Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Finally, Acid Reflux!

I can't believe I haven't posted in over 5 months. Let's see, what has happened?

November was pretty stressful. I had so much trouble finding people to deliver papers in the early morning. Finding people with a focused mind is hard enough. The ability to focus, be up and alert for 3 hours in the early AM and willing to do it for $30 a day is not common. I ended up hiring back my guy from last time. He costs $40 a day but does it right with no complaints.

Then one of my friends from back when we were trying to develop the massage industry in Californian in the early 90s hit me up to do a promotional post card for her spa. She runs a special every Christmas. I bailed on her last request to do some charts for the State Massage Board so I agreed. It was okay but not my best work. I came down with a flu that ended up lasting over 7 weeks. The week I was supposed to get her files in to the printer I was barely able to get out of bed. She paid for the printing and postage in advance so I haven't even sent her a bill for my work.

Big big news is that after all my years of whining and that post listing all my medical woes I have finally been given clues to a way out. Yeah!

I went to see the latest Dr. at the big clinic near my house. He's one of theses English not as a first language guys from Korea I think (Japan?). Nice enough guy but he's an intern and has no idea what I'm saying.  The need for effective health care overrides the need for politically correct shame at our country being mono lingual. That said he wasn't in the day of my appointment so they gave me a different intern. A nice young white girl from right here in the USA. I went into detail about what had been going on with me. How even after years of using it

I still wake up having slid the CPAP mask off my face. I told about all the years of tests and having this bloated, dizzy & feel-like-shit so I need to lay down feeling I seem to have all the time. Chronic sleep deprivation. About my frustration that it is all getting worse and that I am at my wit's end.

She asked me if I have acid reflux, you know, that feeling of stomach acid bubbling back of in the back of your throat. I said "no, not very often". She then told me that it is not uncommon for type 2 diabetics not to be able to feel acid reflux. I said yeah but one of the things the Kaiser Drs tried was both of those acid controlling things Prilosec and Ranitidine with anti-allergy medication. The hypothesis was that my sickness had to do with post nasal drip making nasty stomach Ju Ju. I did that for 6 months and it didn't seem to make a difference. She wrote me a prescription for Pepcid AC which is similar to Ranitidine but different. Then advised me to eat smaller meals and read up on GERD.

It took me a few days to remember that "Oh yeah, I used to use Alka-Seltzer and stuff like that all the time". My use of those things slowed and my taste for alcohol started to fade away too after I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and I started using the CPAP machine. That's when it all off the rails. Then I started remember my father and his life long (my lifetime at least) struggle with ulcers and stomach upset.

That was around Dec 8th. Since that time I have loaded up on Alka-Seltzer & Tums and read all about the good and bad foods. Breaking my heart is no tomato products or chocolate. Just not eating is making the first part of the day productive. Every week I spend less time just lying down. As a long time fat guy and compulsive eater, not eating is getting pretty nerve racking. Since I already take Adderall for ADD (aka dextroamphetamine and amphetamine or "Speed" grew to fame as a diet pill) it has been helpful in cutting appetite but is not a medication with no side effects of it's own.

No comments:

Post a Comment