Feel the burn

One night this weekend, an hour or so after I fell asleep, I awoke to a most unpleasant sensation in my throat. If you're queasy, consider not reading any further.

It felt as if acid from my stomach was creeping up my throat and trying to make its way into my mouth. Yuck.

I tried to ignore it and went back to sleep, but I awoke 30 minutes later to the same sensation, this time worse. It was unpleasant enough that I did not want to continue lying down and dealing with it.

I got up and rinsed my mouth with mouthwash to try to get rid of the taste in my mouth. I cannot gargle; whenever I try, I always end up choking and swallowing most of the liquid. Oh, how I wished I could gargle!

Luckily, the swishing of the mouthwash was adequate for erasing most of the unpleasant taste.

I knew that I could not return to bed, though. Lying down clearly worsened the situation.

Not wanting to wake B up, I meandered upstairs to the loft and curled up on the couch, using pillows to prop myself into a sitting position, and fell asleep. Several hours later, I awoke feeling less acidic and decided to give sleeping in a bed a try. Sleeping on a couch is uncomfortable, at best; sleeping while hunched over a pillow on a couch is an experience to be missed.

I was wary about returning to a supine position, though. I grabbed a couple pillows and tucked them under the top half of my snoogle, hoping that even a slight elevation would be helpful. The elevation and likely the passage of time helped, and I slept the rest of the night in relative comfort. (Exhaustion helped.)

The next morning, I was recovered, but I suspected that something had taken a turn for the worse and that pregnancy was to blame. I remember telling my doctor last spring that I didn't get heartburn, and (knowing that I was planning to get pregnant later that year) she said, "Just wait till you get pregnant!" Alas, Dr. H, you were correct. I suspect that I now suffer from it.

The culprit that evening was likely the pineapple juice that I gulped down just an hour or so before bed. Pineapple juice, I hope I have not ruined you forever and that I'll still be able to drink you after this phase passes.

The next morning, feeling like tempting fate, I had a couple glasses of orange juice and suffered milder effects, probably because I was not lying down. Later that day, a can of ginger ale taught me that perhaps it's time to remove soda from my list of drinkable beverages.

I countered the effects of the OJ and ginger ale with Tums, which, despite their chalk-like consistency, are quite delicious and satisfying to eat. Thank goodness, too, since I suspect I'll be eating quite a few of them in the upcoming months.

I now keep a bottle of Tums on my bedside table, just in case, and we have another bottle that floats around the house, ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice. I should probably also pack a bag of the little treats for work.

Heartburn is the pits.