Can someone explain why acid reflux....

[groovearmada 14]

Before surgery I would get odd episodes of acid reflux. Not often and not too bothersome. Since surgery, i have been taking omeprozole, even with that i notice that i have slight acid at night times. If i miss a dose, i have serious discomfort.

Can anyone explain in baby speak, why VSG can cause acid reflux? And will this be a permanent thing?

Thanks a lot !

[Rev Me Up! 75]

I am not a doctor, but it was explained to me that the stomach is producing the amount of acid required at full size, but your stomach is obviously not full size anymore. I switched to Zegerid OTC - it has an additive in addition to the omeprozole and it works a lot better for me. I noticed that I had to supplement with Tums or take 2 ppi's before I switched to Zegerid. You might want to try it.

My doc said I have to take omeprozole for 6 months and then I can try to wean myself off. According to some sleevers, it never goes away and the ppi will be a part of your life for the foreseeable future. I found once I got it under control with the right med, I felt better overall.

Good luck-

Lara

[Foxbins 625]

As I understand it, when you had a quart-sized stomach the acid could slosh around in there and have a lot of room to move around. After surgery, you have a small diameter and volume stomach but still acid production, so the acid has fewer places to go. One of the places to go is up--producing reflux. I think the permanence of reflux depends on the person--I read something that said if you didn't have reflux problems before surgery, probably you wouldn't have them after, but I am thinking "after" means six months to a year after surgery. I tried to go off my PPI after 90 days and woke up in the middle of the night with reflux. Back on it now and no problems at night. I'll give it another try in 3 more months.

[BlackBerryJuice 349]

Couple of things I can think of.

The main reason acid reflux happens is because the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) - the ring of muscle right at the end of your esophagus and the top of your stomach - is not functioning properly. Normally, it's closed tight at all times except for when you are swallowing something. If there's any sort of problem with it, e.g. the nerves in it or some of the muscle itself were damaged during the surgery (which often happens to a small extent), it will have trouble closing or staying closed. So, reason 1: surgical damage to the sphincter. Reason #2: imagine that you ate too much for your newly small stomach - the food will push both ways, and the upward pressure on the LES may cause it to open to some extent, pushing some acid back up into your esophagus.

A reason I hear often on here is that the stomach is overproducing acid for the first little while because your cells don't "know" that there's a lot less stomach left. I don't know if I believe it that much. It would have to be an issue of quantity of acid rather then strength - stomach acid is about as caustic as it gets. The reason for that is that your stomach normally produces up to 4 liters (a gallon!) of Fluid a day, and your GI system reabsorbs/flushes it just fine. So I don't really understand why you would suddenly have a problem reabsorbing these secretions in your small and large intestines and having it go back up.

[groovearmada 14]

Amazing ladies, quick, easy to understand answers. Thank you so much!

Im sure i had read somewhere to avoid taking things like tums/rennies/gavisgone. Am i making this up? Is it ok to take one of these to stop symptoms immediatly if they are bothering me?

[BlackBerryJuice 349]

Amazing ladies, quick, easy to understand answers. Thank you so much!

Im sure i had read somewhere to avoid taking things like tums/rennies/gavisgone. Am i making this up? Is it ok to take one of these to stop symptoms immediatly if they are bothering me?

You can take an antacid for immediate symptom relief if it's bothering you a lot. I've definitely done it a few times as I only have reflux for short periods of time, maybe 1-2x a month. But if you have consistent reflux, you should really be taking a PPI to manage these symptoms. The issue is that antacids neutralize acid, which relieves the symptoms right away BUT then your cells produce even more acid because the pH in your stomach has risen. But the PPI actually blocks acid production, so you don't get that rebound influx of acid.

[Anjelika 14]

I know the last post was a year ago, but I still have concerns about this mostly because some doctors say that acid reflux will deminish after VSG surgery and others say it will be worse. I'm so confused...

[cookies 56]

I know the last post was a year ago' date=' but I still have concerns about this mostly because some doctors say that acid reflux will deminish after VSG surgery and others say it will be worse. I'm so confused...[/quote']

People might be quoting general WLS statistics. I believe acid reflux does diminish after the RNY, but that's not generally the case with the sleeve.