Do you or someone you know take acid reducers?
Are you taking them correctly? Answering this question wrong could mean your life, or of someone you love. For my husband it almost did!
An early grave
Our journey began one year ago, when we received a call on a Thursday. My husband and I had both went in for our annual check-ups. The nurse calls and asks "Can Mr. Davi come in, right now?" Right now?" I thought, that seems pretty odd..so I asked him as he was passing by on his way to the Movies with our son. He responded, "See about tomorrow,"and out the door he went.
The next morning could not come quick enough. Everyone knows that when a Dr. that you have met only once calls, and says Come in NOW, something is majorly wrong. And it was!
For the pass 7-9 Months, maybe even longer, my husband had been complaining of extreme fatigue. His new work schedule had him working upwards of 70 hrs a week. Aside from being tired he had developed severe migraines, nausea, and shortness of breath. A short trip up a small flight of stairs left him breathless. He often complained of pressure or pain in his diaphragm area. A few weeks before the Dr's visit, he began to suffer numbness on his left side.
In the months preceding this, his personality had began to change. And as a wife that was my biggest worry. Simple questions like how was your day? Were met with a short, work is work! Not only had he become short, but he was impatient, had memory loss, and severe weakness that often kept him in bed or on the couch. He has always been an active person. At a glance he was a big and tall 33 yr old, but now with absolutely no drive in life. What had happened to my husband?
Fast forward to August and we are sitting in the exam room. The Dr. comes in, sits down, looks at him and takes a deep breath. You could have heard a pin drop, but instead he pulls out the blood test and revealed that he had a condition called microcytic anemia. His hemoglobin count was so low (7.5) that he wanted to send him for a Hospital Immediately for a Transfusion. That was an absolute no! The Dr. explained that he had been anemic for so long that his red blood cells had become extremely small. He warned that if he ever developed numbness and or shortness of breath that those were immediate signs of danger and that he could suffer a stroke or heart attack. Well obviously we were passed that point!
He explained that for a man to develop anemia is rare. For a meat eating man its even rarer..unless they suffer from a blood disorder or are bleeding...like an ulcer. He was not, but it would be weeks until we found that out.
We left the office with a prescription for Ferro-Sequel a potent Iron and Nexium. And directions to eat lots of Liver. And he told him not to move, to just sit down or lay. He was taken off of work for what ended up being the next 2 months.
For the next few weeks we were back and forth...would he need erythropoetin? What was the cause? An upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was scheduled to rule out anything intestinal. We were told to bring him to the hospital if he ever loss consciousness. Fortunately he never did.
Instead we went home and did lots of research on what we could use to build up his blood. It's a funny what you have filed away in your mind...in case of a life emergency. All I could think about was Chlorophyll and Sea Greens. So this is what we did. We purchased:
1. Chlorophyll in Liquid form
2. Wheat grass Raw and in Powder, some times at Juice it up
3. Biotta Naturals Beet juice at the health food store
4. Welch's Grape Juice
5. Pineapple Juice per his Mom
6. Floradix- Liquid Iron 1-2x daily
I mixed it, and he drank that every time I looked at him. If he wasn't eating he was drinking or sleep. I juiced carrots, fruits and veggies when I could. I made green smoothies to mix it up. But these were always in addition to the mixed Juice. I'm tired just thinking back, it was a lot of work, but it was worth it.
Along with that he took Spirulina, Kyoto Chlorella, tablets with each meal.
The Ferro-Sequel with Juice at meal time.
He mainly ate:
Meats
Steak, I chopped it. Pan fried it. Grilled it! Got it from the Steakhouse down Street! Beef Liver,that I begrudgingly prepared with onions. I did everything to kill the taste and appearance ewwww!, Chicken, Turkey and when I was dead tired a Burger with no cheese from Freddy's....man I was tired a lot. They know me by name!
Vegetables
Spinach (In everything I could put it in), Kale, Collard Greens, Broccoli, Beets, Sweet Potatoes, OK so He ate like a king!
Fruit
Apples Blueberries, Watermelon, Grapes, Acai Juice from Costco....sorry he is picky!
Bread
Iron Kids Bread, Hamburger Buns
Almonds became a mainstay snack and I even had him try Dried Unsulphured Apricots..he only ate those because I told him how much I paid for them.
After much time the conclusion was reached.
He did not have an ulcer. BUT What he did have was a routine that was leading him to an early grave.
Acid Reducers
For many years he took a prescription acid reducer before he ate his main meal. And for a while he took one in the morning and one in the evening 20mg each. Most of the time they were Omeprazole. Interestingly these block iron absorption majorly.
How?
Your stomach is an amazing machine. Like a factory it produces a product that your body needs, in this case it is stomach acid. Now when you have acid reflux, your doctor often gives you something like Omeprazole. It tells your stomach not to produce the acid. You feel relief. But each time you eat, your stomach would typically produce acids that aid in both digesting your food and absorbing vital nutrients. In this case Iron. Over a period of time if your body is not absorbing iron from your meals. You become Anemic. In the case of my husband Severely Anemic.
Like a detective working a cause we had to look at all of the clues. When he became anemic, he also became tired. When he became tired he began to drink coffee, energy shots and drinks. The problem became compounded. The more Caffeine he consumed, the more his Iron absorption was inhibited...ok BLOCKED! And if he ate cheese which has calcium..which blocks iron too, well..... Now with no Iron being absorbed, he worked his body, putting strain on all of his available resources, his stores were running out! And so was his time.
I am happy to say that he has recovered, in those two months his blood went up to a 13 and it has now returned to Normal. From time to time he still takes Omeprazole. Usually at night or around a small meal. He doesn't suffer Migraines, Weakness, Fatigue or Memory Loss anymore...except for that time period. Each week that passed he also returned. He is a big Guy with a Big Laugh. It never ceases to amaze me that others still look at him and say It's so nice to hear you laugh again,"and they are right it is!
