Possible Gerd??

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km585

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Hi everyone,
I am hoping that some of you can shed some light on things for me. Here is my situation. I started getting heartburn pretty bad when I was pregnant with my 3 year old son. As soon as I delivered it was reduced drastically to the point that I really only needed a tums once in a while. About a year after I had my son I started having these episodes in the middle of the night that would wake me out of a deep sleep. My first reaction was to take some tums because it sory of felt acid related, but it felt different than the traditional heartburn I was used to. I would get this "episode" maybe a couple times a week for a week or two then it would disappear for a couple of months and then return. I even had a period of about 4 months where it was not occuring. I tried to change my diet to not eat after 7pm thinking that it was late eating that was causing it. Long story short these feelings in my chest and back have returned and a month ago I had a bad attack which sent me to the doc because I couldn't take the pain. He suggested Reflux and put me on samples of Nexium them Protonix, which seemed to work but I don't know if that is because they helped or because it just wasnt occuring. I have since ran out of the meRAB and had another episode last night. I have to wait a month to get into a gi doc and I am going nuts not knowing if I am going to be able to sleep that night or not. I did go to the er a few months ago for chest pain and palps and after numerous blood tests and an EKG everything came out normal. So I am just waiting on going to the gi doc but does anyone know if this could be gallbladder related or reflux? It isn't all the time but when it does happen it is VERY uncomfortable!
 
Yes, this could be from reflux. The Nexium and Protonix might have seemed to work - well, because they really did work. ;) While you wait on the doctor, you might try taking an OTC H2 blocker at night. These work quite well at keeping the acid at bay and generally have worked great for me in the past. They're not strong enough to allow a damaged esophagus to heal, but if you're only having periodic reflux episodes, they might work just fine for you.

What are the "episodes" that are occurring in the middle of the night? Have you tried sleeping on an incline or elevating your upper body at night? I used to have episodes of waking up gasping for breath. It was quite scary. I would have them every night for awhile and then have weeks where I'd have none. I didn't know what it was but thought it might be from heavy sinus drainage (although now I think they were probably reflux related). I started sleeping on more pillows to elevate my upper body and - voila! - the episodes completely stopped. I have not had a single such episode in over a year (knock on wood). So my first piece of advice would be to try elevating your upper body at night (if you're not already) and see if that helps keep these episodes at bay. People will tell you that you have to raise the head of your bed, not use extra pillows, but I say just do whatever works for you. The extra pillows have worked fine for me. I do also sometimes sleep on a wedge pillow, but it gets on my nerves and I only use it maybe 50% of the time.

Good luck and keep us posted!
 
The episodes at night are hard to explain. They wake me up and feel like chest pain, burning and upper stomach pain all in one. It radiates to my back most of the time. It happens at night I would say 90% of the time. I took H2 blockers for a while but they didn't seem to help after a while. I had an ekg and bloodwork done so I know the pain is not heart related. I just am so tired of this crap. Seriously, it is starting to affect my life in a lot of ways and it is driving me nuts!
 
It does sound like you are suffering from GERD. It effects almost all of us at night. While we are lying flat to sleep, the stomach acid makes it's way into the esophagus causing the burning and pain. It just means that your stomach sphinter is open too much and not staying closed. You can also have bile GERD from a bad gall bladder or no gall bladder. It is very uncomfortable and it does hurt and sometimes I need to get out of bed to sleep in a recliner. Those meRAB were probably helping keep the acid down which of course makes you feel better. You will need to go back on them so you don't cause permanent damage to your esophagus. Good luck and I hope you feel better.
 
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