Acid Reflux Disease Diet
I have a question about GERD and referred pain.I have struggled with
GERD for about three years now. I am dealing with a major flare-up
right now, started a few weeks back, I had had no symptoms for months,
even after going off nexium. Then I began to get chest pains while
exercising. Doctor sent me for cardio tests to rule out heart
problems. My heart checked out perfectly fine... so we're pretty sure
it's just the GERD rearing its ugly head again. I started taking OTC
Tagemet twice daily and that helped.
Then this weekend I woke up with amazing pain under my right shoulder
blade, radiating on the right side of my back and around my rib cage.
Literally took my breath away - every time I would inhale, it hurt
terribly. Similar to pleurisy (which I had when I was a teen after a
bronchial infection), except I had no fever.
I'm usually pretty good with pain tolerance, but this pain had me in
tears. Debated about going to the ER but a little googling and it
seems such pain can be related to GERD. So I took more Tagemet, and it
felt a little better, although the pain was still there. The next day
I woke up and it was 100x's worse - I could barely move or breath
without pain. So I called the drugstore and asked for a refill of the
nexium. (I really loathe to take the nexium because it makes me gain
weight).
One nexium and within an hour the pain disappeared completely, and
hasn't returned. I have a doctor's appointment to get a referral to
the GI doc again. But here's my question:
I am also having weird pain that is similar to Piriformis Syndrome,
something I've had to deal with in the past. If you have experience
with PF, you know it is a localized pain in the buttocks. This is
radiating down the back of my leg to my foot, where I now have a
tender spot which seems to be related - if I rub the foot, I feel it
in my butt, and vice versa. But, due to the other pain I was having in
my back, I have not run in several days, so I am beginning to wonder
if it is actually PF afterall. I am wondering if *somehow* this could
be referred GERD pain?
Anyone have this experience?
A few weeks ago I had a complete battery of blood tests, everything
checked out normal except the ANA was positive, 1:80 speckled. Doctor
has suspected I suffer from arthritis for awhile, but always my tests
come back fine, until this test... he has never thought to send me to
a rheumatoligist, however, and previous x-rays have never shown any
sort of joint degeneration. I also have a long history of psorasis.
Have also been having some joint pain in my hands recently, but doing
yoga stretches seems to alleviate that so I suspect it's not
arthritis, it was probably just a pinched nerve in my neck. But who
knows. Maybe it's all related somehow.
At the same time they did a cardio stress test, EKG, and ECG and I
passed all with flying colors.
They also ran a chest x-ray and that was normal.
Over a year ago - during my last bout with GERD - I was seeing a GI
doc on a regular basis. Ultrasound tests of liver, gallbladder, etc
all checked out perfectly normal. (My GP was betting on my
gallbladder, since I'm fair and 40 and have a family history of
gallbladder issues... but it's fine).
GI doc never thought it was important enough to do any further testing
- no endoscope, no nothing. She just monitored me, the nexium seemed
to be working like a charm, and gave me advice on lifestyle changes,
specifically, changing my diet and dropping weight. I have always had
a very good diet, maintained my weight for 15 years no problem.... but
the nexium made me gain 25 lbs in only two months!! So by the time I
had my first appointment with her, I appeared to be overweight, so of
course she figured that was my "problem." GRRR.
GI doctor was skeptical that nexium was the cause of the weight gain,
and just kept insisting I must be overeating, which I wasn't. I
finally weaned myself off the nexium (that was a horrible experience -
lots of rebound issues). Started exercising regularly, quit smoking,
dropped all the weight, reduced alcohol, and completely eliminated
dairy (which maybe did nothing for the heartburn but it did help with
bloating). It did seem that once I passed back into "normal" BMI the
heatburn became a thing of the past. I am at a good weight now (my
usual weight) - and fitter than ever - but the darn heartburn is
baaaaaackkkkk with a vengeance. These symptoms are so much worse than
what I experienced before. More scary and way more debilitating.
also neglected to mention that this weekend when I had the back pain
I had no reflux episode (i.e., I did not wake up in the middle of the
night choking on acid, like I usually do) but I did have a sore
throat... felt like the kind of sore throat you get when you have
postnasal drip.