I have acid reflux
disease. I've had it since I was a child. For the most part I can control it with a bland diet. No sugars, not over eating
ect. For 5-6 years now I have had terrible "
stomach attacks". I double over in pain, throw up and always have to go to a hospital to get any relief. I'm generally out for the count for about 2 days. Every time I have had to go to the hospital I have had no health
insurance and left with no answer other than " It's your reflux."
My last episode was on November 2007(I'm sure
there's a blog somewhere) and that was the answer I got yet again and I still had no
insurance. I went over a year since Ive had any issues, but I ended up in the hospital yesterday, this time I have health
insurance.
I woke up at 430 with Skip almost not able to breath because the center of my stomach, right under my rib cage felt like someone was squeezing it with a vice and stabbing be in the back at the same time. I did my usual of sitting in the
bottom of a hot shower to get some relief. Skip had to go to formation and was just feeling
awful about leaving me. But in
any case I had already alerted my mom(thank gawd for her) and she was ready for the call to take me to the ER if I needed it. AS usual i did nothing but
throw up HUGE amounts of
stomach acid and nothing got better. So i called mom and she came to get me.
We went to Memorial North simply because I
didn't feel like sitting in the
waiting room downtown like I have always had to do. I
didn't sit in the waiting
room for more than 10 seconds before I was wheeled into a room. A nurse was instantly there and within 10 minutes a doctor was at my side asking VERY specific questions about my condition. This is the first time I have seen a doctor for my problem who
wasn't just writing a pain script. No Joke. He went very in depth about what my
gallbladder,
esophagus and
stomach could be doing together to cause this kind of issue and ordered an ultra sound to look at my organs. Tons of
blood work was done and I got some really great NON NARCOTIC pain drugs administered on my request. There was no argument like I am used to getting. It was nice to be coherent the whole time.
I was there for 7 hours. The doctor came in and started telling me what was going on. My
gallbladder has a stone and a small
amount of
inflammation, tho not enough to cause the pain I was having. He
explain to me my
esophagus was
spasming because of the acid that may have very well caused a fair
amount of scare tissue at the opening from my
stomach. He says with the years of these
episodes and the reflux I have some swelling and damage. I was prescribed
NExium to take twice a day to help heal the
erosions and clear the excess
acid as well as a 14 day
regimen of a pill
that's sole purpose is to heal my
stomach and
esophagus. I have to take that 3 times a day and its like a horse pill!!
I know have a referral to see a GI doctor to get a scope done to make sure the scare tissue
isn't enough to become
cancerous, and
receive more treatment for that. I also will need one of those tests where I get to drink the icky fluid and have them look at where it goes and how my organs are digesting it. Yummy.
I will never believe another hospital when they say they treat patients the same wheather they have insurance or not.
