gallbladder or gastritis or Barrets esophagus

Thankfully it was not everyday but when I suffered with it I was miserable and it took the joy out of life.

The only suggestion my gastroenterologist could come up was that I was swelling a lot of air when I was eating and/or when I my asthma was acting up. I live with the problem until about 2010 until things got drastically worse I had the belching, bloating, gas, nausea, and constant abdominal pain and diarria. My gastroenterologist enterologist did some tests and found I had h-pylori and treated me with a three drug protocol and I was fine for about four months and them wham right back to the full blow symptoms again. More tests no h-pylori so the dock did a hydra scan and determined I had bile reflux from my pancreas backing up into my stomach which could be a cause for the nausea but not much else. The gastroenterologist threw his hands up and said he’s tried all his tricks and didn’t know what to do other than retest me to which I said thanks but no thanks and went to see another. 

The new doctor listen to my story and said for me to read a book called the carbohydrate specific diet and upon completion if I felt I was the poster boy to come back to see her which I did. So she set up a breath test which determined I had SIBO which is an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine. The breat test simply measures to see if you exhale methane or carbon dioxide after drinking some sugar water. If you do exhale either gas then you have an overgrowth of bacteria because humans do not produce this gases. Upon the positive test result she prescribed the antibiotic xifaxan. After completing the course I had a good two weeks before it all came back. Another round of the antibiotic another good two weeks and bam back again. After that the gastroenterologist revered me to a natural path that said we would have to do it with diet. The diet was no sugars, no starches and no complex carbohydrates. After 3 years and some improvement I found I had improved as much as I was going to by diet alone and so after going from 195lbs to 158 lbs I found a different naturalpath/nutritionist. That had me fill out a food journal documenting my meals which she would tweak. After about six months of that with some improvement she added plant antibiotics and digestive enzymes. After about a year on that I was vastly improved but would have bouts on occasion if I eat too much starch, sugar or carbohydrates that we slowly reintroduced. Eventually I found my nausea, belching, bloating, gas and diarrhea manageable. Then in October of 2016 I started getting acid reflux and LPN symptoms that eventually led to more doctor visits and more tests. I was told that 3 the tests showed extreme reflux, gastritis and the cells of my esophogus had changed to more resemble the cells of my small intestine and so I was referred to a surgeon. The first surgeon I say was to put it bluntly and egotistical  jerk. I then researched other surgeons and found one I thought would be a good match so I visited him. I had all the other doctors forward him my records and after a visit he said he wasn’t convinced it was reflux so he scheduled me for an impedance test where they insert a catheter up your nose and down your throat to the end of the esophogus and tape the other end to the side of your face and send you home for 24 hours. The catheter is an instrument that can detect and measure reflux and identify if the reflux is acid, bile or digestive enzymes. Upon completion of the test and the results the surgeon said I didn’t have reflux but I’m certain it was just a period when I was feeling better. Had the test been positive I would have opted for the Linx procedure google it and see if it’s something that may interest you.  So after many doctors and test and much research on my part I’m in a holding patter with the gastroenterologist wanting to repeat the bravo test and the surgeon the impedance but they are both out a month and I could be suffering terrible symptoms or they could have abated. This whole journey has been a terrible experience and all I’m able to do is suffer through the worst times and enjoy the good times but that’s no real solution. I’m taking a break from it all at the current time.