From that one situation I can tell you understand the disorder. Not all MDs do.
I get a kick out of it when people suggest taking a Tums. It does work for me for a little while -- I timed it. 45 seconds.
For me, the best thing seems to be a PPI on a somewhat stretched schedule: one about every 31 hours. It's the dickens to keep track of the administration time but I believe it does give the acid a chance to build up to just below painful levels. But I am worried about a change in stool over the last six months.
situation=sentence in post to LadyDoc
Ah, but I'm old enough to remember when we treated ulcers and heartburn with Tums and milk...
And we saw a lot of Kidney stones from too many Tums...and ended up doing surgery for bleeding ulcers and severe esophagitis...
There is surgery for Reflux, but it is MAJOR, and rarely done anymore...before Prilosec, we had to do it sometimes...not only for pain, but for repeat aspiration pneumonia in children with Cerebral palsy...
Now they can do the surgery with a small hole, so maybe it will come back into fashion..
Two things about reflux/heartburn...one, if you cough at night, sleep with a pillow (pneumonia can be caused by reflux even with PPI's) Two: Long standing heartburn can cause precancerous changes of the esophagus...and these pre cancerous changes go back to normal on the PPI's...
Finally, long term PPI's decrease absorbtion of Vitamin B12...since you can't absorb B12 very well without acid...now, about 30 percent of the elderly don't have acid normally, and we haven't seen any a major problems with PPI's, but you might want to consider B12 drops if you have been on PPI's for a couple years...