Hello - I have suffered from a sore throat for 2 months. After 5 trips to the doctor they finally referred me to an ENT doctor. He did the nifty camera down the throat thing and said that I have seriously acid burned throat/esophagus. He put me on a bland diet and 30 mg. a day of prevacid. He said to take it in the morning about an hour before breakfast. I'm also drinking aloe vera juice, "throat coat" tea and taking slippery elm supplements. I sleep propped up and have had no caffeine. Also, not eating at night at all. I've been on all of these things for one week today but my throat still hurts and I had a doozy of an acid episode last night. I've suffered so much and really can't stand living like this. Does anyone have any advice ? Am I not giving it enough time or should I try to change dosage time ? I've read so much information about this that my head is spinning and I can't decide what to do next. I would really appreciate any help / advice from people who have had this problem and lived to tell the tale. Thank You.
I was in your exact shoes about 3 weeks ago.. my doc had to change my med as prilosec didnt help me at all ..I took it for a month. He switched me to dexilant 60mg daily..ai also take slippery elm..throat coat tea (though I dont drink it anymore as I no longer need it).. and I had to radically change my diet..I thought it was ok to drink decaf things..coffee, sprite..boy was I mistaken..I cant have any carbonation and only have one decaf coffee a day. No gravy's, fried, fatty foods, no chocolate, no mint of any kind..I believe for me it all finally worked..as I now feel better. What u eat and drink is significant along with taking the meds it took about 2 weeks after doing all of that before i felt better. Hope this helps you....
Sam, You've given me a glimmer of hope. I don't have to tell you what kind of misery this is ! It has become all consuming. Did the doctor give you any idea of how long you'll have to take meds ? My doc said that I should take the prevacid 30mg. for 8 weeks and then wean down to 15mg. for another 8 weeks and then try nothing. I don't know abut you but I feel like I'm starving to death ! I'm nearly afraid to eat anything. Also, I'm on a soft diet to try to heal the acid burned throat. I had no history of any problem at all. Only a little mild heartburn during pregnancy. I really can't understand why this is happening to me. I will ask ENT about Dexilant if the prevacid doesn't improve things soon. Thanks so much.
p.s. did your tongue hurt too ? I have blisters on my tongue and it is painful. If so, how long till all of that went away ? was it slow or did you just wake up one day not feeling cruddy ?
Same here..never had any issues except heartburn only when I was pregnant 22 yrs ago. My biggest symptom was I felt like I had growths in my throat...no heartburn..no nausea..nothing. my doc didnt say anything about weaning me off of my ppi..but he also didnt tell me to radically change my diet either. My lumps seem to come on suddenly though...I started feeling a little better each day..it wasnt all of a sudden overnight..I really think that my diet change was a huge help.keep me posted..
Oh..and no, I didnt have blisters on my tongue.. how awful that must be! But I was still miserable! I know how u feel!!! Make sure u take ur ppi in the a.m. and eat something protein one hour after taking it!!
What CAN you eat ? I feel like I'm starving to death. I've become seriously afraid of food especially since the ENT doc said to change my diet. Have lost 12 lb. in a month. Thanks for your help. I swear I'll leave you alone after this.
Dont feel bad..I had a million questions also..and i am certainly no pro now either.. I only know the changes made and what worked for me personall.. diet and got on medicine and am now feeling a lot better...so ask away..I can only tell you from my own experience, and everyone is different. I eat bananas, yogurt..lowfat or fat free, whole wheat toast with just a tiny dab of butter, organic banana oatmeal (bananas and oatmeal are excellent for reflux), chicken..no skin and not fried, lean steak on occassion, baked or mashed potatoes, rice, pork roast in the crock..remove any fat, turkey burgers, baked chips, ham.
No bacon or sausage or gravy.I usually have one protein bar per day..none with chocolate though. I drink only water and decaf tea..this has been the most difficult for me because I loved fountain pop and miss it dearly!!!!! I eat black licorice also..and i tried out frozen yogurt in a small amount and it didnt bother me either. Let me know how u r doing...!! Im still trying new things ever so slowly and so far I havent found any "trigger" foods, im sure I will though.
Lots of good info Sam
I would like to add if your not already taken one is a probiotic pill or drink and I don't mean yogurt it does have the same bacterias that they have while on a PPI they tend to surpress the acid which is great but now the acid is not as much you need more good bacteria to aid in digestion.
Wow! that sounds like Real food ! yay, I thought my real food days were over. I miss soda dearly too......would kill for a coke zero....oh, and fries. okay, must stop thinking like that. I tried some egg salad about two hours ago and so far nothing horrible has happened. I did buy some acidophilus pills but somebody told me I didn' t get enough cultures or something. It' s on my list of things to Google. How much would you recommend, Stretch ? Oh, and I got some licorice chewable pills but haven' t tried them yet. Since I had a bad episode the night before last I think I' 'll try taking the pill in the evening_- does that seem okay ? Maybe I' 'll get better protection while sleeping ????? I just feel so discouraged that my throat is still irritated- it is better I think, not as raw, but definitely still painful.
Anybody else have problems ? Thanks again !
Last edited by Administrator; 01-04-2013 at 09:46 PM.
Laurienluke, your symptoms will get better as the medicine begins to heal your esophagus and stomach. My GI doctor recommended that along with the PPI to take a histamine-2 blocker at night such as Zantac. I find that liquid Gaviscon at night helps me a lot because it forms a foam barrier that neutralizes any acid coming up at night. My tong is turning a silverish color because of it but I don't mind it since it does a great job. I also take it during the day whenever I have a nasty episode. It helps within minutes so I make sure to carry it with me everywhere. I too had lost about 20 pounds because of reflux but recently I started to gain some of it back by drinking protein shakes (silk soy milk, fruit such as bananas and strawberries and two egg whites mixed in the blender) and by eating natural juices such as Guava juice and natural fruits (no oranges or anything citric). I also eat so much chicken that I am growing feathers, but it is the only meat that I can tolerate. Fats from sausages or red meat make me burp the acid back up so I stay away from them. beans and nuts such as almonds are good and so is rice. I find that rice calms the nauseous feeling that I get sometimes. As for probiotics; I take Align. They are expensive but my GI doctor gets so many samples from the manufacturer that I get a month's worth at a time just for the asking (free).
I bought some Gaviscon (liquid) but when I was going to take it I realized that it is mint flavored - I heard that mint was one of the things that would give me problems - I was too scared to take it - are there other flavors or is it just mint flavoring or something that wouldn't hurt me ? Also, do you have any recommend ed salad dressings ? I found some made from yogurt but each flavor (seemed to have added sprices) Thanks
I too would like to know about the salad dressings... I have only ever tried the gaviscon plain chewables..they did not do anything for me personally. I avoid mint also..even gave away my mint-flavored gum
I was able to find sugar free bubble gum flavored sticks of gum (not as easy to find as you might think) at Target. The doctor said that chewing gum may help with the healing of my throat but NOT to get mint -If they have 'Shop Rite' grocery stores near you - they have a whole (refrigerated) selection of yogurt based salad dressings - ranch, blue cheese, italian - all of the usual's but they seem to have dark spots in them that I fear may be pepper ???? Let me know if you hear of any that will work with this awful acid problem.
Thanks, L
Liquid Gaviscon is much, much better than the tablets. As the liquid goes down it starts to coat the esophagus and you feel it working right away. I take the mint flavor and it doesn't bother me. It may be artificial flavoring and not real mint in it. If it does have mint in it, I think that the discomfort that it may cause will be minimal compared to the relief that it gives.
When I don't take it at night I wake up with sensitive teeth, tingling tong and a stuffed nose.
Last edited by Seekingpeace12; 01-08-2013 at 03:22 PM.
Oh MY GOSH ! I started having sensitive teeth a couple of months back and even had to switch to a sensitive toothpaste - I didn't know why but when you said that part about tingly teeth it hit me......Mine might have been caused by acid damage?????? My gracious, is there nothing this reflux stuff won't affect ?
My husband bought us a juicer and I'm now experimenting with it - I also bought some protein powder to mix in. Fingers crossed it will help !
