Living with GERD/GORD

If you are someone who suffers from excessive reflux and indigestion problems and just have no idea where to turn next this may be your best option. Although i am no doctor, i have no PHD is such things, i feel it is far better to get advice off those who have experienced what you go through on a daily basis than to get your symptoms brushed under the metaphorical carpet by many so called professionals.

After i took a trip for my anniversary to Scotland. My gum had become inflamed and i needed to take antibiotics in order to help the immense pain and swelling that went from my mouth up into my forehand and into my jaw and throat. Sadly from being misinformed by someone who we all are meant to trust with our health. I was prescribed a type of antibiotic that is in fact banned in the UK. After writing out my previous health history i was shocked to of been given something that causes severe stomach upsets. Little was i to know that this would lead to what i have now.

One day i woke up to feeling this intense nausea along with immense pains in my stomach and this lasted for days, into weeks that lead to months. I honestly thought nothing of it at first and put it down to hormonal changes which i often get, IBS that i have had for a number of years and so much more. I was never a well person or child. However i had noticed that the pain and the symptoms often changed.

Suddenly i started to be unable to eat simplistic foods such as egg, chicken, onion and garlic, milk, bread. I went for allergen tests with multiple professionals and ended up always with different results. Afraid that i was being made a fool out of, paying good money and placing my faith in wrong people. I went for the route of lifelong diets, health kicks and herbal medications but this came years after trial and errors with foods and using my body as a guinea pig making myself more unwell for weeks on end. Finally i was starting to actually get somewhere.

For a number of months i was feeling more positive, i did get less bouts of nausea and pain, until another condition came along that we seem to now feel is linked somehow as it is not even in the same area as where GERD/GORD exists. A polyp had formed in the neck of my womb causing excessive bleeds that lasted for 200 days straight and this needed immediate attention. Thankfully my GP finally listened to me after weeks of pain and haemorrhage bleeds whereby i would wake up in the middle of night screaming in pain. Now i was actually going to be referred finally! After this i was weak, i was anaemic and was fainting every day.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago after i had minor surgery for this condition, low and behold guess what came back with force? You guessed it! GORD/GERD. I had been through four painful years of it before with use of medications such as Gaviscon and Omprezole when it started to become more manageable. I still would not sleep properly sometimes for days, wake up feeling like i was choking on my own air, sometimes get pain so strong in my upper stomach, chest, throat, jaw that i could not talk or sleep or eat. Sometimes i would have no choice but to lay in hot baths for hours, have heat packs and hot water bottles on me all day long and at one point i was up to taking 20 Gaviscon a day. My only complaint was for those around me, having to witness it day in day out, that i had became the biggest burden. My husband up at night with me due to me having panic attacks when he has to be in work at 9am next day. My mother having to deal with the fall out of me eating something i did not know disagreed with this condition. You grow to accept that is what your life will forever be like after it turning into a chronic illness.

I had judged like we all do with other people who live with illnesses that you cannot see. I never understood how anyone could admit to wanting to commit suicide or have those thoughts. Yet a couple years back before my life changing surgery. I was there myself, and i thought back on all the times i had accused someone of being thoughtless for not thinking of those they loved. In reality when suicidal that is all you ever do.

As a model, photographer, makeup artist the deal is you must always look and feel your best and be on your top game at all times. How is that even remotely possible when at this time I was 20% well and 80% unable to do anything. Makes you feel like a failure, that you are allowing your body to rule you and that others can sense it or feel it with you and that just makes the matter worse as then you feel this guilt for bringing it into their lives.

The minds way of thinking is not our friend at the best of times. Add life shattering conditions into that and suddenly you have a ticking time bomb. I now live with phobias and fears of things i never thought even existed, from calling someone you love or respect through to things like the fear of going to bed or to sleep and waking up in the mornings (because that was when i was most likely to feel the best which would then only be met by disappointment soon as i sat up or got out of bed.)

Even after my life changing surgery whereby i found out i had no valve at the bottom of my oesophagus and i had a hiatus hernia and a mild form of gastritis linked to the acids constantly inflaming the stomach. I still to this day suffer from this very upsetting condition, it may not be as hard, but at times it still comes back to kick me down and remind me that life is short.

Simple things you all take for granted, well you shouldn't anymore. I am now forever grateful for every moment where i feel well and do not feel that burning sensation in the stomach and throat. If you think it will never happen to you, think again!

If you suffer from these following symptoms, please do not give up on getting the treatment and help you deserve. Keep going to your GP and request to see a specialist for Gastro related conditions. Do not take no for an answer and tell them that you are out of work due to the suffering, tell them you no longer live a normal life, you cannot work, eat or sleep so they understand the importance of needing to be taken seriously. Take the pills they prescribe to you and inform them they are not working for you. Only then when they have tried all forms of usual advice will they then refer you.

Symptoms:

Burning in chest, upper stomach and throat causing a sick feeling.

Intense nausea or actually being sick

Foul taste in the mouth, bad breath that smells or taste like stomach acids.

Coldness or numb feeling in upper stomach and chest as an aftermath of the other symptoms.

Loss of apatite, extreme weight loss

Pain that is like a burning in chest that travels up into the jaw and throat into the temples of your forehead.

Unable to breathe properly or get enough air into the lungs when you lay down.

Diets that you must go on are fodmap and anything that reduces sugar, fats and acids. You must quit smoking at all costs, never lay down after meals, go on regular walks an hour after meals just for ten to fifteen minutes and keep your body within a routine for eating, sleeping and working. Do easy excersise, nothing strenuous, nothing that involves stomach muscles, focus more on upper and lower body, yoga is best form to keep you active. Drink warm water often, herbal teas with no caffeine and keep yourself upright at night when you sleep. Sleeping on your left side helps the acids to not rise into the throat and mouth.

Most Common Allergies for Sufferers of this Condition:

Gluten, Wheat, Dairy, Lactose, Fructose, Egg, Red Meats, Chicken, Soya, Onion and Garlic, Citric Acids and Vegetables that cause gas in the stomach such as Sprouts, Broccoli and Spinach.

I advise getting a professional allergen test done that will pin point your bodies intolerances.

To any one suffering from the same symptoms, good luck to all of you and i wish you all the best for your futures.