It's back!

The pain of the ulcer is a specific, easy-to-identify feeling. It's not a stomach-ache. There's no buildup. There's just this intense feeling that my stomach is expanding and cracking along its surface.

I felt these pains a few times after the ulcer 'healed' in June. Once I tried taking an Aleve, felt the pain, downed a few antacids and a Prilosec. The pain ceased, and I swore of Aleve for good. Next, I ate a particularly greasy Patty Melt at a diner. (Yes, it was delicious.) And 30 minutes after eating, the pains hit. Once again a few antacids and a Prilosec made them stop (after about 30 frightening minutes). There was a third incidence, very similar. And then last Saturday, it happened again. Only I couldn't get the pains to stop.

And I couldn't identify a particular culprit. I concluded I'd just eaten too much. So now I'm back on Nexxium and will see the doctor on Monday to discuss.

How do I know when this thing is cured? Will I ever be able to take Aleve again? If not, what alternatives exist?

On the bright side, I am enjoying another batch of Nilla Wafer pudding. Yum.

Freedom from Caffiene

I didn't think I was consuming that much caffiene. (For the record - one cup of coffee in the mornings. One glass of diet soda at lunchtime. One or two mugs of strong black tea in the afternoon and/or evening.)

Maybe the amount is irrelevant; maybe I just have problems with it. But drinking just the one cup of black tea each morning yields some surprising results. First, I'm tired by 9:30 p.m. Second, I sleep extremely well. And third, I think my headaches are milder. I still get them, but nothing severe lately. Fourth, when I do get a headach, I'm not sleeping the day away trying to get rid of it. Finally, I'm getting up earlier and earlier and have much more time for my daily activities.

I'm in my last few days of treatment and feel great. No more sore throat and no stomach upset. I don't know if I will be taking Prilosec daily or just with Axert - need to call the doctor's office and ask.

Things I CAN eat....

The Internet is full of helpful tips about what I can't eat....but not so great about what I can eat. So here are some things I've figured out.

Mushrooms figure prominently in the approved recipes. So tonight was Beef Stroganoff (no garlic, no worcestershire sauce); later this week we'll have the chicken baked with mushrooms and cream of mushroom soup. Turkey sandwiches with Swiss cheese and just mayo for a condiment.

Tonight I'm also making some vanilla wafer banana pudding. I don't normally even eat dessert, but my appetite has returned and the dinner options are few.

This week I have frozen peaches for my smoothies. About a peach worth of frozen slices, a cup of lactaid milk, half a banana, and some sugar/cinnamon makes a lovely breakfast.

Still drinking just the one cup of tea each morning. At other times I have apple juice (with lots of ice so it gets watered down) or water.

Healing is Such Sweet Sorrow....

Huh? Sorry to be healing? Did I say that?

Sad, but true. Now that my stomach is healing - I don't experience any more "stomach-ache" pain and have very little sore throat pain - and I am half-way through treatment, my appetite is back. So I'm hungry.....and can't eat much of anything.

Rice pudding is divine when you're in pain and can't eat anything else.....but once you're feeling better, you begin to wish for things like garlic and lemon and pickles and salsa. Oh, well.

On a happier note, I am down to a single cup of hot tea in the morning and perhaps one more later in the day. I try to make that later one herbal, though. Might as well take advantage of this opportunity to experience life without caffiene. If it's helpful, well, that's the cheapest migraine treatment ever. If it's not helpful, I can pretty easily stop treatment.

What a difference a week makes

Today is diagnosis day plus nine, and I feel like a new person entirely. Still need excessive amounts of sleep, cherry Mylanta chewables, and bananas, but no longer feeling like a shivering mass of pitiful.

Today I was able to eat half a blueberry muffin for breakfast, a nice change from the daily banana or rice pudding I ate last week. For the record, if I get another NSAID ulcer, I will also choose vanilla instant breakfast smoothies made with banana and Lactaid or soymilk.

Lunches have been rice cooked in chicken broth with bits of meat pulled from a roast chicken in the fridge. Canned green beans - not my first choice but a safe way to eat veggies. (The banned items - broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers - make up an awfully high proportion of my favorites!) I've also had some steamed carrots. Yesterday I had a toasted cheese sandwich - bread, cheese slice, bread, toasted in the toaster oven - very exotic!

In the evenings I dined on more of my broth infused rice or rice pudding accompanied by dried fruit. What a long way I've come from having nothing but chicken noodle soup.

Tea!

OK, I understand giving up coffee. I live in the land of Howard Schultz (well, I guess, we all do now) and I'm sold on drinking the richest, darkest roasts. Given the migraines, I'd limited myself to one cup in the morning and adapted this routine to travel (pack insulated mug, know where the caffiene is before going to bed). It worked for me.

But tea! For me, tea is a sort of ceremonial ritual that gives my life form and structure. When I'm happy, I celebrate with a nice cup of tea. When I'm sad, I soothe myself with a warm mug of tea. When I'm trying to relax, I sit down with a cup of tea. When I feel a headache coming on, I detach from life and enjoy a break with a cup of tea. When the end of the world comes, I probably won't be the least bit worried until I run out of tea - then I'll know things are dire.

So I'm cheating on the tea. I'm not having my usual amounts - that would be counter productive - but I am having some for breakfast and maybe one more in the afternoon.

So had I known then what I know now.....

Ah, yes....the Monday-morning quarterback. The second-guesser. The guy who says, "I told you so." That's me. I'm very smart about three days after the fact.

So here's what I wish I'd known last week, last month, and last year.

While I'm sitting there digesting the idea of avoiding Aleve for a month (ohmigod, a month; that means I'll have cramps!) the doctor told me a bunch of other stuff to avoid. Instead of sitting there like the RCA Victor dog, I could have gotten head start on some of this.

Alcohol - luckily I did get a head start on this one. It was the second thing the doctor mentioned. Glad I don't have to fight this fight.

Stress - with a stern face, she said, "You know, stress can make this worse." Because that's such a stress-reliever. Lucky again here - I'm a happy stay-at-home mom. But if I had a stressful job, I'd be in big trouble.

Smoking - another lucky strike (sorry, couldn't resist that one). Not a smoker. But if I had to give it up while giving up Aleve, I think I'd die. Seriously.

Caffiene - this one is trickier, as I often medicate with caffiene in one form or another. One strong coffee in the morning, an occasional Diet Coke for lunch, and a strong cup of Earl Grey once or twice a day isn't much caffiene - but it's hard to give up. Especially when I can't have Aleve. So now I look like a really mad RCA Victor dog.

Carbonation - what? No Sprite? No ginger-ale? That's right - no bubbles. No matter how soothing that sounds, no matter what remedy your parents used for tummy troubles. No bubbles.

I think every migraine sufferer uses both Aleve and caffiene in some combination or another. Giving both up - while suffering! - isn't fun. In fact, it's enough to make me want to give up caffiene in my regular life. But I'm gonna need the Aleve.

I always knew it would happen....

I always knew I was at risk for developing an NSAID ulcer. But when I got that awful stomach ache, spent a sleepless night, and got the diagnosis ("You must stop taking Aleve until this has healed."), I wondered....did it have to happen like this?

For the record, symptoms of a developing NSAID ulcer, which I did not experience, are...

Stomach pain, which one site describes this way:

• feels like a dull ache
• comes and goes for a few days or weeks
• starts 2 to 3 hours after a meal
• comes in the middle of the night when your stomach is empty
• usually goes away after you eat

Other symptoms are:

• losing weight
• not feeling like eating
• having pain while eating
• feeling sick to your stomach
• vomiting

I didn't have any of these symptoms. I did have a sore throat (which I chalked up to allergies), occasional illnesses which seemed like a very mild cold or flu, and of course an Aleve habit that I should have monitored more closely.

The symptoms I did experience were more like this: the sensation that my stomach had swelled to twice its normal size. A sudden sore throat more intense - I had a serious aversion to swallowing - than either mono or strep, both of which I recall as quite painful. Chills and night sweats. Discomfort that prevented me from sleeping at night, followed by lengthy daytime naps. (Which of course gave me a headache, which I had to treat without Aleve or caffiene!)