What a helpful newsgroup! I searched it out because an occasional
episode of nocturnal reflux following a night of eating and drinking
wine, suddenly became nightly, and even a bit during the day. I read
something Howard said suggesting GERD is often produced by some sort
of trigger mechanism. I think I know what my "trigger" was and I want
to share it to see if it makes sense to anyone else.
First off, I have never been to a doctor regarding any type of gastro
problem, and I was definitly abusing my LES for years. About two
months ago I started getting muscle soreness on my right side around
the ribs and up to my shoulder blade, which I read here can be
referred pain from esophagus damage. Two weeks ago I was at a dentist
who gave my local anesthetic containing epinephrine, some of which was
mistakenly injected directly into a vein. My heart palpitated for a
few minutes and he explained why that happened. That night I had acid
coming up into my throat. Ever since I have had a slight sore throat
and occasional very minor irritation of the esophagus -not enough to
call heartburn, though. I read up on GERD here, radically changed my
ways about one week ago, and the symptoms are nearly gone. The most
im****tant things that help me is elevating the bed and eating less,
but more often, and reducing my overall food intake to loose the extra
30 pounds I have.
Does the epinephrine connection make sense to anyone? It definitely
relaxes muscles, which is why it causes the heart palpitation. Could
it also have relaxed the LES and been "the last straw on the camel's
back?" If so, the dentist may actually have done me a favor by
triggering the reflux before things got worse. I am hoping everything
is healing up because some of you guys are really suffering and I only
have a glimmer of what it must be like.
Bill
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