Last night I had an awful experience. At about 1am I woke to find I had a mouthful of bile/undigested food/sick - being disturbed I swallowed it (yuk), and had an awful cough and tickly throat. I took some gaviscon and slept sat up.
I had silent reflux probs last year fo the very first time (no previous history) which my consultant said was not MS related, but it wasn’t as sudden as this!! - It was almost like the fluid in my stomach just drained into mouth after laying down for a while! I have some acid reducing tablets which I’m going to take but my question is do you think it could be related and should I tell my MS nurse?
I think it’s possible to have MS-related problems with any muscle in the body and it’s a muscle that controls the entrance to the stomach, but whether or not it is MS causing your problems I really couldn’t say. So I think it would be worth asking your nurse, but tbh, I’m not sure what they can do about it. Sorry! Not very helpful at all! Hopefully someone else will know more. It might be worthwhile posting on Everyday Living - there is bound to be someone on there who knows something about it.
Hi Amanda, I have had same as you… acid coming up quickly like sick. Sometimes waking me up choking. I also had very tickly sore throat with it and was having acid all the time. Even a drink of water would give me bad acid.
My GP put on on one 15 mg of Lansoprazole (was on 30 mg a day for first month) and it has stopped the acid completely. SUCH a relief. I take it as soon as I wake up, half an hour before breakfast.
So many people with MS seem to get this problem that personally I think there’s an MS link… but don’t even try getting a neuro to agree! Chances are neuro or MS nurse will say it’s not related… but always worth a try I suppose.
Anyway it would be worth asking your GP for above drug as it really is good.
Thanks Karen and Pat - I spoke to GP after I posted who said to start the tablets again as it is obviously a re-occurance of the reflux I had earlier in year - they are Pantoprazole (so similar to lansopazole I assume) and to take 40gm twice a day for a month and if it doesn’t improve to go back and see him.
I’ve also posted on Everyday Living Karen just to get a feel of how common it is and might contact nurse. x
Hi Amanda, I too get acid reflux (no ms diagnosis) for which I get 40mg Omeprezole another PPI (proton pump inhibitor which stops acid production). My gastro consult told me I had Functional Gastrointestinal Syndrome which is basically medic speak for “you got symptoms but we cant see anything wrong with you”. It is always worse at night and my advice was raise your bed (head end) on bricks so the acid has gravity to fight on its way up. They say dont use pillows because they just raise your head and you need to have your whole body inclined at an angle. Unfortunately for me it is a bit impracticable due to sharing a bed with my wife who doesnt fancy sliding down the bed at night! Hope it clears up as with myself the meds are not really very effective, tried Lansoprezole as an alternative but that did not work either. I also have bad nausea which Amitryptaline was effective at controlling but my GP stopped that due to it exacerbating my bladder problems. Good luck your not alone in this, Dave