Painfully Sleepless!

I couldn’t sleep. The pain was excruciating. I’d wake up gasping for breath; trying to find a comfortable position to have a pain free night. The pain would start from the middle of my chest, moving toward my left side and down to my left arm. Was I getting a heart attack at 25? Was I getting a stroke? Lord what could that be.

The more I thought of a heart problem, the more I feared to go see a doctor. After about 6months of bad nights, I decided to share my pain with a few people. One said I was being a hipochondriac, my sweetheart (who happens to be doing medical sciences) thought it might be acid reflux and advised me not to eat at least 2hours before going to bed and to take Esomeprazole (which I didn’t imediately do-well I was kinda broke at the time to buy the meds). Then I started my rounds with the doctors. One told me it was a matter of posture, one treated me for pneumonia. (I was 100% sure it wasn’t that, but I paid for the expensive meds anyway and took them). One told me he needed a second opinion( at least he was honest), one told me he couldn’t see me because there was a public holiday coming up. This was getting frustrating.

A good old friend of mine told me it sounded like Acid reflux and gave me 20 Esomeprazole tablets to take one a day. I also talked to an American nurse working here, who told me the same. They tabs worked! I slept well. For about three days! The pain came back, just as bad, making my left side feel numb! This time it was at day time and went on and off till morning! I needed to see a real doctor who knew what the heck was goin on!

On 2nd of November, I went to meet a female doctor at SAS who came highly recommended. She confirmed that is was indeed acid reflux. she called me uptight (in a nice way), but she also explained to me in detail what was going on in my body. She even drew a picture of what was going on. My stomach was emiting acids that flow up the esophagus, causing erosions on the walls and causing the pain. When one lies down, the acids may leak into the respiratory tracts and cause me to struggle to breath. She gave me Regelan and recommended that I double my intake of Esomeprazole from 20mg to 40mg for a month. She also prescribed sleeping propped on 2pillows under my back to prevent acid from flowing up when I go to bed and having my last meal 4hours before bed (bad stuff!!!!!)Just knowing and understanding what was going on was the first step to feeling better for me. She assured me that it had nothing to do with my heart, allaying my previous fears.

Eating at 6pm, if I want to go to bed at 10pm isn’t the funkiest thing to do, but I have now gotten used to it and I nolonger get hungry in the night. The pain is also gone and I sleep much better. I failed to keep the food diary that the doc had recommended I keep (discipline!!!), but then I blacklisted certain foods like french fries, pork (oh no!) and generally deep fried junk. It will take me a while to get used to sleeping with those pillows!

. Through this I learnt something.- The doctor isn’t always right. Some of them do mere guess work on our bodies, like the guy who told me it was pneumonia and the one who said it was posture. If doctors do not know, they should have the honesty to admit so and call for a second opinion like one of them did.