Acid reflux

I don't know if this is TMS, something I ate or the fact I've got the cold but I am suffering acid reflux at the moment.

For the past week I have been suffering a bad head cold. My nose is stuffy, my ears (especially my left ear) is clogged up and I am sometimes coughing phlegm.

Last night was the worst because my left ear felt really clogged up and I couldn't hear properly out that ear as everything sounded muffled. My head also felt as if it was stuffed full of cotton wool.

Just before bed I had two bowls of homemade apple crumble and cream and then went to bed. I woke up at 3am with a terrible burning sensation down my throat and feeling bloated and a feeling as if something is stuck in the back of my throat.

I got up and tried some bicarbonate soda but it didn't make any difference. I couldn't get back to sleep and I almost felt suffocated because of the full feeling in my throat. This feeling nearly triggered a panic attack but I remembered Claire Weekes advise.

I eventually got to sleep a few hours later and the burning sensation disappeared. When I woke up I still had that horrible full feeling in my throat. When I drink anything hot I get that burning sensation again and this is worrying me.

Last time I had that full feeling in my throat was 8 years ago and I ended up going to get it checked out at my local hospital. They put a camera down my throat but couldn't find anything wrong so they just diagnosed me with silent reflux. They gave me medication for silent reflux but I didn't take it.

Could this just be TMS? as I have been dwelling in the past again or could this be due to eating apple crumble and cream and it's caused acid reflux? or could it be a lot of phlegm in my throat that giving me those symptoms? Please advise.

 

For some reason, I've noticed that I'm very prone to heartburn when I have a cold. I couldn't tell you why, I've just always figured it was another oddity of the body. One of many!

 

Artmuzz, acid reflux is just a fancy term for enjoying two bowls of apple crumble and cream right before bed. In my opinion, the best solution is to make enough apple crumble to share with, well, us. And plenty of cream too

 

I know, birder, right?

 

I wish that were true that acid reflux is just a fancy term for enjoying apple crumble and cream but I am still in pain with acid reflux and now I have a blinding migraine headache and feeling a bit dizzy. I'm beginning to wonder if this is all TMS, the cold or what I've ate. I also had toothache on the same side as my migraine is but it went away.

 

Artmuzz, hang in there. Acid reflux/GERD is something I deal with as well, so I truly feel your pain. I'm just envying your apple crumble (yum...)

 

I had acid reflux for 2 months. I did the TMS pain recovery program, it went away in 10 days. I did it while on Acid reducers. Then one day I forgot to take them and was just occupied with other things, no reflux. The problem for me with the acid reducers is that my brain fixated on when to take it or whether I took it and then what kind of food I was eating. All of that was fear. I stopped the acid reducer, i didn't get the rebound at all. I didn't eat spicy food right away but I would here and there. Sometimes I had reflux other times not. Eventually it went away. I had bad scapula paint when I had it and that fueled the fear and pain. It's hard I know, but it can be done. You can overcome it. Heal well.

 

When you had a cold did you take a bunch of cold medicine? That makes my stomach burn the next day. Sometimes it hurts right away. Sometimes the next day. It helps to take it with food.

 

I have been taking aspirin and peppermint sweets with food but I have been drinking lemon water first thing in the morning on an empty stomach since a couple of weeks ago. Would lemon water on an empty stomach cause acid reflux?

On another note, I had an extremely painful migraine headache a couple of days ago. However, the strange thing is my migraine headache disappeared completely when I made an important phone call as in I was focusing on important things that made my headache disappear.

 

Hmm it's so crazy how so many people with migraines also have stomach issues. It's all tension and pressure.
Does your stomach still hurt? I don't want to fill your head with any ideas if you're doing better.

 

I'd say at this point you could easily just be dealing with illness. We usually think of acute illnesses as only affecting one system (respiratory illness, stomach bug, etc.), but there are definitely bugs that can get you in more than one system. Some viruses make you have both cold symptoms and gastrointestinal issues. And sinus problems can cause temporary toothache, indigestion, splitting headache, etc. Since this hasn't been going on for very long, I'd stop worrying about the possibility of TMS at this point and assume it will go away when your body fights the infection (or you go to the doctor and get treatment, whatever seems appropriate). I'd do this even if there were a possibility that it could be TMS, because "TMSing" about it (overthinking it) only adds to the psychological power the symptoms have.

Lemon water first thing in the morning could definitely be making your problem worse.

Distraction easing the pain isn't an automatic sign of TMS. Distraction also decreases pain caused by illness and structural damage, when it's not completely all-consuming. It's something your mind and body are designed to do together to help you endure (e.g. you're a sick parent but your baby has fallen and is crying - you'll jump out of bed and not notice your throbbing head until the danger/stimulation has passed). When I'm home sick, I always feel best when I'm completely wrapped up in an exciting video game. And if I'm at work with a cold, I notice the symptoms less when I'm dealing with an immediate pressing situation than when I'm just sitting at my desk waiting for 5. Distraction also helps TMS pain, but I don't believe that alone is enough to confirm TMS.

So if it were me, I'd try to adopt a relaxed approach, assuming that the symptoms will go away when my body fights off the infection (either on its own or with a doctor's help, whatever feels right to you), and maybe lay off the lemon water until it's all over. Then at least you can see if the lemon water causes reflux without the added variable of an illness. Remember that some bugs can last quite a while. I wouldn't start musing about TMS until it had gone on for longer than two weeks (and by then I would have also seen a doctor).

One way or another, I hope you feel better soon!

 

Thanks for the replies.

I think I do have TMS for some of my symptoms like migraine and bowel pain because I suffer anxiety and depression and have suppressed anger issues but I think you are right that what I was experiencing with acid reflux was due to illness as I am getting over a bad cold. I also think the reason for the reflux could be due to lemon water because last time I had bad acid reflux was when I drinking lemon water in the mornings and stopped it after 2 years and the acid reflux disappeared too. However, I only noticed the acid reflux a week after starting the lemon water again.

The acid reflux I was experiencing has got better and only lasted a day. I have just about got over the cold but I'm getting usual weird tooth pain and jaw pain, anxiety, nausea, heart palpitations and slight migraines and dizziness during the day and bowel pains in the morning and the other day I experienced slight pain in my neck around my collar bone which I am putting down to TMS because I am dwelling on negative thoughts and suppressed anger from my past like I do most of the time. I should also note that I grind my teeth at night in my sleep.

 

Artmuzz, have you told a doctor about these symptoms? I think if you want to treat these as TMS you may want to rule out other possible health issues first. As with most aches and pains, there’s a good chance that it’s nothing (or still related to your cold and you’re just the type of person who notices everything that’s different from the norm), but I think anytime you are experiencing this constellation of symptoms, it’s wise to get checked out. It could all just be anxiety or your cold, but you should get a clean bill of health before you treat this as TMS. If you have been over these symptoms with your doctor already and nothing is amiss, then it’s time to talk about TMS.

Keep us posted! Glad the reflux went away. It’s no picnic!

 

I have been to my doctor but he finds nothing wrong with me and he always seems to come to the conclusion that its all down to anxiety. When I had bad panic attack in 2015 I got my blood tested and the only thing wrong was a slightly high plasma viscosity level in my blood which my doctor explained was due to either infection or inflammation. I got another test a month later and the plasma viscosity level was back to normal.

The only other thing which was wrong with my blood was 8 years ago when my liver enzymes were high which suggested fatty liver disease as I was obese but I lost weight only to gain the weight back on again last year.

 

Ah, OK. I thought you were saying the jaw/tooth pain, palpitations, nausea, dizziness, etc. were fairly recent symptoms. If those are things you’ve been dealing with for a long time and have asked your doctor about with no signs of heart problems, then anxiety and/or TMS could well be a possibility.

Mindfulness meditation has been a huge help for my digestive TMS. Digestion is so vulnerable to a negative feedback loop with anxiety that it helps to build tools for everyday mindfulness that generate self-compassion and a feeling of safety/detachment in the midst of the discomfort. Since you mentioned anxiety, you may have already learned a lot about meditation. If not (or if what you learned hasn’t worked), I recommend Tara Brach. She is a psychologist and meditation teacher, and I’ve learned a ton from her talks on insight meditation. Her guided meditations are also lovely. She has a fabulous podcast. Maybe that’s a good place to start.

And of course, there’s the timeless wisdom of Claire Weekes, about whom you’ll hear no end of praise on this site!