Be careful what you wish for..

Three weeks ago, my favorite physician diagnosed me with a mild case of acid reflux.

Surprise, surprise! and here I thought I was going to use that as an excuse to cover up the real reason for my, er.. unusual eating habits and weight loss. Turns out God has a very cynical way of punishing people huh? well, serves me right I guess...

Now I'm on Gaviscon and prescription medication (Zantac), and my food choices dwindled even more, at least for the time being.. No sour or spicy stuff (most fruits, tomatoes, chillies), no high fat (butter, pasta, sour cream, ice cream, chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes.. you get the idea) and absolutely no caffeine or soda of any kind.

I've tried pushing boundaries with foods that are restricted to me. I'm the type not to give in to stereotypes, so I want to know for myself what I really can and cannot eat. The result? Well, I now know that caffeine & soda really is NOT good for reflux! I don't drink soda often but my family drinks tea a lot and I will usually bring a tumbler to work. I find that aside from causing major chest pains, tea also tends to prolong reflux symptoms. I've since stopped having them and opted for milk or milk-based beverages instead.

Which causes another unexpected problem... (-__-)

See, milk is usually good for the stomach, right? old people say it calms it down. But what I didn't know was, milk will cause acid reflux while sleeping, and OMG I cannot tell you how painful this is! (>_<) Imagine suddenly waking up in the middle of the night with acid in your throat, and you instinctively go into a coughing fit to get rid of it. I've been through a few episodes, and only found out what's been causing them this morning.. (=_=)

So now I have to be careful with milk, which is unfortunate because it's the only protein source I can actually stomach right now. And the same goes with anything that includes it. For example, I find that I'm okay with Milo, only if it's the "O" version.. yuck!

For the past three weeks, I have gone a couple of days at a time without food, simply because my stomach just wouldn't handle it. The thing that drove me nuts though? my brain keeps telling me I'm hungry, so despite my condition I am always tempted to try to put something down my throat.. which I would upchuck again 5 minutes later, dammit!

Haish, I'm thankful this is still mild.. I shudder to think what chronic reflux feels like! (O_O)