bear with me...

So boring! Sorry!

article on gastritis and peptic ulcers

I think i'm going to stay on the aciphex but also add tagamet back in. Aciphex is a proton pump inhibitor and tagamet is an H2 (histamine) blocker. So that makes sense.... (And Dr. Obnoxious prescribing me two different proton pump drugs at once, I think, did not make sense.) I don't see anything against it (though I'll keep looking).

Also -- from reading a bunch of stuff online and in harrison's it seems fairly clear that gastritis / ulcers don't get better very fast and I should not be expecting to feel better in just 2 weeks. (Which no one made clear.)

I realize that I didn't really say anything about taking a lot of NSAIDs ... on and off for many years but often very heavy use... er, why did i not mention it?

It might not be unreasonable to try the food allergy elimination diet plan, but it is so tedious. And it has to be done right (i.e. scientific and consistent) or it is pointless. But in the meantime no sources can agree on what "easily digestible" foods ARE. and... I assume it is a bit like asthma ... if I'm already irritated then the slightest thing sets it off but then when I'm more or less better I can wear hair gel or use smelly soap and it doesn't bother the asthma. It could be similar with food.

Okay I am going to make a huge effort to stop talking about all this. I have promised everyone that I will rest a lot, make room for naps while at my conference, will eat carefully as I can, and... basically will NOT "run on adrenaline" full speed ahead and then come home and collapse. So, take it for granted that I am boringly agonizing about what to eat, and what not, and whether I'm doing something to damage myself, and wishing I weren't in pain, wondering if I'm crazy: and that I have made an attitude adjustment that for the next few weeks I am slowing myself down etc etc etc.

And yes, I am paranoid that I will "rest" too much and exacerbate other health problems - it is best for me if I keep up as high of a level of physical activity as possible. So though I will be resting or whatver I will try to take a 20-30 minute walk or a bike ride every day. and THEN nap. that's the plan, anyway...you can stop laughing now... Really no one should be laughing as you consider the way I have been springing lightly to the top of long staircases on purpose and ignoring elevators after years of feeble breathless limping.

Instead you should feel sorry for whatever is making my stomach hurt because I'm going to KICK ITS ASS.

Comments

[lori]

I only know what foods are easy on the throat. Oh, the days when I lived on jello and chicken broth...

[Lisa Hirsch]

Oh, boy, do say something about the NSAID use, because my herbalist/nutritionist/public health grad student partner tells me they can make a mess of one's digestive system.

[Jo]

Yuck, just the words "gastric mucosal atrophy" have sort of sent me over the edge all on their own. I would never make it through even the first day of medical school. I'd be the one in the back row going "God! Eww! Yuck! Oh man! Fucking a!"