Nikki Sommer, a nurse with Key West Surgical Group, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5 FM for Medical Matters this morning.
GERD can be difficult for those who suffer with it, but there is help.
Sommer said GERD is “Gastro-esophageal reflux disease. People call it acid reflux, heartburn.”
It’s basically when the stomach acid comes up into the throat and when it becomes frequent, it can cause severe symptoms and even injury.
Sommer said, “It can irritate when it comes up, the acid from your stomach comes up into your esophagus. It can really irritate your throat. It can make an increase in your salivation. It can cause some shortness of breath, and you can even have some trouble swallowing.”
What are some of the symptoms?
Sommer said, “You can have non burning chest pain, which sometimes people, they think they’re having a heart attack, they feel pain and pressure in their chest, and it radiates to their back, so they don’t realize a lot of times it might come after you eat a heavy meal. Sometimes people wake up with the feeling in their stomach, but they’ll have the chest pain. When I worked in urgent care, people would come in with chest pain, and a lot of times, I mean, you have to rule out that it’s not chest pain, but it was really GERD or acid reflux.”
How is it diagnosed?
Sommer said, “A lot of times it’s through a physical exam, and it’s really based on your symptoms, they’ll call it like heartburn, regurgitation, meaning where after you eat a meal, a little while later, you might feel like your stomach hurts, or you have that type of pain in your stomach, and then the food will regurgitate, it’ll come back up. That’s usually a sign that you have GERD.”
It can cause esophageal damage, too.
Sommer said, “Stomach acid up into your esophagus, can cause erosion of the esophagus, and it can cause damage. That really contributes to that chest pain feeling because your esophagus and your trachea, they kind of, they’re one in front of the other, so to speak, anatomy wise. So when the acid constantly goes up and inflames your esophagus, it causes that burning sensation.”
What are some diagnostic procedures used to determine it’s GERD?
Sommer said, “The upper endoscopy, it’s where the doctor takes a camera and looks down your esophagus into your stomach and the first part of the small intestine. This is the best way to see if there’s any injury to the esophagus from chronic reflux. Diagnosing esophagitis, again, that’s inflammation of the esophagus and another condition called Barrrett’s esophagus. It can also help diagnose if you have a stricture, sometimes people have a narrowing of their esophagus, and during the endoscopy, they can dilate it. People will have trouble swallowing, or feel like food is getting caught in their throat, and that could be from chronic inflammation of the esophagus, so they actually dilate it a little bit so the food can pass easier.”
There’s other testing as well.
Sommer said, “Say you have an endoscopy, and you do medical management to try and control your symptoms and they are worsening, there’s additional testing. You can do wireless pH testing allows your doctor to evaluate the activity of your reflux over a 48 hour period, and it doesn’t affect the way you do your normal activities. So there’s two different ways to do it. The wireless pH testing is again through an endoscopy, and they place a small chip in your lower esophagus, and it records the acid level in your esophagus for 48 hours. Then it transmits it to a wireless recording device that you usually wear on your belt. Then the data is, then recorded and sent to your provider, and it gives them information of how much acid you’re producing, and what the acid level is in your esophagus.”
There is also a 24 hour impedance test as well.
Sommer said, “The procedure monitors the pH level for a prolonged period of 24 hours, the doctor places the thin, flexible catheter with an acid sensitive tip. It goes through your nose into your esophagus, and then a catheter is placed separate to evaluate the flow of liquid from your stomach back into your esophagus.”
There’s also an esophageal manometry.
Sommer said, “That actually tests the motility in your esophagus. So like how the food travels down. If you have a defect in the way that the motility is in your esophagus, this can test for that. This doesn’t diagnose GERD, but it actually can rule out other conditions that mimic GERD.”
There’s also a barium esophagram.
Sommer said, “This is kind of, you’ve got to drink that chalky stuff, and then they do an x ray, and the barium coats your esophagus and GI tract. Then they can detect abnormalities. After you drink it an x-ray is taken, and then that can help actually look for that narrowing the esophagus that’s causing the stricture that we talked about.”
What are the complications of GERD?
Sommer said, “Complications that go on with untreated GERD, or esophagitis, which we talked about, that’s inflammation in your esophagus, which causes that burning in your chest, the esophageal stricture, that’s where it’s been narrowing and we need to go in and dilate it and Barrett’s esophagus, which is the condition we’re going to talk about next week.”
Not only can Key West Surgical Group help make you feel better inside, but they can help on the outside, too.
Sommer said, “The PicoSure laser is good for sun damage and fine lines and wrinkles, pigmentation, acne, acne scarring and we have the Elite IQ, which is good for laser hair removal, those pesky spider veins. We could even target some sunspot damage with that. It’s really great for laser hair removal. The results I’m seeing are pretty impressive.”
Tattoo removal can also be done.
Sommer said, “We have an awesome chiller. So during the procedure, to limit the discomfort during the procedure, we can give you a chiller. It’s really cold. It’s also really good when the room gets hot to cool the area off.”
The results are amazing.
Sommer said, “We’ve been doing tattoo removal for just a little bit over a year, and it takes about a year. You got to give it time. To have it removed it’s several sessions. It’s not just one and done, but give it time. It can be a year to a two year process, depending on the size of the tattoo and the ink. But right now, I have a couple of people that I have been doing for just about a year, just a little bit under, and their tattoos are almost all completely gone.”
For a free consultation call 305-294-1041.
Sommer said, “They can look on social media or on Facebook and Instagram. There is a special going on right now, if you see the advertisement for the special with $100 off any esthetic treatment, your first esthetic treatment, if you click on that, you can fill out a form, and it will send it to me, and I can give you a call.”
For more information, click here: https://www.keywestsurgicalgroup.com/