Tell me about acid reflux disease.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I just left my husband a message at work and said “I’m Ashlee Simpson!”. (he’ll get the joke).

I’ve been feeling really, extremely nauseous for the past two days. I’ve had heartburn about three times in the past week. After a negative pregnancy test last night, I went to the doctor this afternoon. Apparently, he’s pretty sure I had acid reflux.

He gave me a few guidelines for it, but I can’t find a ton on the internet other than the same thing repeated over and over again - looks like they all got it from the same source.

If you have it, how do you handle it on an every day basis? Any foods that aggravate it or that I should avoid? Anything that’ll get rid of the nausea quickly?

I know in the grand scheme of things, it’s nothing more than a nuisance, but I really HATE being nauseous and would prefer to be preventative as opposed to treating it when it hits.

E.

2

I had a temporary bout with it a few months ago. The things that seemed to aggravate it most were coffee, chocolate and tomato sauce in quantity (e.g., pizza was ok, but not spaghetti.) Alcohol is supposed to be especially bad because it relaxes the valve that is letting the acid through.

The best things I found, aside from Prilosec, were wearing clothing that wasn’t too tight around the waist, not eating late at night and avoiding the trigger foods. I found I could get away with one cup of coffee. Dark chocolate was out, though.

Ginger and chamomile tea are good for the nausea.

3

My experience with what was determined to probably be acid reflux was that it felt very much like what a heart attack is supposed to feel like. Severe chest pain, cold sweats. I almost passed out.

About 30 minutes from when it first started, I was fine again, except for being scared out of my wits.

That’s the last time I eat three Spicy Crispy Chicken sandwiches at 2 am.

4

By now your research has told you just how prevalent this condition is.

My wife and I have different doctors and each has prescribed protonix. It works.

For a rather extended period, my wife was eating tums like bon bons. Doesn’t touch them anymore.

But we still have to watch what we eat before bedtime. If I screw up, though, the doctor said it’s ok to take a tums.

5

And we eat whatever we please.

6

I was misdiagnosed with acid reflux–turns out it was my gall bladder. I tell you that just in case the treatment for the acid reflux doesn’t work. If it doesn’t, ask your MD about your gall bladder.

7

My husband has it. He takes Prevacid. FYI, he hasn’t had any problems singing so far. Not enough to lip-sync, anyway. :wink:

8

I’m also on Prevacid, and never been happier. I haven’t even taken a Rolaid in two years, regardless of what or when I eat.

Don’t mess around with acid reflux, btw. I believe there is a weak link between it and esophogeal cancer.

9

Yikes. Okay.

Thanks for the tips, everyone. I talked to my mom last night and apparently, acid reflux does run in the family. She has it, my sister has it, several cousins have it - so I’m just the next lucky one.

I’m incredibly bummed because it says I should stay away from tomatoes. I LOVE tomatoes. I eat them every day practically. That’s going to be rough.

I’m trying not to eat at least 2-3 hours before I go to bed. I’ve gotten in the habit of eating late recently - I don’t usually get around to fixing dinner for mr. e. and me until 7:30 or so. And when I’m in bed by 10, it figures this would flare up now.

Thanks for all of the advice. This is going to be fun :rolleyes: .

E.

10

And I forgot to mention, my doctor wants me to try Zantac 75 for two weeks and see how that works. If it doesn’t, he’ll try me on something prescription. Anyone taken Zantac?

What the hell? I turn 30, and I start falling apart?

E.

11

A couple of years ago I had what was insisted on being acid reflux. I ended up with ulcers in my esphogus, not a fun thing. So I was on one of those meds for almost a year. I was still getting bad heart burn. It turns out that I can not eat onions at all, period. I also can’t have garlic. This basically prevents me from having anything premade since almost everything has onions and garlic in it.

I finally gave up taking the meds because they were not working. After I stopped eatting onions and garlic everything pretty much went away. I still have to watch what I eat, even chips have onion powder in them. I haven’t had any problems since then, with an occasional flair up, and usually I can find out that what I ate had something I shouldn’t have anyway. I’d suggest that you start slowly taking things out of your diet and see what causes it. It might be hard, almost impossible in my case. Throwing meds at it is bad, especially when you can probably find what it causing it in the first place.

12

I too had a really bad bout a few years ago and mistook it for a coronary. Because my father had had a quadruple bypass after years of being assured there was nothing wrong with his heart, I was straight off to hospital. When they discovered no cardiac problems the cardiologist suggested probable reflux and started me on some drug that did little. For the next week I had a permanent gnawing pain behind my sternum. My GP put me on a different drug that cleared it up in days. I took it for about 6 weeks and then he suggested I go without it and see how I went. The pain didn’t come back.

Subsequently a friend was telling me about her daughter’s reflux which apparently causes breathing problems (which is quite common for some reason). She casually said that a small sip of lemonade would often fix it instantly and she always carried a bottle for that purpose. I don’t know how but on the rare occasion that I get a bit of heartburn it works fine. If it returns I resort to Gaviscon.