Sunday, June 29, 2008

Matters of the Heart... Burn.

Want to hear about my decidedly un-glamorous problem? Of course you do. I have been experiencing icky, icky heartburn pretty consistently for the last three weeks or so. First of all, I am appalled whenever I suffer an ailment like this because I consider heartburn to be an old person's health issue and I am a young lithe 26. And second, I am very particular and am really kind of insulted when I experience certain indignities, like, I'm just too pretty to have heartburn, do math, or have to do something really icky like go to the Currency Exchange.

Obvs, it's either stress or diet-related (or both, I suppose, but I generally don't feel stressed) and tragically, the only thing I know I consume consistently on a daily basis is... coffee. And omg, I refuse to believe or accept that coffee might be the culprit. On the other hand, I've been so afraid to trigger the heartburn that instead of cutting the coffee I've stopped eating anything even remotely offensive (plain bagel with cream cheese? too risky) and have inadvertently dropped a few pounds. On the other hand, this isn't completely a bad thing because you can't be too rich or too skinny, right? On the other hand, I'm not one to ignore blatant health problems and I can't live the rest of my life popping Tums, right? How pedestrian.

Anyway, ew. Any advice?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I am sorry you feel bad! I no longer suffer with heart burn (even while pregnant), but I figured out what was causing the heart burn. My advice is to keep a food diary.

xoxo

kolls said...

Hmmmm... I say call your doctor or go on WebMD :)

Anonymous said...

Natalie's suggestion is good but if it doesn't work- Prilosec is pretty effective and available over the counter. There are also other proton pump inhibitors that you can take once a day that require a prescription (aka....you would have to see your doctor). Also, zantac can be taken 150mg at a time (2 tablets) preferably twice a day and I find that to be very effective.