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Barretts esophogus scared about cancer please give advice

Posted , 10 users are following.

alissa30949
alissa30949

Hi all,

I was diagnosed with barretts esophogus last year along with gerd and an ulcer on my esophogus. I was put on a ppi and sucrolate for the ulcer. I was doing pretty good until I told my gastro I was still having some burping but I told him if I took the omeprozole 40 mg a half hour before eating it was better. He decided he wanted to change my ppi to something stronger which wasn't covered by insurance so they gave me another ppi 20 mg. anyway I feel like I still have some burping everyday like indifestion and it scares me

Thst this means the acid is backing up and that I will get csncer. My Barretts didn't have displasia. I also haven't been taking as good of care of myself I was laid off from a job three months ago and during those three months I was out of work I was very depressed and would drink a lot of coffee and picked up smoking again. I am in the us so I am available for cobra benefits but they are too expensive. I won't be offered health benefits by my

New job until nov 1 so if I want to have benefits from now until then I will have to pay 1500 dollars. do you think I can hold off until November on getting my endoscopy or should I shell out this money to be able to do it in October. I also have an anxiety disorder so I tend to be a hypocondriac but I wondered if I cut out coffee altogether and switched to tea if that would help with the indigestion. Any suggestions or knowledge that can be shed would be useful.

0 likes, 18 replies

18 Replies

  • suzanne07008
    suzanne07008 alissa30949

    Posted

    Hi i also have barretts with no displasia.i take ppi medication daily and have 3 yearly scopes. I believe anxiety is a big issue with barretts so try to work on that but i also find that everything in moderation is the key.so if you like coffee...have it...but only a cup or two a day.hope this helps.good luck with everything.
    • alissa30949
      alissa30949 suzanne07008

      Posted

      Thanks for your response Suzanne. I'm trying to keep it to one cup of coffee a day and my anxiety I'm trying to work on the stress of a new job isn't helping my anxiety because I have no experience in the area I'm working in so its a lot to learn and you want to make a good impression and all that. But I'm trying my hardest to relax.

  • Barretts
    Barretts alissa30949

    Posted

    Firstly, you are not going to get cancer! 95% of us with Barrett's will not see any progression. However, if it is going to prgress, it'll be slow at first and the pre-cancerous dysplasia will be found in one of your regular surveillance endoscopies.

    Secondly, coffee probably won't hurt. It's a propagated myth that coffee is bad. The caffeine may relax the muscles of the lower oesophageal sphincter but it's most likely your reflux is exacerbated by a hiatus hernia preventing the normal closure of this, rather than drug induced relaxations. That said, the smoking won't help so best to try and stop that. (Tea often has more caffeine than coffee. )

    Thirdly. your doctor has made a common mistake thinking that the newer, more expensive, PPI drugs are better. research has shown they're not. All PPI drugs are as effective as each other in reducing acid, though some patients tolerate one ore than another. The insurance companies are well aware of this resarch which is why they may not pay for the more expensive ones. (I believe some doctors are more likely to be "persuaded" by drugs reps. )  If 40mg omeprazole was working for you, revert to that. Why pay the drugs companies more than you need?

    If you find the chapter on medicines in the Acid section of the free book / website www DownWithAcid org uk, it has links to that research. The attached graphic shows an equivalence chart for the various PPIs (with UK NHS prices) . (A page on the BarrettsWessex org uk website on the drugs page under th etreatments tab, has a table of US prices (a few years out of date) at the foot of the page. )

    • alissa30949
      alissa30949 Barretts

      Posted

      Thank you for your response. It made me feel a lot better. It's scary to be diagnosed with this at such a young age. I am going to call the Drs office on Tuesday and see if the dr can call in omeprezale 40 mg for me for the next few months since I won't have insurance to see him until nov and hopefully they will do that for me. But again thanks for your response and giving me knowledge on how this works if there was a progression. Right now I'm just concerned that I am burping up after many meals so I'm afraid more damage is being done to my esophogus.

    • fhame39790
      fhame39790 alissa30949

      Posted

      Hi allissa what are your symptoms have you been experiencing dry throat that worsen at night and took months as well?
    • alissa30949
      alissa30949 fhame39790

      Posted

      I haven't really noticed a dry throat at night. I just seem to have indigestion like burping after I eat. My comcern is that the ppi medicine they giving me isn't working.

    • fhame39790
      fhame39790 alissa30949

      Posted

      Can you tell me what are your first symptoms and how did it started if you don't mind? Coz I'm really confused now if the problem is in my throat or my stomach.

    • alissa30949
      alissa30949 fhame39790

      Posted

      Sure my problems started with bloating, burping and nausea. I thought I had ibs for years which I do. I went to the gastro dr because I thought I might have h pylori a stomach infection. He ordered an endoscopy and that's when they found barretts esophogus and an ulcer on my esophogus. They also said I had gastritis in my stomach and gerd. What happens is I don't really feel acid coming up my throat. The dr said the acid from my stomach splashes onto the bottom of my esophogus and that's what caused the Barretts. From the acid hitting it it changes the make up of the cells. I'm not sure what your symptoms are or what your diagnosis is?

    • fhame39790
      fhame39790

      Posted

      If you have time can you go to my profile and read my post there tried to copy it and Send it to you but can't paste it the symptoms and story is all there. I only have 3 post there and one of them is you discussion if you don't mind reading the other 2 I would appreciate if you can advice me anything.thank you 

    • grathosas
      grathosas Barretts

      Posted

      Not sure of your name . Your info is great as like you I have  had Barretts for some years. I also had a hiatus hernia. 

      What led me to this forum is the side effects from long term 10 yrs + use of Omeprazole . There is a section on thiss subject but would be interested in your thoughts and any directions you can point me into beside what you quote above.

      Cheer

         

    • grathosas
      grathosas

      Posted

      Barretts,

      OOOps did not know this was your name. 

    • Barretts
      Barretts grathosas

      Posted

      My name's actually Chris Robinson.

      I co-founded and chair the charity Barrett's Wessex with the aim to reduce the number of deaths to oesophageal cancer in Southampton, Wessex and beyond.

      We have a few hundred members mainly in Southern England but a few abroad as well.

      We have a website, inked to on some of these Patient forum pages, at www BarrettsWessex org uk where you'll probably find most of whatever you want to know. Including a link to the Down With Acid website / book I wrote and give away free.

    • grathosas
      grathosas Barretts

      Posted

      Chris,

      Tks for the quick follow up. Will look up your website as directed and thks again for the information. FYI I am an expat lving in the US!!!

    • david11139
      david11139 Barretts

      Posted

      Hi Chris. I've been diagnosed with focal intestinal metaplasia in the stomach. I'm really scared that I've been handed down a death sentence. I'm 35 with a family. I know you know about BE. Is there any advice you can give me in regards to cancer risk, diet and medicines to prevent anything bad from happening. I got it from h pylori. The doctors are telling me I'm very low risk but they haven't given me any numbers. Please help. Thank you.

    • Guest
      Guest david11139

      Posted

      How are you feeling now? Did you manage somehow your condition?
    • david11139
      david11139 Guest

      Posted

      Yes. I am no longer worried as I ended up talking to some other more experienced doctors and they reassured me my risk was so low it was boring as one put it. I still continue to have high acid and it's burning my larynx. It turns out it could take up to 6 months or longer to get under control with medications. Thank you for asking.

    • Guest
      Guest david11139

      Posted

      Very glad to here that. I' 25 years old got my condition when I was 19 years of age (chr. gastritis, gerd, barrett's). There is one thing that is good at getting this condition at 19 and it is that you don't know what you have, you just take your pills and continue to live your life as nothing happened.

      To cut the story short, I got anxious as soon as I started googling and seeing people posting about PPIs, I hade no side effects whatsoerver from them (I'm still on them), 20 mg pantoprazol each day which is omeprazole 10 mg (very low dose but still). I started having anxiety, guess why, because of the Internet and horror stories. I don't know if you are on medication but if you are, then I can tell you that you are young and will probably handle the medication very well. People who get nasty sides from this drug are age 60+ (at least the study was done on them) and God knows how many drugs are they taking along with the PPIs. I litterally don't have any sides and could not live without them. I produce too much stomach acid, why? No one knows. Just live your life, take care of your kids and familly and let's be honest without the big pharma we would never live long lives. No one likes to take drugs but no one wants to die at a young age either. A friend of mine is daily on this drugs nearly for 20 years now and He is a year and a half younger then you, He's also got zero sides, maybe some low mg when he is on high doses...

    • david11139
      david11139 Guest

      Posted

      Right now I'm on 80mg of ppi(nexium) and 300mg of radinitine(zantac) at bedtime. It's a high dose until I can get the acid under control. I have been getting some relief finally. But my larynx is still very sensitive. Thanks for your words of encouragement. I needed them. I don't any side effects. My hope is to get the acid down where I'm not clearing my throat all day from the acid coming up. It's been 3 and half months on the ppi and a little over a month on the h2 blocker. I just hope I can wake up one day without my larynx hurting. Drs say it takes months for it to heal. I went a whole year without being diagnosed. So my larynx is probably really sensitive

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