GERD Symptoms?

I've been on the forum for a while dealing with heart palpitations. After a few weeks of upping my exercise and changing my diet, I have seen a significant drop in them. In fact, it was the insistence that food was having an impact on how many palpitations I was having that led me to pay attention to that aspect.

After the palpitations subsided, I began to notice other symptoms. I get tender feelings underneath my pectoral region right around the upper region of my rib cage. Sometimes it will feel like a momentary burning sensation and sometimes it will feel almost like I've been poked either in the side or in my mid-section. If I touch the region after I feel that then I will feel rather tender in the area.

I've also noticed around my sternum I will get occasional, momentary feelings of pressure. It's not painful, and not tender. It's just a 1-3 second feeling of pressure that goes away as fast as it comes on.

Also suffering from anxiety disorder, I worried this might be angina symptoms, but I quickly found out that no on considers angina if the feeling is only a few seconds. The fact that it's not painful doesn't help.

I have noticed these feelings do tend to come on more often after I've eaten or after I drink something.

I do have an occasional soured taste in my mouth, and have woken up at isolated times with that coughing/gaspy/acidic feeling/taste in my mouth over the last 10 years.

So i turn to everyone here: does this sound like GERD issues reemerging or something else?

Mine tends to happen in two general spots. Either right below my sternum but to the left. Basically if I place my finger on the very bottom of my sternum, go about 1/2 inch left and then about a 1/4 inch down I sometimes get a very tender feeling in that area.

The other spot is on the far left side of my rib cage about one hand width under my underarm.

Those are the spots that get my attention and if I touch them it feels extra tender.

I get that, too. In fact I've experienced all of this. I'm convinced I have GERD and a hiatal hernia. Imagine this coming out of the blue, 300 miles from home, driving a 10-hour route on a highway in the middle of no where:

I'm famished. I pull the car off the highway to a McD's, get back on the highway, and wolf down the food. At the last swallow, I suddenly feel bloated, and it feels like an alien is starting to push its way up into my chest from my stomach. No pain, just whoa what is this creature emerging from me. Tons of adrenaline gets dumped into my blood stream, palpitations, heartburn, flush face, acid taste in my mouth, shortness of breath, runny nose, blood pressure starts surging, and I get this this incredible urge to stand up. Remember, I'm doing 75 mph down an interstate. Then I let out a big burp, and all of the symptoms go away almost instantly. I chalk it up to eating too fast, and keep driving.

about six months later (and 3 months ago), I'm crawling around in a crawlspace (part of my job), finish up, and get it in the truck for the ride home. I start getting the same symptoms, but burping doesn't help. I know it's something to do with my stomach, so I don't panic too much, but the adrenaline and shortness of breath are giving me the urge to stand up. Then all of a sudden I feel an alien go the other way, down. And then the symptoms go away. So I figure, ok, hiatal hernia. I start watching what i eat, start dropping pounds, and I begin to feel better.

Last week, I eat a quick meal in the car on a biz trip, and get all the symptoms again. I pull over, walk around, burp, take an anti-gas chewable, and it goes away. I spend the rest of the trip being very careful what I eat, small meals every 3 hours. I felt great for 7 straight days, eating very clean, and I lost 3 lbs to boot.

Today, I had cereal for breakfast, felt great all day, and just now I started noshing on a salad with some breaded chicken strips (that are quite fatty). I suddenly get the bloated feeling, the adrenaline rush, and the 'pressure from within' (the alien). I stop eating the chicken, take an anti-gas chewable, continue with the salad and now an apple. I let out a couple big burps, and now I'm back to normal. Feel good, maybe a little hungry without the protein, but no adrenaline-associated dizziness or breathing issues. I am 99% positive it's GERD.

As I sit here and write, I recall that last summer over vacation, we'd start each day with my mother in law's nuclear coffee and a selection of pastries from the local bakery. After the first day, I couldn't do it. I'd get the shaky adrenaline feeling, the urge to burp, and just ended up not eating. It got so bad one day that I stayed inside, weak from not eating, and having an apple and a cheese stick every two hours. I thought it was a virus. Now looking back I'm convinced I had a GERD episode, and that it turned me off from eating so much I got weak. (By the time the week ended, though, I was back to feeling normal.)

I know this is a long post, but those are my symptoms and how I handle them. I have a checkup at the doc's office this week, and I'll bring it up. I'll ask to get a Lyme disease test too, because I hear that can trigger funky responses to food. I'm also going to get a bottle of gaviscon to keep handy, and see how that does.

It's funny, though. I freak out less about the sensations I feel during an episode, now that I know what it is. I also have the confidence that I can alleviate the symptoms myself within 5-15 minutes, and avoid them altogether if I plan my meals and avoid crawling around on my belly.