GERD

No need to put up with it

There are some days you don't forget, no matter how long you live. For Shawn Richarz, 43, the first experience of digestive symptoms ranks as one of those indelible days. "It was shocking to me," says Richarz, a lawyer practicing in Cayuga, ON. Twenty years old at the time, Richarz remembers a "sharp burning pain rising from the middle of my chest area. It stopped me in my tracks."

But then he got used to it. "I didn't even bring it up with my family doctor — I had the typical male attitude and thought I just had to suck it up."

After five years, Richarz finally underwent a barium swallow radiograph and learned he had a hiatal hernia, a condition that is commonly linked to reflux. "I was told nothing could be done about it," he says. Richarz's symptoms kept worsening, intruding more and more on his daily life.

"A few times a month the pain was so bad it felt as though I'd just drunk acid," he recalls. Relentless concern about the impact of his next meal restricted his sense of social freedom. With exhaustion a constant companion, physical activity also went by the wayside. The disease even affected his nights, with pain or choking often intruding on his sleep.

One day, while surfing the Internet, Richarz chanced on an article describing symptoms that matched his own. He went to a clinic, where a specialist told him about gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

"I thought, bingo, this is me." An endoscopy clinched the diagnosis and also identified precancerous cells resulting from the chronic, refluxrelated damage to Richarz's esophagus. "That's when I realized my condition wasn't something to play around with," he says.

At his doctor's suggestion, Richarz enrolled in a six-week study comparing an undisclosed drug to a placebo in patients with GERD. "Everything changed," he says simply. "It reminded me of when I put glasses on for the first time as a kid." When Richarz learned he had been taking a proton pump inhibitor (PPI), he lost no time in getting and filling a prescription for the drug. Richarz says he is now virtually symptomfree and his esophagus healed.

With a recent triathlon under his belt, Richarz says he has regained his sense of control over his life. "I can relax during the day because I know I'll sleep well." Calling his treatment "life-changing," Richarz urges other people with reflux symptoms to advocate for their own health.

"There are treatments to take away the pain and discomfort," he says. "There's no need to put up with it."