Alexandra*

Hi my name is Alexandra,
I had Gastric Bypass Surgery on 11/18/2018 due to GIRDS which caused Barrett's Esophagus. I started this road back in 2017 after many years of having food becoming stuck in my damaged swollen esophagus. It would just stop moving down and with each bite would back up further and further up my throat until I was in so much pain and had to stop eating and wait for 20 - 30 minutes until the food at the bottom would finally slide into my stomach. The pain as that food sat there stretching my already swollen damaged and inflamed esophagus was intense. The GIRDS that had gone on undetected for years had caused my esophagus lining to wallpaper itself with intestinal cells as to protect itself from the stomach acid, this is called Barrett's Esophagus. They told me that if it continued to do so I would end up with cancer. So I went ahead and had the surgery, and at that time I weighed 222 and at 5'7" which was right on the borderline of being able to qualify for surgery under my health insurance guidelines. Today I struggle to keep my weight at 127 and belch constantly after eating, for 15 to 20 minutes, and I mean constantly like every 4 to 5 seconds. Food still gets stuck in my esophagus on occasion but it is usually due to eating too fast and not chewing my bites enough. Sugar is another thing that causes me a great deal of pain with the dreaded "dumping syndrome" and I constantly have diarrhea everyday but I have had that for over 10 years. That started with a bad case of giardia that sent me to the ER and even though I have been tested for giardia many times since then the diarrhea is a constant in my life and makes it very difficult to go to work. But I'm happy to be able to tell you that my esophagus has returned to normal cells that make up the lining so no more threat of cancer at this point. Three weeks after my Roux-en-Y surgery my gallbladder was functioning at 10% so back to surgery I went and with one surgery after another so close together the road to recovery was long. But that is my long story to answer your question about GIRDS