# New diagnosis



## RabiDuck (Jul 21, 2015)

Hello all,

First time poster, please excuse any ignorance!

My wife (27yrs old) has recently (5 days) been diagnosed with GERD, a condition neither of us had been aware of before. She had an appointment at the local hospital on a rather scary cancer referral so in some ways it's a "good" diagnosis I guess.

Anyway, my reason for signing up and posting is to try and get some thoughts and advice on what seems to be some rather hefty lifestyle choices.

The big concern initially is that of diet. We've had the basic advice (tomato, caffeine, alcohol, acid foods all bad) and we're struggling to come up with meal ideas. My wife isn't a big meat eater, she's not a vegetarian but prefers quorn\tofu over meat products as she is put off food if there's a touch of chewy stuff in it. I've not seen anything in the (admittedly limited) research I've done so far that references meat substitutes with regards GERD, I'm hoping they're not trigger foods. This past week our meals have largely been reduced to rice and fish, rice and quorn, roasted veg, that kind of thing. I guess it's going to take some time to change our eating habits, we've previously been big pizza\pasta eaters but from the looks of things, most sauces contain triggers that can cause issues. Garlic is a big worry as we've been big fans of this as an agreement.

The elevated bed seems a common suggestion, and makes a lot of sense I guess from keeping acid down. Has anyone had any experience with wedge pillows etc, are these a suitable solution or is elevation of the whole bed a better choice?

I'm sure as time goes on I'll have lots more questions, but right now it's a little overwhelming and I don't even know what I need to know about, let alone know it! Any advice or tips are greatly appreciated


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## thebigboo (Dec 17, 2007)

I use a wedge pillow and it works well. Just keep another pillow under her knees so that she doesn't slide down. If you can elevate the whole head of the bed, that's even better, but not always feasible if you have a headboard.
Just keep meal portions small. The more you stretch out the stomach, the worse it feels.
No dairy, no chocolate, no spicy greasy foods.
If she is able to manage without PPIs, that is ideal. I am stuck taking them. Cannot get off of them, sadly.


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