Since the apocalypse is going on and I need to stop online shopping, I am going to bury myself at home to write for a few hours:

The last post I wrote was about my horrible acid reflux/heartburn and how I was going to get an endoscopy that next day…so I got it and it was easy peasy. I stressed for no reason—of course! That’s what I’m good at.

I had to be NPO for at least 12 hours, so my last bite of food and drop of water was at 8pm the night before. I got to my test about an hour before it was scheduled, but really waited about 2.5 hours🙄🙄 shocker!

When I was called back, I was prepped to go night night😴

After the 25 minute procedure, I woke up and spent some time coming to in recovery while I waited for my doc to go over results. Good news is: he found nothing alarming or problematic, but did notice some of the food I ate the night before hadn’t fully digested, so he wanted further testing to check my gallbladder.

A couple days before the endoscopy, I had a full liver panel (bloodwork) & an ultrasound of the organs around my abdomen and stomach. I guess that’d be: gallbladder, liver, pancreas, spleen, kidneys…I think there’s one more; but I can’t think of it. Anyway, the doc said I had a lot of tissue in my liver which I wasn’t too surprised to hear. The trial drug I’m on is known to elevate the liver enzymes and over time, it’s possible to have fatty tissue in the liver. No one ever seemed to make a big deal of it, so I guess it’s fine?? If ya ask me, I can’t imagine that being ok as time goes on?!🤷🏻‍♀️

So next up, was that gallbladder test, or for fancier words: a hepatobiliary iminodiacetic acid (HIDA) scan. Which is an imaging procedure used to diagnose problems of the liver, gallbladder and bile ducts.🥱let’s just say: “gallbladder scan.”

Now, I didn’t do much research on what this scan pertained. When I say “little research,” I mean none whatsoever. I just was instructed to be NPO for at least 8 hours prior and I thought this was going to be a quick in & out test.

No. It was 3 1/2 hours of laying on the hardest and narrowest board that they constricted me to. Really. I had my arms strapped down, while they put me half way into what looked like an MRI machine😱

I had an IV in my arm and was told there would be two injections of what I mentioned above: HIDA. It’s a radioactive material/tracer taken up by the gallbladder to measure gallbladder emptying function. Basically, they want to see if my gallbladder is doing what it should be.

Because of my long scan and trying to keep myself calm from being restricted, I watched the classic, Mean Girls. They may be mean, but they helped me so much from not losing my shit. I’m forever grateful for those 4 bitches💁🏻‍♀️

A day or two after the test, my GI doc said everything looked a-ok. Good news there’s no signs of anything serious, but huge bummer to not know exactly what is causing the horrible acid reflux that feels like fire. Maybe my trial? Maybe just how my body is? No matter the reason, it sucks!

Since, I have been taking omeprazole daily, which helps tremendously.

Omeprazole is used to reduce the amount of acid in your stomach. It’s used to treat gastric or duodenal ulcers, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), erosive esophagitis, and hypersecretory conditions.

But if you know me, I don’t like to rely on meds every day if I can find a more natural approach. With much asking around, I am hoping to start a daily probiotic and enzyme to use in lieu of the omeprazole to ease this reflux. In time, I hope to report back with it being helpful!