Sorry Pete,
You're right it did go over my head or rather through one ear and out the
other. I am not too compos mentis at the moment due to the short bowel
syndrome and litres of diarrhoea each day and the ensuing nutrient, mineral
and vitamin deficiencies. Over 13 months after the operation I have manage
to assert myself and now receive vitamin B12, folic acid injections and
vitamins A, D, E, and K injections. This treatment I should have received at
the latest in March last year, but it took over 8 months to find a doctor
that could make a diagnosis.
I am pleased that the wedge works for me, but I stress that it is a real
wedge and does approximately the same job as raising the bed because it is
long, i.e. it is not a wedge pillow, and I am not sleeping kinked in the
middle, which would really worsen the GERD for me.
I will go and write out a hundred times that "Pete is an engineer".
No trauma intended.
Vanny
Post by VannyRaising my bed made a significant difference to my GERD. I slide down
too and it was annoying especially at the beginning, but now I find
that if I have slid down then I reach up to the bed head and pull
myself up. I do that now in my sleep I think because I very rarely
find myself at the bottom of the bed in the morning.
There are adjustable bed frames where the head and food ends can be
raised. If you buy one (cheaper than buying an all singing all
dancing adjustable electric bed) then a tip is to turn it round so
that the foot end becomes the head end because this tends to have a
more gradual and longer incline - must be checked out at the shop.
How I solved it was to have a wedge made for myself (not adjustable).
I have an under mattress and a thin (3 inch) overmattress and I had a
hard foam wedge made to place between. The wedge needs to be the
length of you down to your thighs and then taper from there up to the
desired height at the head of the bed. Mine is 8" high and some 4
foot long.
Don't we have any engineers here?
Now I know no one reads my posts (just kidding Vanny). I am an engineer,
and you may not remember my woodworking spiel on shimming the beautiful
headboard I built for my bed so it is perpendicular to the floor after
raising the head of my bed. Oh well enough of that, it may have gone over
your head.
I believe Bill's previous posts are correct about bed wedges (in general).
He says wedges may do more harm than good especially if they are not long
enough, and I agree. The ideal way is to raise the head of the bed and have
one continual ramped plane (so to speak) from the head of the bed to the
foot of the bed, so you don't get any binding up around the LES area (that
you may get with a bed wedge - especially if it is a short wedge). But for
all you people who use wedges, and they work for you, then go for it (but
you should certainly make sure they are adequate length to get past the LES,
like Vanny implied).
And don't forget some people report more reflux when standing up, and less
reflux when laying flat on their back, if you will recall :-) . But (since
I am an engineer, as well as a serious researcher of the human anatomy) I do
generally believe in the gravity and liquid achieving its own level theory
that Bill is always talking about, and I am sure it applies to more people
than not. There are many fascinating designs in the body that are designed
to counteract the effect of gravity (such as the "check valves" in veins
that assure the blood keeps flowing back to the heart).
Pete
Post by VannyVanny
Post by jmcJust kidding. I'll be watching this thread, as I may try raising the
head of my bed as well.
well raising my bed sure helped me!