acid reflux

[needmorecoffee]

I asked the GP to refer me to a GI consulatant having read about the fundoplication op for acid reflux. I've had reflux for 20 years and live on rennie and gaviscon. I've also taken every drug they've offered and none worked (apart from cimetidine but the side effects were horrendous)
The GP just flatly refused, said I must try another drug, complained that I leave it ages when something doesn't work before coming back and that I should stop taking rennie (I wish)
Can I insist on a refferal.
I came out all weeping. 20 years of painful acid and not getting anywhere

Sorry cimetidine was what I was going to suggest- worked really well for DH, but he doesn't have the same compounding medical issues you have (you have MS too?)
He did have a referral to specialist who investigated, and found he had heliobacter, which was treated.
Also- have you had your bilirubin levels checked? He has Gilbert's syndrome, which leads to his reflux pain, and it's linked to levels of bilirubin, so worth looking at.

Have you had an endoscopy ever?
I presume you have been on high dose PPI e.g. omeprazole 40mg and have tried empirical H.pylori eradication.

NMC, this may or may not help - I had reflux for years, as did my Dad, and the 2 things that helped get rid of it were stopping eating bread and tomatoes.

And do see if you can be tested for H.pylori as Wobblypig suggests as that can be easily fixed with antibiotics.

There is also the possibility that you suffer from LOW acid - if the pH in your stomach is too high (i.e. too alkaline), your cardiac sphincter doesn't always close tightly enough and the acid can escape into your oesophagus.

My Dad was on Ranetidine but it aged him horribly = he came off it at my suggestion and tried dietary methods, including eating the meat on his plate first to give the acid somethign to do (he always used to leave it til last) and cutting out bread and most wheat; he rarely gets it now, might have to take something once amonth, if that.

DH is a sufferer, he takes Omeprazole. Have you tried these?

.....and the coffee won't help.

have been chcekd for H Pylori and it was negative.
tried omeprazole (amd I don't actually drink coffee )
Might try the wheat free/gluten free after crimbo to see.

I suffer from this too - I'm not convinced in my case that the operation would help. Heartburn seemed to replace extreme stomach bloating that I'd had all my life and I think put too much pressure on the sphincter. I suspect that the op would just re-start the process and at least omeprazole controls my hearburn.

This operation has been around for a while - when I asked about it I was told it was only used for severe cases where drugs don't work. Surely that means you? I might go and see a different doctor. Rennies do make it worse though and stop some of the other drugs from working.

What dosage have you tried of Omeprazole? You can take quite high doses (up to 160mg a day I was told by a consultant - that's 8x the 'standard' dose given by a GP)

You could always pay for a consultant's appointment, for £150 you can go to see anyone you choose.

Have you had a endosopy? Only I suffered with awful heartburn for nearly ten years before they discovered I had a hiatus hernia. I would take about 40mg Omeprazole a day.

I've done a bit of reading into the op and a lot of the time it can be fairly ineffective.