July 24, 2009

Sleepless Nights

I've been a little absent from my blog for a while but with good reason. I'm exhausted from lack of sleep and struggling to get a grip on the new way in which I now need to eat. Its literally come down to rice cakes, broiled chicken and lots of water, or in other words anything that's dull and bland. Some may think that that would be a great, healthy diet but I'm a lover of French bread, red wine, exceptionally smelly cheeses, spicy foods, tomatoey dishes and none of those are listed on the "what GERD/Celiac sufferers can eat".

Lengthy medical tests have been done and to this day no-one is quite sure whether its GERD but that's what the doctors think it might be. GERD stands for gastro esophageal reflux disease, its mighty painful and I had no idea I had it. Really just thought it was sever heartburn brought on by stress, but this is much worse and there is no way sleep is an option when occurs. Right now every 3 or 4 days I eat something that then flares up the situation when I lie down to sleep. Antacids won't help at that point as the searing pain has already started. The options are: either sit up and sleep (which is not something I have mastered) or sit bolt upright on the sofa - reading or watching television, hoping that the pain will subside, usually around 4:45am.

I will get the hang of it all and am not going to become one of those irritating people who, when at dinner, needs to enlighten fellow diners as to what I can and can't eat. I will do this quietly and with conviction as supposedly with an adjusted (exceptionally boring) diet this will go away in 6 months to 1 year. I will be up till the wee hours every few days until I realize that even 1 stalk of green onion sauteed into a stew is enough to give me hours of pain.

A side note: alcohol is to be avoided but that I can not do. I will brave the agony.