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From: juanita
Date: 09/29/00
Time: 22:42:57
This is my story.
About a year ago, I started having pain in my upper stomach located near where the diaphram and esophagus meet. I had this pain only in the mornings when I'd wake up. I went in to see my GP after about 4 mos of suffering from this pain. He put me on AXID. The Axid helped me for awhile and then when my symptoms left; I stopped taking it. I took it for about a month continously before I stopped taking it. Then I was fine for about 4 mos. Well, then I started noticing severe chest pains in my chest and in my back; I also noticed that my chest would crack sometimes when I'd move. Anyone ever have that happen to them? The pains went on for about 2 mos before I went in to the GP. This time he put me on Achipex. The Achipex worked good, it took about two weeks to kick in but it finally did. I was symptom free for about 1 month, then I stopped taking it. I remained symptom free for about 3 mos w/out any problems. Then one day at work the chest pains came back full force, ten x's fold. I went back to the GP (general practitioner). He put me back on the aciphex 20 mg. The medication worked for about 2 weeks then I started noticing a choking feeling in my throat upon waking up one day. It went away for two weeks; then returned. I began to notice that my food started to go down slowly after eating. This lasted for about 4 days. I went back to the Doctor's office he scheduled me for a Barium swallow and an endoscopy. Both the test came back normal except the endoscopy showed that I have a small hiatal hernia. After the tests results got back to me, my swallowing did fine for about 1 week. Then a week after the endoscopy I noticed that my swollowing became worse. I stated having pain in my upper throat area, it seemed to shift up and down one day and the pain was pretty intense. Then I noticed my throat would get very dry, then the dryness would go away and then come back. I also started to notice that my food started feeling like it was sticking in the upper part of my esophagus and I started drinking water down with all my food. Then when I ate meat, it got really bad or bread. I then put myself on a pureed food diet because my anxiety started to kick in. Well 5 weeks later my throat still gets these dry spells, food is still sticking or going down very slow, I have a little pain with swallowing but that doesn't happen but every once in awhile. My heartburn is getting worse. I have a video swallow scheduled for Oct. 5 and I will let you folks in on the results once I get them back. I stopped taking the aciphex and now I am taking zantac 150 mg just before going to bed. I also take cimetidine or (Tagment) if the HB is really bothering me throughout the day. This combination seems to work o.k. but I take Gaviscon when the HB really get out of control. I have lost 35 LBS in 2 months because I am practically on a liquid diet. I don't know what to think; I do have a lot of anxiety which I can usally calm down with some Skilled Relaxation, and for me I usually listen to a subliminal relaxation tape that is supposed to be for ill people. I find that helps me for my anxiety attacks. I also notice that when I swallow anything that I get this gurgling noise in my throat, and I burp a lot. I get bad HB whenever I eat anything, even sometimes just drinking water I will get HB. I still have hope though guys, that's the only thing that keeps me going is hope and belief in God. I pray to God and try to keep myself relaxed. I noticed when I comfort myself in my mind that my throat seems to feel better. I've tried Prilosec and that only worked for a couple of weeks before all my symptoms came back, and it seems that my symptoms got worse after the prilosec, and now the aciphex doesn't seem to help a lot anymore. I noticed that after taking the aciphex, that my throat seems to get real dry, same thing with the tagment. Anyone else get these same symptoms after taking these meds? I do have this fear that the swallowing will get worse, but I pray it doesn't. Anyone else out there haveing difficulty swallowing? I've also heard that taking PPI's can cause dry throat and Dysphagia (difficulty swallowing). It just seemed to pop up overnight. Now it's been close to 6 weeks with this and it hasn't gotten better. I can swallow liquids down with no trouble but all my foods have to be put into the blender and liquified almost to drinking fluid before I can get it down. Anyone have any comments or suggestions to my problems? I'm wondering if I am having esophageal spasms and maybie the difficulty is cause by the spasms and acid refluxed into my esophagus. I also get dizzy, lightheaded at times, starving pains in stomach, which is understandable being that my food is practically all liquids. I am still in hopes that maybie I can be helped with the newest procedures invented for HB called the Stratta Procedure or the Bard Procedure, my last resort will be the Nissan Fundo.
I'm new to this website and will keep everyone posted on my outcomes.
Thanks for reading Juanita