh, rice, celery, parshnip, spinach, all of these are cooked soft with no spices or made into soups, the culpit for me is my thyroid medication that burns my stomach and esophagus now when i take it, but i can not stop that one 😞
Wow, well it definitely sounds like you're eating right. I didn't know you take thyroid medicine too. I would probably try to get with my doctor and see if there's a thyroid medication that will interact with your other meds instead of counteracting against them. Much luck to you.
thank you, i tried a few, they all bother me now that my stomach is so sensitive
I'm so sorry you're going through these changes. I know how you feel. I had to give up so many of my favorite foods like my beloved coffee, pizza, tacos, hot dogs, and I'm finding the only thing that soothes my stomach is Campbell's Chunky Chicken Pot pie or Chicken & Dumpling soup with Town House crackers. That helps me tremendously. You could try that and see if it helps, and much luck to you. I swear I wish I had a magic wand to cure all those who have health problems we all would be healthy!
I agree with Butterfly - you should switch to pantoprazole, or one of the other more advanced PPI medications. However, it's also important to try to get to the bottom of why you are producing so much stomach acid. If, as you say, you are a young guy, you don't want to be taking PPI's for the rest of your life. Could it be a bacterial infection, or a hiatus hernia, or have they already tested for those?
It's not a hiatus hernia. I did an upper endoscopy and they just found acid seeping into my esophagus causing it to swell up. The medication Omeprazole is not working. I feel as if I have a ball stuck in my throat and when I swallow, some food comes up. I am not sure what to make of this. Anyways, thanks for your reply.
Hi the food stuck in the throat feeling is what I'm experiencing it's horrible your a young guy have you been referred to a consultant please insist you see one don't let things lie..
Ppis are a temporary measure which simply suppress acid burning .. u need a diagnosis as to whats causing the acid in the first place. U need that sooner rather than later.
Thank you so much for all your replies. It brings me a great deal of comfort knowing there is a community out there that shares the same problems. Again, I am 32 years young and am going to ask the Doc for a change in perscription. I have had an upper endoscopy performed and he found my esophagus abnormally swollen. He also found an abundance of acid in my stomach. I am currently trying to get to the bottom of this. I was told it could be stress related as well. I currently got married, moved in to a house, got custody of my 9 year old,my grandfather passed away, and my parents where in the brink of a divorce all in one month. I am trying to get to the bottom of this. I will keep you all in my prayers and keep you posted.
A high dose of Omeprazole will be responsible for the heart palpitations! I took 40mg for a week and went to hospital for a 150 resting heartbeat with palpitations. It wasn't good. Have you looked into any other potential reasons online - just to give your doctor a starting point it's sometime good to even ask "could it be...". My own eosphagitis was misdiagnosed for 15 years as simple reflux plus anxiety but turned out to be Eosinophillic Eosphagitis. It's an immune system issue with a reaction to certain foods. I have to avoid these and take steriods in addition to omeprazole. I was only diagnosed after a biopsy by a private doctor. I was lucky as my work had just introduced Bupa or no doubt I would be still getting the run around. My condition had got to the point where I could only eat purees and found it painful to even swallow water. I'm mostly better now. It's always worth researching yourself on a symptom checker or asking for a second opinion from another doctor as it could be something they have missed.
What are you doing/taking now for your condition? Will it ever go away?
Oh wow. That's what I had the other day at work. A heart palpitation. It was scary. I just came back from the doc, they are running a CAT scan on me. Look at all my insides. I stopped taking Omeprazole and changed to protonix. Hopefully my symptoms get better. Thank you for your insight!
Hi Juliojr13. I'm taking a lesser dose of Omeprazole at 20mg, 50mg of clenil modulite (steroid) twice a day and chlorphenamine (piriton) up to 6 times a day. I also went on a 6 food elimination diet to find which foods were causing the reaction and found unfortunately it was all 6 so now I can't eat wheat, dairy, eggs, nuts, soy and fish. I can now eat without choking and getting food stuck in my chest so it's worth it! The reflux is also minimal except when I have contaminated food. I also have a colleague at work with the condition and he's had to have operations to dilate his esophagus as it was so scarred and swollen from the damage caused before he was diagnosed. It's not something you can be cured of unfortunately so I'll have to take the drugs and follow the diet for life.
Hopefully the docs find out what's causing your issue as I can totally empathise with the fear caused by not being able to swallow or eat properly.
Hi there. I feel for you. I have a hiatus hernia and oesophageal ulcers. The reflux causes trouble for my throat and trachea too but the Lanzaprozole caused debilitating stomach upsets so I discontinued it. The medical profession seems shackled to pharmacuticles and food/diet is never mentioned! Do research. Symptoms can be eased. Digesting meat produces more stomach acid. Eating later in the day causes trouble, especially when, on lying down, the acid works it’s way to where it has no business being. Drink more water (yes, I know, even that comes back up,) avoid alcohol and coffee most of the time and work out what foods cause you problems. It varies. For me, it’s chips, even creamed potatoes, rice, bread. Coffee makes me feel sick usually.
Hope you discover what works for you. All the best, Victoria.
I am definitely taking my diet seriously after relapsing on pizza and suffering the consequences. May I ask, what are you taking now?
Absolutely nothing on prescription just some over the counter indigestion tablets when I need them. I have read that so many of the prescribed meds have adverse effects on the heart and I already experience palpitations from time to time so I don’t trust them.
Update: they performed a CAT on me to rule out any possibilities of other problems arising from the acid. I changed my perscription to Pantoprazole 40 mg once a day and eureka! No more clogged feeling of throat, my side effects have gone tremendously down. I will be on the pills for 4 weeks more and the doctor will slowly ween me off of the pills. What I have is just some inflammation of the lower esophagus and will go away with the Pantoprazole. I am grateful I don't have to live with this forever. I hope I have helped any one out and you're not alone. May God bless all of you! -Julio
please post how the recovery is going, the doctor said only one month to heal? Do you feel any burning in stomach and esophagus?
I am on Methotrexade and I asked for injections after many years on tablets I had vocal nodules reflux and recently hyatus hernia (cause by reflux). I started probiotics 25 milion twice a day and I was able to get rid of the ranitidine medication after I saw a youtube video with a sciropractic name john bergam or something like that, saying that meds causes more problems. I don't eat half an hour before, during and after foods. I also am trying to eat yougurts with probiotics and fermented food. Doctors can only give medications that causes side effects. recently I started the metatrexade after stopping 3 month for my dental cavitation and my lung pains got worse. I requested injections. If I dont get better I might consider going on Tocizulab only . I would try alternative options. I know I eat too fast and therefore I get into trouble all the time when I eat. The other option is juicing only which I am considering until the efects disapear or I allow it time to get better. I can't eat boiled eggs. I tend to eat them all. I all ways get pain because of that. I think juicing and smooties the food might be my best alternative right now. Good luck.
The heart attack feeling is actually eshogeal spasms which are horrible. You need a 24 hr acid test.
Those spasms sound like esophagul spasms. Some say there is no cure sadly but others find their own. It typically feels like a heart attack. Some drink cold water the moment it comes on, some Luke warm water, some peppermint tablets unless you have gerd, there is a Facebook group for esophagul spasms which may have more answers
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