Tag: Acid Reflux

Chronic Illnesses, one comes up, another is put on hold….

On By WendyIn Chronic Illness16 Comments

I know, I haven’t posted in a while.  I feel like all I do is the same old thing, talk about me, and how I’m falling apart….or how I’m dealing with my life and not falling apart. Hopefully the later more than the former.

Well, here I am again, writing about things going on in my life….I was writing a friend a letter and thought, I really should put this in a post.  This is part of the reason I started a blog.  It isn’t just for other people, it is for me.  To get things out, and to keep up with things.  Sorry folks, I hope you don’t mind sometimes just coming along for the ride.
image courtesy of pixgood.com
image courtesy of pixgood.com
Of course one of the main reasons I started this blog  is to let people know they aren’t alone on this Chronic Illness journey.  If you are anything like me, if you have one Chronic Illness, you have more….and things are always coming up…..so this is what’s going on right now……I’m a little overwhelmed…again.  I’m trying hard to take it one moment at a time, then some times I’ll sit down and think about everything that is going on and just feel drained.  Whew!  Am I really stressed and just don’t know it?
I seem to always have something new come up and have to deal with it, then I have to put something else on hold.  You will understand as I continue.  I’m going to try to make this as short as possible.
I’ve had some bladder/urinary tract troubles.  I’ve been to a few doctors for this, they run a urine test and it comes back clear, my blood work comes back clear.  But I’m in severe pain.  They will call it, bladder spasms, irritable bladder, non-infection cystitis….but they all say, they think I have Interstitial cystitis.  I need to go to a urologist to be properly diagnosed and to get better medications to help with it, but there is no cure, and some people don’t react to the treatments.  I’m lucky I don’t have severe flare-ups very often.  However, I do have little flare-ups often.  This has been a VERY SEVERE flare.  I went to the doctor on Monday, February 2nd.  Of course, everything was clear, but I felt I needed to go to make sure I didn’t have an infection.  She did give me an anti-spasmotic and they helped get me through the rest of the flare.
This sweet doctor was scratching her head with me, she said, “You have a lot going on for such a young lady.”  She kept saying, she couldn’t help but wonder if there wasn’t one thing that caused many of my issues.  Some umbrella condition.  You know I’ve never had a doctor say that to me before.  I’ve had Stuart say it, and friends say it, people on my blog say it, but doctors, not so much.  I couple of doctors have thought my migraines and Meniere’s may have a commonality but then they kind of ruled that out…maybe….kind of.  I think I might just talk to her again.  (she works with my new PCP)

On the way home from this doctor’s appointment I had a vertigo attack start.  Got home and it was BAD.  I’ll leave it at that.  You all know how what a BAD vertigo attack is like.  I didn’t keep up with how long it lasted.  I know my appointment was at 12:30pm and she was on time, and I was finally able to fall asleep WAY after dark.  I woke up sick again and it was about 11pm.  I was so nauseous for 2 days.  I’m not normally like that.  Usually after an attack the nausea leaves me after a few hours.  The anti-nausea meds work pretty well.  This time, I was really sick for days.  Ick.

On that Monday I was supposed to have my intake evaluation to start my physical therapy for my hip.  This had to be rescheduled.  They didn’t have anyone who could do this for TWO weeks.  1st thing that was put off because of something else going on with me.

The next day I had an appointment with a new neurologist at the Headache Clinic.  I had to reschedule because I was simply too exhausted to even move my head, and too nauseous.  I was afraid if I pushed it I would have vertigo again.  Now my appointment is in March. *sigh*  2st thing that was put off because of something else going on with me.

I went to see a new Pulmonologist on January 30th.  My breathing test came out good.  I do not have COPD.  That’s good to know.  So why am I coughing up phlegm every day?  EVERY DAY since October of 2012?  Yes my breathing is better, but this coughing up stuff is gross.  I get awful looks.  People seem to think I have some horrible disease.  I’m on 3 medications for Asthma that I take every day, and I have an inhaler, that I use often, and nebulizer.  And my new doctor said, “I don’t know if you have Asthma.”  What?  He said he needs to see my old records.  He also said that you can be clinically diagnosed as having asthma but they actually have to do a test to really diagnose you, and they often don’t do this test.  A lot of people don’t want to do this test, they’d rather just be treated for the symptoms.  Usually the symptoms present themselves so clearly that they are sure enough that they clinically diagnose it.  That is what the doctors did with me.  However, I was not presenting with the symptoms when he saw me.  So he needs to see my records.
There is a possibility that my acid reflux may have something to do with this cough.  So I need to have a barium swallow on Friday, February 6th .  Oh wait….I was still too wiped out from the vertigo attack and in too much pain from the flare-up to be able to do this, so I had to reschedule to February 20th.  3rd thing that had to be put off because of something else that is going on with me.
I did finally get an appointment set up for the CT scan for my hip.  It is set up for this Friday, February 13th.  I will know soon if my hip does in fact have avascular necrosis.  If it doesn’t I do hope this CT scan shows what the problem is, with all the pain I am in, I will be very disheartened if the doctor tells me he can’t find anything.   (not that I’m looking forward to, or wanting, a hip replacement)
Trying hard not to think about what may be, just living in the now, and waiting for what will come.  After all, none of my worrying about it will change anything.

Want to hear something really funny.  After all of the things I’ve been through.  All the crazy tests, all the things I’ve been told to give up….different foods and such (for example, I eat mostly whole foods, no refined sugar or gluten. I only drink water.  I can’t eat onions, garlic, apples, pears….all kinds of foods…it’s challenging sometimes.  But I have to use these food restriction of I get sick.)   I have been told in the past to restrict my intake of chocolate because of migraines.  Well, I found I could still have a square of dark chocolate now and then and it didn’t bother me.  I just didn’t over do it and I was fine.  Really, I could eat more and I didn’t have problems with my head, my tummy or bladder might not like it because of the caffeine, but my head was OK.  But if I limited it to my little square I was good, all the way around.  And I was a happy girl.  I could still have chocolate.

Dark Chocolate image from medicalnewstoday.com
Dark Chocolate
image from medicalnewstoday.com
Then it happened.  I had my square and immediately I got the worst migraine.  Oh no!  and my bladder started to scream!  What?  No!!!!
I waited a week.  I tried it again.  It happened again!  NOOOOOO!  Not chocolate!!!!
I literally cried!
I’ve given up so much.
my beloved apples.
dried fruit.
asparagus
onions and garlic
NOT CHOCOLATE!!!!
The moral of the story is….you can take away everything else from this woman, but chocolate is her breaking point!

 

A little update

On By WendyIn Chronic Illness8 Comments

I must apologize for being away so long  I feel like I’ve just been saying the same thing for so long.  I don’t feel good….blah, blah, blah.

Remember in my last post I mentioned having a sore throat?  Well I got Thrush, a yeast infection in your mouth and throat.  Thrush is often caused by a lowered immune system, and one often gets it when you have been on antibiotics and/or steroids a lot.  You may also remember that I mentioned…at least I believe I said it on here, that I wasn’t happy by how often I had been on both antibiotics and steroids since I’ve been in Tucson.  So…Thrush.  Not fun.  First it hurt a lot, was very raw and even looked like it was bleeding, then it turned white.  I had white spots all over my mouth, tongue and the back of my throat.  I decided to treat it more naturally instead of more medication.  I’m taking acidophiles, eating yogurt, and gargling with diluted hydrogen peroxide.  (this was the recommendation on the Mayo Clinic site).  It gets much better then it seems to get a bit worse again (however, it is much, much better than it was in the beginning), I finally put the connection between how my thrush behaved and how much I had to use my nebulizer….duh, it is a steroid too.  So now when I need to use the nebulizer I rinse my mouth well afterward, and gargle with the dilution of water and hydrogen peroxide.  I think this is going to work!!

My migraines have been much more present.  I’m also having much more vertigo.  I think most of it is Migraine Associated Vertigo (MAV).  When one has vertigo with Meniere’s it is rotational.  Lately I’ve been having vertigo that goes in all kind of directions.  Yesterday it was going down….well it’s hard to explain…the room kept sliding down and then it was if it went behind me and would come back around and slide down again.  Oh I was so sick…but I didn’t throw up…yay.  I did have a lot of acid reflux and burping…and running to the bathroom, which is very hard when you can’t walk alone, and my walker doesn’t fit through the bathroom door.  (thank you Stuart, you are the best).  With everything that has been happening, all I want to do is sleep.  One day I slept 18 hours…it may have been more I’m not sure, I’d wake up when I had to go to the bathroom, and when I was hungry…and that was all.  Many days I’m sleeping at least 15 hours.  I sleep about 12 hours a night (but I do wake up a lot), and take at least 2 naps.  It’s crazy!  I’m just falling asleep all the time.

I got a call from the doctor with lab results from my urine….they sent it off to a more advanced lab to see about an infection.  It said I didn’t have an infection.  So why did it hurt so very bad?  And yesterday it started hurting, just a little, again.  The doctor suggested I go to a urologist if the pain continues or comes back….I really don’t want to do that in Tucson.  We’ll be leaving in less than 3 weeks.  I think it will wait until we get home.  I’m still passing urine just fine and they found nothing abnormal in it…it’s just painful.  Yep, it will wait until I can see my doctors.

I was able to go to my niece’s birthday party on Saturday.  I was so excited.  But it was soooo hard.  It was in a very noisy place, so I started having a sound headache almost immediately.  I couldn’t understand what was being said.  I don’t think my niece has ever  been told about my hearing loss, but when I told her I couldn’t hear well in there she would motion for me to do things she wanted.  For example, she wanted me to play one of the games, she gave me a token and pointed to where it went in, then pointed to the button I was to push for the game.  It made my heart swell that she was so understanding of my needs.  It also breaks my heart when I have to say goodbye to her, every time she will start to cry…but I told her that we were not leaving for long, I’d see her again soon.  I hope I can.  Her parents aren’t very accommodating.

Let me rewind a little bit…the day before the party Stuart and I went to the mall to get our niece a gift from the Disney Store (she loves the princesses).  We didn’t walk around much, but my hips and lower back were in so much pain before we left, it was horrible.  It’s really hard to walk much when you have bad hips…and I haven’t seen my massage therapist in a long time.  So it was hard for me to stand much at the party.  I was happy I was able to go and do a little with our niece, but sad because I couldn’t do as much as I would have liked.

Each night before i go to sleep I think of a post I want to write, then the next day I often just can’t.  My migraines are so severe lately that I can’t stand to get on the computer…I can’t stand any light.  And of course when I have vertigo, there is no looking at the words on a computer screen…or anywhere else for that matter.  I hope to get many of those posts written soon…..here’s a preview….

  • Photos I haven’t been able to post.
  • Chronic Illness and Personal Hygiene
  • More about my other chronic illnesses…..

see you soon!

Looking Inside

On By WendyIn Acid Reflex, Medical Tests3 Comments

There is nothing like having a camera stuck down your throat.  Yes I have a sore throat now, and my tummy is not feeling great.  I think they topped the gas off too.  Whew!

Well, this test shows I have Acid Reflux, and a little Gastritis.  (he still wants me to have the CT scan to make sure my bowels aren’t doing something funny where the cameras just don’t reach.  I thought, geez, you put a camera up one way, now you’ve put a camera down the other way, you mean there is still more you can’t see?)

My official paper that he gave me says that my “Z-line is irregular, 37cm from incisors”, and I have “Gastric mucosal abnormality characterized by erythema.  Biopsied.”

Ok, so I looked up with a Z-Line Irregularity means.  It mainly appears to mean that it shows I have acid reflux, but I’ll know more after the biopsy.  And the 37cm from incisors is just how they measure where the Z-Line starts in people (or maybe where the irregularity is).  Mine is 37 cm (or 14.6 inches) from my front teeth.

The other part: “Gastric mucosa abnormality characterized by erythema.”  Simply means I have a little bit of gastritis but it’s not bleeding.  Erythema means that it’s read and inflamed but it turns white when you press on it, so no bleeding.  (hopefully)  It also sounds like I have a bit too much mucus.

He put me on Prevacid.  I’ve been on this medication before, for years actually.  I don’t like being on this for so long, but I’ll do it for now.  He also told me to follow an anti-reflux regimen indefinitely.  That should be fun.

This is the Anti-Reflux Diet:

NO:

  1. Caffeinated Drinks
  2. Carbonated Drinks
  3. Greasy or Fatty Foods
  4. Spicy Foods
  5. Citrus fruits or juices
  6. Tomatoes or tomato bases
  7. Onions
  8. Peppermint
  9. Chocolate
  10. Alcohol
  11. Nicotine.

Ok, so most of these are no big deal for me, but NO TOMATOES?  or even worse NO ONIONS?  If you have read my recipes you will know that I cook with onion and garlic all the time!

What I can eat and drink:

  • water or herbal tea
  • Skim milk, low fat milk, low fat yogurt, low fat or fat free sour cream and cream cheese, and low fat cottage cheese  (WAIT A MINUTE HERE, THEY DON’T MENTION ANY REAL CHEESE AT ALL, NOT EVEN LOW FAT CHEESE…I DON’T THINK THAT’S RIGHT.)
  • Any Plain raw, baked, broiled, or steamed vegetable, Except Onions and Tomatoes.
  • Any Plain Raw, Broiled or baked Fruit (Except Citrus)
  • Any Plain Baked, Broiled, Steamed lean beef, pork, chicken, poultry, or fish.
  • Any low fat bread or Cereal, plain rice, plain pasta (Of Course, I can only have the Gluten-Free Version of these.)
  • Low Fat desserts (less that 3 grams of fat per serving)
  • Any fat free or low fat soup without tomatoes or onions.

This is going to be a challenge.  The biggest challenge will be, No tomatoes (I love a good tomato sauce, I can’t stand them raw, but I love a good sauce.)  No Onions!  Oh my goodness.  What will I do?  I found there is an Indian herb called Asafoetida that when used in cooking gives the flavor of onion and garlic.  I guess I will try that.  Supposedly before it is cooked it smells like stinky feet and poop…that should be interesting.  Oh, and cheese, that will be hard.  But I guess I can use vegan cheese.  I do like the Dayia Cheese.

As I said, a challenge, especially since we have a lot of cheese in the house.  🙂  Hopefully, it will make my tummy feel better, and I can stop running to the bathroom so much.  That will make it all worth it I guess.

Shopping, Sleeping, and Heartburn

On By WendyIn Acid Reflex, Life, Meniere's DiseaseLeave a comment

Yesterday my husband had the day off because he has to work this Saturday.  It’s neat to have him all to myself on a day during the week, but it’s sad we won’t have Saturday.  So we decided to do some shopping!

Streets at Southpoint Mall, Durham, NC

 

The Christmas shopping sales started a little early this year.  We got a flyer from Macy’s and they had a Cuisinart Immersible Blender on sale for $18.99, I was excited because I really needed to replace mine.  I was also looking for a mini-slow cooker. One that’s only about 1.5 quarts, I found one at J.C. Penney for only $9.99!  What a great find.

We walked the huge halls of The Streets at Southpoint Mall for a couple of hours, checking prices, deciding on if we really needed something, and finally having lunch.  I was so tired.  But we had 2 more stops to make.  One at Target to see if they had a couple of things we needed, that trip proved fruitless.  And a stop at the hardware store to pick up a timer for my crock pot, so I can now leave it on when I leave the house and don’t have to worry about getting home to turn it off, and a couple of other things we needed around the house.   We got a call while we were in the hardware store and found out it would be a good time to go and pick up one of the Crock Pots I’m borrowing for Thanksgiving.

So off to pick up the Crock Pot….and a nice visit with our friends.  Including seeing their new baby.

By the time we got home I was exhausted.  My whole body hurt.  Especially my hip.  When I tried to sleep last night my hip hurt so much I just couldn’t sleep, even after taking Trazadone.  I also had to take a pain pill.  I hate taking all that medication.  Finally, I got to sleep, and it wasn’t really that late.

Just like me asleep with the dog and cat.

This morning I got up and ate some breakfast, but I felt so droggy.  I felt like I was still feeling the effects of the drugs I took the night before.  So I put some beans, BBQ sauce, and Chicken hot dogs in the new small cooker and I went back to bed, I did not want a repeat of the way I felt on Sunday.  I slept until about 3pm.

When I woke up, I felt much better, and the house smelled like someone was cooking. Of course, it was my slow cooker telling me I could eat any time I wanted.  I was surprised that it was pretty good.  There was a lot more liquid in the mixture than I put in, so I would have liked it more if it was thicker, but it was still good.  I ate my Beans and Dogs with my home-made Sauerkraut.  It was very good.  However, before I was even finished I was running to the bathroom, again.  Every day, it’s crazy.  I keep having to run to the bathroom from 1-5 times a day.  (3 today)

So later, I wanted something else to eat but I was afraid of eating anything too heavy.  Unfortunately, I’m out of bread and haven’t made any, and I’m also out of any plain crackers.  So my darling husband make me a few pancakes.  After eating I’ve had the worst heartburn.  I took Maalox, something I don’t like to do, I stretched, my husband patted me on the back, I burped a lot, but nothing seemed to help.  Finally, I ate a little apple sauce, and everything is calming down.

I read about an Acid/Alkaline diet a while back and the main part of it I didn’t really pay attention to, but I did decide to try some eating some of the foods that they have on the highest Alkaline list when my stomach starts to scream with too much acid, and acid reflux.  During the summer, this is easy because Watermelon is a very alkaline food, but now that it’s fall, I didn’t know what to eat.  So of course, I searched the handy-dandy internet (how did we ever get along without it?), and found that apples are also a highly alkaline food.  Not as alkaline as watermelon, but still pretty high.  And the pectin in applesauce is supposed to help with GI problems.  Maybe I should eat more applesauce, or perhaps I should make another apple crisp?  Ummmm, apples.