for the last week or so my back has been hurting. from mid back up to like my neck. and in my midback and all it was swollen an painful for a while. then where my ribcage is on the left side was hurting and it felt swollen on that side. i had been taking prevacid til i ran out so i hadnt been taking it for a while but i noticed the bad burning sensations coming back and i burp a lot to relieve pressure. i also had a bad anxiety attack tonight and had to go to er. they gave me anxiety medicine and some more gerd medicine. is the two related? to those of you w/back pain or rib pain - does it swell? and where and how bad is your back pain? thanks. also has anyone ever expereinced facial swelling w/gerd. or weird feelings there?

I am diagnosed with GERD and have some strange feelings. I get chest pains that feel like somebody has my chest in a vice grip - this only lasts a few seconds then disappears. Also, I have these episodes where I have pressure in my upper stomach between the top of the rib cage, it then radiates to my back between the shoulder blades. Again, it feels like a vice grip squeezing my upper back together. These episodes I get last anywhere from 10 minutes to 3 hours. I alwasy thoguth that GERD was just in the throat/esophogus but, there are many symptoms related to GERD that I'm finding are off the wall. I am on 20 40mg of Protonix per day. I've been on different PPIs for over 1.5 years. they work a while, then stop, then Doc switches me to another. I gets very aggrevating!

The pain in the face can be from the anxiety. I too get anxiey states and I get a tingling, numbing sensation in my face at times.