Anyone have an opinion on the biggest difference between ulcers and having gerd/heartburn?

Do you think you can make the diagnosis yourself if you had symptoms of heartburn for a longtime?

Thanks

I’ll eat during the day and sometimes a little before I go to bed and no matter what I eat, it won’t give me heartburn or nothing anytime after I eat it, but then I’ll lay down to go to bed and wake up the next morning usually 8-10 hours after I had eaten anything and get the worst chest pains that spread to my back and shoulder blades that lasts for about 20 minutes but the pains are so bad, I can barely move or breathe and that has happened quite a bit recently and eventually after the second time, I went to the emergency room just to make sure it wasn’t a heart attack or my heart and they said my heart is perfectly fine and the diagnosis was GERD.

The last two days in a row, I’ve went to bed and woken up and had really bad pains again and so I’m actually afraid to lay down now to sleep in fear of waking up and having them again.
oh and it doesn’t seem to matter what I eat before I lay down, it still causes me pain, because last night all I had was a handful of skittles to snack on before I laid down and so that’s not sour or spicy or anything, unless it had to do with what I had eaten way earlier in the day.

I have all of this and everyday I feel like I’m dying I feel weak and dizzy. I feel acid up to my nose at times please let me know yalls symptom if any u can relate :/ it would be nice thank you

Hello. For about 10 months now, I’ve been having GERD and dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) maybe caused by GERD. It all started on January 1, 2011. I was eating breakfast (2 sunny side up eggs, leftover chapli kabab (Afghani beef patty), nan (Afghani bread) and mix/tea w/milk). The kabab was a little burnt tho. Anyways, after I finished eating, I felt a lump in my throat like a piece of food getting stuck. It was really bothersome. Then I warmed up some warm milk and added honey on it to sooth my throat. From that point on I had this feeling for about five months or so. Sometimes my throat felt tight too. Then I started having difficulty swallowing mostly solid foods. I saw several doctors/specialists (primary physican, gastroenterologist, neurologist, radiologist and speech language pathologist). They all said that it’s a symptom of GERD. I was proscribed several antacids. Although they just helped a little. Then I lost 11 pounds cuz I was not eating dat much. I spent 2 nights in da hospital to recieve all my nutrients. After that I did a barium swallow and everything looked normal. Then I had an endoscopy done and still nothing found. So da docs just told me to keep trying diff. antacids. Some of them also said dat these symptoms can also be stress/anxiety/worrying related. Then a couple of months later I was a little better and started eating solid foods. From dat point I had dyshagia off/on. until last month. My mom went overseas with my uncle and grandma to finish some property business. She is mostly da 1 who manages my health. Lol. So I was stuck with my dad and older brother. My bro knows a little about health too, cuz he is studying 2 be a pharmacy tech. Dad does not know. So then my dysphagia got more worse a week ago. My dad is nice, but sometimes he’s in a rush a lot and moody. He makes me stressed out even more. If I ask him to help me physically, sometimes he has no patience. By da way I have a physical disability (Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy). I can’t stand up/walk and my arms have limited movement. What should I do until my mom gets back?

To let you know alittle more about what Ive been experiencing… In august of this year I went to the ER thinking I was having a heart attack! They did a ECG and said my heart looked good. No abnormalities. They gave me some white stuff to drink, which numbed my esophagus and took some of the pain away. The ER dr gave me 20mg pills of the prescription generic prilosec, called Omeprazole, which Ive been taking since, and still am today. It helped alittle. but not enough to take the pain all away. I had a follow up appointment with my primary care dr, and he gave me 40mg tablets of the Omeprazole. I took those for almost two months, and the pain got better. Even went away for alittle bit. Thinking maybe it was gone and I didnt need the pills, I quit them and had two good days of no pain. Then on the third day, the pain came back like it did the day I went to the ER. I thought I was dying. I then came down with acute bronchitis. That was around october 24th. I was given medication for that. Even some hydroco liquid medication to help with the pain. Now, Im experiencing center chest pain, where the stomach and esophagus would be, and it goes over to my left side, under my breast and on the top of my breast area, to my collar bone and shoulder area. Not a stabbing pain, but just a pain in my chest. I cant lay down straight, I need to be sitting up at night to sleep. Last night I got hardly any sleep at all due to the amount of pain. Im in the same pain. Its not bad during the day, but gets worse in the evening and into the night time.

Any ideas on how to treat this? I just dont want to waiste more money going into the ER to be told the same thing again. I have a appointment with a GI specialist, but not til 12-15-11, they said that was the earlier they could see me. I did call my primary care dr today, to leave a message about possibly getting referred to a specialist there? To see if they can get me in anytime sooner. Ive had my gallbladder removed in May 2006. Its mostly the pain in my left side of my chest that Im concerned about.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Ive been taking the medication since October 24th, and the pain is still here. It hasnt got any better after getting back on the medications, when I had quit it for the couple of days. Im wondering if the medication will even work!

I’ve had acid reflux for about a year now. Since school started, I’ve noticed that I get this red splotchy rash on my neck every time I eat. I take a medication every night for the acid reflux, but I’m not sure if that has to do with anything. You’d think the medicine would help since I’ve been taking it for a while. But every day at lunch I get this rash and my GERD symptoms come up. I’ve tried eating different foods thinking I might have an allergic reaction to something, but there’s nothing I’m allergic to! My question is, why am I getting this rash?

I Suffer From alot , Im 20 Yrs Old Female, I have generalized anxiety disorder,Major despression disorder, IBS, Asthma , ADD & GERD! Symptoms seem to be getting worse lately, Panic attacks, Due to these symptoms which are, Constant burning in my stomach and sometimes between my breasts. Never in throat! Constant pressure in throat and constant need to burp, sometimes it feel like i need to burp but cant ! gurling in my stomach gurling in chest and in throat! iregular bowls stomach really hard and bulging for no reason? sour taste when burping, liquid in throat and sometimes chewed up food.. Stomach my stomach just feels very weird! Im soo frustrated! No medicine I seem to take for acid reflux works?? Its killing me! Is this all GERD??? && what more can i do or should i try?

About a year ago I went to a doctor and got my funny throat/stomach symptoms officially labeled as GERD, and started changing my diet to manage my symptoms (as my one week of taking a proton pump inhibitor led to about a month recovery from serious food poisoning).

Lately I’ve been experimenting with what I drink. I don’t drink soda except on very rare occasions, and drink moderately and infrequently. But I do very much love coffee and tea, and though I wouldn’t say I have a caffeine addiction, I enjoy the taste and ritual, and don’t want to give it up. Peppermint tea is an absolute no-go, as is chamomile (allergies).

To my great distress, I have found that tea, particularly green tea, makes my GERD symptoms much worse than coffee ever does. I’ve done a lot of self-experimentation, and can state 100% that even a single cup of mild green tea will cause the funny tangled stomach feeling to start rising, whereas no matter how much coffee I drink the only symptom I get is over-caffeination.

Why is this? Does anyone else experience this? I’m totally puzzled by the phenomenon, because everything I’ve read has suggested that the GERD reaction to coffee will always be stronger than that to tea, particularly green tea.
Clearly the people answering me haven’t read my question fully. I’m asking why does tea aggravate GERD but coffee doesn’t, when everything I’ve read says it should be otherwise. I don’t need general information about GERD.

it seems to go away then it will come back again at night? I’ve been taking it as the doctor said.. once every day in morning…I’m not even convinced it’s GERD.. I get all the symptoms of it, but I get pain that goes to my armpit as well, or does it do that also?

I’ve had discomfort and all the symptoms of GERD, gastroesphogal reflux disease the past few weeks, I also slept with a woman 4 weeks ago, unprotected vaginal sex, only lasted 10 seconds, dont have any HIV symptoms but have had severe anxiety because of it the last few weeks, im waiting to test two weeks from now, all other std tests came back negative so im starting to think the woman wasn’t lying about the fact that she was clean, however, the only thing thats scaring me is the GERD, ive had tightness in my chest, heartburn, heart palpitations, acidic taste/feeling in the back of my throat, bloated after eating, I dont know if this is a hernia, im taking meds for it. Going to see the doctor on Wednesday, im scared, I dont want to let my family or friends down, I know my risk of HIV was low, but is GERD caused by onset of HIV, I haven’t found anything on it, probably leading to the fact that its not but I just want to be sure, and if so is it just caused by my stress or anxiety because I have had it so bad, thinking about and researching symptoms everyday of almost every hour for the past few weeks waiting to go get my 6 week test and hopefully get a negative so I can move on with my life, any answers will help, thanks so much!!!