Sorry, just to continue the thread drift, but as a warning to others who may suffer long-term dyspepsia or acid reflux, I suffered from dyspepsia for nearly 15 years. Initially I just started taking Rennies in increasing doses until after several months I went to see my doctor in UK who suggested that I may have had helicobacter pylori, particularly as I had already been working in Nigeria for many years. I was treated for it just in case whilst waiting for the results of the tests (which were negative) and prescribed with cimetidine for 4 months to reduce stomach acid. This gave temporary relief, but after some months the acid worsened so the dosage of cimetidine was increased, but I still had to take Rennies and was put on Ranitidine (Zantac). A short time after starting on the Zantac I started suffering heart palpitations and went to visit a cardiologist who picked up on the change to Zantac, told me to stop taking it (and the palpitations stopped within 24 hours) and an ECG, stress ECG and 24 continuous monitoring ECG confirmed that I had a healthy heart). I was then changed to a low dose proton pump inhibitor (lansoprazole - Zoton), but after a year or so, this failed to reduce the dyspepsia and I started developing severe acid reflux, so the dosage was increased. After 2 years of this the symptoms worsened again, the reflux was getting worse and I was put on to the maximum dosage of omeprazole (Nexium). At no stage did any doctor suggest a visit to a specialist or that I have an endoscopy. Luckily, last year whilst I was having a routine bowel screening test because of my age, I talked to the doctor doing the screening about my symptoms and he suggested I should have an endoscopy, which he arranged for later that day. As a result of that he thought I had Barrett's Oesophagus and a hiatus hernia and referred me to a gastroenterological specialist who carried out another endoscopy and I was finally confirmed as having Barrett's Oesophagus ( a pre-malignant condition which if left untreated can lead to oesophageal cancer) and a hiatus hernia which by then was in excess of 4.5 cm long. Last September I had keyhole surgery to repair my hernia and a Nissen Fundoplication to reinforce my oesophageal sphincter. Wow, what an amazing change it has made to my life
. No more drugs, no more acid reflux for the first time in years. All I now have to do is have a further endoscopy and biopsy next year to make sure that the Barrett's oesophagus has not changed in nature.
The only thing which makes me somewhat angry is that 3 different GPs with whom I was registered during this period never suggested anything except increasing doses of proton-pump inhibitors
