After 15 years with Achalasia and difficulty with food passing into my stomach I finally had Botox injections yesterday. During the endoscopy the dr said the valve at the bottom of my oesophagus was really tight and he's hoping the Botox will help me.
View 8 RepliesI have had Achalasia for over 20 years with all the accompanying problems: regurgitation, aspiration pneumonia, spontaneous and embarrassing regurgitation in restaurants, etc. Recently my doctor suggested that Cialis might be helpful. Too make a long story short I now take 2.5 mg of Cialis daily and have experienced almost complete relief from my Achalasia.
I know there is some research on Viagra relieving Achalasia, but I do not believe there is any research on Cialis. I throw my experience out there in the hopes that someone has more information on the use of Cialis and in the hope that perhaps someone else might profit from my experience.
In the U.S. where I live Cialis is expensive, however I was able to find a Canadian company with reasonable prices.
For a long time i suffered with acute pain from O S mostly brought on by acid reflux from hiatus hernia. I came across a sort of solution which works for me.
At the first sign(generally slight pain and a tightening of my chest around the base of the esophagus ) which generally happens during the night ,but not always I eat dry biscuits(digestives are good) they seem to force the stomach back where it's supposed to be.If that doesn't work then its a piece of toast and hot tea.
It seems to happen more when my stomach is empty,but that may be just co-incedence.It has helped me avoid the development of a more serious,painful problem.
I have had this condition for almost ten years and although not painful it has altered my life by reducing my confidence.
i recently enquirer when at one of my Botox appointments if there were any new treatments and was told that surgery was now more successful.I have been offered an operation on the N.H.S. And am going through the decision .As I am quite a fit 66 year old I really don't want to be having Botox for possibly another 20 years!
I have suspected bilateral diaphragm paralysis and increasing difficulties breathing and swallow king. Weak and short breath on inspiration and expiration and barely sleeping. Are there any exercises can be done at this late stage as now have impending feeling of doom. Have been told intervention is pointless.
View 2 RepliesGod this is really getting me down, to point I have been wondering if I am ever going to eat again and I am frightening myself with the thoughts I am having.
I just cannot swallow solid foods, it started 4 weeks ago. i was happily eating some chicken and all of a sudden my throat 'closed' and I choked. I managed to cough it back up and carried on eating after.
Next day, for love nor money could I swallow, each time I tried i choked.
4 weeks later and I still keep trying the odd bit of food here and there and it just won't go down.
I have had an endoscope - that was a highly unpleasant experience but it found nothing. I was told to go home and eat and to stop being so stressed.
I have been to seen a sports therapist and she has found that I have very very tight neck and jaw muscles. But it still feels like food won't go down, although I did feel better once I had seen her.
Trying to get another appointment with the doctor is like golddust.
I am normally a fit and healthy 37yr old woman, mum of three. I love my food and I want to eat. Thing is, this has gone on so long now I have gone past being hungry. I think this is probably a bit phycological now as well but the tightening really does happen.
The back of my neck, round to the front and up under the jaw is so tight.
I have had swallowing problems, oesophagus pain, burning in chest feeling as though food is getting stuck and an awful sensation of a lump in my throat for the last four years. I was wrongly diagnosed with GERD and treated with PPIs. My symptoms have gradually got worse and after three attempts managed the manometry and twenty four hour pH test following this I have been recently diagnosed with achalasia. I feel so unwell and life is feeling unbearable I can only tolerate liquids at present and my symptoms seem to have deteriorated since diagnosis feels like everything sticking in my throat an awful taste the lump has got worse and feels like I can't feel my throat properly and my swallow feels weak. All my symptoms are bringing on the most awful feeling of anxiety and I just don't know where to turn no one understands how bad this feels. Has anyone else had this terrible sensation of a lump and at the same time a sort of lack of sensation in the throat.
View 47 RepliesMy wife has been diagnosed with SOD and has been offered botox injections for it. Has anyone had experience of this or got an information on it.
View 1 RepliesI have had ongoing chest and heartburn pain for 18 months now and although previously had acid reflux a 24hr PH manometry which shows i don't have acid reflux any more i appear to have Esophageal Spasms and dysmotility.
Does anyone have any advice on this with what i can do to help this as i know it will probably be about 2 months before i see my gastroenterologist following this test as so fed up with being in pain on a daily basis
I am having burning throat and stomach... I have had a barium swallow and when the machine tipped me on my back, the contents of my stomach go up into my esophagus. I had a scope which said the ph in my stomach wasn't horrible and then a ph monitor in my throat which showed that the ph in my throat isn't bad until I lay down at night. My doctor also said my lower esophageal stayed open during the entire procedure and and he thinks it doesn't close at all anymore. My throat hurts everyday. I am supposed to take 40mg of omeprazole twice a day but I know long term it's bad for you. I am looking at nissen fundoplication but am afraid because it's serious and requires a long recovery. I am nervous as I heard you can never vomit again and I do ge nauseated even just on a ride in the car. Anyone had good results with surgery or anything else ?
View 1 RepliesI'm now 38 and was diagnosed with achalasia in 1998. The condition stated in late 1997 and progressed very quickly. I was unable to eat any form of solid food and every meal had to be accompanied by buckets of water!
I had the myotomy and a fundoplication in Sept 1999.
However, the symptoms soon returned. They never got as bad as they were before the operation, but I think suffers of the condition become very adept at managing the condition.
I went through a series of dilations and other tests until, in 2005, my surgeon decided that another operation was the only hope. However, by this time, I had completely lost confidence in my surgeon and decided to live with the condition.
I have found that swallowing has continued to get worse over the years, but I manage it reasonably well by drinking lots of water with meals and avoiding problematic foods such as bread, pasta and fruit.
However, I suffer from dreadful substernal pain and have been admitted twice to A&E with a suspected heart attack. My use of painkillers is now at pretty serious levels so I am having the condition investigated again.
I guess that I knew this was inevitable, but I'm not looking forward to the barium swallows, endoscopy, manometry etc and I guess further surgery is unavoidable.
I utterly sympathise with those who have the condition. It is painful, restricting and embarrassing - you only have to regurgitate an oesophagus full of chewed food over a plate to realise what a bummer of a condition this is. It may not be life threatening, but it is certainly not fun!
I wish everyone with the condition every best wish in managing their condition.
PS - I really struggle with my weight and am now 5 stone overweight which must be a record for achalasia!!! Would love to hear from anyone in a similar position.
Basically in april 2015 i went to consultant for pile treatment, he advised me to have them treated by injection, i went ahead with this procedure, for a week i was fine then i noticed the itching and pile/pain had returned went back to my consultant he told me he thinks it was a fissure and to take creams and come back to him in 3 weeks time for further consultation.
alas 2 weeks later i was in severe pain and discomfort and phoned the consultants office that i was in bad pain and was told the consultant was on holidays and would not be back for a further week!
at this stage i was told by my doctor to attend hospital a+e for emergency
treatment ,this i did and was told to present myself at the hospital fasting from night before to see a new consultant---Phew it gets worse!
arrived at the hospital new consultant in fairness said he would put me under a full GA and see what is going on there
the following morning he told me yes indeed the piles were back there was one internal and one external and that i was better off going for the laser treatment called THD, which i booked in for the following week this was at this stage mid may had the procedure and for 2 weeks felt great
however on the third week i was in severe pain in the anal area and knew something was wrong (bearing in mind i was told the THD procedure has a 90%success rate..presented myself back to the consultant in hospital had to go under a full ga again he told me afterwards that the procedure had not worked for me for fu..s sake i was one of the 10% that it did not work for so i was booked in for the following week to have the piles which i was now told one of them was thrombosed removed by surgery so have had this done in mid june and have been in terrible pain since, especially after bm to the point where all i could do is sit/lie in the house all day taking pain killers stool softeners and baths every day. every time i phoned the consultant i was told it takes time to heal so after 7 weeks of severe pain id had enough, i went to my doctor got a letter of him to see the consultant urgently as i was in severe pain meet with the consultant am now booked in again for early next week this is what he said the wound is healing however it is a time thing, he will have a further look at me to see if there is something else causing this awful pain he said there is no fissure but wants to give me a botox injection in the anal area to help with the healing, can anyone please advise with this as i do not want to get any worse pain than i am in presently sorry for the long rant but this is actually what happened to me it has changed my life whereby in the last 6 months being in terrible pain and discomfort and am now wary about this botox injection
I am 25 female and have been suffering with hemorrhoids for years, 8 I think now, they resulted in a nasty skin tag and when I thought it couldn't get worse, I have now had a fissure for over a year.
Anyway, after many GP visits etc, and fainting from pain, I finally got put on the NHS waiting list for botox and skin tag removal. I thought to myself this is great to get this done and will solve all my problems, as I can't continue life as it is now, right? I got a date sent to me last week for the surgery, meant to be today, much quicker than I thought (Surely they would have wanted to review before, the Surgeon hasn't seen me in over 6 months?!) but after reading so many horrible posts about Botox I postponed it, so they will be sending a new date. But before I go ahead I really hope lots of you can advise me on your experience and give me information.
It is painful for me every day, I almost faint sometimes from the pain. And for some reason for the past 2 weeks, I have lots of blood during EVERY SINGLE BM - why now?? And is this something I should be worried about if it is every single time?
I am tip top about diet and exercise, I only weigh 54kg, I am healthy and active all the time!
The advice that I really want from you all - should I do this botox? Or should I accept life as it is now?? [sad] could things get a lot worse if I go for Botox?
Also I don't know if I get 'spasms', what are spasms? I am in pain for a long while after a BM is that what they are?
I have suffered from migraines since I was 9. These are the drugs I have tried:
-Metoprolol which did nothing just lowered my already low blood pressure
-Topamax, it worked amazingly until my hair started falling out
-Amitriptyline which worked but all I wanted to do was sleep and eat
-Nortriptyline which gave me a headache
-Wellbutrin, worked until I had a Steven-Johnson reaction and am still waiting 4 weeks later for my taste buds to grow back.
-Botox, total waste of my $280, except that I had couldn't move my forehead muscles, lol.
Then my doc wanted me to try depakote, which I drew the line at! All of these toxic medications and I was back at square 1. My hubby did research and out of 300 reviews of BUTTERBUR (all natural), they were almost all positive. It did say might take a month to work also. I was having migraines daily. The first day I took it, no migraine. I was shocked and relieved. I am now on day 8 and yesterday I had the teensiest migraine ever so I also took a feverfew, which according to Dr Oz and internet research, helps with migraines. It went away. I hope this is the solution. So tired of medications with horrible side effects. Butterbur is also used as an antispasmodic/muscle relaxer and I have noticed since taking it i have had no back pain, and I sleep so sound at night (used to wake up 4-5 times a night).
I've had a squint all my life (30 years) had two previous surgeries that did not work. My right eye turns inward.
Recently I was referred to hospital for Botox treatment. This was carried out 9 days ago.
My eye is now straight. (Yay) I am however suffering from double vision when I look to the left and what I can only describe as slight 'ghost' double images (not constant) that seems to appear randomly and when looking in any direction,
Has anyone had Botox and experienced something similar? I'm just looking for reassurance that the double vision will pass and I can continue with the Botox treatment?
The botox kicked in 3 days after it was administered so I've only had double vision for about 6 days.
In 2003 I had really painful headaches so bad I could hardly put my head on a pillow, pretty scary as I do not suffer from headaches. Then as I was eating bowl of cereal I kept missing my mouth and realised I couldn't feel my lips or tongue as though I had been given dentist injection. My sister took me to hospital thinking I was having a stroke, this was the first time I had heard of Bell's palsy and I was given steroids, i was very tired and it was an effort to do anything like eat, speech, it did take three months to go.
february 2014 I got a rash on my stomach which spread to my neck, to my back, to my feet, then to my scalp and then my ears, I was in agony, it was urticaria. Whilst trying to cope with this I then got Bell's palsy again, possibly due to an immune system at a low. However it has taken a lot longer to recover this time. Eighteen months later and I still have a twitchy eye and lopsided smile. I am now considering Botox, has anyone here used Botox to correct any of the nerve damage left after palsy and if so what are your thoughts?
This is my first posting to the Barrett's Oesophagus group, having just been diagnosed with Barretts and a Hiatus Hernia on my Birthday (what a birthday present). I am amazed at how quickly the symptoms have arisen. Suddenly I can eat very little (both in quantity and variety) and trying to find my way around what I should eat, drink etc. I feel left in limbo by my consultant and GP, who just said I would have an endoscopy every 2 years, and that I needed to manage it well or it could lead to cancer, a bit worrying when they are not advising me what I should do!
View 20 RepliesA recent study showed 20 years on most patients' Barrett's segment lengths remained the same as at initial diagnosis.
Thus it was with some confidence I approached my surveillance gastroscopy yesterday that my 3 cm circumferential band of non-dysplastic Barrett's would show no changes.
Awake throughout the rather longer than usual procedure (unfortunately sedation has no effect on me), I listened to the doctor call out the distances to her recording nurse as she took 20 biopsies and realised this was longer than 3 cm.
"8 centimeters", she confirmed when I asked her afterwards. ""Full circumference lower down and patchy higher up."
I was astounded. With my Nissen fundoplication years ago and the Collis-Nissen revision last year reducing reflux, I hadn't expected that.
It took my wife to unravel the blindingly obvious.
"Doesn't the Collis procedure lengthen your oesophagus?"
"Yes."
"And what constitutes that increased length?"
Of course. The extended oesophagus is lined with gastric cells. And the length of that extension? - About 5 cm.
The biopsies for the bottom 5 cm will show gastric cells which, depending on histopathology, may be interpreted as gastric metaplasia but not intestinal metaplasia.
I feel sure my previous 3 cm of non-dysplastic Barrett's remains unchanged but has 5 cm of stomach cells lining the extended oesophagus below.
I have recently been diagnosed with Barretts at COM2, what does that mean?, i have had 4 lots of tablets so far with dreadful side effects, so soon to be given another one to try,worried as i keep being told i need the tablets to help me.
View 2 RepliesAfter having reflux and pains in my throat and stomach for a long time my GP finally referred me for a Endoscopy in January. The Doctor carrying this out said I had Barrett's Oesophagus and showed me some pictures. It is rather scary just how red and inflamed it looked. He asked me what medication I was on and I said Omeprazole (20mg) twice a day but I needed to take Rennies antacid tablets (orange) as well to help with the discomfort.
The Doctor told me to keep on with the Omeprazole as it is a precancerous condition and this would help. He also said I needed to have a endoscopy every three years. I am finding that the omeprazole doesn't help when I have the discomfort and the only relief I can get is when I take the Rennies and sometimes Gaviscon. I am still taking the omeprazole as instructed (40g a day) but wondered if anyone else who suffers with this finds omeprazole ineffective or takes something else as well. I'm sure the prolonged taking of Rennies isn't good.
Hi, have just read your interesting comments. my son who's 21 is awaiting biopsy results, he's been told its probably Barretts. So i'm just trying to find out all the info. he's been told to commence on high dose of PPI, i just hope there's no complications.
View 2 Replies