Remember the commercial for “the purple pill”?
“The purple pill. Do you take the purple pill? Maybe you’re a candidate for the purple pill? Ask your doctor if you can take the purple pill.”
It’s Nexium. Purple “crack”. I’ve been taking it for a little over a month now. 40mg, twice a day. For acid reflux or GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease). Sounds gross, doesn’t it? That’s saying I have stomach acid going up my esophagus and up my throat and irritating the heck out of my vocal chords and sometimes making my chest and upper back hurt. It’s so… annoying! My throat hurts right now, and I’m not even sure what triggered it. I know that it’s partially my own doing. Stress. I’m a wound-up person (not all the time, but a lot), but I mask it and parade around like I’m a totally put together, easy-going gal. I can be. Hey, fake it ’til you make it. 🙂
Back to my medicine cabinet. I also have Pepcid, 20 mg, twice a day. Sometimes I have a little super-extra-strength Maalox cocktail in between if I’m feeling crappy like I am now. I don’t even get heartburn! Just a weird burning sensation in my throat and in between the shoulder blades. Sometimes it feels like I have something stuck or something sharp in my throat, but it never feels like my breathing is blocked.
I know I’ve rarely talked about my little acid problem. Had a bout of this 3 or 4 years ago, and actually weaned myself off of Prevacid (another medication) through stress management and diet. (Update: my ENT doctor diagnosed me with LPR back then, laryngopharyngeal reflux disease. Go ahead, google it.) I took 30 mg of the pink and black capsule twice a day, and then down to once a day. Can’t tell you how excited I was when I stopped. I took the occasional Tums here and there.
So, of course, I totally think I can do it again. That is, wean myself. But, maybe this time won’t be as easy? I totally want to. Nexium: It’s SUPER-EXPENSIVE, like over $150 for 30 pills (that’s with insurance)! For this reason alone I want to better manage my acid. I bought a wedge pillow to sleep on; a nice $24 investment. Here are the kids testing it out. Think it’ll last long? I’ve used it for a couple of weeks now. I always end up sliding down in the middle of the night. Have to work on that.
In the meantime, I’m looking at some interesting book titles: Tell Me What to Eat If I Have Acid Reflux, Spurn the Burn, Digestive Wellness. Some of you know, I really find alternative medicine (or complementary medicine) completely fascinating, so if you know of homeopathic strategies, websites or books, pass them along. For instance, I started taking an organic multi-vitamin with an herbal stress and immune support blend, as opposed to the one-a-day multi-vitamin. I’ll report on this after a month. I’m also on the probiotics kick and digestive enzymes. The digestive enzyme pills are more for anti-inflammatory use because I have a rough time with ibuprofen which exacerbates the acid problem. And, it works!
Alright, enough medical talk with Julie. Enjoy Earth Day… I’ll be chiming in on this later! We had a nice celebration in town, and we were greeted this morning with something funny.
