Acid Reflux and Inflammed Esophagus?

Hi,

I am also experiencing similar problems with my esophagus and I noticed you mentioned watermelon. I just wanted to clarify if you meant that you avoid eating it or if it was the only fruit you eat. I am just curious because for me, watermelon seems to cause problems with my eosophagus. Also, I would say that I am a big fruit eater so just wondering if you knew why reducing fruit intake would be beneficial? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hi,

I had an unidentified digestive problem for over a year then my GP referred me to a diet called FODMAP developed by Monash University medical staff to help sufferers of IBS and similar conditions. I noticed your post referred to watermelons and what sparked my interest was that (among other things) the FODMAP diet lists watermelon as a fruit to AVOID because it is high in fructose. It also lists cantaloupe and honeydew melons as fruit to ENJOY because these melons are low in fructose. Perhaps you might try these melon types and see what happens.

Perhaps you are already aware of FODMAP's existence, if not I hope this helps.

You need to eat a lot fruit and vegetables this will help cure your acid reflux, and esophagus. Make sure they're 95% organic foods, and stay away from citrus fruits. Also, try ginger tea.

Hi Caroline - thanks for the lung tip - it has just worked.

I've an odd one.

Started a course of anti-biotics last week Wednesday (Clorum) and from then had a nausea feeling and then last Saturday had the food stuck in chest feeling after eating peanuts. An hour's walk solved that, although I've had a small pinch of pain round about the middle of the chest since the course started. Then last Saturday night had some crisps and they stuck even worse. Took 2 hours to settle and a hour-long walk. I was on the Clorum as a week-long laryngitis throat problem would not shift and I lost my voice. No trouble iwth eating anything until then, including crisp and peanuts. Now have the current pinch feeling when I eat. I've an endoscopy in the coming days. Also, I've had a history since 2008 - triple therapy, diverticulitis (re-section), diphene induced ulcerative colitis, and an incisional hernia repiared through surgery only a few months ago. Thought I was over hospital stays. I'm not (that) worried about C of the oesophagus as the synptoms started the day of my anti-biotics and cancer is an insidious disease that takes weeks and months to develop. Your nissen op is intersting. Anyway, I will see after the endoscopy, but thanks for your info.

Just wanted to say Ty because the taking a deep breath and holding it really helped for quick relief. 

Oooh...thanks for the tip about taking a huge lungeful of air and holding it....worked like magic  

Hi Caroline, can you recommend. Good tasting fizzy juice. Sounds like something that is worth a try. Thank you

Hi do you still have symptoms i had symptoms like you for 6 week now and worried xx

Hi Hayley2629,

Sorry for the late reply.

Yes my symptoms are still there. My last visit to the specialist who was a Respiratory specialist was to get my results of the CT scan. I've been so worried and convinced I had lung cancer that I had a scan done. thankfully it came back normal. Prior to that I had a camera down my throat which came back normal, had a barium swallow again normal, various breathing tests again normal. Everything is comming normal yet my symptoms are still there. I was was on lansaprozol but that did not do anything so the latest is that I'm now trying Gaviscon - not really helping. I seriously don't know what to do! I'm going to go back and see him.

One thing I have not done is see a Gastro specialist as many people on the board have said it could be acid related. If is is so why is nothing working is my question. So this is where I am at at the moment.

How are you symptoms? Did you have similar sensations and have you seen any specialist?

Hi, have you gotten any relief? I am having the same issues. I keep reading that the lump in my esophagus is acid related and I am not convinced either. Hope you are doing better!!

You will probably find your problem is related to a parasite called helicobactor pylori. It can be responsible for many of the symptoms people have been expressing on this site. I had it for seven years before being diagnosed and was worst seven years of my life and I hope never to go through it again. I too had all the scans and x-rays etc and all clear. What a relief it was to find out the cause was the helico. Also food intolerances can also be responsible for these syptoms and will not show up on any tests apart from having an allergy test done to see what foods you are intolerant to.

My mother in law had been back and forward to doctors, specialists. hospitals etc for over a year and they could not find the cause of her very swollen ankles and blacking out on occassions. After visiting our homoeopathic doctor in Liverpool he told her her problem was due to food intolerances and sure enough within weeks off stopping the culprit foods she was a changed woman and the swelling all went down and no more black outs.

Candida is another parasitic culprit for a lot of various illnesses. Most of us have these parasites in our body but some of us suffer more from their effects than others and that is due to eating the foods that our body is not happy with while the parasite is active.

Hope this has been informative and helpful to you.

Hi Elena

I suffered the same although was just one of the symptoms. It felt like someone was pressing their thumb right into my throat. It took every waking hour of my day. This along with stomach problems. I never showed any symptoms of heartburn or acid coming up but did have a metal taste in my mouth. 

I had all sort of tests and scans done and everything clear which to me was disturbing as this was taking over my life.

Turned out I had a very inflamed esophagus but my symptoms were all due to the parasite, helicobactor pylori. What a relief it was to get that diagnosis. 

Other members of my family have been diagnosed as well since then as you find it is a very common problem nowadays. Diet is also a major factor as food intolerances can be responsible for a majority of illnesses.

I have had food allergy tests done as have all my family and it is amazing what you can find that you are intolerany to and the variety of things. Even foods you would not expect. 

The allergy tests we had done tell you what you are very allergic to, moderately and mildly and then it is up to you whether you stop eating them or not. For some of us it is very difficult to give up as the variety of allergies we may find we have can be quite restricting.

Some of the foods you will always have an intolerance to but some you will be able to introduce gradually back into your diet.

Hope this has been some help to you.

Hi Rai27, how are you getting on with you treatment/symptoms? Please let me know!!  I have experienced exactly the same symptoms and fear as you have had. I have the 'sweet corn' stuck feeling in my throat for over 2 months now. The first two - three weeks, the pain got so strong in my chest that I ended up at the emergency twice. They checked my heart (monitoring) and my lungs (x-ray) and all came ok.

After the 1st month, the chest pain moved up to my throat/neck. Before It was hard to define if the felling was in the esophagus or in the trachea. Today I can tell it is much more in the esophagus/stomach. It is not painful as before, but is more constant and prolonged sensation, just horrendous. In the past I used to feel only meals and evenings. Now the only time I don't feel anything is only just after waking up, however, after an hour or so the same feeling starts to show..., The sensation today is like if my stomach is been full to the top all the time or if it is like the food is trying to go up, even if my stomach is empty and if I haven't eaten anything the night before. 

My GP gave me Lanzoprazol for 2 week while I was waiting to see an ENT (neck and throat) specialist, and my symptoms got a little bit better. After meeting the ENT specialist, he put a camera trhouth my nose down to my larynx and he couldn't see anything wrong. He booked me a Barium Swallow, which I am going to do tomorrow and also told me to stop with the Lanzoprazol and start with the Omeprazol 20mg twice a dice, that I am taking for a week now, not making any difference yet.

I am so afraid of this being something more serious, and can't stop to think about day and night since the beginning of the symptoms. The only thing I can confirm is that anxiety really makes it feel 200 times worse then when I am really calm and relaxed. Probably that is why I feel do fine just after waking up.

once, a nurse specialised in neck told me that severe stress can cause physical damage to the neck, so I wonder is this is my case. My main concerned like most of you here is that the symptoms are so physical and real that it is hard to believe is something related to acid reflux or similar, considering I never had any problems in the past like heartburn or similar.

 

Please, if you could keep posting and replying here the outcome of your treatment, so we all know more information about it. It is easy to find post when people are having the symptoms and feeling bad. It would be wonderful if we could find the same posts after the bad experiences have finished, when people are feeling good again.

I look forward to hear from you!!!

Many thanks

You have acid reflux. Need to get tested. Or have you gotten tested yet?

The description of your problem is very similar to mine, and I am reading through all these posts looking for answers or ideas.

 

Here is a desertion of my problem. 

 

Dec 2015 - Went back to the gym to get fit. Nothing serious just some running, biceps, core muscle exercise. Two weeks later I noticed a small stomach secession which later started radiating downwards to my right side. I did nothing medically other than cut back on 4 times a week exercise 1 a week or none. The pain increased, but more so on the right side under the rib cage. At this time, I went to the GP Dr. and told her about my problem. She suggested to do a 1000EUR blood test to see what is going on. The result was nothing. "Oh you are good this will pass." this is the answer I got from a DR. 

 

March - pain comes and goes. Then I went to a gastroenterologist he did an endoscopy.

Result - I am allergic to lactose which I knew from the blood test before. He also prescribed Omeprazole 20 mg. Did not help. He also told me that I don't have H-Pylori bacteria. 

 

April - Stomach pain still exists and now I am getting frustrated. 

 

I went back to the endoscopy Dr. to do further testing. He flat out told me that I am fine and prescribed another acid medication with higher dosage. 

 

He also told me that, eat small portions more times and before I go to bed eat one or two hours before. Good advice!!!

 

June – I did some research on how bad it is to take Omeprazole/ Pantoprazole for a long time, and I learned about how digestion works. We all need acid in our stomach. The amount of acid influence the stomach to open or close and let food to be digested. 

 

I found out that my wife and I are having a baby. Yeahhhh, not I want to be healthy for my kido. 

 

July - after I stopped taking omeprazole medications, the pain went away from the stomach and I started feeling pressure in the throat/neck. 

 

September - went back to the endoscopy Dr. told him about the pressure in the throat and also that I stopped taking the medication. He could not give me any further advice on my problem. 

 

Now it’s October 2016 and the pressure in the throat still exists. The only time I don’t feel it is in the morning when I wake up. Occasional pinching feeling in the side still exists, but nothing like it was before.

 

My plan is to find another Doctor and do more examinations. I’ll keep you posted. 

I experience the same things you do.

Has yours gotten any better?

I've had acid reflux problems for a few years. The first time I ever got it, I thought there was food stuck in my throat, I kept trying to drink everything I could get my hands on, so it would go down. Found out it was reflux. They did endoscopy, there was some inflammation in the stomach and esophagus. Now, 2 years later, I started having the problem again, along with other digestive issues in April 2016. I took omeprazole for 2 months; it got better. Then started having trouble in October again. They did endo and colonoscopy this time, didn't show anything except for a little inflammation in esophagus, but he said it was better than 2 years ago. So I wasn't taking omeprazole anymore, just a good probiotic. It seemed to get better with the probiotic, and here I am now, been suffering for over 3 weeks now with the sensation of something stuck in my throat. I've literally cut out everything from my diet, alcohol, sugar, carbs, processed foods. I'm going to my GI in a few days. I don't know what else to do. I've been thinking about going to see an allergist.

Not sure if this post - have a look into kinesiology.  It stopped all my symptoms of lpr etc. 

Hi my symptoms sound identical to yours.  The feeling of something stuck in my osophagus, chest and back pain.  Can you tell me how you are now and what the outcome was for you? 

I have been experiencing these problems for about 6 weeks now and have just started lanzoprazol which does not seem to be helping at the moment. 

Hi., the barium swallow came normal. That was 8 months ago, like my precvious comment here. After there, when back to GP cause didn't feel better. They refered me to an endoscopy, whici I did after receiving a later about a month or two later. The endoscopy was done without any anestesie, so I could feel everything. I Was gagging, nearly vomiting, couldn't breath but had to wait to be done. They took 3 biopsis from my stomach to check that specific bacteria. The results after another month came normal, only showed I have erosions at bottom of my stomach. The "not interested" gp insists saying I have nothing, that this is acid reflux. I wish we could feel what I feel every day. They moved back my medication to Lanzoprazol twice a day which i take since. My stomach doesn't hirt anymore, however my symptoms changed a lot. What I have the last months is a neck/throat pain daily, specialy if I swallow saliva. It hurt to swallow but I have no soar throat or cough. Then I went back to gp to say my symptons were not gettying better, but changing and gettying worse, then we refered me to a neck ultrasound scan. The result came normal. They couldn't find any lump or tumor or anything like that thanks God. I also did a blood test to see if my body was producing some sort of defense to infection or something that can be detected in case you have tumor and your body is fighting against it. It all came normal. Also had a blood test for Gluten alergy in case was Celiac Deseases. Also came normal.

I really dont know what is causing this for such long time. After all this result the GP got crossed with me last time I saw him, because I tried to insist that I would like to do further investigation. He was rude and nearly forced me to leave withouth helping. I had to say that I still have this bloody pain and is not normal. I know my body and can feel that everyday. Is not mental or anything like that. Then after a long doscussion o convinced him to refer me again to a ENT which now is book only for july. I am starting to try things myself to see what makes me feel the pain better pr worse. Here are facts that I definately realise that after and influence the pain level.

If I eat a lot, like when you order delicious pizza or go to restaurant, or invite friends at home, then you decide to eat loads because the food is very good,.. when I eat till explode, the next days my neck pain get really really bad, and the sunsation of full stomach the followong days are horrible. So I don't abuse food quantities anymore. I am skinny by the way but I used to love to eat a lot.

Another thing that makes worse is if I take too long to eat between meals, and let my stomach tp give me hungry sensation. I realise that if I eat small healthy snakc constantly, before I have the chance to feel hungry, the pain gets much better.

When I am stressed and anxious, it gets worse. If I sleep bad or not enougt. Also makes feel worse.

I am not sure if this is acid reflux (silent reflux). It can be. If it is only that, it is impressive what it can cause in your organism. I hate to take lanzoprazol every day as I always hated to take medicine for anything. In the past I always was against to take painkiller or anything unless It was extremely necessary or unbearable pain.

I hope one day we will all feel normal without any pain or disconfort to get our life quality back .please share of u notice something that makes it feel worse or better or if any tests or exams showed something that can explain this problem. Thanks

Hello henrique30581, did you get any answers? I have same symptoms.

Hi henrique, how are you currently feeling? I have been dealing with symtoms very similar to yours, just not as painful. 

My problems began when I got strep throat two months ago. I've been through 5 different antibiotics and a steriod. I believe the strep throat is long gone, but I cannot get the sensation of something stuck in my throat to go away. I was referred to an ENT who seemed to brush it off after I told him I had strep throat. He looked in my throat (didn't use a camera, just small mirror and light) and said everything looked "really good." I had to call back in a week if it got worse again. Sure enough, it was acting up again. He prescribed me the 5th antibiotic and sent a referral for barium swallowing test. Radiologist chuckled after I told him my story. Told the nurse not to give me the part of the test where they put crystals in the liquid. Not sure why.. The test results came back normal. So the ENT basically doesn't know what else to do at this point. I am blessed nothing serious came back, but now I have no idea what's wrong with me. The doctors don't seem to be taking me seriously. This has really affected my quality of life. I just want to find out what's wrong

I am going to try natural remedies for my throat as well as start an antiacid in case I do have silent refulx. Although, the swallowing test should of shown if I had LPR.. if my condition gets worse I may seek a second opinion. 

Hi Megan I no how you feel in I've had all these tests done. The doctor explained it to me as nerves can cause you to feel like here's a lump in your throat. even though there's not it will feel that way. I've had it for years the coughing in chockeing in trying to get rid of it. But it's your nerves causing it. Now I feel like my food sticks in my chest instead of going into my stomach so I'm gonna see what Dr. Says about this.

I have had most test done except a colonoscopy. All is normal. The intestinal specialist came up aerophagia! So, this is what i'm doing. Prilosec 20mg twice a day 1 hour before meal, Gaviscon twice a day 2hours after meal or when needed, and most importantly BACLOFEN 10mg  twice a day with food. I had improvement is 3 days. After 6 weeks I really can tell it helps! We still don't the original cause, but this helps for now.

I have also thought about nerves causing the acid build up, but IDK why all of a sudden it's giving me trouble.