My problem appeared out of nowhere 4 days before my 40th birthday. It was so bad I rushed myself to the hospital (while on the cell phone with 911) convinced I had been poisoned and would soon die. The tingling, odd sensations, pounding heartbeat and overall sense of dread pretty much brought on a panic attack. The hospital found nothing wrong and didn't diagnose anything. A nurse believed I was in trouble and at the very end of my stay gave me some sort of upset stomach medicine like milk of magnesia - even though nothing in my symptoms said "stomach problem". It kinda worked so I did my own research on stomach problems, then the tv started showing ads for Zantac and I found a new doctor and everything fell into place. If you have damage to your esophagus - sores or ulcers you will not be able to tolerate strong acid drinking like apple cider vinegar or pickle juice. It will be very painful. I slurp a capful of vinegar off and on throughout the day and always before I lay down to sleep. Other people drink much more. It is very harsh and hard to swallow and in the beginning you will think you've just poisoned yourself. It is hard medicine but very cheap to buy and the most affective treatment for GERD for me. It doesn't work for everyone. For me, the position of my neck seems to affect my chest quivering. If I bend my neck forward, where my chin is close to my chest it will upset my esophagus and I will have problems (either immediately or days later). I have to sleep with my shoulders raised up on a thin pillow so that my neck does not bend while I sleep. My biggest problem is rolling over in my sleep and sleeping on my stomach (face down). This will push the top of my stomach up through my diaphragm and cause all sorts of pain and discomfort - quivering for days, general unease, touchy and nervous all the time. When your stomach pokes up through your diaphragm it is called a Hiatal Hernia. Mine doesn't do it often and it always slides back down into the correct position so my doctor called it a sliding hiatal hernia (they don't do surgery to repair them). When mine gets bad I find that walking around is the best treatment - the dog gets plenty of midnight walks around the block when things get bad. With my GERD problems, taking the pills calmed things down and after a month or so I was back to normal with the occassional problem. I understood what caused my issues and tried to keep them under control. I cannot eat a large meal after 4 oclock in the evening. I eat my largest meal at lunch time. I can eat anything I want at breakfast unless I know I rolled over in my sleep and upset my esophagus, then I will eat a small boring breakfast without anything strong or sweet tasting. I snack all day. When my GERD is acting up I cannot eat anything extra sweet or flavorful - one jelly bean will cause a weeks worth of problems. I also have to avoid citrus fruits when things are bad. It is a big problem when you're sharing space with people that don't have this problem - people that want to eat pizza as an evening meal, people that enjoy going out late in the evening and eating large amounts of spicy food. You just can't. Your chest will teach you the hard way. After a couple of rounds of painful episodes you'll change your habits. I did not enjoy the endoscopy. But they knock you out completely. There was not any pain or discomfort afterwards. I had it done over 10 years ago and I'm sure they are better at it nowadays. It was nice to see the video of my esophagus and stomach and have everything explained to me. It is the only way to see what's going on. I have since moved to a new state/new city and I have since also had a colonoscopy which went much smoother. If I ever need another endoscopy I will make sure I do it at the same clinic that performed the colonoscopy, they were very good at it.

As has been said before....go to the school board....they made that policy. I volunteered for several years in a program where I ate lunch with elementary grade kids and then spent time reading with them. In this school nearly 90% of the kids were getting free lunch. And the reason why I and the rest of the volunteers were there was not only to boost reading skills but to provide some one on one time and to provide a positive adult role model. The lunches are not horrible...mostly! Things like turkey or ham and cheese sandwich, frozen fruit, or spaghetti green beans a meatball and a cookie, or tacoes or chicken nuggets, corn and mashed potatoes. Apples were always available as was milk both chocolate and plain. There was always white roll or bread of some sort....often a package of teddy grahams. The amount of the food that was tossed was amazing... One little girl ate nothing but bread and chocolate milk....and she was plump. I asked her what her mother fixed for dinner, she said she didn't make dinner so she, the child just got what she wanted to eat. I asked like what....she said pop tarts, lucky charms etc. her mother had no job so all was from wellfare. Another's mother worked at the backery in Wal_Mart so she got all sorts of good stuff. another one time brought his lunch one day because Mom's boy friend had brought Twinkies and Ho ho's or something similar, so her brought that for lunch. I sure am not for banning lunches from home....but as has been said you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. If they are only used to getting garbage at home all the plates of roast turkey mashed potatoes and green beans won't get eaten. Kids who will get a fully subsidized lunch may not eat it and those not eligible may find that $2.25 a day is very expensive. Linda C

Thank you all-- I am researching what everyone has mentioned to see if anything "fits." Carol, I will keep in mind what your friend went through, in case it progresses. We saw a neuro at a nationally famous children's hospital. She does NOT think they are migraines, as the symptoms don't fit, and the typical migraine treatment doesn't work for DD. She thinks the pain is very real but that they are stress-related. :( Hard to say. We are going to be keeping a journal to try to figure out why some days are better than others. However, her treatment is to lie down in quiet for 30 minutes (along with meds/water) and DD is now avoiding complaining because she does not want to lie down. I can see on her face and in her behavior when she is in more pain, even when she does not talk about it. It's still a mystery at this point. I am thinking of alternative medicine next-- maybe acupuncture, and other stress management sources. I am just still worried they are missing something. I know of too many cases where the person was not given a correct dx.

I understand your frustrations. I'm in the same boat with my overweight husband. He always has to eat bad food - fatty foods - bacon cheeseburgers, tons of condiments, french fries, etc. whenever we go out to eat. There are plenty of healthy options, but he can never compromise and it's frustrating. The worst part is, he'll eat bad, and then I get the blame, "why did you let me eat that?" and yet I feel like a nagging wife if we are out somewhere and I'm trying to get him to eat a healthy alternative instead. I bought a huge tub of peanut butter to make suet for birds in the winter. He eats it like it's a meal. He eats honey out of the jar like it's a meal. It frustrates me that he doesn't care. All he wants to do is sit around, eat, watch movies, or go out to eat. I did not grow up in a family who spends their lives in front of the television, so it's really frustrating to me to live such a sedentary lifestyle. I can't even get him to walk the dogs with me at times because he's always "too tired" and if he does, within a half an hour he's complaining for one reason or another and just wants to head home to lay in bed and watch t.v. The thing is, eating disorders run in his family. The grandmother has already shoved food in my mouth when I was sleeping one day, "Here, try this" as she shoves food in my mouth. And if you don't stuff yourself, they nag you, "You didn't eat enough" or "you are too skinny" and this constant pressure to eat food that you aren't hungry for. Then if you give in to their pressure and eat a slice of pie, well a slice is actually one quarter of the entire pie. It's ridiculous. And they are always pushing bad sugar filled foods. My family rarely ate dessert after dinner - his family does consistently. I've tried a dietician, and that works for only so long and then he falls off the wagon. He goes on all these "fad" diets, but then he pressures me to eat like him though I don't have to. Not that I eat bad food choices, but I don't have his metabolism so why should I have to modify my diet too? He also projects his insecurities onto me. No matter how fit I am, he'd make comments to me that I need to work out. I couldn't figure it out at first, until I began to realize he was just projecting. I've tried getting him to do various activities with me - if I ask him to rollerblade, he says I'm too slow and I can't keep up. If I ask him to take martial arts classes with me right up the block, that place isn't good enough and he'd rather go to a place across town (that I know we will be less likely to go because of the distance). If I ask him to walk the dogs with me, he's too tired. In fact, weekend or weekday, once 5:00 rolls around, he's down for the count. He sits on his ass for the rest of the evening and shuts down. Yeah, I totally understand your frustration. My next course of action is to try to get him to see a doctor for an actual eating disorder. Bad foods mean less energy and that all ties in with how we feel about ourselves. When you are married, it affects the entire marriage for obvious reasons and the limitations it creates. Start feeding him vitamins. In terms of allergies, they CAN make you very tired. I've been afflicted my entire life -- there are weekends that my allergies are so bad that I just want to sleep. Many people don't realize that effect of having allergies. The bad thing is, there are side effects with all medications, and sometimes the decongestant and antihistamine combination create insomnia. The antihistamine alone makes me jittery. So, it's a horse a piece. Good luck. I feel for you.