Anyone with ideas about my 'heartburn'

[Love my Critters!]

I'm going to make this long story short. I had my gallbladder removed 1 month ago. I was waking up a few times a week with a horrible pain that kept me up half the night, turns out I had a gallstone the size of a walnut. Well, since the surgery on 4-16-10, I have awoke every single night at about 1 am with heartburn that wakes me up from a dead sleep. I normally am a great sleeper and will sleep through the night without ever waking up. It hurts so bad I have to stand up to get any relief. I had an endoscopy done last week and some biopsies of my stomach. It all came out great, nothing bad there. I am desperate to make this stop I am tired of waking up everynight after only 3-4 hours of sleep for over a solid month now. I also worke full time and have 2 small children. This is a list of stuff I have done or still do to help.
Sleep almost sitting straight up in bed
Sleep in my recliner
Take protonix 40 mg morning and evening (have been taking it once a day for the past 2 years)
Dr. gave me a pill to take a bed time (can't think of the name) that would "foam" up and coat my stomach to keep the acid from burning it, it doesn't help, I even tried waiting until I woke up with the pain to take it and it still didn't make a bit of difference.
Drink malox by the jug
Wtch my diet very carefully (no dairy in the afternoon, no fried or greasy food, no spicy food, nothing with tomatoe (acid))
Taking a pain killer when it starts so I can go back to sleep (didn't work, just made me more tired - will NOT do that again!)
I am so sleep deprived and desperate to make this better, anyone with suggestions PLEASE give them to me.

 

[Camelot Farms]

Oh my! You really have tried it all.

Are they sure that there is nothing wrong with that little 'flap' (too early in the morning to remember technical terms) that keeps the acid in your stomach and not up in your esophagus?

All of the things that you are doing and the meds should be giving you some relief.

Keep pushing your Dr. to find out whats wrong. Dont let them brush you off.

Best of luck!

 

[Mahonri]

Have you had your heart checked?

Could it be angina?

 

[Dar]

Nexium (its a little purple pill) worked wonders for me but I was prescribed 2 a day... i found this left me with an egg like taste in my throat.. so I took one about 20 min before bed time and it was ok

aside from that I would request another ultrasound of your abdomen even though you have had the gall bladder you may still have stones lodged in the common duct that were able to pass but were not removed.

 

[greenpeeps]

I was going to say dairy to late, but you covered that. Hope you find releif soon. Try eating some bread, or crackers, before you go to sleep. Good Luck

 

[newnanchic]

My Mom has the same thing and so does hubby . Someone told her to take ginger and hers has stopped !! she takes 1 a day so I have ordered hubby some hopefully comes in today . They were pretty inexpensive so it is wortha try . ????/

 

[Love my Critters!]

Thanks guys, I have tried eating dry toast before bed, but it didn't work. I do eat toast in the middle of the night when I get up and it helps ease the pain some. I will get some ginger and give it a try. Do I just follow the instructions on the bottle? Is it ground ginger in a capsule?
My doc has said that next we will do a procedure that measures the pressure of a valve (don't know what it's called) that dumps the acid into the small intestine. He said sometimes these valves will spasm and not let the acid out. I see him next week, he's out of town this week. Then we will have to schedule all of that and I don't know what is done for it if it is having spasms. It all just takes a lot of time and it has already been 5 weeks and I'm dying to get some rest. I also wanted to add that this is a really severe burning pain that feels like there is a hot rod down my esophages (sp) and stomach. I have had two children naturally so I'm not a wimp... this hurts!

 

[Smoky73]

I Suffer from too much stomach acid by several factors, one being my ethnic background, fair skinned people (french and irish decent as an example) tend (as told by one of my doctors years ago) to have too much Hystamine in their body (visual by skin turning red just by touching it-light scratch etc). Also stress and anxiety will over produce acid, as well as food, and if you have been sick. I have been suffering with nausea every day for a year due to too much acid (some burning etc as well). Dr. has me on a great pill called Kapidex, which is for acid, works wonders, it is the only thing that actually works, but for me, it has to be in conjunction with a hystamine blocker, (allergy pill) so I take Zyrtec every night before bed as well. It got so bad due to too much stress at work and the annoying head cold I had for ever. I also had my gallbladder out in 2005. I find that if I have red wine, it aggrevates it as well.

As a side note, I have a neighbor who suffers from heartburn and whenever his acts up, he puts about a 1/2 tsp of baking soda in a glass of water and drinks it- he says it works wonders, but, I can't tolerate the taste.

 

[TriciaHowe]

I do the baking soda thing too. I actually like the taste LOL!

To the OP: I hope you are feeling better soon. Bad heartburn and no sleep does not sound like a good combo.

 

[speckledhen]

I had terrible chest pains recently, every night. It was really bad, like something sharp stabbing through my diaphragm through my back. At the advice of a friend, I stopped all carbonated drinks for a long time. That fixed it completely within a couple days. Now, I can drink one a day with no symptoms, but I used to drink 4 or so every day. Do you drink colas? If so, try stopping those entirely for awhile. Beats chugging antacids.