Heartburn

I swear....my surgeon consult has caused my body to go haywire...lol. I rarely have heartburn, but since I went to see My Doc yesterday, I have had some mild to moderate heartburn. My question is, how much heartburn is required to make someone second guess the sleeve? Tell me some of your heartburn stories.

CJ

The way my surgeon explained it to me is that my stomach is still producing the same amount of gastric acid it always did but now my stomach is so much smaller that the acid has no where to go but up. Hence the heartburn. My doc sent me home with a 10 day supply of Zantac 150 to take scheduled every 12 hours and boy did I need it. And I had only rarely had reflux in the past, so I was kinda panicked about forever feeling the burn. But it really has dissipated for me to the point now I only take one every 2nd or 3rd day, and I'm hoping less and less as time goes by. However I'm early days yet so I can't say what the long term issues will be. That being said, if I had to take Nexium everyday for the rest of my life it would be a small price to pay and would not outweigh the overall health benefits the the weight loss from my sleeve will provide. I have spoken with some who do require a PPI daily, but like you, I'm wondering if this is the majority of sleevers or not.

I have Barretts, a gastric (esophagus) condition that surgeons pooh-pooh the sleeve. BUT I insisted. I was sleeved on 8/5/15. Left the hospital with a prescription for an antacid that I will take for the rest of my life. I will also need an endoscopy every 2 years. I don't regret my decision. I also help to keep the acid at bay by sticking to a diet that does not create more acid. It's called the acid-reflux diet.

At my high weight and during the past 10 years, I've taken the maximum dose of omeprazole daily to control reflux and heartburn. Post-op, my surgeon cut the dose in half a few months ago (surgery was in February). No problems at all as a result. Two weeks ago, he said to stop taking it altogether. No problems at all. However, I don't know if my good fortune is typical.

psychoticparrot

What Chanti said.

My doc put everyone on pepcid for the first few months after surgery. The only thing he failed to mention is that you have to wean yourself off any acid reducer/PPI. If you stop cold turkey, you'll have heartburn from hell.