Once pregnant, I remained off of my anti-reflux meds. Maybe a good idea, but here's where my stupidity really shines. In my first trimester, I could not get enough jalapeno peppers. My cravings were strong. I used to listen to people talk about these cravings thinking they exaggerated, but after living it; these cravings are no joke. I was apprehensive at first to eat jalapenos, but then my cravings went from strong to insane. I started a little here and there. After experiencing no symptoms of GERD, madness set in and my re-found ability to eat spicy foods trumped all reason. I found myself ordering spicy foods at restaurants, or piling jalapenos on my nachos at the movies while taking no precautions.
Alas, spicy food-Nirvana was not to be mine. Along came my 2nd trimester and I could not even think about spicy foods without needing to take some Tums. That's no exaggeration. I had to sleep sitting at an incline and found myself waking up in the middle of the night with a mouthful of delightful stomach acid. It must be what antifreeze tastes like. My 3rd trimester was a nightmare once my blood pressure started to rise and I had to lie on my left side, my upper body elevated at an incline to keep stomach acid in my stomach. I hadn't eaten any spicy food since the end of my 1st trimester. How could this be happening?
.."If left untreated, the repeated flow of stomach acid can damage the gullet, causing discomfort and pain" (Furst, 2004) . By this time, I had years of pain from GERD. Why did mine stop?
In 2006, I was given an upper endoscopy. My esophagus was completely scarred over from stomach acid. My GI Doctor hypothesized my esophagus had scarred over so much, I could not feel my GERD symptoms. The symptoms I felt were from a condition called a hiatal hernia. (Check out the link- it's delightful) My doctor told me the hiatal hernia was part of the natural progression of my disease, but her money was on my stopping my medication, then eating jalapenos like a fool probably made it happen faster.
That almost brings us full circle to the "common sense" things Karen Gottesman
discussed in her Teleseminar in June about being your own best advocate. (Check out my archives to read about it) Many patients stop taking their meds when they start to feel better, but it seems like common sense to take meds as prescribed. Sometimes, those common sense thoughts can get distorted after spending hours visiting more doctors and specialists you can even count. It's easy to want to stop something before asking your doctor. (Well, at least it was for me) Today, I continue to take my GERD meds religiously and sleep propped up at an incline. I still have the hiatal hernia and have been diagnosed with Barrett’s Esophagus. This is most likely part of the natural progression of the disease, but stopping my meds remains in the back of my mind as that unanswerable question.
This is only one of the many ignorant things I have done. I want to share my ignorance so that my deeds were not in vain and that someone can learn from them and maybe the kids won’t try this at home. I will be sharing more of these in upcoming entries. I call them ignorant, not dumb because I did not do the appropriate research or even ask my doctor. Ignorance does not know and where there’s ignorance, there’s bliss. Dumb is doing things in spite of what you do know. Not that I haven't done my share of dumb things but this blog is about my living with Scleroderma, Sarcoidosis and my lack of box wine, not my adventures in the Navy and college. Good times
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