its not just heartburn. it ruins your entire day

you roll over the wrong way when youre trying to sleep and suddenly you feel a creeping burn rising that gets worse and worse

acid comes up into the back of your throat and sometimes you barf but usually you dont

so the acid stays there burning your throat, making you cough and making your lungs hurt. every inhale feels like you might inhale acid

the acid immediately bonds with the natural mucus in your throat which sticks it to your throat so that it just sits there burning

water does nothing, milk helps only a little

the only solution at this point is to cough it up like a loogie

which feels like youre hacking gravel out of your throat

if youre lucky you get all the acid in that first cough but usually its spread out in a couple small globs

meanwhile youre salivating like crazy, can barely swallow and are struggling to breathe. every deep breath catches in your chest and makes you cough which makes it feel like youre coughing with strep throat or smth

the pain makes your eyes water and your nose run, so you blow your nose and you can smell whatever youre digesting. also sometimes that'll get acid up into your nasal passages

also since you just coughed up your mucus you need to wait for more to form around the other globs of acid because thats the only way to cough them out

so this whole process can take like an hour and you are literally burning in acid the entire time

then youve finally got all the acid out and youre exhausted ao you finally go to bed

the next day your throat and chest are still hurting as if youve got a cold. maybe youre hungry but you dont want to eat in case it sets it off again

oh and also youve inhaled so much air that youre gassy and bloated for hours

if you take medication for it youre susceptible to osteoporosis later in life and weight gain right now

you're also way more likely to develop esophageal cancer later on

so yeah. thats what GERD is like

and keep in mind this can still happen if youre taking meds

its just a matter of accidentally eating a bit too much before bed, and "before bed" can mean like four or five hours before you lie down

I'm so sorry, that's awful.

gentle touch

blehgh

Yeah I've definitely experienced some reflux even through my PPI

But if I DON'T take it it starts hitting within a matter of hours

yeah i take omeprazole every day but this still happens now and then