The day after Noah's 13th birthday was a momentous one. Not because of that evening when I had Katrina and Jazmin over for a movie night, but because of what happened earlier that day. And funny enough I couldn't even remember what in the world the three of us did that night because of the drugs. Katrina and Terry had to help me remember.
I had an upper GI endoscope done, an EGD! See, they put me to sleep, hence "the drugs." 😂
But they woke me up so don't worry.
So, back story.
Back in January I began experiencing this heartburn like sensation, except it wasn't normal heartburn like I'd had when I was pregnant that burns and bubbles in your throat. This felt more like a pressure, a heaviness in my chest right over my heart. I immediately cut out coffee, sadly since I had just recently started really enjoying it. At first I had some good results drinking homemade chicken bone broth every day A week or two of that got old, plus I was still experiencing the pressure. Therefore I tried a two week trial of Pepcid and it didn't help at all. I asked our small group to pray for me since I was getting worried something sinister was going on. I mean, usually medication fixes that pretty quick. Todd said the entire reason he went gluten free years ago was to rid himself of his own heartburn and it worked. Well, that made an impression on me. I went ahead and started trying to limit gluten and dairy somewhat. I wasn't very strict at first, but I was trying. After two months of the diet and not seeing any lasting results, I finally went to the doctor, Butch. He gave me some meds for esophageal mobility (Reglan and Ranitidine). At first everything felt all better! But after a week the pressure returned. Butch said I needed a scope to see what was really going on. It was the only way to know for sure.
Back in January I began experiencing this heartburn like sensation, except it wasn't normal heartburn like I'd had when I was pregnant that burns and bubbles in your throat. This felt more like a pressure, a heaviness in my chest right over my heart. I immediately cut out coffee, sadly since I had just recently started really enjoying it. At first I had some good results drinking homemade chicken bone broth every day A week or two of that got old, plus I was still experiencing the pressure. Therefore I tried a two week trial of Pepcid and it didn't help at all. I asked our small group to pray for me since I was getting worried something sinister was going on. I mean, usually medication fixes that pretty quick. Todd said the entire reason he went gluten free years ago was to rid himself of his own heartburn and it worked. Well, that made an impression on me. I went ahead and started trying to limit gluten and dairy somewhat. I wasn't very strict at first, but I was trying. After two months of the diet and not seeing any lasting results, I finally went to the doctor, Butch. He gave me some meds for esophageal mobility (Reglan and Ranitidine). At first everything felt all better! But after a week the pressure returned. Butch said I needed a scope to see what was really going on. It was the only way to know for sure.
So that's what we did. However, they found nothing. It's good that it's not cancer or something serious but we still have to pay out of pocket 😠It's not H. pylori, which is a bacteria that causes heartburn, or eosinophilic esophagitis, an allergy, and there's no damage to my esophagus or stomach or anything anywhere. He said it must just be heartburn! It's weird though since it's not the traditional symptoms. I felt like a bit of an idiot making a big deal out of it, but it's weird. Sometimes nurses just know too much, you know? So I just resigned myself to staying off gluten for a full six to nine months just to see. I finally figured out if I ate just oatmeal in the mornings, I didn't have the symptoms as much. So I began doing that every single day and then the last couple weeks of May I had practically no symptoms! And then we went to Montana for vacatio... I had half a bun of a chicken sandwich at McDonalds because I was so starving because there were no GF options anywhere and that night the heartburn came back! It's been bothering me intermittently ever since so I'll be diligent again, but I'm hoping that if I remain gluten free, I may be able to not have this feeling anymore.
Long story, but since I mentioned back at early Thanksgiving that I hoped I wouldn't have to join the littles on a gluten free diet, I thought I'd give an update. Plus, I had a funny video to go with it. 😆
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