Thanks for your post, Sarah. In my case the damage is not in the esophagus. What I have is a "Cameron lesion." It is an eroded area in that part of the upper stomach that herniates, or pops up above the diaphragm. Pressure, friction and acid cause this erosion/ulceration. Then it can bleed. Controlling acid with PPI drugs, like Prevacid, can heal the area that bleeds. I did that with good results. But I gradually cut back on the acid inhibiting medication because I knew that reducing stomach acid can have longterm negative consequences - like C. diff infection, osteopenia, nutritional deficits and pneumonia. (Nature put that acid in the stomach for lots of good reasons. When we suppress it, some bad things can happen over the long haul.) It seems I went too far in cutting back on the pantoprazole that was prescribed for me. I was trying to gradually replace it with Pepcid, which is safer in the longterm, though not as effective at reducing acid. So my little experiment failed.

Sometimes, the same surgery done for Barrett's esophagus - a "fundiplication" - is done for my condition also. (If drugs like pantoprazole done control the acid, or cause unacceptable problems.)