Reflection of the Patient During Practicum Experience: Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

During my week 9 at the health facility, a 12-year-old African American boy came to the office showing some signs of illness. Also, he was 4ft 10 inches BMI 31.4, hence being classified as an obese, we weighed 150lb, 110/60 pulse and resp 18. He liked eating spicy foods, according to the assessment, he was found positive with Acid reflux also referred to as GERD. He further stated that he has heartburns, as well as nausea, and he belches a lot.

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The Experience While Assessing and Managing the Patient and His Family, Including Details on My Aha Moment in Identifying the Patients Disorder.

Diagnosis

A 24-hours Ambulatory acid (pH) probe test was conducted to determine the how often the heartburn occurs and the amount of the acid produced in the esophagus. After the examination, I was able to know the time and the duration when the stomach acid comes up into your esophagus (Burns et al., 2013).

Result

The results indicated that the boys pH level over the past 24-hours was less than 4.0. According to Katz, Gerson, and Vela, (2013). The normal pH in the human stomach varies from approximately 1 t0 4, but mostly near to 2.0. However, the pH changes, to 4-5 when there is food in the stomach (El-Serag, et al., 2013)

Family Factors and Inheritance

The patient might have inherited Acid reflux from either of his parents. Saad, Choudhary, and Bechtold (2012), proven that parents, especially who are obsessed are capable of genetically transferring Acid reflux to their off -springs. In this case, the boy under examination is obsessed; therefore, there is possibility that he may have inherited this condition from the parents.

Aha moments.

During this time, I realized that the prescribed drug to cure the boy's condition was Zantac. Zantac is the kind of medicine that falls under the drugs referred to as histamine-2 blockers (Anvari et al., 2011). Zantac also is a remedy for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and other conditions that acid falls back from the stomach to the esophagus leading to heartburn (Patrick, 2011). It reduces the acid amount produced in the stomach. On the other hand, Zantac is used to prevent and to treat the ulcer in the intestine and stomach. Furthermore, it also acts as a treatment in the situation whereby the stomach excretes excess amount of acids like Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (Carter et al., 2011).

The Connection Between the Experience with Classroom Studies and The Real-World Clinical Setting.

My practicum, clinical experience is equally the same to what I learned in the class regarding gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). During my practice, I saw the symptoms of the diseases, which were related to my class notes. Furthermore, I proved that the condition is genetically inheritable and can be treated by taking Zantac, as the medication to reduce the acidity in the stomach (Chiu, et al., 2011).

In the real-world clinical experience, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2003), the report suggests that gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) has become much prevalent in the world. About sixty percent of the adult population would possibly experience some types of this health condition within a 12-month period, while around twenty to thirty percent will experience the symptoms on a weekly basis. In the US, nearly seven million people have GERD symptoms (Burns et al., 2013).

Management of Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) involves a stepwise approach. The aim is to control the symptom, to inhibit the occurrence of esophagitis as well as healing it together with other related complications. The steps will involve, (1) modification of the lifestyle and diet e.g. do not overeat, eat slowly, among others. (2) Avoid caffeine and chocolates which are heartburn triggers (Blackmer & Farrington, 2010).

References

Anvari, M., Allen, C., Marshall, J., Armstrong, D., Goeree, R., Ungar, W., & Goldsmith, C. (2011). A randomized controlled trial of laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication versus proton pump inhibitors for the treatment of patients with chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD): 3-year outcomes. Surgical Endoscopy, 25(8), 2547-2554.

Blackmer, A. B., & Farrington, E. A. (2010). Constipation in the pediatric patient: An overview and pharmacologic considerations. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 24(6), 385399.

Burns, C. E., Dunn, A. M., Brady, M. A., Starr, N. B., & Blosser, C. G. (2013). Pediatric primary care (5th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier

Carter, P. R., LeBlanc, K. A., Hausmann, M. G., Kleinpeter, K. P., & Jones, S. M. (2011). Association between gastroesophageal reflux disease and laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. Surgery for obesity and related diseases, 7(5), 569-572.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2003). Managing acute gastroenteritis among children: Oral rehydration, maintenance, and nutritional therapy. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 52(RR-16), 120. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/RR/RR5216.pdf

Chiu, S., Birch, D. W., Shi, X., Sharma, A. M., & Karmali, S. (2011). Effect of sleeve gastrectomy on gastroesophageal reflux disease: a systematic review. Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, 7(4), 510-515.

El-Serag, H. B., Sweet, S., Winchester, C. C., & Dent, J. (2013). Update on the epidemiology of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease: a systematic review. Gut, gutjnl-2012.

Katz, P. O., Gerson, L. B., & Vela, M. F. (2013). Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of gastroesophageal reflux disease. The American journal of gastroenterology, 108(3), 308.

Patrick, L. (2011). Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD): a review of conventional and alternative treatments. Alternative Medicine Review, 16(2), 116-134.

Saad, A. M., Choudhary, A., & Bechtold, M. L. (2012). Effect of Helicobacter pylori treatment on gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD): the meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Scandinavian journal of gastroenterology, 47(2), 129-135.