First baby and achalasia

[Np12]

Hi all,

Very excited to discover that my husband and I are expecting our first baby. According to our calculations and that of the NHS website looks like I'm about 7 weeks pregnant. Now going through what I assume is the normal panic/excitement swing and to be honest struggling to believe it's real even after doing three tests to check lol!

One of my main concerns is that I have suffered from a medical condition called Achalasia and had an operation that means my stomach has been turned about and a few other bits of rearrangement with my oesophageal tubing. One of the symptoms I have always had since then is severe acid reflux and I'm so worried about what's going to happen in the future as this pregnancy progressing (having read about the symptoms of which heart burn is one!). My non pregnancy acid reflux rather resembles having a heart attack in pain level and leaves me attempting to vomit and unable to do certain things until it's cleared normally about 24 hours later. Terrified that mixed with pregnancy heart burn is going to be a nightmare and one I'd like to try and prepare for in advance if possible (bit worried about my osophegeous as well to be honest). Just wondered if anybody else out there has had the same problems, with Achalasia and could tell me a bit more about how they dealt with it in pregnancy and if they had any other problems?

I will be raising this with medical professionals but to be honest my GP never knows anything about the condition and I'm not expecting the midwife to know much either because some how I ended up with something quite rare that they don't tend to come up against that often, so I'm not expecting them to have likely to have had practical experience of this with others!

[Hidden]

Congratulations. I am afraid I don't know much about this condition so had to have a little look up of it. It sounds very painful. I would say just try and contact your midwife and doctor as much as possible during pregnancy if it gets too much and don't be fobbed off. They can always refer you to your local hospital for extra monitoring also. It very much depends on the pregnancy. I had terrible heart burn and indigestion with my first but I was massive and carried her high. I've had hardly any this time and I would say try to go more for slow release carbs rather than white carbs as this helps. Eat lots of protein and fresh veg, yogurts and cheese that are not going to heighten your condition. Avoid raw onions they are the devil when pregnant anyhow haha. Hope it goes better than expected and don't stress too much about it. If you get very poorly remember that doctors can give anti sickness meds during pregnancy. I was never told and had a terrible time with sickness with my 3rd. X

[roxannacar]

I think you do need to discuss with your gp anyways. You might need a ppi (if you're not already on one). Also maybe getting some gaviscon from Costco where you can apparently get litres of it!!

[marilynmonroe92]

Congratulations on finding out ur pregnant 8 was the same when I found out I took four pregnancy test because I couldn't belive it when I went to my Dr he confirmed that I'm pregnant as for ur medical conditioner I haven't heard of it before so I wouldn't be any help in that department but I'm sure everything will be okay I'd still talk to ir Dr tho and see what he or she says

[Np12]

Thank you all for your advice. I mentioned it to my GP today when I visited and she said that basically there is nothing they can do to help and they will have to just help me if it gets really bad and look at different options as we go along. I have never really been offered PPI's for some reason so I guess that's at least giving me an option if it gets really bad. She did say the likelihood is that I will suffer because your sphincter muscles get looser allowing the burn up which is why ladies suffer from it once pregnant.

But not going to get down about it, we are having a baby and I'm so very excited and hopefully it's just a few months of suffering and then I will know it will have been worth it. At the moment I don't really have any morning sickness or any other bad symptoms so I'm lucky from that perspective!

[Hidden in reply to Np12]

That's a big bonus not having morning sickness. I think you are right not to worry too much about it and just deal with things as and when they happen x