Well this is a topic that I have had lots of experience with! :yuck:
I (and most of my family) have years worth of problems with GERD. My sister had surgery to tighten the opening of the esophagus to help control the reflux, which in turn created other problems.
I have been on Protonix for years myself. The Enterologist had given me several things to do to help decrease symptoms. I have done them all! Lost weight, changed my diet, sleep with your head elevated, yadda yadda yadda. Nothing has eliminated it. I had some testing done with a Nasogastric tube for 24 hours at home to document what was going on. As it turns out, my Esophageal spasms are so severe that the surgery to stop the reflux will not even work.
Like others have said, you need a good gastroenterologist.
GB did a very good job summarizing the dangers of ignoring or self medicating for an on going problem! Please heed his warning. It can be very serious if left unchecked!
Ok, to make matters worse. The preliminary studies out on all these meds that are in use to control GERD are showing a 40% increase in Dementia. Now this is just a "preliminary " study. But still a scary bit of information. These meds are not designed to be taken long term, yet this is a long term illness for many people.

i.e. Prevacid, Zantac, Protonix, Nexium.