Please help, been having digestive and GERD issues for months now

Hi everyone, I have a question, I've been trying to ease into the digestive enzymes by taking 1 day for a few days, today was my first day taking two. I had the first one with lunch, and the second one with supper. I definitely felt a warm burning sensation in my stomach which I have read could possibly happen when you take digestive enzymes. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do? I've read you should stop taking them for a few days while your stomach lining heals. Is it causing a lot of damage to my stomach lining? Should I try to find a milder formula, or just keep taking them?

Hi everyone, I just wanted to update my original thread. My H. Pylori test came back negative, and I've decided to stay completely off omeprazole. I currently am taking Acidophilus and Bifidum chewable probiotic wafers, a chewable papaya enzyme after each meal, and I am drinking ginger tea. The acid reflux is no longer much of an issue, I have occasional heartburn which is pretty manageable. I'm still having the same issues with indigestion, bloating, burping, and feeling full. I have a question though. I have been taking the probiotic for 10 days now, and the bottle says that each wafer has 1 billion organisms. I take 3 wafers each day, like it says to do on the back of the bottle. I think maybe twice I took 4 in a day. Anyway, it's been 10 days since taking them and for the past 3 or 4 days I've had a bad tension headache that seems to start around the same time each day, I also noticed that my skin is breaking out a bit, I feel like I have to urinate more often, and today, sorry if this is tmi, but I had very very loose stools that is technically considered diarrhea, I had the urgency to go at least 4 times and it was just bad, I also feel extra bloated and gassy today and I feel like I have a lot of trapped gas in my intestines, but the diarrhea is what has me the most concerned. So I'm wondering, after doing a little research, could this be the probiotic die-off effect? Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm only taking 3 billion per day, which seems low to me, so I'm not sure. Should I keep taking 3 billion or cut back down to 2 or 1 billion? 

I also want to say I'm so glad that I found this forum, everyone is so nice and so helpful. I'm really trying to stay positive about my situation, I know that with time I will be better. My doctor just wants to prescribe medication and "see how I feel" which seems absurd to me, she doesn't want to do any kind of tests. I see a GI specialist in a few days, I'm hoping I have better luck there.

Hi Everyone, I'm coming back on here almost a year and a half later to let you know about the progress I've made. A few days after my last update I went and saw a GI specialist for the first time, talking to him actually gave me a bit of hope. He let me know that there had been quite a few people in his office in the same shoes I was in, a messed up gut after a bad stomach virus. He wanted me to try something called a low fodmaps diet for 2 weeks, and he also scheduled me for an endoscopy. Around this time I had also started taking probiotics everyday, papaya enzymes after I ate, and drinking ginger tea regularly. I also stayed off the omeprazole and all other acid reducers, and while it was so so hard to get off of them, I haven't taken any of them since. After about two weeks of taking the probiotics I had loose stools again, and I was also sneezing a lot and had an extremely runny nose, after a lot of research I found out that there is a phase when you take probiotics called the "detox" phase, it's when your body is detoxing all the bad flora and replacing it with good. I kept taking them as I felt like they were working. The ginger tea was helping me when I especially felt really sick, escpecially if I had a stomach ache after eating, the ginger tea really helped with helping me digest my food better, and it helped settle my stomach if it felt unsettled. The low fodmaps diet also helped, it was pretty restrictive but I was able to figure out which foods triggered bloating and discomfort for me. The results from my endoscopy came back normal except for some inflamation on my stomach lining. He diagnosed me with IBS and prescribed me Elavil 10mg to take daily. Well, I kept up with the regime, probiotics, papaya enzymes, ginger tea, and the elavil. A year and a half later, I'm so happy to say that I am almost entirely back to normal! About two months after my endoscopy I felt well enough to go back to work, and while I was nervous about it at first, I stuck to my guns and I am back working a full time job. I'm not on the fodmaps diet anymore, but being on it I was able to figure out what foods made me feel bloated. I can pretty much eat whatever I want now, but definitely everything in moderation. I also try not to go over-board and try not to overstuff myself. It all took a lot of time, but it was well worth it to get where I am now. The stomach aches and bloating and discomfort also reduced as time went by, they used to be debilitating, I used to have to sit in bed for hours until they went away. I rarely get stomach aches or bloating anymore, and when I do, I sit down, try to relax, drink some ginger tea and I have discovered using a hot water bottle helps a lot! I also found out that I have anxiety, and I have panic attacks as well. A think a lot of what I was experiencing had to do with my anxiety and I find that now when I start to feel anxious, that is when I start feeling sick and nauseous. I'm not on any medication for anxiety but realizing that my anxiety triggers stomach aches and nausea and just being aware of that has helped me a lot. For now I'm still taking a daily probiotic, and ginger tea whenever I feel like I need it, I'm still on elavil, and I take papaya enzymes occasionally, I also wanted to mention that the loose stools are practically gone, I feel regular again, the only time I'm irregular is when I'm anxious. It has been a long journey, but I'm honestly so happy where I am right now. I've even gained back all the weight that I lost, I was pretty thin to begin, being sick and losing all that weight technically put me underweight. Thank you to all on this message board who helped me out and gave me encouragement, I really appreciate it, I was so very sad last year with my situation, I don't want to be dramatic but it felt as though my life was over, I thought I would never enjoy food again or be able to leave my house for long periods of time for fear of diarrhea or nauseousness. I don't want to ramble on but thank you so much, I feel like my normal self again