Reflux Update

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.

Heartburn

The past couple days have been really rough with heartburn. I’m a little over a month out (my surgery was August 18) and had not been having any issues with heartburn or reflux. Pre-surgery, I suffered from Gastroesophageal reflux disease (aka GERD) and my reflux was awful. I had a small hiatal hernia my surgeon repaired when he did my sleeve and it really seemed to help. I continued to take Prilosec OTC every morning and was doing fantastic. Two days ago, I was woken up in the middle of the night with the most horrible reflux and feeling like my esophagus was on fire.

Thank goodness for the ultra powerful strength cherry flavored Maalox. I don’t know if it actually coats the esophagus or not, but it feels like it does. It soothed the burning and helped clear out some of the extra acid. I’m taking my Prilosec twice a day now, once in the morning and once before bed. Yesterday was a little better. Last night was better still.

I hope this settles down soon. I’ve heard some post sleeve patients were able to get rid of the PPI (protein pump inhibitor, Prilosec is one) at some point post surgery.