The caffeine, peanuts, chocolate & tomato based products almost killed me off

 The last tens months, I've been sick because of acid reflux and it's only been recently that I realized that I've had a sensitive stomach my whole life but it was these last six months that I thought my bad stomach was going to kill me off. 

Since I was a child certain foods just made me sick and my mom would think that I was making it up or that I was being over dramatic. Back when I was growing up, it was almost unheard of for a kid to have any kind of food allergies and we were a one income family so my mom couldn't afford to make a separate meal just for me and my dad thought I was being stubborn about eating what my mom cooked. As a kid, I was constantly throwing up my food.

Fast forward to my teenage years and young adulthood, people thought that I was a picky eater because I was very selective about what I ate but intuitively, I knew that there was somethings that I just could not eat without getting sick.

Even as got into my 30's and 40's, I just thought that I had a sensitive stomach and it never occurred to me that there was something medically wrong with me until stomach problems got really bad and I had to go to my doctor.  My doctor diagnosed me with GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease) and they wrote me a prescription and it solved the problem for many years...until they made my prescribed medication and over the counter medication.  The thing with a prescription is that they give you a three month supply and you pay the $10 co-pay, whereas, the over the counter meds, you the regular retail price.  As I felt find, I just paying all together and I was fine for many years.

However, last October 2021, I developed this dry cough, my stomach became bloated, I was constantly burping and throwing up...and some of you may remember that I had some dental problems, last December.  I called my doctor's office for an online appointment and they called me back and said "Your records show that we told in 2009, we told you that you have Acid Reflux and you need to cut back on caffeine, nuts, chocolate, tomato products...".

Now, when you tel me that I need to cut back, I take that to mean that I can still eat what I want but in smaller portions.  I did cut back but I honestly think really know how bad my stomach had gotten.

It's not until recently that every time that I drank coffee that I would start belching until my son said "Mom you burp like a man."

Mr. Man would never say anything but my son is like what is going on with you and all this burping.

I have taken a myriad of tests over the last couple months to eliminate that there isn't something else going on with me and I swear that every test came back normal.

Bottomline, I have had to stop drinking coffee and sodas and you must understand, I only was only drinking a half a cup or 4 oz of coffee per day and I'd drink a half a soda with lunch and a half a soda with dinner, otherwise, I was drinking water.

There are so many health benefits to nuts but I had to give up on nuts months ago because whether they were almonds or pistachios or walnuts, they would make me almost violently ill.  Chocolate bar with nuts like the Baby Ruth bars would almost take me out.

However, like a piece of plain chocolate, I'm okay.

I am experimenting with decaf coffee, the Peet's decaf is okay and some days, I am okay when I drink my half cup but other days, I am not. However, I'm not nearly as sickly as when I drank full caffeinated beverage.

It's only been in this last year that my acid reflux reared it's ugly head in such an ugly way.  Also, eating smaller portions of foods and chewing slowly helps.

This post is for anyone out there that is suffering from acid reflux, the symptoms may go away for a little while but they always come back and we really have change our eating and drinking habits including adult beverages to get ourselves into better health bc being chronically ill is no joke especially if we can fix it!