So confused about my reflux

[beth0277]

I'm feeling a bit hopeless...I have posted before but I'll give my background. 2 months after having my son, I had an Upper GI due to stomach pains. The stomach pains ended up being due to an SSRI that I had just recently started taking and went away quickly. It was during that Upper GI that a "small amount" of reflux was seen. I was shocked to hear that, because I have never felt heartburn in my life. I also do not suffer from any of the other reflux symptoms, such as coughing, hoarseness, belching, sore throat, anything like that. I talked to my PCP and she did not want to treat me since I wasn't having symptoms. I started reading up on silent reflux and Barrett's Esophagus and got scared so I asked for a referral to a GI. So, 13 months after my Upper GI showing reflux, I was given an endoscopy and I was found to have "Garden Variety Esophagitis" as my GI said, most likely due to acid reflux. The only other possible thing is that I had just (3 days earlier) started taking an antibiotic at night before bed and there is a *slight* possibility that it caused damage to my esophagus since it was taken and then I went straight to bed, but it is not as likely. One interesting thing is that a few months before my endoscopy, I started snoring like a bear. I had always had a light snore, but this got so bad that my husband slept on the couch some nights.
So, my GI wanted to treat me for reflux and put me on Dexilant 60 mg once/day. This would also heal the erosion to my esophagus. She wanted me to stay on it for 2-3 months and then get a Barium Swallow done. If all looked clear, she wanted me to stop taking it. I told her I wasn't comfortable with that because how was I supposed to know if my esophagus started to get damaged again? So, she agreed that after a few months off the Dexilant, she will do another endoscopy and if there is any damage we will know I need long term treatment.
So, I had my Barium Swallow done earlier this week. I got a call from my doctor's office later telling me to go ahead and stop the Dexilant and we will do endoscopy in a few months. I spoke to the nurse (who I'm not sure knows what she is talking about) and she said everything was normal, but because of my health anxiety and prying, she read the following to me "Minimal reflux in supine position that was unable to duplicate". I asked her what that meant, and she said that when I was lying down, at one point the radiologist saw a minimal amount of reflux, but he tried to get it to happen again, and couldn't.

I don't know how to take that. I thought that if I was being treated with PPI's that I wouldn't have reflux? I am so stressed out about all of this. I put in a call to the doctor but I don't know if/when she will call me back. I am worried that if I am having reflux, even on the medicine, how will my esophagus ever get better and I feel like it will turn to Barrett's Esophagus.

I don't know if I am overreacting. My husband said that obviously if the doctor was worried then she would not have taken me off of the Dexilant, but I can't help but overanalyze it all.

Does anyone have any input? Is it normal to still get "minimal reflux" even when you are on a PPI?

[Flycaster305]

Words like 'slight' and 'minimal' jumped out to me in your post, it sounds like you have some minor issues with acid reflux.

Operative reports   that report 'severe' conditions get my attention.  I have Barrett's Esophagus, but a bowel obstruction caused me to vomit severely and damaged the valves causing the BE.  That being said, the chance of it becoming a cancerous condition are in the 2% range.  As long as the Endoscopy shows you have only minor issues, I'd just raise the head of the bed, don't eat three hours before laying down to sleep, and bet you will be OK.  

[beth0277]

Oh, I'll add that of course during the pregnancy I put on weight and then after I had my son I was put on SSRI's which caused me to gain weight also. I am currently about 25 pounds over my ideal weight, which I don't know if that could have anything to do with it.