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GERD, then pregnancy! I need help and hope

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GERD & Acid Reflux
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Posted 8/8/2013 11:34 PM (GMT 0)
Hi there,

I have a three year old daughter and during my previous pregnancy I had some heartburn during the first trimester and toward the end. It was never that bad, but noticeable.

about 3 months ago, long before I got pregnant, I began having symptoms of GERD: feeling of lump in my throat, heartburn, spitting up blood occasionally. Most of the time my reflux was silent. This came on so suddenly.

I promptly quit drinking coffee, and made other dietary and lifestyle changes in order to heal. My naturopath had me eating licorice lozenges which did not work.

I got on prilosec, although reluctantly, and didn't notice much of a difference. I quit gluten and dairy for 6 weeks, and my symptoms only got worse. I was down to eating rice and applesauce, and lost 10 pounds. I began having these episodes of esophageal pain from my tongue down to the entrance of my stomach. It was like a deep aching, and a handful of times I was considering going to the ER for the pain.

I had an endoscopy done July 16th and didn't know I was pregnant. The endoscopy revealed normal, healthy tissue, and the biopsy revealed no underlying diseases or pathogens. At the time I had been drinking a lot of mylanta and I wonder if they just caught me on a really good day.

My symptoms continued, occasionally spitting up blood and having episodes of pain. Based on my symptoms, the gastroenterologist wanted me to take 4 prilosec a day! I only went up to 3, and it was still too much: I began having symptoms of low stomach acid. My abdomen distended (not due to pregnancy) and it made my heartburn worse. So I weaned from 3 to 1 and that very week found out I was pregnant.

Now I am about 7 weeks pregnant and my heartburn is starting to get worse. This is common in the first trimester because the whole digestive system slows way down in order to absorb more nutrients for the growing embryo. I began spitting up blood again the other day and feeling pain. This, after two weeks of being on Carafate to help heal my esophagus.

I am completely lost, hormonal, and feeling like I have no doctors that can help me.

I wish I had known about surgery a long time ago and I wish I'd had it done before I got pregnant. Now I feel like I'm in for 9 months of hell and I have a 3 year old to wrangle.

Can anyone here help me or offer hope? Has anyone else been through something similar?

Other possibly helpful bits of information about me: I am pretty high strung and anxious in general, but absolutely the thing that makes me the most nervous is vomiting. I often wonder if I created this reality because of my vomit phobia.

??
Posted 8/9/2013 1:59 AM (GMT 0)
I'm 15 weeks pregnant and I had GERD before and now while pregnant. How about trying another ppi or a h2 blocker, zantac helps me sometime, and I have days when I alternate between the zantac and the PPI (currently prevacid), plus gaviscon, tums and carafate from time to time. There are about 6 ppis that u can try and some work better for me, so it might for u too.

I hope that it will get better for us after we have our babies. Pregnancy should be a great time for us, so I definitely understand your pain. I have the BB app and most of the women are posting their cravings and all the crazy foods that are eating, and I can barely eat my gerd friendly food even on medication, and all I want is spicy, greasy food :))

hugs
Dany
Posted 9/9/2013 7:57 PM (GMT 0)
Hello there, you've posted this about a month ago, hope u are feeling better now. I've been dealing with Gerd for the past 6 months ago and I understand what you are going through..I'm not pregnant but want to be, I feel like Gerd is holding be back of my plans! I tried 2 different meds (ppi's) and even though I was ok while on them I chose not to continue because I felt that I was harming my body even more. I'm now following a strict diet and its been going well, I just need a couple of maloox per week. I hope that this diet is not forever, just until I heal. The other thing I wanted to tell you is that you really need to be patient and as calm as possible with this! Also, exercise helps, and lots of water! **
Posted 9/10/2013 3:04 PM (GMT 0)
SaggitariusGirl,

Thank you for the support! I am so sorry you are going through this and want to get pregnant. I think you are wise to do your best to prevent pregnancy until you have healed, despite your heartfelt desire and readiness to get pregnant. I wish I had taken more precautions than just being careful of my fertile window. I didn't know you could get pregnant 5 days after the day you last had sex. I thought it was a 3 day window. I learned it the hard way!

Also, pregnancy has definitely exacerbated my symptoms. If I had had a chance to heal my esophagus and the source of bleeding before getting pregnant, I think I would have been much better off. I've gone through a lot of pain and suffering from week 4 until now, week 11. It's awful to be nauseous on top of it, and constipated, and exhausted beyond belief. Bleeding from a raw throat is no way to be pregnant. Especially while having to take PPI's, and other drugs that we don't know much about during pregnancy.

That being said, I am thrilled to be almost 3 months in to my pregnancy journey and to bring that last person to our family. I'm getting a tubal ligation after this. :) But having a sibling for my daughter is very important to me. I see this experience as just something to get through and I will investigate further once I have given birth if needed.

I hope you feel well enough soon to start trying. Keep in touch and good luck!
Posted 9/11/2013 8:32 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks, it's nice to communicate with someone with the same worries as me. The thing that makes me really angry with Gerd (and hernia) is that you don't know if there is a chance of improvement since the hernia doesn't go away on its own and it will always let acid come up in the esophagus. Mine is a small one, but still causes problems. It's so frustrating sometimes, to try so hard (diet restrictions, meds, lifestyle changes), but not to know if you ever going to improve! Those are questions that docs don't know how to answer!
Posted 9/12/2013 2:37 PM (GMT 0)
Oh I see, yes with a hernia it doesn't just randomly tighten up and go away on its own, does it! I wonder if I have one... how is it diagnosed?

Have you considered surgery and then pregnancy?
Posted 9/12/2013 9:01 PM (GMT 0)
Actually it's small, that's why they haven't told me about surgery as a solution. You can control it with lifestyle changes, meds if you want and so on. Some days are good, but other days are tough. I'm doing better now than 2-3 months ago, but still sometimes it can really bring you down
Posted 9/12/2013 10:47 PM (GMT 0)
saltine crackers and 7 up was my best friends.
1. sleep elevated (with your head up)
2. laying on your left side while sleeping with head elevated
3. avoid caffeine, chocolate, peppermints
4. chew sugar-free gum 30min after meal
5. eat small, and frequent meals
6. Maalox and Mylanta are safe as anti-acids since they don't go in the bloodstream
7. H2 blockers Zantac, Pepcid and Tagamet are effective. While they are absorbed into the bloodstream, studies have not showed adverse effects on the fetus
8. Nexium, Aciphex and Prevacid has not been studied so there is no data on if it is safe while pregnant
9. Keep diary of foods and drinks and times and when acid reflux hit - to find what the culprit is

I get worse symptoms with iced tea during evenings, bananas in evenings, soda in evenings and some kinds of toast (ie: toast with jam). Before you do anything contact your doctor cuz you don't wanna bring harm in the bundle of joy. I happen to be learning a lot about this because I recently started going to genetic counceling. We want kids, but not sure with all our health problems if it will be medically safe. When crackers and 7up were my best friends, I miscarried in first trimester. Normally don't mention it to anyone.
Posted 9/13/2013 5:53 PM (GMT 0)
Smurfy Shadow I am so sorry to hear about your loss. I have also miscarried once, last spring, and it was devastating.

Thank you for all the information provided. It's been strange. I'm 11 weeks but the only times I have truly had heartburn were when I forgot to take my Prilosec. That's what was going on with me when I said I was 7 weeks (which by the way, I was only 6 per my ultrasound!) I had forgotten to take it two days in a row. Ouch!

Since then I haven't had any heartburn. Just a lot of pain in my esophagus and tongue and spitting up blood. Thankfully, my pregnancy symptoms started to ease up around week 10 and so did the pain. So I haven't had any true episodes of esophageal pain in a few weeks! It's been a wonderful time of relief, although it lead me to eat foods that I shouldn't have and now I am spitting up too much blood for comfort. :(

My doctors warned me not to take Maalox or Mylanta because of the aluminum, which is strange because they're totally fine with me taking Carafate! I don't get it.

Also, I could not drink 7up because anything bubbly hurts on the way down and makes me bleed minutes later.

Being pregnant while this is going on is so hard. I crave pizza and spaghetti and doughnuts and jalapeno potato chips and cheddar potato chips and everything I can't have. I have food aversions to things I SHOULD eat.

I try not to have pity parties but they happen.

Thanks again for your thoughts and good luck on your journey!
Posted 9/14/2013 1:10 AM (GMT 0)
Hi there!

I have had GERD for many years and decided to recently get the Linx surgery. Well I'm 4 months post op and unfortunately haven't gotten much better. My throat burns all the time and I believe I'm still refluxing. Anyway I just found out that I'm almost 6 weeks pregnant! I'm very excited, but so worried that the reflux will get much much worse. I also have a vomiting phobia, so I'm worried about that as well! I haven't really been nauseous yet, but maybe that is to come :( But, I'm in a similar boat to you!
Posted 9/14/2013 6:24 PM (GMT 0)
That is incredible! Congratulations! We should keep in correspondence throughout our pregnancies. I can't believe I just met another pregnant emetophobe with GERD. ;) I'm going to message you my email.
Posted 9/14/2013 6:28 PM (GMT 0)
Okay I can't seem to figure out if there's a way to send a private message. So if you would like to keep in touch please feel free to email me at [email protected]

I would love to be a support person for you while you go through the first trimester especially. I have gone through so much in the last 7 weeks (I'm 11 weeks now) and it would be healing to be there for someone else going through it. Each pregnancy is different and you may not have a hard time at all, and that's what I hope for for you! Mine has been moderately difficult. Whatever you need to go through, just take each moment as it comes and don't worry about tomorrow. You'll get through.
Posted 9/20/2013 5:32 PM (GMT 0)
Hello Sidiosquiere, how are you doing with ur pregnancy? Hope you are doing well :)
Posted 9/21/2013 6:56 AM (GMT 0)
Sidiosquiere -

Sorry I haven't posted on here since. Yea, this is going to be a touch road lol! I would love a supportive person who knows what i'm going through. I'm in week 7 and am feeling some nausea now :( Also, I have fibromyalgia on top of it, so I'm in a lot of pain and that makes me nauseous too.

How are you feeling now? I see that your symptoms are starting to ease up. That's great news! I'll email you soon :)
Posted 1/3/2014 7:24 AM (GMT 0)
How are you all doing? I have had GERD since 1994 (I was 14) and was on meds for over 10 years. Things were just getting worse so I turned to chiropractic and other natural remedies which helped immensely (including watching what I eat, especially at night, and eating earlier at night). However, I am currently 21 weeks pregnant and miserable at night with heartburn. A hiatal hernia causes mine and everyone tells me "it just gets worse." I've been taking apple cider vinegar before every meal, digestive enzymes, turmeric, and ginger. I've also been drinking a lot of aloe vera juice. Even though all these things help, especially during the day when upright, at night I wake up at 1:00/2:00am with terrible heartburn despite sleeping elevated on my left side. This happens when I have any sort of dinner...even if it is early. I'm afraid I will have to just drink homemade juices and very very little food for dinner from now on...but I want to eat! Very frustrating, and I'm exhausted from losing sleep at night. I hear this goes away immediately with delivery, but I have 4.5 months to go! Anyone have any other natural remedy besides not eating? Wishing you all well!
Posted 1/3/2014 5:46 PM (GMT 0)
snb413

Congrats on expected bundle of joy!

I would not drink the apple cider vinegar. It's adding acid to your stomach and esophagus. some people have even burned their throat drinking it. People with low acid are the ones who can drink it.

You should be elevating your whole upper body on an incline about 6 inches. You can either raise the whole head of the bed with blocks or buy a good wedge that supports your upper body. You need a gentle incline from your waist up.

i do feel for you as my wife had terrible reflux with our 2 kids. She got it from anything she drank.

Take care,
Bill
Posted 6/8/2014 1:41 AM (GMT 0)
I just wanted to give everyone an update:

The second trimester was like a honeymoon for me. An almost 100% break from heartburn and esophagitis symptoms. The day I entered the third trimester, I began spitting up blood again though. Still, it wasn't as bad as the first trimester.

I gave birth to a healthy baby boy on March 28th, 2014 at home. It was a blissful labor and a challenging birth (he was 10lbs 2.5oz!) Feel free to watch the video and read the birth story at motherofeden.wordpress.com

I am 2 months post partum and still having heartburn, tongue pain and occasional esophageal pain (especially while crying and after crying) but am mostly doing much better (no blood for two months!)

Just wanted to give other pregnant mothers hope if they were anywhere near my situation and in as much fear as I was. All has worked out well.

Now I just gotta figure out how to wrangle TWO kids and deal with this. ;)
Posted 9/19/2014 7:49 AM (GMT 0)
Hi there si Dios quiere! I just found this blog and I'm soo happy, I'm 11 weeks pregnant and I can say it has been hell for me, I had 2 previous pregnancies...with my first one was a bliss, my second one was ok but after delivery I began with the gerd symptoms and it has been 1 year of this, now I feel like there is no way out, everything I eat makes me feel bad, I'm worried that the baby won't get all nutrients that he needs, because I can't eat. I feel nobody understands while I'm going thru, I just would like to know, does it get better after the first 12 weeks?...and what about after delivery, am I going to be able to have a normal life again, I'm just very scared that I won't be the mom that my kids need, healthy and with energy.
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