Had my follow up endoscopy on Tuesday. A very traumatic experience. It only took 5/10 minutes on previous ones but this took half an hour while 12 biopsies were taken from my Barrett’s oesophagus. During this endoscopy a hiatus hernia was noted. Probably the cause of my acid reflux and subsequent problems in spite of all and sundry blaming Pred for my problems. Good news too in that my ulcers have healed and all the grade D inflammation healed too. Unfortunately I have to be on Omeprazole long term as it is feared my problems could return. I firmly believe that pred was innocent.
Liz.
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polymy
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I have to see the consultant next and he will decide a plan. I suspect the Barrett’s will have to be monitored with regular endoscopy as it can become cancerous. The lady who did the endoscopy said I would have to stay on Omeprazole indefinitely. Thank you for your reply. Hope you are doing well today. Liz.
It's good that you now know what's wrong even if it isn't what you would have chosen. It's a rather lazy option for doctors to blame pred immediately for anything that goes wrong.
You are right. The other good news was that the Barrets is only 5cm long and not 10cm as first thought. I do feel that pred has been blamed when it was probably the hiatus hernia. Also think I should have been referred earlier for the acid reflux. I had been complaining about it for 3 years and was only referred because I had lost a stone in weight.
I had acid reflux some years ago and remember how agonising it was. I 'cured' it by giving up coffee, which was a sad sacrifice, but worth it. How awful for you to put up with it for 3 years, especially in combination with another debilitating illness. I hope things start to improve for you now.
Thank you so much for your kind words. My doctor was giving me firstly ranitidine then Lansoprazole then Pantoprazole but nothing seemed to be totally effective. They did reduce it a bit but not enough. I was using Gaviscon and peptac as well. I was only referred when I pointed out that I had constant nausea and couldn’t eat and that I had gone down to eight and a half stone from nine and a half. Things moved very quickly then and I was seen within two weeks.
Well I suppose we must be thankful that the NHS did manage to respond in an emergency, but it shouldn't have allowed it to become an emergency in the first place.
Amazing how disruptive coffee can be. I love it, but it does NOT love me. Like you I’ve had health issues, not to mention insomnia (even though I only ever drank it at breakfast!) and they were resolved by giving up coffee. Sad 😢
Yes, very sad, but even so a good decision for me. I stopped drinking coffee about 12 years ago, but about 7 years before that I had to give up coffee with milk or cream as it was making me throw up. So I developed a taste for strong black coffee and a lot of it, which led to the acid reflux. It seemed like a hard choice but it wasn't really as it meant I was free of the pain and discomfort. I occasionally get a small craving, especially if I walk past Costa and catch that lovely smell, but it doesn't last. Apart from anything else, good coffee has shot up in price in recent years so I must have saved a lot of money.
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Doing well but....
Rheumatologist visit. Went very well!
Running on fumes at this point 
Why taking anti-inflammatories including Pred could lead to a stomach ulcer 
So it may be PMR as well!!!!
