Hello, I have been suffering from Acid Reflux GERD for 3-4 years now but in the recent year it has become much more of an issue for me. I experience frequent chest pains / discomfort (sometimes lower near stomach, other times more in the upper part of my chest,sometimes on my left side under my armpit, and in my left shoulder), occasionally stomach discomfort, wet belching (acid taste in mouth and throat), and burning sensation. Everything seems to agitate it including drinking water. I'm on prescription Zantec 150 but it really is not effective, and the side affects from prescription Prevacid really bothered me.
Anyway I digress, today I experienced something rather odd that I feel is related to my GERD but I'm unsure. I ate a protein bar and took the dog for a 15 - 20 min walk. When I got back my throat was tingling, irritated, and itchy. I drank some water but it hurt to swallow and it hurt on the way down to my stomach. Thinking it was related to acid reflux I took 2 tums and downed another glass of water and started carrying stuff to car to leave for work. I developed a very intense pain in the middle to upper part of my back, the pain was radiating from just left of my spine. The pain got so intense I thought something was really wrong so I sat down and didn't move for 15-20 minutes. I still had the pain, but it was more intense when I moved. Eventually it let up to where I could move again without intense pain. However I started having deep feeling belches/burping and spit up some acid/food.
The pain was so bad I thought I was having a cardiac problem however the pain stayed localized and my vitals (Pulse and BP were normal), plus I just had a stress test & echocardiogram in February. Is is possible what I experienced was a result of GERD. I've read that bad cases of GERD can cause esophagus spasms which can be quite painful.
Has anyone else experienced a similar situation?
Can GERD be related to back pain like I described above?
How would I know if I'm having an esophagus spasms?