Stomach Acid & Pink Eye

When it rains, it pours.

No, really. It’s pouring down rain here in Portland today. It’s sad and gloomy. Bleh. Kind of matches how I’m feeling too.

The doctor had me go off of the Prevacid cold turkey to see if I’m any better. I’m not. I can’t have any more until she checks me out on the 16th. My hiatal hernia symptoms came back immediately. I feel nauseated all of the time from the time I wake up until I go to bed and I’m not look forward to the idea of waking up in the middle of the night choking on the stomach acid like I used to before the Prevacid.

I bought a bottle of this Aloe Vera Juice mixture from Sunny who also sells health “elixirs” — she’s into everything, I swear. Anyway, aloe vera juice is supposed to be very good for digestive issues and quite frankly, I’ll try anything right at the moment.

I’ve also been checking out acid reflux “diets” online. I’ve kind of compiled this list of foods from about.com as foods that are safe for me to eat:

• Fruits: Apples (fresh, dried, juice, sauce, etc.), banana
• Vegetables: baked potatoes, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, green beans, peas
• Meat: extra-lean ground beef, London broil steak, skinless chicken breast, egg whites, egg substitute, fish
• Dairy: Cheese (feta, goat, low-fat soy), fat-free cream cheese, fat-free sour cream
• Grains: bread (multi-grain, white), cereal (bran, oatmeal), corn bread, graham crackers, pretzels, rice (brown, white), rice cakes
• Beverages: mineral water
• Fats/Oils: Low-fat salad dressing
• Sweets/Deserts: fat-free cookies, jelly beans, red licorice (YAY Twizzlers!), baked potato chips

And here’s the list of foods I can have “with discression“:

• Fruit: Apple cider, peaches, blueberries, Raspberries, Strawberries, grapes, cranberries (dried)
• Vegetables: Garlic, cooked onions, leeks, sauerkraut (forget it!), scallions
• Meat: lean ground beef, chicken salad, eggs (scrambled, fried), fried fish, tuna salad, hot dogs (ick), ham
• Dairy: Yogurt, Milk (2%, skim), frozen yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, cheese (cheddar, mozzarella)
• Grains: Garlic bread, muffins, granola cereal
• Beverages: non-alcoholic wine, beer (alcoholic, nonalcoholic), cola, root beer
• Fats/Oils: ketchup
• Sweets/Desserts: Cookies, low-fat

Things I like, things I think make my stomach feel better like milkshakes, mashed potatoes, Mac & cheese, and French Fries apparently are on the list of foods I’m supposed to avoid. And while I was wrong about cranberry juice, I was dead on about orange juice being too acidic.

Anyway, I’ve been challenged to try to make a delicious tofu spaghetti over the weekend, so…I’m going to try to do that, but that’ll be my last red sauce dish for a while. After that, it looks like I’m going bland for a bit.

On top of all of that, my eye allergy which rears it’s ugly head every 18 months or so is acting up and freaking everyone out. Of course, every time anyone sees a really red, pink eye-looking eye, everyone thinks “contagious” and runs for the hills. My allergy is not contagious. We’re all adults. Trust me, I feel way worse than any one of them.

Basically, it is pink eye, but it’s just the allergic variation. I’m the only one who suffers. And it hurts to focus the eye on anything. Bright light hurts. Flashing lights hurt. Blinking hurts. Touching it hurts. It’s cold compresses and eye ointments.

Yesterday I went home early and laid on the couch with a cold wet wash cloth over it because of the deal people made…and because the pressure in the eye socket is making my head hurt…which is part of the problem…my head is hurting too now.

I am glad however that it’s happening now rather than in a few weeks. I’m sure that it’ll be gone before I leave for England so as not to spoil PW’s wedding pictures.

tags: wellness, pink eye, acid reflux, hiatial hernia, Prevacid, aloe vera juice

2 comments

1. on June 2, 2006 at 10:31 am

   Tamara said:

   Oh yuck. Sorry to hear you’re feeling so awful. Can you go back on the Prevacid? Is it not good to take that for a long time?

   Hugs. It’s almost the weekend. Hang in there and rest up.

2. on June 2, 2006 at 12:02 pm

   N. Mallory said:

   Well, I’ve got no refills on my prescription and she won’t write me a new one at least until I come see her. She wanted me off a bit. She did say that there were long-term worries, but I have short-term worries. When I went on Prevacid originally, it had gotten so bad that my throat was actually raw from the stomach acid.

   I wasn’t losing weight either last time though I was barely eating which was strange.

   But I made a grocery list of a few things from those lists. I’m going to steam myself some chicken and maybe fish if it’s not too expensive and some broccoli, carrots, and green beans. I’ll buy some baked potatoes and make up a big batch of rice and try to go from there next week. But like I said, I am going to try a batch of Tofu Spaghetti…I’ll just have to eat that sparingly.

   I did also read that I should not eat or drink anything a few hours before bed so I’m going to try that too. That’ll be hard…no snacking at night. I always thought the popcorn helped soak up the stomach acid.

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