Heartburn

So, about two weeks after I gave birth to Henry, I started having this horrible pain in my sternum. I can't accurately describe it other than to say that it is the worst pain ever. I would rather have back labor again -- no joke. One night it got so bad that I had to go to the ER. I had no idea what the pain was, but I couldn't handle it anymore. 

After an EKG, X-Rays and blood work they determined that it must be gastrointestinal (i.e. heartburn). They have me some strange crap to drink (it had lidocaine in it) and it helped the pain go away. 

For the next few weeks this pain continued to happen at least twice a week. I lived off of Alka-Seltzer, Pepto-Bismol, Tums, Prilosec and Carafate. At one point I had an entire bottle of Pepto in a 24-hour period. When it happens I can't do anything. I am totally out of commission... which doesn't work well when you have a newborn to tend to. I can't lie down and I can't stand up. I have to be hunched over the side of the bed. When it finally subsides, I am WIPED OUT. 

It's strange because usually heartburn happens when you are pregnant and when you gain weight. This began after I has Henry and after I lost weight (and I continue to lose weight but it still happens). 

I went to the ER again about a month ago because it happened again and would NOT go away, but no matter what I took it would not go away. They gave me more prescription drugs to take (including a drug called Reglan). 

Meanwhile, I drastically changed my diet. Here is a list of things I no longer eat:

red meat of any kind (so no hamburgers or steaks)

alcohol

any tomato-based products (this means no pasta sauces)

orange juice/grapefruit juice

pizza

fast food that would be too greasy (i'll still eat chicken sandwiches)

any hot or spicy things (which sucks because I love spicy food)

anything that I think might give me heartburn

So after taking the Reglan (and the other drugs) for awhile, I noticed that I was losing the ability to form words. My tounge wasn't working the way it should - I was making involuntary expressions with my mouth. In addition, I was seriously restless. I couldn't sit still or get comfortable lying down. After I talked to a family friend (who happens to be a pharmacist), she told me that I was having a side effect of the Reglan. It's called Tardive Dyskinesia and apparently there's a whole ton of lawsuits pending against this drug because of this side effect. There's even a nice little FDA warning out on the drug. In fact, they don't even sell the drug in Canada or Europe anymore... but they still sell it here!

So after that whole mess was over, I had another episode which sent me to the ER and this time they had to give me an IV with Morphine to make it go away. 

I wish this story had a happy ending... but instead I've just been dealing with it. I don't eat what I want to anymore and I don't eat past 6:00 at night. Although, as of today I haven't had heartburn in 12 days. that's a record since it started.