I was just diagnosed with this today after my endoscopy, my paper that they send ya home with said to call in a week for the pathology results. I don't even know how I got this, I've had heartburn on and off for years, it will last amonth or so and be gone for months on end, this last bout started in August and it is still going so when I get it I wait awhile and then take prevecid or something. Last fall it was esophagitis and now it is full blown Barretts, I don't know which type as I know there are three types of barretts. How do you live with this stuff? Everything I eat affects me anymore and my throat is sore (especially today after the procedure of course)and also he found a mucosal nodule, apparently he wasn't too concerned or he didn't care to mention it at the time. are we barrets people destined to be on the pills forever or can it be cured or just stop the progression? I know Barretts was a dirty word way back when but now the medical field says it is rare that it turns to esophagal cancer but it can later in years and it is a serious disease even if it doesn't progress to cancer. Anybody here an expert on living with this or rather keeping it stable? Surgeries are not an option right now as I have neutropenia and the immune system is not built up yet to withstand a surgery. Any helpful advice?

If you haven't done this-- It may be helpful to elevate the head of your bed 4 to 6" so stomach acid does not go up your esophagus during sleeping.

After the endo yesterday, he wrote on the slip, preliminary diagnosis is barretts, took 4 different biopsies from each side and the nodule to, said my "flap" was rounded, told me to take the PPI til pathology report and he doesn't want to see my "pretty face" again for 3 yrs. He is considered one of the best and I've seen him for over 4 yrs now. He seemed pretty light about it, mine is column or non circular, when I looked at the pictures, heck they looked better than last year, last year was red as an apple, this year just a little red but the small darken line 1 cm and the little nodule closer to the top of my esophagus. whatever does non cirular have to do with it anyway? I am considering the new bed style now that I have this. I know people who have daily heartburn for years and I have just occasional and I have the Barretts, seems unfair to me and I even deleted caffiene from my diet and I love Starbucks, decafe isn't much better or tea because of the acid and it is the acid we want to stop right? I really don't know how to fix this one. So please tell me what to change in my diet. I don't drink caffenated anything, eat low fat so I spice up a bit, stopped my peanut butter habit which is one of my favorite flavors and a real instant trigger, cut my orange juice drinking to the low acid, slowed down on the chocolate also, I'm actually underweight stopped eating ice cream after 7pm if I have it at all, do you think yogurt ice cream is better on barretts? this diagnosis shocked me more than when I was diagnosed with osteoporosis in 2000, I even stopped taking my actenol and arthritis meds last spring and I still get it, sorry if I am acting like "why me" but I just want to know how to get myself to feeling better and stop the progression, I'm already at high risk for gastric and breast cancer since I've had benign growths removed there over the years. Are some people just more susceptable to this?

Hi Nancy - so sorry for your troubles. I was diagnosed with Barrett's back in '99, but went for 2 years just taking double doses of PPIs. I got real sick of doing that with no real change in my reflux patterns/symptoms. I found out that my lower esophageal sphincter was weak and no amount of medication was ever going to change the fact that it wasn't staying closed. So even if my gastric acid was reduced from the PPIs, I was still refluxing other digestive acids, e.g. bile, which is just as irritating to an already inflamed esophagus.

To make a long story short, I had Nissan fundoplication done in 2001, and my Barrett's is gone. I had yearly endos after it was done, and this year my surgeon told me I don't have to come back for 3 years.

I know surgery is not an option for you right now, but you may want to consider it for future if your immune system gets built up. Fundoplication has its disadvantages too (and I've discussed my situation fully several times on this board), but it kept my Barrett's from progressing. I know the medical stats say that only about 10% of patients with Barrett's develop cancer, but 95% of those who do develop cancer had a primary diagnosis of Barrett's before it became cancerous. So no, you won't necessarily get cancer in the future, but your doctor needs to be diligent and schedule regular endos to keep an eye on things. Esophageal cancer is slow growing, but if not caught early is almost always fatal.

Barrett's is a red flag that your GERD is severe and should be monitored carefully. It may require you to be on PPIs for the rest of your life.

Good luck and keep us posted,
Katie G

Thankyou. I've deligent with taking the PPI since the diagnosis, I should have been more deligent before and it may not have come to this. I'm a drug phobic in a way, think I can always do it the natural way but sometimes that just doesn't work so I am experiencing, always afraid of the drug side effects and all but once I've taken a drug and know it won't affect me it's no problem. I stopped taking my actenol and mobic cuz they may have had something to do with it. I'll talk to the rhuemy about it when I see him next month. This stuff is scary, that surgery you mentioned, was a hard recovery? It may be down the road for me once the immune is built up. Curious, scared of it to.

Hi Nancy. No, the recovery wasn't hard exactly - but there have been permanent side effects which you need to consider very seriously prior to having the surgery. Like I said, I went for 2 years after my Barrett's diagnosis before I actually decided to have the surgery. My surgeon was very open about recovery, and future potential problems. I did a lot of online and textbook research too, so I fully understood what I was getting into.

The recovery was less painful than my gall bladder recovery. I was off work for 2 full weeks, returned to 1/2 time for one week, and then back to full time after that (I am a clinical instructor at a unversity, so no heavy lifting, but a lot of walking/sitting/standing). I had to stay on a liquid diet (lots of Slim Fast and protein shakes - uggh!!!) for 2 weeks, then a puree/pudding consistency diet - like baby food for a couple weeks, then up to soft, and finally a regular diet 6 weeks after surgery. I lost quite a bit of weight - which I needed to anyway, so that was one advantage.

My success at not having Barrett's anymore is the one reason I can live with the down side. My permanent problems from the wrap are that it is VERY difficult for me to burp now and trapped gas can cause significant chest pain, or embarrassingly enough, frequent flatulence. The other downer is that I will NEVER be able to vomit again, and when I have been sick enough to be retching, it has always been the dry heaves. I was afraid that I could tear my wrap, but as of my last endo, the doc said it was fine and in the right place.

So if surgery is in the future for you, do lots of research on it. There are also possibly new methods for surgical repair of the esophageal sphincter out there too, and some doctors are actually doing looser wraps to allow patients to burp and vomit without difficulty.

But as I said, recovery was really no big deal - very minimal pain. I just had to be diligent about following the diet consistencies during the recovery period and attempting to eat/drink slowly to avoid gas. Also, carbonated beverages were a big no-no for the first 6 weeks, and can still give me gas problems to this day.

Hang in there,
Katie G

Wow, thankyou I'll keep all that in mind. So in other words if you had food poisoning you couldn't actually get that toxin out of your system by vomiting right? As vomiting is a way the body tries to rid itself of undesirable toxins I could see the lack of being able to vomit is a real downside but I also see the wrap as extra pluses. I've never been one to vomit much anyway, in fact I can count on one hand the times I actually did in my whole 50 some years so that is good, not saying I haven't gotten sick enough to but I just don't. That was good information.

Hi Nancy,

I just wanted to mention to you that my sister-in-law had an endo about a month agao. They also sent her home with a paper that read possible barretts and that she had a bad case of esophagitus.(hope that is spelled correctly) They took, I believe 3 biopsys and said her esophagus was very red and inflamed. When she got the pathology report back it was negative for Barretts so she was very relived. Maybe you will have the same results. Good Luck to you! Im sorry you are going through so much. I remember years agao people would say. I just have alittle indigestion. Now we know it can become very very serious if not taken serious by ourselves and our doctors.
Take care
Laura

Nancy and Katie, Your comments are of great interest to me. I had a colonscopy and an endoscopy done last week on Friday and was diagnosed with Spastic Colon (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), Severe Gastritis, Erosive Gastritis, Esophagitis, Barretts Esophagitis, and Duodenitis. My gastroenterologist did some biopsies and I will see him again on the 15th. I don't have heartburn and don't know that I have ever had heartburn. Once in a great while I have a little indigestion, but very rarely!
I believe that one of my greatest fallacies is eating too late in the evening. Seems it is difficult to eat in the evening until 7:30. I'm trying to do better and know that we need to elevate the head of our bed.
Have either of you, or anyone else that reads this, had an experience of their blood platelets being elevated as a result of their stomach/digestive problems? My platelets were found to be elevated a year ago when the hospital did presurgery testing (for a hysterectomy), and have ranged as low as 598,000 and as high as 824,000 (and should not really be more than about 400,000). I understand that inflamation can cause your platelets to elevate and gastritis is inflamation of the stomach lining...
I also have Hypothyroidism.
The Barrett's Esophagitis has me really concerned as does the Severe and Erosive Gastritis. I, also, have eliminated soft drinks and coffee from my diet. I have a lot of research to do and am looking forward to my appointment with the gastro dr. next week on Friday. I hope and pray the biopsies didn't reveal anything any more serious...
Best Wishes to you all, Sapphire12112

Hi Sapphire. I honestly can't answer your question about elevation of blood platelets because no one ever mentioned that to me as part of my pre-surgery workup. So I don't know if that's connected to the esophagitis or not. Erosive esophagitis can be very serious so continue to follow your GI's recommendations.

Good luck and keep us posted,
Katie G

Bump This For Newer Members

Bump This For Newer Members
Harry, This makes me wonder what you may have posted here regarding Barrett's Esophagus... Was your reply deleted?
My gastro doctor was surprised and defensive when I told him that my stomach had burned for weeks after the endoscopy. He told me that I was his first patient in 20+ years who had said that! The endoscopy seemed to irritate my stomach and it bothered me much worse for weeks afterwards than it did before he did the endoscopy... The burning and discomfort has lessened. I'm trying to really watch the acid producing foods and beverages. I steer clear of carbonated drinks - I avoid them like the plague! Once in a great while I will have some tea. Usually it's just water for me. Do you think honey in warm water could be potentially healing for gastritis? I hope to find time to "juice" some fresh cabbage this week as I understand cabbage is healing for the stomach. He prescribed 2 more months of Protonix. I will post some information regarding my blood platelets in another area. Hope all is well with you. Merry Christmas! sapphire12112

Sapphire,

I just moved this post about Barrett's Esophagas because a new member's Doctor wants to do Fundo surgery and this was a thread that Katie G answered about it.

I tried cabbage juice once and I thought it tasted awful but I am sure that you can add other ingredients to it to make it better. I just don't juice.

Protonix is suppose to be a good PPI to heal irritated esophagus problems. But I have never used it. I use Prilosec every now and then when needed.
As you know gastritis is an inflammation of the stomach.

I know nothing about the use of honey to heal gastritis -- I have read that no bacteria can live in honey because honey kills them. I just don't use it and don't know if it is an anti-inflammatory food.

The best OTC remedy I have ever used for gastritis is Mastic Gum---(Mastica). Look it up on Google. It works for me but some people that have tried it -- said it did not help them but I know mine was Gastritis-- it was healed in 2 weeks and verified by an endoscopic exam that the gastritis was healed. 2 different doctors did it --- the Gastro Doc did not know what the other had given me and the endo exam was scheduled 6 months and the result were Good.
I wish you well.

God Bless and Merry Christmas---Harry

Thanks, Harry! I will put Mastica on my list of things to get while I am out running errands today. Best Wishes!!!