Don't know how much longer I can go without sleep. I've done everything they say to do when you have GERD and are sleeping at night. Wedged foam pillow to sleep on an incline, check; not eating 2-3 hours before bed, check; lying on your left side while you sleep, check; Avoiding trigger foods, check; don't wear anything tight around your waist, check; and I don't smoke and I'm not over weight, check and check. Yet no matter what I do I've had reflux every single day and night. Reflux so bad I was nauseous for 4 months and have to force myself to eat, honestly I'm lucky if I can get one meal down.
The pain when I eat is awful. Then It burns for the rest of the day. It's so bad it affects my ability to breath. For a full month I was gasping for air and chocking, literally day and night, I couldn't eat or sleep and I was literally getting pulsating shocks to my heart and Having constant palpitations that made it feel like me heart was just going to shut down. My chest felt like something was shedding through my chest cavity with razor sharp claws. Even now with the medication the ER gave me I'm barely making it.
I'm not hyperventilating constantly now but I still have extreme shortness of breath and even the easiest tasks of getting up and walking from one room to the other leaves me breathless and my heart pumping. I'm only able to sleep a few mins at a time before getting a sharp jolt awake. This is often accompanied by gasping to breath and some nights very vivid dreams of dying from suffocation.
I'm only able to sleep like this for two hours a night/day before my body says enough is enough and forces me to rise out of bed. My body hasn't been able to digest my food and anything I eat goes straight through me. My whole body hurts everywhere, my muscles are extremely tense and just sitting in one spot or being up walking around causes horrible back and neck pain.
My neck has been stiff for months to the point I can barely turn it from side to side. I've been crying almost all day everyday because I'm simply unable to deal with the high level of pain and inability to function. When I went to the ER with these symptoms they told me I was having panic attacks...
I had earaches so painful it felt like my ear drums were going to rupture and I have had huge blisters on the back of my throat for this duration of time. My nasal passage way, throat and air way burn like someone pumped battery acid into my nose down my throat and straight into my trachea and into my lungs.
Every breath is excruciating. My saliva is so thick and sticky its hard to swallow and I'm having constant overflow of mucus which I choke on constantly. I get chest and abdominal pain all day in random spots. I feel dizzy all the time and have a lot of trouble balancing myself and often fall over and have to steady myself on walls and furniture.
I have horrible headaches. My Eyes and lips are dry as sandpaper and hurt. My mouth, nose and throat are so dry I can feel the inside of my throat sticking to itself. The doctors just pat me on the head and tried to pump me full of anti-depressants telling me it was all in my head. I took them and had horrible side affects. The last 5 months or so have been the most horrible experience of my life and I still feel like I have yet to be taken seriously.
Last doctor I saw tried to admit me to the psych ward! I promise you the sores in the back of my throat and the bitter sour taste in my mouth and the blood I have coughed up aren't in my imagination. Neither is the pain I'm feeling.
Chris has been there with me and can attest to what is going on, that alone proves the doctors wrong! He see's how I stumble when I get up and I can't even shower on my own. He has watched me sleep and saw me wake up over and over gasping for air. the first month alone he had to struggle and failed to get me to eat anything. He was there day and night for three weeks straight that I was gasping for air day and night and couldn't sleep or even sip on water without getting nauseous.
I need someone to fix this. Some thing is seriously wrong and the ER wont take me seriously. I try my very best to be normal and still go out and interact with people and ignore the pain I'm in but it's hard. When I go over to Chris's families house its hard when I'm eating and suddenly get the urge to gag and have to fight the urge to bolt to the bathroom. Trying to control my breathing so I don't start to choke and hyperventilate in front of everyone.
I'm better than I was the first few months but I'm no where near ok. Getting out of the house can be a good distraction but sometimes I find myself withdrawing and pulling into myself then have to snap myself out of it and try to interact with the people around me.
They've still yet to run any real tests on me other then checking my heart over and over. You'd think after the first 2 or 3 times they'd realize If I wasn't having a heart attack the first time I came in then I'm probable not having one now. And this is how they based their diagnoses that I'm crazy, because my heart seems fine and my blood work is good...
Ok so I'm not having a heart attack and I don't have an infection and this means there's nothing wrong with me?! I've still yet not understood why they haven't scoped my throat and stomach. Every time I go in I tell them my throat fills tight like someone is strangling me and it hurts all the way down into my stomach. Not heartburn hurt, Sharp, stabbing, ripping, hurt... And yet they do an EKG...
Thanks to my first ER visit telling me I was having a panic attack now every time I go in they assume this. Hello people, the first diagnoses was wrong!!!
open your darn eyes and use your brains for a second! They didn't check my entire body they just looked at my heart, if the issue isn't there then lets put on our thinking caps and look somewhere else! I'd love to hear for everyone and get your opinions. Tell me. Do you think I've been having a panic attack for the last 4+ months?!
Added breaks in text for easier reading.Post Edited By Moderator (dencha) : 12/4/2014 9:20:10 PM (GMT-7)