Gerd/heartburn

[Guest cassidy]

I have had reflux my entire life. I had surgery for it when I was 11 and I was fine until last year. My first surgery has come undone and I'm considering having a second one.

I know gerd and celiac can be related. I have only been gluten-free for about 2 months. I feel much better, but my gerd is not going away. I realize it takes a while to heal so I'm wondering if my gerd will go away over time. If anyone had gerd before being gluten-free and it went away when they went on the diet, how long did it take for the heartburn to get better? Was it your last symptom to go away, or did it stop as soon as your other symptoms?

If I don't have the surgery by March 15th, then it will be the end of August before I can do it. We have weddings, family vacations and work trips scheduled until then. This wouldn't be a problem except we want to start trying to get pregnant. I'm taking too much medication now, and unless this changes because of the surgery or the gerd going away, we can't try.

I really feel a lot of pressure to get this taken care of now, but I don't want to rush into anything.

[Guest nini]

I can't remember specifics, but I think it went away primarily by the third month... but I still had intermittent problems with it depending on what I ate. There may be something else in your diet that is currently aggravating the reflux. Like dairy? or citrus? You may want to look into what you are eating and see if there is a pattern...

Also, if you had it for a really long time it's not going to go away overnight. Your body is amazing in it's ablility to heal itself, but you have to give it time and treat it right!

I don't know what your typical diet is like, but if you are not stickiing to a diet of naturally gluten free foods, and eating a lot of the gluten-free substitute products, those may be aggravating your condition as well, processed foods are harder to digest. Also raw vegetables are harder to digest, Just trying to think of ideas here... trying to remember what aggravates my reflux and sets it off again...

[covsooze]

I can't remember specifics, but I think it went away primarily by the third month... but I still had intermittent problems with it depending on what I ate. There may be something else in your diet that is currently aggravating the reflux. Like dairy? or citrus? You may want to look into what you are eating and see if there is a pattern...

Also, if you had it for a really long time it's not going to go away overnight. Your body is amazing in it's ablility to heal itself, but you have to give it time and treat it right!

I don't know what your typical diet is like, but if you are not stickiing to a diet of naturally gluten free foods, and eating a lot of the gluten-free substitute products, those may be aggravating your condition as well, processed foods are harder to digest. Also raw vegetables are harder to digest, Just trying to think of ideas here... trying to remember what aggravates my reflux and sets it off again...

I'm only in my second month of being gluten-free, but have noticed a significant improvement with the GERD. Strangely, I had no problems at all with it in the first couple of weeks, and then it came back. I think my body was thinking - hooray, no more gluten! and then figured, yeah, but there's still all these other foods to contend with, so now I'm figuring out what they are. So far for me: dairy, tomatoes, rice, tea, fatty foods and spicey foods. I think there's bound to be more before it gets better. I agree with Nini about the naturally gluten-free foods - my GERD is definitely worse when I eat gluten-free processed stuff.

HTH

Susie

[tiffjake]

Mine went away almost right away. I don't know if that helps you, but maybe hearing different things from different people will give you some insight. I only have it now when I eat gluten. When I do get GERD I kinda throw-up in my mouth, so it was pretty bad. But it has almost completely (sp?) gone away for me.

[Guest BERNESES]

I've been gluten-free for a year and I still have to take Nexium for my GERD. I was diagnosed with it when I was 18 so I had it for about 20 years before going gluten-free. When they did my biopsy for Celiac's, they also biopsied my esophagus and it was pretty damaged (pre-Barrett's esophagus which is like pre-pre-cancerous) so they will be watching mine carefully. I'm choosing to stay on the Nexium (I had previously been on prescription Zantac) because of the extent of the damage. Esophagus cancer is NOT something I want (obviously) because it has a very, very poor prognosis.

But you may heal. You had surgery when you were 11? Just wondering how old you are now if you don't mind answering. maybe I just had it too long.

[Guest cassidy]

I'm 28 now. If my gerd gets to the point where I'm taking my aciphex once a day, then that is pregnancy class b, and you are technically allowed to take it. I'm taking the medicine twice a day now. I've tried cutting back and it does't go well.

[Guest BERNESES]

Yeah- I will continue to take it too even though we're trying to conceive. I've never heard of any specific risks associated with it (although I know there are risks inherent in anything you put in your body!). I just figure I'm better off taking something that prevents it and heals my esophagus as it's so damaged.

[Guest cassidy]

Berneses - Nexium is pregnancy class b, so you can take it. It is recommended that you do not breast feed when you are on any PPIs. My concern is the twice a day dose I'm on now, since the maximum daily dose is once a day. I agree that I hate taking medicine, but sometimes it is necessary, I just think twice the maximum dose is a risk I'm not willing to take for long.

[Guest BERNESES]

I don't blame you at all! i've heard that pregnancy exacerbates reflux too- not looking forward to that. Have you decided what you're going to do? I wish you the best with whatever you decide. Beverly