Finding it hard to cope with bloating and not being able to eat without pain

Hi Michelle they just mentioned reflux and did nt really go into depth about it. I seem to have all the symptoms of acid reflux. Fed up with not being able to eat much and no energy. My meds are starting to help a little and gaviscon after meals helps a bit. But my lungs are hurting again, which is good, neither is the weight I have lost, I can t eat much food to increase weight which I need for energy.

Thanks for your reply 😃

Hi Michelle - my doc told me last week that it is far better for refluxers to have wind come out the other end as it reduces pressure in the stomach. For the first time in my life I now have "permission" to go as hard as I like for "medical reasons"!

Thanks for the info and explanation of what's going on in my body. My doctor said it was reflux and maybe a hernia, she does nt know herself, that's why endo has been booked.

I eat now mainly banana, toast, peaches and veg, and drink lots of water. My stomach barely tolerates them.

This all started when I started on b12 injections. I expected to feel energised and ended up with my acid problems. I don t know if the b12 had anything to do with it.

Anyway thanks for explaining things for me, it makes me feel a bit better knowing what is happening in my stomach.

Hi Jess. Sounds as if your problems are mainly due to reflux rather than acid. You may wish to consider reflux reduction surgery (fundoplication).

And alkaline diets are a myth. Alkaline foods will be around pH 7.7. If meeting a litre and a half of hydrochloric acid at pH 1, it would require an immense quantity to make any difference - far more than your body could take in one go.

If food entering the stomach is highly alkaline, the stomach reacts to make more proton pumps and produce more acid. The net effect is always the same: however acidic or alkaline the foods entering the stomach, the stomach will try to normalise it's highly acidic environment when food is there. That's why PPIs work: they prevent the formation of some of the proton pumps.

Any effects people report from alkaline diets are purely placebo.

Don't know why but my answer is n=being moderated. there were no links within it. I'm sure it will be released when the moderators have checked it, so I'm afraid you'll have to wait. It was far too detailed for me to attempt to recreate it.

Barrett's

Yeah I will need to do something because it's miserable! I always feel like I can't breath and my throat will kill me and when I burp I always burp food up like when you puke in your mouth! And I just constantly have so much mucus in my throat! It just honestly causes me so much stress and anxiety! I feel as though the doctors never help me and my omeprazole doesn't help! When I talk a lot it is worse as well!

Some doctors still don't get it. Acid and reflux are actually two different things that can cause problems seperately or in cobination. Omeprazole may reduce acid but may not reduce reflux.

Just earlier today I was reading a report in the Summer 2015 edition of the Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Medice entitled, "Chronic Asthma and Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease: The Treatment Plans" in which the authors from Mashhad University in Iran state: "Medication treatment via proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), such as Omeprazole, H2 receptor blockers (Ranitidine), and other antireflux medications, is appropriate for ameliorating GERD and asthma. Moreover, surgery is another useful approach to GERD and asthma treatment."

To ameliorate reflux, to quote another study I was accessing today (from Respirology, March 2014): "surgery [is] indicated to control severe GER since fundoplication eliminates reflux of any kind."

Have you considered this? For me it was the best thing I ever did.

Barrett's

So you had surgery?! Because I was diagnosed with "LPR" laryngopharyngeal reflux and honestly I just can't handle the constantly feeling like I can't breath! I went to the fair last night and was walking around and couldn't catch my breath! It is so miserable! I will talk to my dr about what I can do next! What were your symptoms

My main symptoms were typically reflux related, having got my acid symptoms of horrendous heartburn tamed years before with high dose omeprazole.

I would get the chronic reflux cough so bad I'd practically pass out coughing at least once a day. At night, I'd sit up between 2:00am and 4:00 am coughing and swigging far too much cough suppressant from the bottle. (And I had my bed head raised and hadn't eaten nor drunk for hours before going to bed.)

When I wasn't coughing I'd get the mucous build up in the throat that caused constant throat clearing. And a whole list of other reflux symptoms; ears, nose, throat , sinus, mouth, even eyes were affected.

But the fundoplication cured all that. Well, to be honest, I still get a slight cough but nothing like what I used to experience.

The operation itself took just over an hour. I felt no pain afterwards other than some bruising to te abdomen. I had one night in hospital and went home the next day. I gradually progressed form small meals of soft foods (You feel full very quickly) to normal solid foods and normal quantities over a few weeks. I was off drugs, my energy came back and I lost about 20 pounds in weight (although I wasn't overweight before). For me, it was thye best thing I ever did, even though it came loose a few years later following a violent bout of norovirus that turned my stomch inside out retching continuously for 5 hours. I have since had a Collis-Nissen revision that is far less likely to come loose.

Wow so what is the surgery exactly? And yeah I am only 23 and am a very active person this is affecting me so much and j don't think my stress is helping I have lost weight from it as well and am not a big person only weighting 143 lbs at 5"6. I don't drink or smoke! So it's just frustrating feel like this!

I get the constant mucus build up and will caugh and swallow and try clearing my throat, and it started as I think acid cuz I had chest pains and honestly the symptoms

Have changed over time then gotten better then gotten worse it's just no winning!

The surgery is called a fundoplication. It involves wrapping the top part of the stomach, the fundus around the oesophagus and stitching it in place. (They also repair any hiatus hernia at the same time.)

The operation has been carried out for 60 years, the last 20 of which laparoscopically (keyhole surgery). There was a recent paper published following up on nearly 200 patients who had the Laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication 20 years ago. It revealed 94% satisfaction.

If you find the DownWithAcid or uk site, at the bottom of the Contents list (home page), you'll find a NCE Option grid as Appendix 2 which discusses the pros and cons of lifetime medication vs surgery.

You'll also find a chapter on the various fundoplication procedures on the site, too.

Thanks for your very unhelpful comments, Rex.

I have only been answering questions.

May I ask what your qualifications are? And what about Jodie's and Jann's qualifications?

I have spent 15 years studying Barrett's Oesophagus and acid reflux. I attend conferences. I receive (and keep an archive of) all the latest research, daily. I consider many eminent gastroenterologist medics, professrs and surgeons amongst my friends. I have even been phoned up and consulted by them. My wife's son is anoncologist. And I spend most of my time helping people on various facebook groups and forums worldwide.

My warning is not to see other therapies and treatmenst as alternatives but consider them as complementary. I do not wish to alarm. I usually stress the risks of cancer are minimal but you needto be aware of them. I know of too many patients who have died because they decided not to go with the proven path but try other therapies as alternatives.

It's a wonderfully pious thing to say our bodies heal themselves but they don't regrow limbs nor cure themselves of cancer.

Hello Barretts. I am not sure the purpose of your question invovine me as my comment was not to you, but my qualifications are the same as yours... I am a sufferer with no formal medical traning who knows only my own story, and knows it better than anyone else on this forum. This is the same for all of us on this forum. We are all seekers of restored health and truly know only of our own stories. I am so fortunate to have picked up the concept of NRT from a fellow sufferer/seeker here and the FACT is that it has worked for me too! There is no negating that. We are all of us here to share and acquire knowledge from each other and no one is more entitled to speak their opinion than another. Social responsibility dictates however we leave it at that and speak to our own experiences, and not try to diagnose others or speak with authority about another 's case(as we are none of Dr.s). You flirt with that line. It is one thing to say what has worked or not worked for you, but another to intimate you know what will work for another. You really only know what has or has not worked for you. And another yet again to speak as you are more entitled to do so than others. We are all of us equals here. Let's keep our eyes on the ball folks!

I wasn't attacking your personal story, Jodie but Rex attacked my reputation and suggested I knew less about acid reflux than you, questioning my credentials.

I see the moderators have seen fit to delete his post.

I realise most people posting here are just posting personal stories and anecdotal evidence of this king has a place.

Barretts, what i see is that you do know less about MY reflux than me. And, that you know less about the reflux of others than they do. You do of course know more of your own than any of us do! And, your credentials are just that. The same as all of ours. We are all equals here. Rex's genuine concern to let another know that, was on point as your post came across as authoritative... medically rather than experientially. His post was clearly intended to be a private reminder of that to a fellow sufferer and is unfortunate it went public... which upon discovery Rex requested it's immediate removal himself. Point being, his post was much more about his genuine concern for her suffering and understanding that we are ALL equals here, than it was about attacking your self perceived credentials.