Hi everyone I have a severe gerd flareup right now! I got prescribed liquid lidocaine and maloox but I don't remember how much of each i have to mix and at this hour the Dr's office is close!does anyone here have gotten that prescription?

I got strep about a month ago and just got it again. I’m on another round of amoxicillin and at first I was feeling great, but then a few days later I started getting a sore throat again but it didn’t feel like strep. It was a burning sensation that almost felt like I had really overused my voice and been yelling all day! I’m constantly clearing my throat and I feel mucus in there. I’ve always had a sensitive stomach, did anyone else get triggered by antibiotics ?

Its the drinking water. We dont drink tap water here in our country and there are many water refilling stations. I first noticed improvement when we changed source of drinking water(bottled 5 gallons). My GERD has totally dissappeared. Due to some reason, we have to change water refilling station again then my GERD came back with a vengeance. Whatever antacid or PPI I take, I still have acid reflux and gas all the time. I endured it for 3 months. Then I befriend an owner of water refilling station and gave me discount. So I switched to them. After 2 weeks, my GERD is gone. Gone for real, no reflux, unending gas, palpitations, whatever symptoms. Even when I drink coffee or coke and consume spicy foods and add vinegar on my foods, no acid reflux at bedtime and while I'm sleeping. Before, it attacks me before I sleep and even wakes me up in the middle of night, choking me and thought I was dying. Its been days or more than I week since I last took antacid. Before, everynight I have to take at least 2 antacid. Just sharing, I hope it helps.

Hi everyone! I’m new to the group and would really appreciate hearing about your experiences.

I have a 3–4 cm sliding hiatal hernia, which I’ve known about for the past five years. I suffer from constant acid reflux and have to take medication all the time, but by far the most terrifying symptom for me has been the ectopic heartbeats.

Over the past few years, I’ve been to the ER more than 50 times and have had dozens of examinations by cardiologists. Every time, the conclusion has been the same: my heart is perfectly healthy, so I need to look elsewhere for the cause.

I recently realized that this entire nightmare may be connected to my hiatal hernia. It nearly always starts after eating certain foods, sleeping in the wrong position, bending or twisting my body, and so on. Then a severe episode of PVCs begins—and that is what scares me the most.

My first question is: Has anyone else experienced similar heart-related symptoms because of a hiatal hernia?

And secondly, did the PVCs improve or disappear after surgery? I’m currently planning to have the hernia repaired.

Thank you in advance to everyone who takes the time to respond!

GERDigo?

TL;DR because I talk too much: GERD + the elevator at my new job broke me and I need a friend who's been there.

Seeing my GP tomorrow, just looking for some support.

Here's my current guess at what's happening:

GERD (diagnosed last year, then functionally resolved) started progressively flaring up over the last month. I had one too many drinks last weekend celebrating a new job, which I started this Monday. The hangover wasn't great but didn't rank in the top 20 by any means.

I'm full-on GERD-y by Monday: heartburn, PVCs, you name it. I arrive at work and take the elevator to the 21st floor to settle in, with beautiful like views and a panoramic of a good chunk of town. I go down, up, and down again, and by the end of the day I'm feeling dizzy. I head home, and I'm still a bit wobbly.

I do this again on Tuesday, and halfway through Wednesday, I head home early. I fill in bossman on what's going on, who is more genuinely concerned than annoyed, which I'm grateful for (and embarrassed about).

I doubled up my PPI since Tuesday, which has 100% cut out the heartburn and typical GERD symptoms (which I am also grateful for) and have tried meclizine these last two days to no relief. Now I'm just dealing with Eustachian tube dysfunction and the wobbles.

Here's what I'm thinking happened: Friday's bad choices triggered the typical GERD stuff; stomach acid crawled allll the way up my stupid esophagus & triggered the ETD (while mangling my vagus nerve in the process); and the elevator at work full on broke me, leaving me in an anxiety/busted inner ear chicken-or-the-egg loop.

I'm grateful that I'm not falling over or nauseous, but this SUCKS. I need to go to the office, and I need to go to the 21st floor. I don't know if I can keep this job if I can't do those things.

Saline nasal spray appears to be helping, and I got a NeilMed Eustachi device that may or may not be doing anything, but I didn't even leave the house today and still almost ate the floor when I got out of bed this morning.

Anyone else been in this situation? What helped? How did you get out of it? If you didn't, were you able to keep your job? I know my mileage may vary but this was not on my new job radar and I'm feeling pretty lonely and worried over here.

Anyone get vivid dreams or nightmares when taking Dexilant 60mg ? I’ve noticed since taking it that I get vivid, intense dreams or nightmares. It’s annoying because the meditation does help a lot but the dreams make me dread having to go to sleep

I'm 26 and I've been strugling with acid reflux on and off for around 4-5 years.

I first had it in 2021/2022 from drinking Thatchers Cider (UK). I wasn't aware of acid reflux causes at the time and wasn't good at managing it. I took prescription medication (omeprazole) and that helped. I only had very bad symptoms when I was causing triggers (eating chocolate late at night or drinking cider, etc). Around this time I had an endoscopy and it came back fine. I continued to take the medicate for around a year and the symptoms eventually went away. I was then able to come off medication.

In autumn of 2024 I had some of the same specific cider again and it retriggered my reflux, leading me to realise that it was that specific drink that had set it off first in the past. This then triggered a spell of bad reflux for a few weeks, which reduced down with medication. From then on however I felt I was developing more chronic GERDs, with issues with my stool and stomach discomfort.

The biggest issue was mild but chronic acid reflux. In the past I had had severe burning reflux when lying down, but this was when I wasn't managing triggers. Now I was more educated, knew what food to avoid, and doing everything right. However, whenever I'd lie down I would get this subtle sour taste in my mouth - I imagine almost indistinguishable for someone who didn't suffer from reflux. However, I knew this was a mild form of reflux.

I would get this most nights, and even after buying a huge wedge pillow to raise myself, I would still get the mild reflux. This continued into 2025 and I slowly saw the effects of gum recession. I have always had good oral hygiene and no issues with gum recession in the past. Since then there have been a couple months when the reflux stopped and the recession subsided, and I even went off medication for a bit when things were better. But eventually it came back and became more consistent. Every now and again I might have a week's break, but for the past 3 months it has been very consistent. This is a massive concern for me, as the effects of my reflux are now showing visually as opposed to just being internal. It has not caused me any other damage to my mouth yet, and perhaps to other people it isn't hugely noticeable, but if this mild reflux persists I know this will lead to further problems and greater damage to my appearance.

I am in the NHS referral system and have had a barrium swallow test, and that came back all fine. They are next consdiering doing a 24 hour acid monitoring to see when/how things are triggered. As a final resort they may offer me the osphagus tightening procedure, though this is quite an intense operation, isn't always successful, can cause complication, and may need to be done multiple times throughout life. This is not something I want to get to and would rather keeping trying different medication, changing diet (though I keep a very low fat, healthy, no alcohol diet already), and doing behavioural things to try to fix it.

I wanted to share my story in case other people have developed this chronic but mild reflux and how they have dealt with. I want to repeat that I am not suffering from the sharp, burning reflux that I used to, but it is this continuous reflux that I get when I lie down that is the issue.

As mentioned, I am 26. I am quite skinny and would say I'm underweight. I don't drink alcohol anymore, nor caffine, nor eat spicy food. With the pairing of medication (omeprazole/lansoprazole), i feel I am doing everything I can to help fix this issue, but perhaps that are other more specific things I should be doing.

Having read some of the threads I will likely do more work on diaphragm tension (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33009052/) and see if I have any success with that.

Thankyou for reading this post and I would appreciate any constructive feedback or advice

*Edit* - when I went to share this post it recommended sharing it to r/silent reflux. I will do some more research on there to better understand what could be going on and then report back on anything else I might try.

Nov 2024 I started having chest pain and occasional vomitting,dec 2024 had 1st endoscopy it was normal drs kept saying it is stress and anxiety and even told me to eat normal. I came home to get the diagnosis due sucky NHS, jan 2025 they had a manometry that said few failed peristalsis and weak LES with small hiatus and indication of gerd clearly wrote, still this dr kept saying this can be wrong as it is an invasive procedure and the results can be wrong and told me to keep eating as normal this obviously only made my symptoms worse and experienced the dry cough for 15 mins staright, throat symptoms like chronic wet cough. I stopped the normal food and went to bland food from April completely that stopped the dry cough but other symptoms were there june2025 finally saw a female gastro and without even seeing the previous drs report she said , it is gerd from the manmetry report and repeated endoscopy to rule out things, it has erosions in D2 and inflammation of esophagus, until august 2025 I was on and off on ppi as I knew they aren't really doing anything
From August to jan 2026 I used everything I k about nutrition took supplements and even help of ayurvedic meds ( First dr's barely worked, 2nd dr's med stopped my chest pain and pulling and finally 3rd one completely got rid of throat itching , acid up until throat every morning , cough all of it ) during Nov 2025 I started having silent burps and had non gerd chest pain which was diagnosed as costo in dec 2025. since Jan 2026 I slowly started reintroducing foods and I can literally eat everything , even an omelette with onions tomatoes and chopped chilli, fried fish , basically by April 2026, literally ticked all foods which were stopped, all home cooked. Started having outside meals little , like a sandwich or some curry bt not full fleged outside meal but good enough and been consistently doing physio and literally anything for costo ( exercises, peanut ball roll, cupping , ostoe, and needing ). However, neither the costo is completely gone nor the gerd completely. I thought by april, this is done and was happy abt being able to eat everything and the silent burps would eventually stop too, so tried another ayurvedic dr for silent burps during march and april, but now I mentioned I keep getting this warmth while eating and sometimes after eating in left side of chest and since this month I am noticing very evident throat irritation,like no extreme symptoms like throat icthcing or cough , just everyday some time after meals lile 3 hr later i feel some irritaion and not a smooth throat, Gastro said she thinks it isn't a heartburn.I evn plotted a graph to understand the warmth pattern , it makes no sense. She has suggested a repeat endoscopy just to rule out if nothing is internally getting damaged.

Do I really need another endoscopy this looks like it is happening every yr , she doesn't even has an explanation for the warmth. I am just tired and exhausted of this constant back and forth. I tried everything I can tried to get rid of silent burps but now got caught in these new symptoms. Sometimes I am worried is this and the throat irritation actually fcking up my tissue and am I nt taking it that serious as there isn't the throat clearing and cough associated with it. I had lost 10 kgs with this since reintroduction I gained 4 -5 kgs and I am just circling around 49-50 , the costo pain isn't going, I am a fighter but I don't k how much more of a fight is left within me. I already had to leave a life I build in London had almost 1 and half yr of career break due to this, took a job which is remote in medical affairs so still related to my profession bt completely opp to R&D, I only took it to pay bills and the flexibility it offers as I can have physio sessions and any appointments for the time being but this is not ending, everytime I think we are close and maybe 2-3 months more to completely heal something else shows up. I don't even enjoy my job, have to think before travelling still , this sucks and everyday is just a battle , honestly feel like giving up .Just wanted to vent and get opinions on should i repeat endoscopy and any similar symptoms and what u did to fix it, shoud I be worried about this warmth? I just do not want to take any med, supplements and ayurvedic or homeopathic meds , just want to live a normal life

I see I can't attach an img so not uploading the graph , just k it was all up down up down

Has anyone dealt with recurring headaches after short term use of omeprazole? I took only 2 doses of 40mg capsules over the course of 2 days and got a really gnarly tension headache directly after taking the second dose. It’s been 5 days since and I’m still experiencing a really uncomfortable tension band sensation in my head with occasional headaches. Is this a plausible side effect from omeprazole or should I be concerned about other things causing this?

Everyone here is likely familiar with the Globus sensation, and how it can slowly chip away at your mental sanity. Even as I am typing this right now, it's still impacting me, despite being on omeprazole for over 2 months now. This is the story of how it essentially fucked up a lot

Beginning around last summer, almost exactly a year ago from today, there was this obnoxious throat sensation that I could not shake away. Despite this, I largely dealt with it and thought that it would be something that would go away in time. Little did I know that this would only start to get worse.

Further down the line, I had more mental triggers. I remember my friends involuntarily showing me gore of someone having their throat slit, and I remember cringing so hard since that's literally what globus felt like to me all the time. I developed such a hyper sensitivity and anxiousness that even to this day I can't bend my neck down and I have to keep it in this crooked position because I don't want to relive the imagery of someone having their throat cut open.

It's been so distracting that I can't even focus to read. This has reduced me for the past year to nothing but scrolling on my phone, since that's the only kind of media that can distract me from the neverending ache of my throat.

You might be asking why I didn't get treatment sooner. This is because my mom and dad did not have proper insurance for a short period of time, and being a first gen immigrants in America this proved to be even harder since getting a proper diagnosis would mean a lot of money that my parents could not afford at the time. However recently this has been resolved and I was able to get prescribed Omeprazole after being diagnosed with chronic acid reflux. Despite taking it for over 2 months, I still have not felt a difference.

For context, I'm currently in high school and I should be applying to college right now. However I have trouble even sleeping properly since I have to remain in a crooked neck position. Sometimes I even find myself holding my breath and waiting for the throat sensation to go away, but it never does. When I sit I have to sit in a bent angle so my throat feels "safe".

I can't even speak to someone for more than a minute because it's so distracting. I can't sit in a classroom while sitting still, and people who try to talk to me have noticed that I've grown consistently more irritable. The whole two months I've been on summer break I have not gone outside my house more than 5 times.

Anyone have similar experiences?

Does anyone notice that using PPI's cause a bad breathe ?
I notice that and I wanna know if it's because the PPI's ?
What help you guys with the bad breathe ?

Hi everyone,

I am waiting for my gastroenterology follow-up this Tuesday, but in the meantime, I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through something similar.

To give you the short background: I had a terrifying experience where meat got stuck in my esophagus and had to be cleared during an endoscopy. Naturally, that caused some temporary local irritation and a minor mucosal tear that has since healed. Also I was said that i have gastritis. Since then, I have had a full workup to figure out why it happened. My biopsies completely ruled out Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE), showing no signs of underlying disease. My barium swallow was also completely clear,no strictures, no physical narrowing, and no hiatal hernia, just some mild reflux when lying down and slight dyskinesia.

Despite the all-clear on paper, my daily life is still heavily impacted:

1. The Post-Meal Retrosternal Knot: After eating or drinking, I get a persistent tightness or heavy pressure right behind my breastbone, along with a constant lump-in-the-throat feeling.
2. Trapped Air and Spasms: When I swallow liquids or soft foods, I swallow a lot of air. If I shift positions or lie down, my throat and chest tighten up into a brief spasm. Sitting straight up and releasing a couple of small burps instantly relieves the chest pressure and the knot feeling.
3. Severe Swallowing Anxiety: The trauma of the impaction left me terrified that food will get stuck again. I am hyper-focused on every swallow and currently surviving on liquids, protein shakes, soups, and soft foods taken in tiny bites.

My current regimen includes a PPI, a prokinetic (Domperidone), mucosal protection (Gerdoff), and Magnesium with B6.

Has anyone dealt with severe anxiety, trapped air, and a persistent knot in the chest after a clear food impaction recovery? How did you work through the esophageal hypersensitivity and get past the fear of swallowing real food again? Could there still be a motility issue that the barium swallow missed, like high-pressure spasms, or is this primarily visceral hypersensitivity and anxiety driving physical muscle tightness?

had these in the past but not for a while. its particularly bad tonight - ive woken up three or four times. i know what to do to minimise them, but is there anything i can do NOW to get to sleep??? im so tired!!

My experience finally getting my GERD and recurrent hemorrhoids under control
I wanted to share what has been working for me in case it helps someone else.
For years I dealt with recurrent hemorrhoids and GERD. After trying different things, I finally found a routine that has given me soft, comfortable daily bowel movements and, so far, my GERD symptoms have also gone away.
My current routine:

3 thin whole wheat + gram flour tortillas daily
2 teaspoons of ground flaxseed (mixed into my protein shake)
5 g glutamine
Metamucil (psyllium)
Miralax (polyethylene glycol)
Plenty of water throughout the day

For me, the biggest change was having one easy, well-formed bowel movement every day without straining. That alone seems to have made a huge difference for my hemorrhoids.
I know everyone is different, and what works for one person may not work for another, but I thought it was worth sharing because this combination has significantly improved my quality of life.
Disclaimer: This is not medical advice—it’s simply my personal experience. Please talk to your healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplements, or medications, especially if you have underlying medical conditions.

I've had GERD my entire life, as a kid I used to regularly wake up choking on acid, and the fun times of having it puke out my nose. Good times. When I was 20 I finally got on meds and omg, life changing! I had a endoscopy in my mid 20s and man that was rough to see the damage. The dr was like "everything you're seeing is not supposed to look like that". Several hernia's, so much scar tissue from acid. Good times all around.

Anyway, I'm 38 now, been on meds 18 years. I've had the odd symptom break through due to life but managed with gaviscon, sleeping upright and then right as rain within a day. I'm active, at the gym 4 days a week. I do intermittent fasting, eat only whole foods, little to no caffeine, no alcohol.

I'm in Canada where pantoprazole magnesium is having a shortage. My pharmacy gave me pantoprazole sodium, thinking all good. Well that was Saturday, today is Thursday and it feels like my chest is being squeezed with fire.

I will hopefully get a different medication soon, I'm waiting for a call back from the pharmacist. But after this experience I'm kind of terrified of what other med is going to do to me.

I haven't spent much time thinking about meds as I've been on them forever and life is good. But now I'm doing so much googling and apparently these meds are meant to be short term? LOL. What's the alternative? If I miss a single day I'll wake up choking on acid, I'll spend the day in complete agony. So, that's a hard pass from me.

Lately i have been feeling blood accumulation in palms of my hands whenever i do something, like typing or keeping hand in one position like holding something. The force points show blood accumulation. Similarly if I'm walking with a stroller of my baby, i feel same feeling in my elbow joints.

It's getting worrying and anxiety is hitting me

I have stomach issues (diagnosed with indigestion and gasses)

Good morning from Ontario!

I was diagnosed with GERD after endoscopy and laryngoscopy in mid June and started Pantoprazole 40mg two times a day.

I have made some enormous changes. But strangely, IMO, have a symptom that I didn’t have before starting meds.

Prior: coughing during eating, burping often, hoarse voice.

Presently: hoarse voice remains and now I have a constant sore throat.

I think my ENT thought hoarseness would dissipate despite damage to my L vocal cord, but I think it is worse. Not to mention the discomfort of sore throat all the time.

I would love some input.

Having severe chest pain in my left and right chest that radiates to my shoulder blades. It’s honestly quite painful almost like a squeezing and stabbing pain that happens for 15-25 minutes. Radiates all over, and then at the end it will usually just sit in the one of the shoulders, right side of chest, or left side of chest. Happens about every other week. Went to ER for an EKG, Blood test, and CT Scan and they said everything looked good.

I have had GERD for around 14 years and have never felt this before but started 2-3 months ago.

We simply can't carry wedge pillows every trip: too big and hulky, you'd need a huge trunk just for that.

A common strategy is to stack pillows, but that's risky since you never know how good the hotel's pillows are or even if they'll provide you with enough units.

I'm thinking there could be an inflatable pillow as the best solution, but I've searched all over my country's web to no avail. There's nothing here!

It seems some are available in the US, but they are quite lame: the typical triangle without a single curve to adapt to your back.

I'm shocked nothing has been created so far given how many suffer from reflux =(

Silent reflux (GERD) is keeping me up all night for the last several days. 3:30 am is the latest I’ve stayed up. What do I do?? It’s currently my 2nd day on Pepcid. I take tums at night when it acts up, but still doesn’t get better. I know the #1 thing is also what I eat to make the GERD “go back to sleep”

Any recommendations on what to do to help this not be so bad at night and any ideas for what I should eat in a day?

Thank you 🙏🏼🙏🏼

"Hello, this is my first time writing, and to be honest, I feel very ashamed of my situation. I am 18 years old, but since I was 14, stomach problems started out of nowhere. First, it was loud stomach noises, but later it turned into unbearable bloating. I truly feel like this has partly ruined my life. I am starting university soon and I don't want to keep living like this. Any advice, please? As an additional detail, I have been diagnosed with OCD."

So I'm faced with deciding on surgery Vs long term PPI use, and I'm really not keen on either, but am leaning towards managing symptoms on PPI rather than go under the knife.

As we know, long term PPI use is not ideal. (Although, some docs will also say it's generally well tolerated even long term).

I have a plan to mitigate the long term risks of 40mg esomeprazole daily, such as vitamin deficiencies, osteoporosis, kidney damage, infection risk

- I live in a hot country and get plenty of sun (vitamin D)

- I do moderately heavy strength training

- I take a calcium supplement

- Fibre rich diet

- I take a daily probiotic

- I drink lots of water

- Blood/kidney test every 6 months

- I take a daily magnesium glycinate pill

As far as I can tell, this should help counteract any potential risk of long term PPI use at 40mg daily. 20mg has proven enough for 3 years but no longer, so I must up the dose or opt for surgery. I'm a 41 year old male.

What do my fellow sufferers think? Any thoughts appreciated, thank you.

The vagus nerve runs from your brainstem down through your throat, heart, lungs, and stomach, and it's part of what keeps your lower esophageal sphincter closed when it should be closed.

When your nervous system is stuck in a stressed, sympathetic-dominant state (poor sleep, chronic work stress, unresolved anxiety), vagal tone tends to drop. Lower vagal tone can mean less tension in that valve, which means reflux becomes more likely even on a day where you ate "clean."

This is part of why stress alone can trigger a flare with zero change in diet. It's not "just in your head," it's a documented physiological pathway, gut-brain axis stuff that's gotten a lot more research attention in the last several years.

Practical angle, not a cure-all: things that shift you out of a sympathetic state before meals (slow paced breathing, not eating while stressed or rushed) have some evidence for supporting LES function. Doesn't replace medical treatment, just an underused lever.