How to heal a burning throat and the effects on sodium bicarbonate

Hi everyone,

I've been recently diagnosed with GERD caused by a congenital broadening of the GE junction that allows the acid to move freely in my system.
I am now 31 and was never diagnosed properly until now that, after a family crisis, my symptoms got a lot worse. (You know, stress is the disease of the XXI century, they say)
The doctor says that i need surgery and the diagnosis seems very logical to me. At this point i'm more than happy to know that there's a more direct approach to my problem other than 'taking things easy' and having a very restricted diet and lots of pills.

The reason i am posting this is because today i woke up with a burning pain on my throat. It's not the first time that this happens, but it is the first time that i actually understand that this is caused by GERD and it's not a crazy infection or something else. I've had 4 or 5 crisis like this in my life, and they usually come after a period of intense stress combined with a bad meal.
Since i was diagnosed 3 months ago, i've been taking nexium 40g every day and restricting my diet a lot; but as the symptoms were significantly improving, so was my confidence and i ate a small pizza and 2 beers last night... what turned into a total disaster.
Plus, (to make things worse i assume), the night before i drank a tsp of sodium bicarbonate thinking that would balance the ph in my stomach, but woke up with this intense burns instead.

Could it be that not always sodium bicarbonate works? I did some research on bile and its acidity thinking that SB could make it worse instead of better, but found nothing.

Do you have any tips on how to heal a burned throat? It really hurts... and the cough lasts for no less than two weeks. It's horrible :(

And also, has anyone ever had a bad experience with baking soda as i did?
What do you suggest doing when you already ate something that you KNOW will kill you? Stay awake all night? >_<