Is Endoscopy Routine With Acid Reflux

[lovex5 25]

i have really bad acid reflux. i will get a pain in the center of my chest and like clockwork within 10minutes i burp up acid. gross i know. i believe it's called esophogeal spasm. it also hurts and is really scary. so i told the np at my first visit and she asked if i take anything for it. i take prevacid but it doesnt really help. anyway she told me all else i needed was the bloodwork, lifestyle class, mental health and meet with the surgeon before i get a date for surgery. i kind of figured i would need an endoscopy, because i've heard they are usually done in people with bad reflux amongst other issues. i had my blood work over two weeks ago and still no one ever would return my calls/emails about the results. i assume i was negative for h pylori. i'm still curious if i may have an ulcer. sorry, rambling. anyway i guess this is something i can just bring up to the surgeon? or is the surgeon like a last minute right before surgery type thing? i dont understand the lack of communication...this is supposed to be one of the best bariatric centers in the state.

[Jean McMillan 2,973]

Yes, this is something you can bring up with your surgeon, but preferably not as a last minute thing before surgery.

A pre-op upper endoscopy helps the surgeon get the lay of the land (so to speak) even if the patient doesn't have reflux or another UGI issue. Sometimes reflux is caused by hiatal hernias, and an upper GI will show the surgeon if that's the case with you. Since reflux is as much of if not more a problem after band surgery than before, it's very important that your surgeon or someone else on his medical staff address this issue now.

As for the lack of communication by your surgeon's office...let's give them the benefit of the doubt. My surgeon's office has been so inundated by the influx of new patients that they are all struggling to keep up with all the work involved in communicating with patients. My surgeon employs a person as a Patient Advocate who does nothing but coordinate all that. I suggest that you call your surgeon's office and don't hang up until you speak to a live human being. Tell that person you have a number of questions that need attention and ask for the name of the best person to answer them. Ask to be transferred to that person and leave a voice message for her/him if necessary. Then follow up with that person a day or so later.

[Jess55 97]

You probably also have a hiatal hernia. A lot of the members here had one that was repaired during surgery. I used to have reflux and heart burn, and honestly I never really thought about it, I actually assumed it was a normal thing to have reflux. I mean it wasn't nearly every day or very often at all. I had a hiatal hernia that wa repaired during surgery and besides having 3 days of heart burn shortly after surgery, I have not had any since.

[lovex5 25]

ok ladies thanks for the advice. i called my bariatric office friday afternoon and asked if i need anything else besides mental health, and also to get an idea of when i would have surgery. the lady who runs the office is who i spoke to (i had been speaking to someone else every time i called in) and she helped me out. i asked her for those lab results. she got to looking and guess what? all they ran on me was vitamins! she was not happy. she told me she was going to have to see why the np only ran Vitamins on me and left everything else off. low and behold she called me yesterday to let me know she had talked to the np and they were going to get the rest of the labs from me. so i did them today and it was like 6 different things including the hpylori that i've been so curious about. i also found out from her that i should be having surgery the first part of july which is certainly exciting. just wanted to update =)

[Jean McMillan 2,973]

Glad to hear you're finally making some progress!

[OldMomOf3 52]

At my first appointment they tested me for an ulcer and asked a lot of questions that let them to believe that I may have a hiatal hernia. So they scheduled me for an endoscopy 3 weeks prior to surgery. They said, if I do in deed have the hernia, that they will fix it when they do the band. They said they do that almost routinely because they don't want to find any surprises.