Heartburn and acid reflux my story

By Raymond Harper

Heartburn, acid reflux and hiatus hernia my story

This is my personal experience of having acid reflux disease and a hiatus hernia. And the reasons for my search for help with information on the symptoms and cures for heartburn.

Do you suffer from chronic heartburn….?  I do

I am one of those unfortunate people that have a dreadful time with acid reflux.

Do you wake up in the middle of the night feeling that half the contents of your stomach are sitting in your throat…I do.

I was not enjoying my food as I new the outcome was lots of pain and suffering. Eating and drinking became something to dread not the joy it should be.

When I first noticed that I was getting heartburn more and more frequently, I went to see my GP and was prescribed the usual antacids. They worked fine for a while but then I was finding that I needed them more and more often.  I was also finding I was feeling very full after eating or when I had a few drinks.  I felt as though my food was more in my throat than my stomach.  Also if I happened to lie down soon after a meal, which is something I used to love doing, I would get intense burning in my throat.

After several more visits to my Doctor without much improvement he suggested that I should have an endoscopy.

Hiatus Hernia diagnosis

 Endoscopy is a procedure where a camera is inserted down your throat into your stomach allowing the Doctor to see the oesophagus and stomach. This allowed them to diagnose that I had a Hiatus hernia. (What’s this you may ask? I did)

 This is a condition in which part of the stomach slides above the diaphragm and into the chest.  There is a valve like flap at the bottom of the esophagus which separates the esophagus from your stomach. In my case the valve was distorted by the hernia. When you eat the valve opens to allow your food into your stomach but then stays firmly shut to stop the food coming back up, but the hiatus hernia  seems to stop the valve closing properly and allows the contents of your stomach to come back up.(Reflux )

I also found out that your stomach is full of acid to aid in digestion and that although your stomach is protected from the acid. Your esophagus is not….. This means that any content coming back into your esophagus can literally burn it. This is called acid reflux or the really technical name is Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease or GERD for short.

Having a Hiatus Hernia seemed bad enough, but having the acid reflux can be a nightmare.

However the good news was that after my diagnosis I was put on an acid suppressant called Omeprazole. This must be one of the best acid reflux medications on the market in my opinion. This absolutely changed my life (for the better). Although I was not supposed to, I found that I could eat and drink more or less whatever I liked and I did not get the massive bouts of pain from acid reflux.

At the time of my diagnosis I was working abroad and luckily received the treatment quickly. The tablets were working perfectly so I thought no more about it. I just took my daily Omeprazole table and carried on happily.

Doctors Dilemma

However I recently returned to the UK and on registering with a new doctor I was asked how long I had been taking the Omeprazole. When I told him six years he immediately cut my dose from 20 mg to 10 mg and said I should only be on a low maintenance dose because of side effects. I did not know what side effects these were but started taking the reduced dose as advised.

Virtually straight away all my old symptoms came back. The smaller dose just does not seem to be enough to keep the acid reflux at bay and still have the lifestyle I have been accustomed to. It seems as though I will have to change my lifestyle if I am to stay on the smaller doze of Omeprazole.

This was the reason for my starting research into alternative treatments and diets.

I have already found plenty of articles on the subject and so I thought I would make my first venture on the internet and put any relevant information I find useful or I want to comment on here on my site. Hopefully helping other people with the same problems as well as helping myself.

If anyone out there is suffering like I am hopefully the information on this site about heartburn treatment will be useful to you