Holy heartburn!!! sheesh

I have a question for those of you who get heartburn and have acid reflux issues... How do you deal with it? I've been in the hospital for almost two weeks and I didn't realize until now that they haven't been giving me my Protonix...

I've had heartburn/acid reflux issues since I had self-induced kidney failure (long story) like 1-2 years ago. My nephrologist said that sometimes that happens. She said that she doesn't know why it happens because my kidney's are back at full function unlike their 18% function when I went into renal failure.

I know it definitely doesn't help sitting and lying in a hospital bed all day, that's why I try to get up and wander around or go sit in common areas and stuff like that. But today it's getting to the point where I can't stop burping (sorry but it's true and for those of u who suffer from this u will totally get where I'm coming from). Now I know I'm not supposed to be doing this, but a few days ago I realized that I had some walgreens brand acid reflux tablets in one of my bags that I brought here, and I have been taking one a day for the past few days. I made sure that there would be no interactions with any of the meds I'm on right now, trust me. If anyone knows about interactions with other drugs or overdoses or whatever, it's me... once again, long story. The reason that I haven't told anyone is because at this point it really doesn't matter and it will create more commotion than anything, in turn causing more heartburn lol.

So... any suggestions with how to deal with this? Keep in mind that I am sitting in a hospital right now and don't have much access to certain foods, drinks, etc. If I have to I can run down to the cafeteria or something or raid the kitchen on the unit but that's pretty much it. The only thing that I've been doing is eating bread (which is in the kitchen here on the unit) and that seems to help for a little bit. But there's only so much bread a person can eat before they want to puke it up lol.

Just sitting here right now, I'm thinking that when my nurse comes to give me my muscle relaxant in an hour or so I will just tell her that I'm having some serious heartburn going on and I'm sure she will have the authorization to give me some Tums or something. It's one of those meds that's not really a controlled med lol, like milk of mag and stuff. I just can't stand this anymore- and my worry with Tums is the ingredients... I have had kidney stones in the past, and since I was not able to obtain them (they were broken up with a laser thingy so I didn't feel squat) they don't know what they were made of, and the nephrologist says that she doesn't really want me taking those sort of things because the kidney stones could've been made up of calcium or whatever the heck is in those things.

Help!

Honestly, bread isn't the best thing. Low carb, low/no sugar helps GI related issues including acid reflux.

When I have absolutely nothing around to help I make sure to stay sitting up and drink plenty of water. BUT I usually have pain elsewhere that isn't just reflux caused so I'm sure there's more going on in my case which results in me being unable to eat during episodes and often renders PPIs useless.

Talk to a GI doc to double check your meds? A lot of them drastically affect digestion.


ETA: the last time I was in the hospital they gave me beef broth (or at least that's what they claimed it was ) that set off a bad attack. They said it was gallbladder, though it was all left sided pain and reflux. I was left in pain for hours and then they finally gave me reglan. If you've never had it, look that one up - it's a scary med. I don't know if it was just the med itself I reacted terribly to or the fact that the RN did push it a bit fast.

Other suggestion is just watch what and when you eat. Most people actually do better with smaller dinners. I have problems with beef if I eat it late in the day, but not if I eat it early in the day.

Is there a reason they won't let you have the Protonix? Gary has very bad acid reflux and when hospitalized to work on his head pain they continued to give it to him. In fact, for the 50+ meds he's been through, he never had to stop taking the Protonix.

Originally Posted by LDG

Is there a reason they won't let you have the Protonix? Gary has very bad acid reflux and when hospitalized to work on his head pain they continued to give it to him. In fact, for the 50+ meds he's been through, he never had to stop taking the Protonix.

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It isn't really a matter of them not letting me take it, it's more of a lazy thing on my part when I was first admitted. I was in so much pain I didn't care what they wrote down and apparently I forgot to tell them lol. And another reason why I didn't really notice was because I get so many morning meds that it all kinda "collides together" if that makes sense. Every other time I have been in the hospital I have gotten all the right meds, but this time I really didn't care what they gave me as long as it helped with the pain in some way

I know the special diet and everything, and normally I follow the rules religiously because I know how big of a pain in the butt it can be if I don't...

If I were going to stay here for a longer period of time, I would definitely bring it up and probably have a doc come in and see me for it again. I have went to my normal doc for this many times, tried many meds, and Protonix is the only thing that has worked thus far. But right now my discharge date MIGHT be tomorrow... so who knows. I want to stay longer, so we'll have to see how well I can persuade the doc tomorrow that is covering for all the docs for the weekend.

I do know that one of the meds is probably the culprit for a lot of this crap- IV benadryl. It messes with EVERYTHING- even my ability to pee normal lol. I did bring that up with my doctor this morning, and he just said "can u pee at all?" and I said yes, so he didn't panic. And I know that if things get bad, regardless of what they are, the nurses on the unit will call the house doctor ASAP- I've already had them do that so trust me I know lol.

Oh, and for the bread thing- there is bread and crackers basically in the kitchen, that and MAYBE some juice. And I have found that if I eat a bit of bread, it is at least a little bit of a relief for a short period of time. Seriously, the unit kitchen is ridiculous. And so is the laundry room- but that's another story . Seriously, who uses the last bit of soap and leaves the dang empty container there without telling any of the staff?! sheesh...

Drinking lots of water will help.

I also have frequent heartburn and my doctor has given me a prescription for Apo-Omeprazole 20 MG. I take one a day and he says I can have the prescription for as long as I want/need and since he is careful about prescribing medication I am trusting that it is a safe medication. It really works. In fact my husband has been getting a lot of heartburn lately and tried them for a couple days and is now going to see if our doctor will give him his own prescription. That speaks volumes to me since my husband will not take medication unless he is half dead. He won't even take anything for a headache insisting it will go away on it's own when it's ready.

You could ask your doctor about it. (He also at one time gave me something he referred to as Losec (sp?). I don't know if it was the same thing or not but it looked the same as the above pills.

Originally Posted by Yosemite

Drinking lots of water will help.

I also have frequent heartburn and my doctor has given me a prescription for Apo-Omeprazole 20 MG. I take one a day and he says I can have the prescription for as long as I want/need and since he is careful about prescribing medication I am trusting that it is a safe medication. It really works. In fact my husband has been getting a lot of heartburn lately and tried them for a couple days and is now going to see if our doctor will give him his own prescription. That speaks volumes to me since my husband will not take medication unless he is half dead. He won't even take anything for a headache insisting it will go away on it's own when it's ready.

You could ask your doctor about it. (He also at one time gave me something he referred to as Losec (sp?). I don't know if it was the same thing or not but it looked the same as the above pills.

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Omeprazole doesn't work for me. Trust me- I've tried it OTC, different prescriptioins, it's just that ingredient doesn't work for me. I don't know if u have ever heard of it- but what I normally take everyday is called Protonix. It's like a totally different chemical make-up than omeprazole. And Protonix works for me perfectly. I've been drinking TONS of water too- mainly because I'm being given such a high dose of IV benadryl it's giving me cotton mouth . Take the bad with the good I guess

Blaine has this problem he can be fine for weeks and then can go for weeks with being quite poorly with it, best thing he has found to ease the pain of it is ground up chalk with a bit water and strangly refreshers the sweets

none of the tablets that the doctor ever prescribed helped him, everyone is different though

Originally Posted by -_aj_-

Blaine has this problem he can be fine for weeks and then can go for weeks with being quite poorly with it, best thing he has found to ease the pain of it is ground up chalk with a bit water and strangly refreshers the sweets

none of the tablets that the doctor ever prescribed helped him, everyone is different though

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Ground up chalk?! I think I'd rather suffer with the heartburn . I'd probably end up puking that up, in turn making the acid reflux 10 times worse

It took my doc and me a LONGGG time to find something that worked for me. Countless prescriptions, many months... so now that I have found something, I will take it religiously from this point on (for the longest time I thought I didn't have heartburn issues anymore but was still taking the Protonix. My doctor told me that no medication will completely eliminate the heartburn, but I guess the Protonix did and I'm sooo thankful for that. When I get home tomorrow, I'm going to go back to using the Protonix daily like I was before)

Still can't get over that chalk thing.... ewwwww.... at least he has found something that works!

hes suffered from being about 4 year old hes now 24 and they tried everything poor thing, he even went into hospital and he had this thing put up his nose down his throat and down into his stomach for 24 hours to moniter his acid levels and what happened so to speak and put him on different pills then some more different ones, he was no older than 12 when that happened he told me as soon as we met his problems and said if i didnt want to go out with him that was fine i admired his honesty to be honest fast forward a few years and the docs pretty much gave up on it last drug he was on was lanzoperoni (sp sorry) but doctor suggested was chalk and water its amazing how quick it works for when he is really poorly with it oooooooh and i forgot bicarbonate and water works to i used to joke because i kept it in a see through bag in my top draw incase he needed it, i used to dread anyone going in my draws in case they thought it was something else hehe

if he has just a mild case of it gavason normally works

Originally Posted by -_aj_-

hes suffered from being about 4 year old hes now 24 and they tried everything poor thing, he even went into hospital and he had this thing put up his nose down his throat and down into his stomach for 24 hours to moniter his acid levels and what happened so to speak and put him on different pills then some more different ones, he was no older than 12 when that happened

he told me as soon as we met his problems and said if i didnt want to go out with him that was fine i admired his honesty to be honest fast forward a few years and the docs pretty much gave up on it last drug he was on was lanzoperoni (sp sorry) but doctor suggested was chalk and water its amazing how quick it works for when he is really poorly with it oooooooh and i forgot bicarbonate and water works to i used to joke because i kept it in a see through bag in my top draw incase he needed it, i used to dread anyone going in my draws in case they thought it was something else hehe

if he has just a mild case of it gavason normally works

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Haha omg that is too funny!!! Keeping it in your drawer... Collecting "it" Ah geez I needed a good laugh today... and it's a perfect day for a joke like that- I'm having the kind of day where no matter what anyone says, my mind goes STRAIGHT into the gutter

Originally Posted by mismaris777

Haha omg that is too funny!!! Keeping it in your drawer... Collecting "it"

Ah geez I needed a good laugh today... and it's a perfect day for a joke like that- I'm having the kind of day where no matter what anyone says, my mind goes STRAIGHT into the gutter

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dont laugh you i always used to think if anyone sees that im in trouble lmao was only when we moved out i could keep it in a sensible place

I have GERD. MY Dr has me on 40mg of Nexuim. I still suffer on occasion with acid reflux.I just take some over the counter stuff with it.
I was on Reglan, until I saw that there are many side effects,and there is actually some controversay over using that.

Since you are stuck in the hospital without access to certain foods I would definately spring for the water instead!

Remember to not drink milk because it is untrue that it helps with heartburn as it can be soothing in the beginning but cause it to come back worse once your stomach begins to digest the milk.

If you're having bad acid reflux then putting food into your stomach is only going to cause more acid. I am sure you already know to elevate your upper body.

But all you can do is talk to your nurse and drink lots and lots of water, plus avoid citrusy or spicy foods. No apple or orange juice!

I just now saw this -- hon, you've got to tell the hospital staff about it! GOT TO! I respect your research, but there still could be issues you don't know about, including blood test results that might be skewed because of this and lead them to some inaccurate conclusion. They've got to know the whole story in order to be sure they're treating you correctly. Please tell the doctor when he makes rounds in the morning!

Originally Posted by -_aj_-

hes suffered from being about 4 year old hes now 24 and they tried everything poor thing, he even went into hospital and he had this thing put up his nose down his throat and down into his stomach for 24 hours to moniter his acid levels and what happened so to speak and put him on different pills then some more different ones, he was no older than 12 when that happened

he told me as soon as we met his problems and said if i didnt want to go out with him that was fine i admired his honesty to be honest fast forward a few years and the docs pretty much gave up on it last drug he was on was lanzoperoni (sp sorry) but doctor suggested was chalk and water its amazing how quick it works for when he is really poorly with it oooooooh and i forgot bicarbonate and water works to i used to joke because i kept it in a see through bag in my top draw incase he needed it, i used to dread anyone going in my draws in case they thought it was something else hehe

if he has just a mild case of it gavason normally works

Click to expand...

My mom always gave me warm water and baking soda (basically bicarbonate), but that was to take care of mild heart burn, not chronic. I agree, you need to tell you doctor about this. You don't know how this could be stressing your body out, and even if you do get out of the hopsital in the next few days, it will make those days a little bit more bareable.

Hope you feel better soon!

Tell your doctor...

I have it occationally but 75% it means my asthma wants my attention... I use a natural method

I always take this

Mix honey and vinegar in equal amounts. Take a tablespoon and if you need it take another until you get relief. Works everytime for me.