GERD the disease

I don't know about you, but when I first heard Gastric Reflux was a disease I almost laughed. How could it be a disease? It's only heartburn right? Maybe a chronic problem or disorder at worst. Well, I'm not laughing now. Welcome to the dark side, not that there is a light side, of GERD. 

The side where you start crying because the last 15 days you've been in pain whether you ate the things that are supposed to cause you problems or not. The side where you wake up wheezing in the middle of the night because you ate after 8 o' clock so your stomach wasn't completely empty when you laid down, and for some reason GERD exacerbates asthma. The side where you made some delicious cookies with out thinking and now they sit there on the counter starring at you, begging for you to eat them. And even though you know it's going to cause you problems you give in to their pleas, because you used to be able to do that before you had GERD. The side where yesterday you were able to eat something that is on the 'bad for you' list and felt fine and today your eating exclusively on the 'good for you' list and feel awful. The side where you haven't had a completely pain free day in the last 4 months.

There is also the public perception of GERD, at least the one I've seen. Where whenever you actually tell someone you have GERD the moment the word reflux comes out of your mouth you know their thinking "Oh that's just heartburn. Everyone has that, it's no bit deal" because that's what you would think. You also think that only older people get reflux so what am I doing with it when I'm not even 20 yet? There's also barely anything written about GERD and even less that is useful to an actual sufferer. I've only found one book so far that's dedicated the the subject and I was surprised even to find that. It would be nice to find a GERD support group or have a GERD awareness week.

On reflection of all that, GERD is truly a disease and not one to be brushed off. 

(not that I'm suggesting that any of you would do that)