GORD

is what I have. GORD stands for gastro-oesophageal reflux disease.

I have been sick on and off for a few months now. At first it was just little stomach cramps that I attributed to some gastro bug. After a few weeks it went away. Following that time I would get sick every so often after eating. I didn't think much of it until a few weeks ago when I started to get really sick.

There have been a few nights where I can't move for several hours due to the pain being so bad. It feels like cramps, my stomach on fire, and a really bad back ache. Two weeks ago I hardly ate or drank because I was feeling so bad. That was not good seeing as though I am still feeding Gideon. It was a great weight loss program!

Anyway I decided to go to the doctor after a night where the pain was so bad I almost went to the hospital. Brandon wanted to take me but I didn't want to make the effort to find a babysitter and get myself to the car. We didn't go. The next day I scheduled an appointment.

The doctor said what I have is the above.

Here is the definition on the paper he gave me.
"Oesophagitis is inflammation of the lining of the oesophagus which is usually caused by irritation from the reflux of acid from the stomach into the oesophagus."

You can get this from a bacteria. I just had a test to see if I am positive. If I am a simple anti-biotic will take care of it.
It can also be caused by a hiatus hernia. So if my bacterial test comes back neg. I might have to go in for a gastroscopy to see what is going on in my tummy. After thinking about it for a while I believe my pregnancies have contributed to this. Towards the end of each one I get really bad reflux. Gideon's pregnancy was especially bad.

As of right now I am doing a bit better by just watching my diet. I have to eat 5-6 little meals a day. No acidic foods, caffeine, and spices. Boring.

Even with the diet I still have some bad hours. They seem to come more at night, which I am thankful for. Brandon is home at that time and can help with the kids if I need to lie down. It is frustrating because sometimes a simple chai will give me pain for a few hours. Annoying, I like chai.

There is medication I could take but I would have to stop breastfeeding. The side effects are pretty yucky too so I don't think I want to go down that road. They are called PPI's, proton-pump inhibitors. Gleaning from my biology degree these inhibitors would block the proton pumps. Some of those pumps are called ATPases. ATPases take a tri-phosphate and break it into a di-phosphate and a mono-phosphate. This reaction creates energy which is harnessed by the cell to do other little jobs. In my case the medicine would stop the ATPases from making energy which the stomach cells would use to create acid. Lower amounts of acid mean less pain. There you go another science lesson. Isn't biology cool?! Oh one little factoid to remember. When you see something that ends with "ase" it usually means that object is an enzyme. Some handy nomenclature for you all.


Because I used to work in a structural biology lab I am always interested in what these little guys (the professor I used to work for would not have liked me calling them "guys") look like. Here is a model of an ATPase.



Here is a diagram of the pump within the ATPase.