Acid Reflux?

Every now and then over the past decade or so, but not more often than once every couple of years, I will experience the symptoms of acid reflux. This occurs mostly when I am drinking anything other than water. Coffee is the biggest offender, followed by tea, fruit juices, and pretty much any other liquid but water. Although there are some foods that I am just not hungry for when I am feeling this way, I don't recall having experienced symptoms of acid reflux as a result of foods that I have eaten. Drinks seem to be the biggest offender.

In most of the ways that acid reflux (also known as gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD) is described, that's how I feel, except that I have never gotten the chest pains that a lot of people feel with it. In some cases, the symptoms, while there, don't feel like they are described on paper.

For example:

Difficulty in swallowing

While it might be described that way, I think that dysphagia would be a more accurate term because it covers a wider range of negative experiences associated with swallowing. In reality, I am swallowing just fine, but it feels like the most bitter part of whatever I am drinking gets stuck about mid-throat. I don't think anything is actually stuck there, but it feels as if it is.

Most coffee lovers will admit that there is a harshness in coffee that we normally have a love-hate relationship with, but it's mostly overwhelmed by all of the good tastes and sensations that come from coffee. With acid reflux, if indeed that is what I am feeling, my perception is that all of the good stuff in coffee is being swallowed without difficulty, while the bitterness is stuck in my throat.

Sore throat

As above, I suppose it's in the definitions. My throat is not sore as it would be with strep throat or a viral infection. There is a discomfort in my throat, but my perception is that if I could either swallow the nastiness that's stuck in my throat or throw it up, everything would be fine. There's probably a sermon there too, but that would be a digression.

Persistent dry cough

Sometimes voluntary, and at other times involuntary, but this is due to conscious and subconscious attempts to clear that nastiness from my throat. If I overdo the coughing, my throat might become actually sore.

Regurgitation of food or sour liquid

To some extent, perhaps. When I am experiencing the symptoms of acid reflux, I feel like I would love to be able to just throw up and be rid of whatever is there but there doesn't seem to be anything actually there. When I try to drink something like coffee there is a regurgitation, not in the sense of throwing up, but more like the coffee goes down, but then part of it comes back up again, where it remains in the middle of my throat. Again, I don't think there's actually coffee sitting there in my throat, like a backed-up toilet, but it feels like that's what's happening.

The sensation of a lump in the throat

There is a sensation as if there is something in my throat, but not a lump. Perhaps if I made myself eat some of the foods that I am never hungry for when experiencing these symptoms, I'd feel as if the food were stuck in the throat, and that might feel like a lump.

Chest pains

No, I don't think I've had that.

I hadn't connected it until recently, so I don't know if this has always been the case, but the last couple of times that I have experienced acid reflux it has occurred at the end of another illness. When I had the flu a couple of years ago, it ended with a few days of acid reflux. Since I didn't see a doctor this time around, I don't really know what was wrong with me this week, but I am pretty much over all of it, but I have had acid reflux symptoms since yesterday.

I have seen a doctor for the acid reflux symptoms a couple of times, and they have diagnosed it as such, given that I have had most of its symptoms, but nothing they suggest for it seems to ever do any good. I have taken the antacids, and I have not taken them, and the results are about the same.

Of course, there are surgical remedies for it as well but, unlike some people who suffer from acid reflux for months at a time, with me, it doesn't last long. Once I get the idea as to what foods and drinks to avoid, it's over in a few days, and I can go back to drinking two or three pots of coffee a day again.

 

For me, the problem is never food. Of course, I am always looking for a reason to persuade myself not to eat because I can certainly afford to lose some weight. So when I have this, I pretty much quit eating, except for chicken noodle soup and some fruits. Given that I haven't taken the time to research what foods to avoid, my body pretty much tells me what to avoid. Drinks are so much harder to avoid, though. While I could quit eating for a week without any ill effects, I can't quit drinking, and water is so boring.

 

@Bess Barber, that would be hard for me to do because this only happens to me every couple of years, and sometimes longer than that. If this were something that occurred a few times a year, that might be helpful. In this particular case though, because I was sick, I wasn't eating much of anything but soups. I was drinking coffee, and more tea than I usually do, because tea seems to be better on my stomach when I'm having stomach problems than coffee does. As for gluten, I don't get obsessive about it, but I try to avoid stuff with gluten whenever there is an acceptable alternative, which is most of the time.

Maybe I should go back to eating TV dinners, pizza, and hamburger helper. As I recall, I felt pretty darned healthy when I was eating that kind of a diet. Of course, I was also in my twenties.

 

It's interesting that you say that. I have some in the refrigerator that I bought while I was sick. I'm a man, so I drink it straight. When I lived in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, I could get 100% aloe vera juice by the gallon at HEB for next to nothing. I'd add some of it to my bath water.

 

Coffee is a big problem when I am suffering acid reflux but I don't think it's caused by coffee since I drink two or three pots of coffee a day and this only happens every two or three years.

Actually, I don't know that acid reflux disease should be something that occurs only every two or three years. More commonly, it's a chronic problem. This is why, although doctors have told me I have acid reflux disease, I don't necessarily believe it. They made that diagnosis entirely on the basis of my symptoms, and their antacids never did me a bit of good. My problem may be something else but it feels an awful lot like acid reflux is supposed to feel like.

 

I sporadically drink tea and have often used the sugar-free flavor packets for water, but I also get bored with them after a while.