What can bring on sudden acid reflux in someone who's never had it before?

My husband gets this sometimes for weeks, a really bad case of it. It can wake him in the middle of the night at times, and then it goes away for weeks, months, or years. Each time we try to narrow down the cause and never really figure it out.

For me, once in a while I have upper GI pain, heartburn symptoms, and almost always I can blame being constipated. Rarely, I have other random upper GI pains, and again almost always from being constipated. Sometimes it’s like pressure in my chest, that you might fear it’s a heart attack.

Sometimes I get pain in what I perceive to be my stomach when I eat sugary items, but this is not reflux, it is towards my left side where the stomach organ is. It can happen days in a row and then disappear for a very long time like my husband’s thing.

prolonged stress?

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If this was a regular patient without your GI problems, my first question would be what they ate within 4 hours before bedtime. Spicy or sweet foods would do it.

But your chart changes everything and I don’t have access to that. You really need to have a talk with your GI guy.

Love you, Mariah.

I don’t know. Mine happened that way. All of a sudden and on a Thanksgiving weekend. I couldn’t eat or sleep. I felt like my gut was being cut open from the inside with a burning knife.
Stay far, far away from fried foods and read meats. Especially bacon, burgers and any meat with fat.
Eat small meals for now. Nothing spicy. Like plain hospital food.
Baked chicken, baked potato.
Avoid caffeine as well. Especially at night. You will have gerd all night long.
And take your medications. Once it gets better, slowly introduce the things you miss one at a time. The moment you feel it coming back on. Start back in square one, all over again.
And if you are having a hard time sleeping. Try sleeping propped up. The acid is easier to escape your stomach and seep up your esophagus while you sleep.
Take some tums a few minutes before eating. It will knock the acid down a bit.
I feel your pain. But I’ve learned what to eat and not to eat and pretty much have it well in control and I’m no longer in need of medication.
But yes, stress does seem to make it worse.
Try not to eat a heavy dinner. Always light and a few hours before bed time.
Oh, and no chocolate desert at night. It has caffeine and is even worse than a cup of coffee.

I too would ask what did you eat? Certain foods (chocolate and coffee for instance) can cause the esophageal sphincter to relax. So if perhaps think about whether you’ve changed your diet. I hope you can find some relief and this passes soon and turns out to be nothing serious.

Stress, alcohol as well, especially when the two meet.

Hope my GI gets back by to me right away at the start of next week, and that he can squeeze me in. He’s a busy dude. As it is, my next checkup with him is in September.

I am experiencing symptoms all day long every day. Worse in the evenings but present for the rest of the day as well. I haven’t changed my diet (though my diet isn’t fantastic, but it’s been non-fantastic for a long time without causing this problem) and I never consume caffeine. I stopped drinking alcohol a little while ago because I did notice it made it worse.

I am under a lot of stress right now. I saw my counselor on Thursday and she recommended upping my dose of my anti anxiety med so I’m seeking that change right now too but it hasn’t happened yet.

Thanks all.

How about calling his RN and telling her about these symptoms in detail. Get someone’s ear. This sounds really uncomfortable.

@Mariah Esophageal reflux happens with hiatal hernia. Usually treated nicely with “omeprazole” or other drug in same category.

^^ I would certainly hesitate to prescribe any medication without seeing you or your chart, given your GI history—even those relatively recent drugs, some of which are now OTC, that shut down the production of stomach acid entirely. They are contraindicated in many GI pathologies.

This is not the place to hunt for advice of this kind. This is the place for we, your friends, to share in your discomfort and sympathise. And that is all.

@Mariah Absolutely I do not prescribe anything for anyone. From my experience, IF, the reflux is from hiatal hernia, your doctor may suggest one of the, now over-the-counter drugs like omeprazole. (which is in a class of its own in over-the-counter-drugs). He may want to do an esophagoscopy, to rule out any abnormality there. Bottom line you need to see your specialist.

One’s body changes as it ages. It’s a fact of life. And one of the less desirable changes is a growing intolerance to various things such as stress and different kinds of food and drink. It’s not a wonderful aspect of aging but it’s a natural one. As I suggest to anyone asking medical-related questions, check with your physician to make certain it’s not a symptom of something more serious.

Are you sure it’s reflux and not an ulcer? Is it like a knife in one specific area? Or, more like burning in a general area?

Generalized burning.

Yeah, sounds like heartburn. I had very bad ulcers in my esophagus from ibuprofen one time, and it was like a knife. ER bad. I still have the photos in a file somewhere.

Gawd, what an annoyance. If you figure it out let me/us know. I’d love to figure out what causes it for my husband when he gets on a heartburn jag. It’s so weird how off and on it is for him. It does run in his family.

Is Mylanta or Tums working for you?

I don’t like the feeling I get that there is such a casual attitude on the part of Mariahs providers in view of her GI history. It seems to me that any complaint of sustained discomfort is worthy of a speedy attempt at diagnosis.

I thought about this more.

If you’re still taking Augmentin that can be hard on the stomach and esophageal lining. You must take it with plenty of water, and with food, and stay upright for at least a half hour after taking it. If you have some sort of esophogitis (sp?) it should heal, but you have to protect it from being aggravated. I’m just thinking an inflamed esophagus might make more sense if it’s a constant all day pain?

I thought I would mention also that at one point my husband thought peanut butter was aggravating it. Also, he stayed clear of spicy foods when it’s going on. We both aren’t sure any of that really had an effect or not. Tums did help him.

You could try an Omeprazole also, as long as it doesn’t interfere with anything else you take. The Tums might help coat the esophagus if that’s the real problem though. Omeprazole doesn’t coat like that, and it assumes a sudden malfunction of an organ, and I’m inclined to not want to go there for my own body, so I can understand if you’re the same way.

Also, to get out of the pain you could take a kitchen teaspoon of chloreseptic. It’s not “treatment” but will give you some temporary relief.

@stanleybmanly What gives you that impression? I only just got worried enough to contact his office on Friday after business hours, so I would not expect to have gotten a response yet. I wouldn’t say he has a casual attitude.

@JLeslie Aw hell, I don’t do any of that. Been on the augmentin about a year now I guess. I probably don’t respect the meds I’m on enough. We’ll see what my doc says. Hopefully he’ll want to do an upper endoscopy or something so that we’re not just guessing about what’s going on.

I stand corrected

Just to clarify, I’m not saying you’ll have quit the augmentin I know that drug brings you a lot of relief. When I got the ulcer from the ibuprofen, I’m very glad the GI doctor suggested I can still take it most likely, I just need to be more careful. A lot of people are just told they can’t take the drug anymore. Anyway, I didn’t take it while the ulcer healed, and now, whenever I do take it I’m obedient to his recommendations; plus, I only take the coated brand name pills, Advil, not the generic garbage.

I know your thing is different than mine, but I thought it might be helpful anyway.

For me, it was a miserable, soul-crushing job.

Very suddenly, I started having some crippling attacks (I say “crippling,” because they’d truly incapacitate me). It felt as if an elephant were sitting on my chest, and excruciating pain radiated down my arms and up to my jaw and head. I had trouble catching my breath and couldn’t speak. I was once rushed to the E.R. in an ambulance and spent a night at the hospital; my symptoms seemed to be cardiac arrest.

I left that job 8.5 years ago. Since then, I’ve had a couple of minor episodes that ended without incident. Yes, my job was so dreadful, it made me physically ill. I knew how much I hated being at that place, but I hadn’t known just how devastating it can be to live with prolonged stress.

Too much, greasy, rich food, too much acidic food/coffee.

I am starting to think this is the start of a Crohn’s flare. I’m having other symptoms too. Goddamnit. I’ve been healthy for 6 years.

Oh no. I hope not. :(

Is the pain towards the right? Behind your right breast? Or, right in the center of your chest?

I’m starting to doubt if it’s even reflux at all…my primary symptom is actually a sore throat. But because I was also having a lot of those nasty burps where a little stomach acid comes up (don’t know how else to describe it, you know what I mean right?) I figured I was having reflux and that that was the cause of the irritation to my throat. Like I said, never had it before now, don’t really know what it’s supposed to feel like. My throat feels exactly the way it feels when I’m thirsty, except no amount of water makes it feel better. But not so much burning in my chest. So I don’t know if that’s reflux. Maybe I need to see my PCP for a throat swab too.

But yeah my usually dormant fistula is draining today. So something Crohnsish is going on.

Well, that is reflux and if it’s happening often, it will burn your throat. Whether that’s your Crohn’s, I don’t know. My husband doesn’t get those symptoms (I don’t think), but I would imagine the symptoms would be driven by where the inflammation is in your digestive system.

Well crap, I’m lost now. Lol. Certainly a lot of burping and reflux can irritate the throat, but I’m not convinced that’s the cause of your problem. If your tongue hurt and you craved drink to make it feel better I would say it’s an iron deficiency, if your throat hurts it can be so many things I can’t venture to guess. I’ve known people to have strep with mild symptoms, and it be missed for weeks, usually people have high fevers and can barely swallow food from the pain). Sore throat can be anything from yelling too much, pollution, allergies, virus, bacterial infection, too many choices to dx here. Burning to me is not how I describe the inflammation and pain from the other things named, but the word choice is subjective.

The good thing is the doctor can see your throat really easily without a big procedure.

Let us know what the doctor says.

Yeah obviously I’ve had a sore throat for a million other reasons before but this just feels different. Less severe than what you get with a cold, but also just….not going away.

Esophagus involvement with Crohn’s is really rare, apparently. But possible, of course. Anything in the digestive tract can be involved.

I’m thinking I’ll see my PCP first and get a strep test to at least rule that out. She’s easy to get in to see. The sore throat is persisting this weekend even though the burps have mostly subsided. So I’m not so sure about reflux anymore.

I’ll let my GI know that the fistula is draining, though. That really worries me.

Ugh. Thanks all. I know you can’t really advise. I guess I mostly wanted a sounding board and to rant.

Did you try the Mylanta or Tums? If it helps, that could help you with the diagnosis. I don’t think it can hurt.

I’ve tried Tums. Can’t really tell if they’re helping??

Then I guess they aren’t. :(

Have appointment lined up with PCP for Friday morning.

One of my GI’s partners just returned my call. I explained that I’m not convinced it’s reflux anymore, and that I’m going to my PCP to investigate the sore throat. She said if my PCP doesn’t find some other explanation for why my throat is sore that I should try prilosec OTC for 2 weeks and if it isn’t better after that they’ll get me into the office. I’m fine with this.

My doc prescribed Zantac. Works like a charm, and fast, too!

That’s the Omeprazole—the Prilosec. I thought the same try the drugs. If they help, then that helps diagnose it.

Throat hurts a lot less now that I’ve got these appointments lined up….my body is a friggin troll.

Typical! Good that you’re feeling better. Has the reflux subsided? At least you can describe what was happening and you can hopefully get some information about what might have caused it @Mariah.

As a few people have mentioned, omeprazole (Prilosec) is highly effective. When I felt an attack beginning, I’d swallow a tablet. The symptoms would be relieved immediately, literally within a minute or so, and the attack was stopped.