The Apple Doesn't Fall Far....

After living with three babies with severe reflux I now find myself dealing with it. I probably should've seen this coming. As a baby I had reflux bad enough that my mother was given a prescription for a sedative for me. My mother also suffers with reflux and gastric ulcers. But, yet a year ago when I started having symptoms I was in a bit of denial.

Slowly over the past year I have found that I have stopped eating many foods simply because it's not worth the pain afterwards. Initially, I could eat anything and know that an anti-acid or some Zantac before bed would make it okay. Then before I knew it I needed stronger meds and now have been taking Omeprazole daily for about 10 months.

The silver lining in all this is that after 10 years of dealing with my kids' reflux, I have amassed a lot of knowledge about reflux. I know what the symptoms are and how to deal with them. I will not let myself get to the point my mother got to when I was 14: hospitalized getting 5 units of blood due to bleeding out in her duodenum.

But, sometimes with the knowledge comes the painful truth. I realize that because my diet/lifestyle changes haven't made a difference and because I have a strong family history just as my Mom has and my daughter will. But, as we learn more about reflux we will also learn to better treat it. Hopefully the apple of my eye will find her tree a little easier to climb than her grandmother's tree was.