GERD/gastritis?

[senalarose]

Hey everyone, I'm actually posting for my husband because he needs advice. You guys have helped him a lot in the past. He knows that he does get anxious over health issues if he reads too much stuff so asked me to post for him so he can avoid his triggers. He also wants to thank all of you for the help in the past.

Here's the issue:

He has been experiencing really bad acid reflux since December, 24 hours a day.
His symptoms include:
stomach pain,
Non-frequent bowel movements,
yellow tongue and painful tongue and mouth,
weird taste in mouth,
chest pain (heart issues already ruled out) and
Short of breath (lung issues already ruled out)

He has been taking ranitidine and lansoprazole 2 times per day. His symptoms are still unbearable. He's had an endoscope and the gastroenterologist stated in the report that he has gastritis, but nothing else. Would any of you think it would be related to GERD or gastritis? If anyone has experienced anything like this, have you gotten better and how did you treat it? Has it gone away completely?

He's also on a very bland diet.

Thank you in advance for any help.

[PanickyGuy]

Yeah, sounds like GERD and it can still get bad like that, even while taking prescribed medication like omeprazole, prantoprazole, lansoprazole because those type of meds just reduce the acid in the stomach somewhat, not totally eliminate it. Because they don't stop the renaming stomach acid from coming up through a weak stomach sphincter muscle.

But see eating certain types of foods all the time like, tomatoes, chocolate and other foods that I can't think of right now, that irritate your acid reflux makes it worse. Diet is a big factor in preventing that from happening. Gotta watch what you eat or you'll piss it off. Lol.

But in cases where my acid reflux really flares up like that, I will take a Tums or Gaviscon as a supplement along with the PPI prescribed medication to help when it really gets bad like that. But they say to take them at least two hours apart from each other, like don't take the PPI and then a Tums or whatever immediately afterwards. You should wait about two hours then chew on a tums. Which has help me most of the time when it gets really bad like that, BTW.

Edit to add; Oh and I take prantoprazole\protonix, which seems to do better for me then the other two mentioned. Maybe he outta switch to that?

[senalarose]

He's been doing everything you have done. Even taking gaviscon, but not 2 hours after the PPIs. He also sleeps upright. Have you had flare ups last 2 months or longer?

[PanickyGuy]

He's been doing everything you have done. Even taking gaviscon, but not 2 hours after the PPIs. He also sleeps upright. Have you had flare ups last 2 months or longer?

Well they say you're not suppose to take the PPI and the supplements together, because the Gaviscon, Tums or whatever might reduce the effects of the PPI.

Should I assume he's already had a endoscopy and they found nothing there as well? Because if he's being doing everything possible and had a endoscopy and it's still that bad, he might want to consult a doctor about it, because they can fix it with surgery too if it gets too bad and nothing else helps.

[senalarose]

Yes, he's had an endoscope the gastroenterologist put in his report that he has gastritis. We would ask the gastro more questions, but right after the test he told my husband that he has to follow up with his family doctor and will get the report there. His family doctor had sent him to a gastro to help him because the GP ran out of ways to help him. His family doctor is on vacation until March, but the replacement is doing as much as she can and is looking into doing more testing such as the monometry.

[PanickyGuy]

Yes, he's had an endoscope the gastroenterologist put in his report that he has gastritis. We would ask the gastro more questions, but right after the test he told my husband that he has to follow up with his family doctor and will get the report there. His family doctor had sent him to a gastro to help him because the GP ran out of ways to help him. His family doctor is on vacation until March, but the replacement is doing as much as she can and is looking into doing more testing such as the monometry.

(Oh that's right, you already mention the endoscopy in your first post, missed that part, my bad).

Well that sucks about the back and forth thing with the docs! But how bad is his anxiety? Because it can go hand in hand with GERD and make acid reflux a helluva lot worse depending on how bad the anxiety is.

[senalarose]

(Oh that's right, you already mention the endoscopy in your first post, missed that part, my bad).

Well that sucks about the back and forth thing with the docs! But how bad is his anxiety? Because it can go hand in hand with GERD and make acid reflux a helluva lot worse depending on how bad the anxiety is.

Haha it's all good, easier to repeat than to tell you to go back and read.

Some days his anxiety is pretty low and other days it's higher, but even on the better days his GERD doesn't seem to calm down. We both know that stress and anxiety can make it worse. We both want him to get better, so it's frustrating when he's doing everything he can and nothing seems to help. I'm even eating his diet to make it easier for him.

[PanickyGuy]

Some days his anxiety is pretty low and other days it's higher, but even on the better days his GERD doesn't seem to calm down. We both know that stress and anxiety can make it worse. We both want him to get better, so it's frustrating when he's doing everything he can and nothing seems to help. I'm even eating his diet to make it easier for him.

Yeah it's not easy, I feel for him, been there myself many times. Very frustrating, indeed.

Is he taking any anti-anxiety meds and seeing a CB therapist? Might help get that GERD under better control all together on good or bad days. I only ask, because now that I think about it, that was another factor, besides the other things I mentioned, that helped with my GERD as well. My acid reflux problem seemed to have happened a lot less frequently after doing that.

[senalarose]

Yeah it's not easy, I feel for him, been there myself many times. Very frustrating, indeed.

Is he taking any anti-anxiety meds and seeing a CB therapist? Might help get that GERD under better control all together on good or bad days. I only ask, because now that I think about it, that was another factor, besides the other things I mentioned, that helped with my GERD as well. My acid reflux problem seemed to have happened a lot less frequently after doing that.

He was taking clonazepam but he found that was worsening his GERD so he quit it, no CB therapist. But I'll mention it to him.

[sunrise88]

Hey guys so update on my husbands status (senalarose).
He was seen by another gastro who said everything looked fine. I was not able to be at the appt, and he was totally sedated so does not remember what happened for a while after the appointment. The doctor told him to quit the omeprazole and ranitidine within one week (his appt was Jan 23). The doctor has prescribed him amytriptiline and sucralfate instead. He thinks the acid reflux may be stress related, or have a sensitive esophagus?

His symptoms are still occurring, we both have heard that a rebound effect can occur after quitting acid suppressing drugs. Has any of you or know if someone that quit the meds and had acid rebound? How long did it last?