Saw my surgeon today, had the upper gi in the office, looks great. My esophagus empties very fast, which my surgeon said was good, I watched the contrast go all the way through and into the duodenum, no problems. No reflux. As I was describing more of what was happening to my surgeon, he said that was bile and changing my PPI wouldn’t help that. Bile comes from the small intestine and he showed me on the screen where it was. Bile. Ew.
Anyway, he changed my daily Reglan from 5pm to just before bed to see if that doesn’t help. All the heartburn makes so much more sense now, though. Doing some reading up on it and I learned a few things. Bile is alkaline, stomach acid is, well, acid. The alkaline from the bile causes the stomach to secrete more acid. I noticed when I have the worst heartburn is the two days or so following the episodes with the bile reflux. Also, the bile when it’s mixed with the stomach acid can actually go up the esophagus. Bile by itself probably wouldn’t be able to make it that far.
So learned something new today. Saw my pretty sleeve (even if I had to drink some nasty stuff to see it). My surgeon is very pleased with my weight loss so far. I told him I sometimes feel like a slow loser and he reminded me it’s not a race.