Aah! I am so happy to have found this group!

I'm 22 years old/female. I'm having a terrible time right now! I
had a doctor tell me I had GERD a few years ago, when I went in for
chronic coughing, and he gave me a trial of nexium. I took it, but
didnt notice any difference so I stopped taking it and didnt think
anything else of it. Well, in the past few years, I've been getting
worse. I've been getting increased heartburn, gas, and I've been
having pain while swallowing certain foods. It's the pain while
swallowing that made me initially want to go back to the doc, but now
I've got even worse symptoms! I got what I thought was allergies,
when I woke up in the morning with my throat burning and my lungs- it
just literally hurts to breathe. I thought it was allergies or a
cold - which it kinda mimics, as it has the past few times. It just
kinda runs its course, and gets better. I am now realizing that it's
because of stomach acid in my throat, and somehow making my lungs or
airway irritated... because I'm coughing up mucous. I read where the
acid can backup into the esophagus and spill over into the bronchial
tubes and then irritate them enough to make them coat in mucous to
try to protect them.

I do have asthma and allergies also, which is just making everything
worse. I am basically living on sherbert right now, its so soothing
on my throat and is not dairy- which seems to irritate me more.

So, now I'm working on getting into the doc - will call in the next
week or so... but need to know of some foods to eat in the meantime!
I had some pudding earlier, and believe it or not - it did give me
slight heartburn. I'm taking ibuprofen for the pain which is
helping, but I'm wondering if its doing worse things for my stomach.
I think we have some Tums, and I'll try it just to see if it relieves
symptoms temporarily so I can sleep.

I do have quite a bit of extra weight on me, and am going to work on
losing it as of now. And I smoke, which I will be quitting ASAP.
Anybody been where I'm at right now? I need some support!

Ugh.

Lexi