More GERD Information

Last week I decided it was time to contact the doctor about my symptoms (Acid reflux, nausea, throat restriction... basically, heartburn in my throat and upper chest.) after a rough couple of days.

Everything I ate that can trigger GERD is in bold below.

It started with a date to a Laotian Restaurant, Vientiane. (Vientiane is the capital city of Laos.) Aaron and I love hot food, and they let us order our appetizer of Laap ******* (7 stars) HOT!

Laap is the unofficial national dish of Laos. It is most often made with chicken, but can also be made with duck, turkey or fish. (We had chicken.) The meat is minced and mixed with chili, mint, lime, and optionally, assorted vegetables. Roughly ground toasted rice is also a very important component of the dish.

It was fantastic! It was so nice to have a restaurant that will serve us food that is super hot!! At home we normally eat foods that are crazy hot. When we have guests over I try to "tone it down," but I am still accused of "trying to kill them" with the hot spices.

For our man dishes we both has a deep fried shrimp dish. (Shrimp in a General Tso’s chicken batter.) Then we went home to have some chocolate ice cream to cool things off.

The next a night we went out to sing Karaoke at a smoky “townie bar.” I drank a Sugar-Free Red Bull with Blue UV, a shot of Captain Morgan, and then a Moose Drool Beer. I got hungry, so we ordered a Cajun Chicken Pizza with sour cream!

So yeah… after that. I was like, "I need to see a doctor." I’ve had these symptoms for years but never saw a doctor until after that.

Now I am on acid reducers and a restrictive diet to help my esophagus heal the next few months, but now I feel like I have nothing left to eat. :-(

Restricted foods:

Fried foods, such as burgers, fried chicken and fried fish
Foods prepared in butter or oil
High-fat desserts, sauces, salad dressings, gravies, mayo, etc…
Creamy soups
Chili
Citrus fruit, sauces and juices
Peppers
Garlic
Onions
Foods with a lot of extra cheese
Tomato-based foods, including ketchup
Caffeinated beverages
Alcoholic beverages
Chocolate

Okay, I don’t eat greasy fired foods frequently, but NO CHOCOLATE?! NO TEA!? No awesome ethnic foods!? Basically all the food we have in our house, I can't eat. *SIGH* I’ll have to figure out something I CAN eat that doesn’t bore my socks off...