Reflux

Stomach upset, GERD, ulcer...

As we age, new and very interesting things begin to happen to our bodies, internally as well as externally. I have kvetched about my tummy becoming this paunchy thing, my tuchas deploying to my knees, and my hair having a mind of its own.

Now internally, I have decided to move to the next stage of life.

Several weeks ago, in the middle of the night, I would have of all things, heartburn. Well, I think it was heartburn. I had never had it before. Not even when I was pregnant. Couldn’t really figure out what it was. The closest I had ever come to having anything annoy me in my chest was bronchitis.

Which was more than an annoyance at the time, but that was the extent to anything going on in my upper torso.

Meanwhile, this new pain came and went. I was uncomfortable that night and tired the next day because of a lack of sleep, but didn’t really think much of it.

Then the next week I went to a farmers market and had a smoothie. You can't beat a fresh fruit and chia seed smoothie with almond milk.

But it just did not sit well with my stomach.

In fact, nothing I did resolved the issue.

Within days I could actually feel pain in my ribs.

Then during the heatwave, I was sitting outside fully decked out in sweatpants and sweatshirt, and still cold.

The hubby bundled me off to urgent care.

They thought I had a UTI. Never figured out how a UTI manifests itself in my stomach, but ok. They said I should take pepcid, or something like it, and they gave me a very strong antibiotic.

It had nothing to do with the smoothie, the doctor said. I thought I might had gotten e-coli or some such thing. (Or a parasite, I was googling parasites at the time the husband put on his “We go now to the urgent care” face.)

Then within less than 24 hours of taking the antibiotic the pain in my ribs went away. They were still sore for a bit, but I could touch them.

I also was taking a probiotic (you really should take that with a strong antibiotic). I remember being told as a young woman to take acidophilus with an antibiotic to prevent yeast infections.

The urgent care did call and said I didn’t have a UTI, and can stop taking the antibiotic. But I said it is making me feel better and the pain is now gone. The nurse said I could take it if I wanted.

No offense, to the nurse, because I know somewhere in the recesses of medical practice she had to give me permission to continue on the antibiotic, but I didn’t really need her ok. Being a fully grown adult with agency, I basically decided to take the antibiotic because I knew before they called I didn’t have a UTI. (I know how those feel and this was not it.)

The antibiotic relieved my pain and I felt better. Enough said

Then I decided that something had to be the cause of all of this, so I decided to look up acid reflux diets/Gerd/Ulcer. (Shit just doesn’t happen. There is cause and effect.)

Apparently, ulcers are treated with antibiotics. So that made sense if in fact I had an ulcer, that treating it with an antibiotic would make me feel better.

But I knew that wasn’t simply enough.

Now in reviewing the GERD diet, seems everything I liked to eat and drink can cause problems with your stomach.

So I did the grown up thing and eliminated the most egregious items from my repertoire.

Cheese, apparently dairy products really are not good for acid reflux/ulcer. (They used to say to eat dairy, but they found that it causes more acid in your stomach.)

Chocolate and wine had to go too. Coffee was also on the list.

Nothing fried.

Dr. Google said to eat oatmeal, bananas, whole grains, and even potatoes. No red meat (which I had already given up), but you can have lean chicken and fish, preferably salmon.

Basically eat healthy.

Well, I do not eat fried food, so that was not the culprit. But I did use butter, ate cheese, ate chocolate, drank a glass of wine nightly, and had coffee in the morning.

So I gave up everything, wine included, except for my morning coffee. Which has been paired down to one cup, well one latte sized cup. (Seriously, I can’t give up everything. I am at the moment living without CHOCOLATE.)

I did go out and buy nondairy yogurt and sauerkraut, something fermented, but you can’t have spice. So no kimchi. It was suggested to try to better balance that stomach microbiome.

And I feel better. In the last few days, I can actually say that my stomach no longer hurt when I ate anything. Well anything within the limits of a GERD diet.

Because my mistake tonight was to try to drink a little wine. In the form of a wine spritzer. Eventually you should be able to go back to eating and drinking the forbidden foods at least once in awhile when everything is healed up.

We had some Manischewitz left in the house so I poured some into a cup and then added an entire can of seltzer. My form of a spritzer.

Bringing back memories of when the husband and I were first married, and couldn’t afford an actual bottle of wine. We would go to the local deli/chinese restaurant (weird combination, but it worked), which was next to a liquor store and grab a bottle of what passed for Jewish wine at the time (way before the wonderful Israeli wine industry) and share our take out with our budget-friendly-but-happy spritzers.

(My parents used to laugh at the part in Fiddler on the Roof, when Teye in talking about his oldest daughter’s marriage to the poor tailor, he would say, “they are so happy, they don’t know how miserable they are.” My parents would always think of us.)

So at present, not the best idea, by the way, to have the spritzer. Apparently, I still have a way to go with the healing. Need to stop thinking that because it doesn’t hurt anymore, that things are completely back to normal.

Apparently, I wasn’t supposed to have seltzer either. It says that the bubbles can cause acid to be produced in your stomach.

Oh yeah, I had been binge drinking plain seltzer for months now, too.

So, lessoned learned.

Back to no wine or seltzer for a while longer.

Oh, and yes, it is true since I stopped drinking wine I have been sleeping better. Previously, I had to take Zquil to help me sleep. And when you do an investigation, it too says this OTC can cause acid reflux.

Apparently, I was a walking vat of acid.

Funny isn’t it. I can eat loaves of bread, have an entire chicken, eat bananas, berries, a a huge bowl of oatmeal and I feel fine. But a few sips of some homemade brew and I feel awful.

Is it psychological at this point? I don’t really think so. And if it is, I guess not drinking alcohol isn’t so bad an outgrowth of some kind of psychological issue. (Believe me when I say, I recognize my mental health issues and embrace them with abandon.)

I figure like this, if the pain comes back even with this diet, then I will go see my doctor. I have scheduled my annual for next month anyway. So we will see.

(And no I don’t think this is anything beyond maybe the beginnings of an ulcer if that. Antibiotic doesn’t take the pain away from something really serious. Yes, an ulcer can be serious if you don’t take care of it, but I am handling it. Believe, me when I tell you, I know serious. I have been down that road, too.)

So onward, with my new medical mishegas. I think the universe (maybe hashem- who knows) is trying to tell me to eat better and not to drink so much. It is afterall, better for my health just in general.