Heartburn 101

So pregnancy has given me 2 new experiences, frequent urination and heartburn. The former started about 4 days ago and the latter happened last night. I've been fortunate up to now not to have to make hourly bathroom trips. Not the case anymore. Now I'm getting up at least twice (if I'm lucky) a night. Yesterday AG and I were at Kaiser at our prenatal class, and even though I had just gone to the restroom, I could barely contain myself while waiting in line to give blood and provide a "clean catch" (as they call it). And I'm not drinking more water than usual (but I should).

But the more painful experience happened last night just before I headed out to the new mall to meet up with Padma for dinner. It started as a tight knot in my stomache that grew to small cramping pains in the chest. As the pain got more intense I started worrying about a possible miscarriage. By the time I met up with Padma and we were sitting down and ordering, I was doubled over in spasms of pain. It felt as if someone reached into my stomache/chest and was squeezing and twisting and punching a knot in there. Silly me, Padma reassured me that it was heartburn, a very bad case of it. I had never experienced heartburn in my life. Supposedly my earlier lunch of greasy chicken nuggets and super greasy onion rings were the culprit. I couldn't believe how painful it could be. Fortunately, the waitress recommended ginger ale, and within minutes of drinking it, the clenching pain began to fade and within another 15 minutes, it was gone. What a good piece of information to have. I've read so many things about pregnant women and heartburn, but misidentified acid reflux as heartburn. I'm sure that this won't be my first case of it (since I also love spicy food - another culprit), but I now have a cure.