# Does this sound like GERD?



## Silviegee (Jan 12, 2021)

I ask because I am pretty new to it, and some of my symptoms don't seem like what other people with GERD have described.

It started all of a sudden mid December 2020. I'd had IBS since March 2020. but I'd had no trouble with upper GI, and it was all lower gut stuff.

I got acid reflux one night a few hours afrer dinner. It didn't burn but some water and what I'd eaten at dinner kind of repeated on me. I drank some water and took an indigestion pill and it was okay. I didn't think much of it as the last time it happened was 18 years ago. Just one of those things.

But a few days maybe a week later I started feeling "indigestion" quite often. No pain, no nausea, no actual "heartburn" and my appetite was fine, there was just a sour stomach feeling sometimes. And a feeling of something kind of flipping inside, like something either not having gone down properly or wanting to come up again. But no actual reflux coming into my throat. More like the feeling it could happen.

There's never a bitter or sour taste, but there is a vague-ish sweetish taste, a bit like the sensation when you've eaten something like cake and some of it is still stuck in your esophagus and you need a drink (that kind of feeling.)

I have to keep swallowing because it's often there deep down at the back of my throat.

It's like I can still taste/smell the food I've eaten a long time after I ate it.

It mostly happened (and still does) after a small meal like breakfast. It starts about 30 minutes to 90 minutes after eating.

A larger meal like dinner wouldn't cause it! I would feel better after dinner.

Also lying down relieves it. But I don't lie down soon after eating.

But at night when I'm tired, the more tired I get the more it comes on. The only thing that relieves it is lying down flat on my back in bed. I sleep through the night and it's completely gone in the morning. I feel fine. Nothing wrong with my tummy at all. No discomfort, no pain, no acidity.

Until I start to eat and drink again. Even my first tea in the morning frequently starts it off about 30 minutes later.

It seems to go away during the evening hours but comes back late at night.

It gets better, then comes back, in cycles. It seems to be triggered by tiredness and stress more than anything but can also be triggered by caffeine.

Also, what's strange is that when my lower gut gets a bad phase (loose stool) my upper gut feels better. When my upper gut feels worse, my stools are more healthy! (go figure!) It see-saws from one thing to another.

This doesn't sound like other people get with GERD, quite....does it?


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## Positiveside (Apr 19, 2017)

I have experienced all of your symptoms except these: "Also, what's strange is that when my lower gut gets a bad phase (loose stool) my upper gut feels better. When my upper gut feels worse, my stools are more healthy! (go figure!) It see-saws from one thing to another."

my GERD is triggered by stress, caffeine, soda and spicy foods


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## Silviegee (Jan 12, 2021)

Positiveside said:


> I have experienced all of your symptoms except these: "Also, what's strange is that when my lower gut gets a bad phase (loose stool) my upper gut feels better. When my upper gut feels worse, my stools are more healthy! (go figure!) It see-saws from one thing to another."
> 
> my GERD is triggered by stress, caffeine, soda and spicy foods


That's interesting. So it goes away when you lie down at night in bed? Mine does, and I lie flat on my back. It's a relief to get in bed. I'd never heard of that with classic GERD. But I go to bed about 1am and stop all eating around 9pm, so don't eat close to sleep time.

And yours is worse after breakfast but better after a larger meal like dinner? That's interesting.

Another weird thing with me is that fizzy water helps me. Just plain spring water. I don't drink sodas. But if I drink fizzy water it helps me burp and that makes me feel so much better. But caffeine....instant trouble!


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