Heartburn?

Has anyone experienced heartburn since their surgery? I get this awful pain in the chest/eso and my doc swears it's heartburn and even has me on 300mg a day of zantac.. I swear it's something else. I have an appt. with the gastro doc next week, maybe they can tell me something. As far as I knew.. heartburn was next to impossible after the surgery.

I had severe heartburn before surgery and it disappeared after surgery. Since then, however, I've had periodic episodes of heartburn. When they come back, I immediately go back on my Prilosec for a week or so, then stop to see how things feel. It has always been gone after my week back on the meds, so I've not scheduled an appointment with my doctor to discuss it. I probably should, but I forget about it when I'm at my regularly scheduled appointments. sue O.

Hey again Steph ... I too understood it *should* be next to impossible for us to get heartburn after surgery as well! I was put on Nexium last September, with the assumption I had an ulcer. In January I had an endoscopy, and no ulcer ... so I stopped taking the Nexium for about a week and discovered I NEED the Nexium. The other explanation they're now saying is its most likely from my dysfunctioning gallbladder (which is *supposed* to come out). I've also read that it may be stomach acids coming up from the old stomach, but I'm not sure if that's a possiblity or not. I also recently found an article about proton pump inhibitors causing gallbladder dysfunction (hey, I'll do almost anything to get out of surgery), so my doc is switching me from Nexium to Zantac and we're going to check in about a month to see if function will be returned (don't know if we'll do another HIDAscan or not). I found that pretty interesting. Let me know what your gastro has to say. Karyn

Stephanie, I find that if I eat too fast (not chewing well enough) or eat too much that I can get this horrible pain in my chest. No burning sensation, just pain. I don't feel it is heartburn, but is actually food temporary stuck in the opening to the stomach and it has backed up. Hope you find the cause. Mary