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I have an appointment with my GI next week, he just moved hospitals and I have no way of sending him a message so I can't easily ask him for advice.

I have chronic pouchitis and treat it with Stelara because I've used all the other biologicals previously with UC.  Stelara has been working really well for me for about 6 months.

I've had this cough that I haven't been able to get rid of for the past 2 years, I thought it was allergies to my dog who I got around the same time.  My cough was getting worse so I finally went to an allergist and I'm not allergic to anything when they did all the tests.

I filed enough claims this past year so I was assigned a nurse from my Insurance Company to check on me and help out with any health questions that I had.   She suggested that since my cough wasn't allergies that it could be acid-reflux.  I've had heartburn maybe 3 times in my life, how could it be?  So I tried Prilosec, Gaviscon, Tums.   They all make my pouch go crazy, lots of liquid output and discomfort but my cough gets better.  The best part is that I sleep so much better when I take antacids/PPIs, I've never been able to sleep well my entire life, even as an infant I couldn't sleep.

So I stopped taking PPIs yesterday and I slept like crap last night.  I took pepto for the pouchitis but I'm coughing today.  Pepto doesn't help with my acidreflux.  My pouch is working a little better today.

The craziest thing is that I've never had buttburn even after my take down but since I started taking PPIs/antacids I've had buttburn/itching almost all the time.

Any suggestions? 

--Keith 

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That insurance company nurse did you a solid. “Silent reflux” (aka “LPR”) is often missed. I have a friend who had an unnecessary tonsillectomy because her LPR wasn’t diagnosed properly.

There are lots of acid reduction meds, and you’ve tried only some of them. I take Zantac, and my pouch is perfectly happy with it. Perhaps yours would be, too - it’s completely different from a PPI. In addition to trying more meds, you should experiment with the dose, and find the lowest dose that controls your cough - for example, 75 mg (of Zantac) an hour before bedtime might be enough, or you might need it twice a day, or the 150 mg dose.

I know, I need to call the nurse and thank her.  

I'm most shocked about the butt burn, I thought that some people used acid reducers to reduce the butt burn but I think the acid reducers are causing mine because I've never had it before with my jpouch.

Looks like I'll be getting a 2 for 1; I'm due for a pochcope so I'll probably be getting an endoscopy too while I'm under sediation.  

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