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Heartburn can be more than a pain in the esophagusDenise Karstens doesn’t look like a typical heartburn patient. She is young and fit and doesn’t drink or smoke. She and her husband, Henry, have three young boys. Yet, six years ago, at the age of 27, she began having heartburn that wouldn’t go away. She found it disturbing that, instead of feeling the burning sensation she always assumed heartburn sufferers felt, she was having real pain and it was radiating out to her shoulders. “I can understand how people mistake it for a heart attack,” she said. But, what she doesn’t understand is how people with GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease), more commonly called heartburn, can ignore the symptoms and feel it is something they just have to live with. “I tell people all the time ‘You can’t do that – you have to have that looked at’,” Karstens said. Karstens was concerned that if she had such severe heartburn at her young age, there could be some real damage to her esophagus that can be a precursor to other problems, such as esophageal cancer. “I had an endoscope done and luckily there was no damage. That really gave me peace of mind,” Karstens said. At that time, Karstens was put on Pepcid and a proton pump inhibitor for three months and then was able to discontinue the medication with no recurrence of the symptoms. “Until this last year,” Karstens said. “Then it came back … this time in the form of gastritis.” Gastritis is an inflammation of the inside of the stomach which can progress to an ulcer, or an open sore, in the stomach. The gastritis gave Karstens a burning sensation in her stomach at night and after meals. This time she took medication for a total of two months and has not had a return of her symptoms. “People I have talked to who have heartburn say they don’t want to be on medication, but if it will prevent damage to your esophagus, then it’s worth it,” Karstens said. She added, “I didn’t have any side effects from the medication.” An endoscopic procedure is also nothing to fear, Karstens said. “I know people think that’s scary, but they gave me a light sedative and I went out quickly and came to quickly and I didn’t have a sore throat or any after-effects. And I was so relieved to get the results and find that there was no damage to my esophagus.” Karstens thinks there is a bit of stigma surrounding the diagnosis, too. “It’s a myth that gastritis is caused by stress. It can be aggravated by stress, but not caused by it. People kept asking me ‘Are you really stressed out?’ and that just wasn’t the case,” she said. Now that the heartburn symptoms have disappeared, Karstens tries to maintain her health by changing her diet a bit, she said. She “tests” food to see if they aggravate her stomach and if they do, she backs off them for a while. “Of course, there are those days I forget and I have spaghetti and an orange,” she laughed. If the condition returns she’ll have to treat it again with medication. “I try to avoid foods that have too much acid in them and have cut back on the carbonated drinks,” she said. She also tries to avoid caffeinated beverages. “Even though I think, ‘oh, that caffeine would be really good right now,’ it just isn’t worth it.” |
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New Ulm Medical Center
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