First Steps

Where to start?  After I found out I did have an ulcer I did all the regular things my doctor mentioned and that I could think of.  

I put wood blocks about the size of a brick under my headboard to keep my bed at a slight slant.  I've heard you don't want to go too crazy with the angle but brick size is a good reference point.  Keeping your head slightly elevated is intended to keep acid from traveling up your esophagus and eating it and your throat up while you sleep.  I've also heard of appliances that are available at medical supply stores that will go on your mattress and have the same effect.  I noticed my throat hurting like crazy throughout the night I'm assuming from stomach acid spitting up into it.  I would always wake up and have to drink water throughout the evening to keep it from being so dry.  I still do this but it's nowhere near as bad as it was before.

Of course diet modifications are a big thing, no brainers like cutting out acidic foods like coffee and tomatoes and avoiding irritants like caffeine and fried foods should top the list.  For me I stopped eating all fast food, no more soda or alcohol, no fried foods, no orange juice, and I try to avoid tomato products.  But I do find a little sauce here and there isn't too bad for me, but if you have pizza or something with little chopped up tomatoes on top that tears me up later at night.

I switched from coke and pop to drinking teas and cutting it with water.  They say caffeine irritates it, but I've also heard to keep it to 2-3 small cups of coffee a day.  I switched from slugging a 20oz every morning to a 12 or 16oz size with some iced tea with lunch to keep me going.  

For the last couple months I've been eating fish, rice and vegetables for lunch which has seemed to help me a whole lot.  Then for dinner I always have soup.  They say not to eat heavy later in the day and to not eat within a few hours of going to bed.  I tried not eating past 7pm with an 11pm bedtime and I'd be waking up with my stomach gnawing at me in pain.  Might be just me but I swear it helps to have something in your stomach to soak up all the acid.  I know they say not to eat late because your stomach will make more acid to digest it.. but if you don't eat enough or late enough, you can't sleep when you're hungry.  I usually go for something light after dinner, maybe some cookies just to put some overnight buffer in my system.  Eating a few antacid tabs after that or before sleep also seems to help me.

What helps you?  

Greetings

Hello, my name is James and I've been working to heal my ulcer for quite some time now and figured there has got to be others fighting the same battle.  I'm tired of looking through all the same med sites checking for tips, diets and whatever else I can find.  Figured instead I would start my own site and talk about what has helped me and get others to share their experiences too.

I know ulcers can come from different things which can affect the treatment that follows.  Pretty sure mine came from taking NSAIDS and ibuprofen.  I had a rib out of place which is another story but the doctors said I'm young and taking a few aspirin every day isn't going to kill me, then put me on a non steroid anti inflammatory drug.  After going through 2 bottles of that I was waking up in the middle of the night in pain with my stomach muscles clenching like a pit bull.  For awhile I ignored it thinking my rib cage was straightening out and would take time for the dominoes to all fall back into place.  Went back to the doc and he said, well.. the rib treatment probably gave you an ulcer.  Well shit, maybe I wouldn't have took those damn pills in the first place doc if you'd have told me it was going to burn a hole through my stomach lining.  So long story short for now, they scoped me and said I've got an ulcer in my stomach and a hiatal hernia.

It sucks, I won't cry too much but if you're still reading then you probably know what I mean.  It's no fun hoping to get a solid 2-3 hours of sleep before the pain gets so bad you can't sleep through it and end up sitting on the couch or somewhere upright just so the pain goes away.  This snowballs and compounds into bigger problems over time, walking around like a zombie all day cause you didn't sleep last night or much at all for every night in the previous year or more.  Plus losing that good deep rem sleep puts a hurting on your body, especially if you're working 12 hour days, going to school, or whatever.  So what to do?  If you've got ideas or experience I'm all ears.