20 Years of Reflux - Or More

I have had acid reflux as long as I can remember. I actually had it as far back as in grade school, starting about 5th grade. I can distinctly remember being in class and having this terrible burning in my stomach - and thinking I had to put something in my stomach to make it stop.

In panic, I started eating paper.

It actually worked then, this eating of paper, believe it or not. I'd tear off small pieces and just sort of calmly eat them and the acid factory in my stomach would calm down. In my 20s someone I worked with handed me a Tums and I was hooked.

I know this might sound odd - but I didn't know what they were for really - indigestion or something I thought, and I certainly don't have THAT. Right?

It wasn't until - oh late 20s when I mentioned to a doctor about my Tums addiction and that I couldn't sleep without them beside me - at the request of my then boyfriend (now husband) that I learned I had acid reflux.

So they put on me on generic Zantac and over time, the dose has had to increase. They also added a pumper blocker eventually when the Zantac wasn't getting it so by the time I'm 40 - I can't believe that I can actually digest my food because from all the meds I'm on I doubt I'm producing stomach acid at all.

With my previous two pregnancies I stopped taking my Zantac, and simply lived on Tums. I asked my OB with the first baby "How many is too many?" and his answer was "When you're up to a bottle a day, let me know." I would say I stayed around - oh, a third of a bottle a day. THAT is a lot of tums.

By this late date in medical science they've decided I CAN take my Zantac so I am.

But something started happening a few months before I got pregnant with this baby, and I don't know but it seems to be getting worse. I'll take a bite....and it clears my airway but then - for lack of a better term - IT STOPS.

This sensation is difficult to describe but I think it might be what it feels like right before the ALIEN bursts out of your chest. It's as though there is this expanding BALL in your chest.......and you need to burp,but you can't. You ARE able to speak,but you hurt so much you can barely muster enough words to convey that you ARE NOT choking.

In previous months, I've been able to get through it - relax......just relax and breathe - take a drink and it passes.

Something is changing and I don't know if it's being pregnant or what but it's getting far worse. A couple of weeks ago we went to a Bridal Show for a goof, and were nibbling our way through the caterers (shut up! We PAID to get in dammit!) when upon eating a bite of delicious teriyaki beef.....suddenly the ALIEN was there,bursting through my chest but worse, much worse than ever before. I rushed to the restroom and promptly threw up all the delicious appetizers and wedding cake I had consumed. (Quite a lot). But I felt much better and went about my day.

It's happened at lunch a few times, recently at the Olive Garden - I didn't get to the puke stage but oh it was brewing. And then there was last night.

We went to the OUTBACK for an early Valentine Dinner (all you Valentiners, you are welcome - my three crazy kids won't be there messing up your date) and it wasn't enough that one boy was having a very autistic evening and was whining and crying about everything and wouldn't eat. I had about 4 bites of my dinner when I suddenly felt it.....THE ALIEN WAS AT THE TABLE.

I tried to breathe, tried to relax....but to no avail. So quickly went to the restroom and yes - puked up my stuck food. Then, I puked up the food I had eaten. Then I puked up all the beverage I had consumed which had not come up with the food. But the pain didn't stop.

When it subsided to manageable, and after the waitress had been in to check on me, I calmly went back to the table and talked, noted that the boy was still acting nutty, and then had to excuse myself for more puking in the bathroom.

I sat in there for quite a while this time, feeling queasy and headachy and thinking I might actually have a problem that wasn't going away this time.......and went back to the table.

The husband had already decided - and had the food packed and the kids coats on and we went to the car where the pain came back at me in full force and I puked out the car a few times (hey I'm a FUN DATE PEOPLE!).

We drove to the hospital and as we grew near - it stopped.

It just STOPPED.

I opted to go home, which probably worried the husband a lot more than was fair, but I know for a fact that they need to look down my throat and they won't DO that while I am pregnant. I know cuz I already mentioned this - in a more minor form, to my OB.

I just wonder if I'm gonna be stuck on ALL LIQUID before the baby comes - at this rate, I very well might.