Burning Pain When Eating, Why?

Hi all! I’ve been having an odd issue for the past eight months or so. After a few weeks of heartburn, it was suggested to me by a doctor to take omeprazole. They weren’t prescribing it, just chatting casually about heartburn and they said they used it. I had no idea about rebound effects. This was ten years ago. I had moments of trying to get off of it or of forgetting to take them, and the heartburn was so intense I caved and went back on them. This past summer I finally stopped. Probably too cold turkey, but I had lost a lot of weight quickly after giving birth and the rebound effects weren’t terrible.

Since then though, I get a lower level but acute heartburn feeling in weird situations, like when I eat heavy carbs/sugar, or I forget to eat. I also get a really painful burning sensation in my esophagus when I eat my first few bites of a meal (usually bites that are too big), and I almost feel like food is stuck. Could I have damaged my esophagus from the omeprazole-use? I was on it for so long and definitely had a fair number of days where the acid reflux was intense, but I wouldn’t think it was enough to cause this kind of damage. Is there anything I can do, other than eat more frequently, take small bites,and not start my day with carbs?