GERD - Surgery?

Posted By Lara on May 26, 1998 at 19:37:40:







I am a 23 year old female.  About 2 years ago I was diagnosed with GERD.  After trying Tagament, Pepcid, and other diet modifications and over the counter medicines without any success the doctor performed an endoscopy and put me on Prevacid.   While being on the Prevacid I did not have any of the severe heartburn.   I stayed on Prevacid for about 6 months.  Though this took care of the heartburn, I did have side effects of stomach cramping and diarrhea.   He took me off the medication saying that it was not good to stay on that medication for extended periods of time.   After 3 or 4 months of being off the medicine, I starting experiencing pain again even with the dietary changes.   I started using over the counter medication and this helped for several months until it became very severe again.  This time because of the side effects of Prevacid he put me on Prilosec.   I stayed on the Prilosec for two months and then just took the medication when the pain was more severe.   The cost of the medication is too much for me to afford.   This continued for about a year.   I went to a different doctor since I moved and he recommended that since the Prilosec was too expensive and because of my age to take Zantac.   Like the previous doctor he stated that this would be a life long cycle of taking medications to control the pain.  The zantac does not work as well as the prevacid and prilosec and I am still having to take a lot of over the counter antiacids to help control the heartburn.  This doctor also said that he thought I should consider the surgery for GERD, because of my age.  
My main questions are this.   Is surgery really the only cure for GERD?   Is it healthly to be taking all of this medication?  My husband and I are wanting to have childern soon and I have heard that the heartburn gets worse with pregancy.  Is this true?  Can you take any of the medication while you are pregant?  What are the complications and success rates of the surgery?  My doctor also said that GERD gets worse with age, Is this true?  Also, would you recommend this surgery for someone my age, even though the Prevacid and Prilosec did work?  My only concern is the amount of money that I am paying for the drug and the long term side effects of taking a drug like this.
I know that is a lot of questions, but I am real curious about this surgery.   I have not been able to find out a lot about it and I certainly do not want to jump into something.   It almost sounds too good to be true and I am very nervous about someone operating on me and something going wrong.   Any information that you could provide or any references to books or sites that have good information would be appreciated.   Thanks alot!!!!!