How can I keep myself upright while sleeping?

@cjj2
I also like to sleep with my head elevated. A few years ago, I invested in an adjustable bed that lets me raise the mattress at the head and/or foot. My mom took a more inexpensive approach. She used a rolled up area rug, put between the box spring and mattress at the head of the bed to raise the mattress. Your mattress would have to be flexible enough to bend. Even a few wedge pillows or a foam roll might help elevate the mattress. You can also buy products called "Under-Mattress Wedges" for this purpose.

Good luck in finding a solution.

Hi, Laurie,
Thanks for the ideas. I never thought of putting the wedge pillow under the mattress. I’ll try that.
Thanks again!
Connie J.

@cjj2 another thing you could try is bed risers (they come in a pack of four, it you need only two) under the two legs/casters at the head of your bed.

I used bed risers for many years, but recently bought an adjustable bed which is great because I can raise or lower the top of my bed as needed with a remote any night. Some nights I need my bed raised higher than on other nights.

We all tend to slide down at night... to get more flat... and to roll to one side or another. Although I can comfortably do this now (I no longer sleep elevated), this certainly was not true my first 12 to 18 months post-op.
But friction helps! Use a flannel fitted sheet and wear flannel or textured pajama bottoms... this will prevent you from sliding anywhere... it's like wearing velcro!
And lock yourself in with long side pillows wedged against you.

Also... if you're having nasty reflux... maybe try the opposite of our normal bedtime prep rules. Go ahead and still take a swig of Gaviscon Advance at bedtime... but after that... go ahead and eat a bagel or something voluminous... right at bedtime! This will top off your stomach and keep it busy... the acid (or bile) won't so easily escape and come up at 3 am. Anyway... worth a shot.

Gary,
Southern California

Thanks for the ideas to try!

Thanks for the bed riser idea, also. One, or a combination of these ideas, should work.

@roch I bought a special mattress that fits on top of my mattress on Amazon. It was about $200 and I sleep with that Plus on pillows and I put a wedge underneath my knees so that I won't have a sore back and when I wake up at night, I make sure I'm still up high. I had to go on two omeprazole a day because I was having reflux episodes 40 mg in the morning and 40 mg at night at 7 PM. I get up at around 4:15 in the morning and start my exercise and my drinking water and then I eat it around 5:30 my first breakfast my second breakfast at 8:30 my lunch shit around 1 o'clock and my last meal at 4:30, which is a very very, very small meal. I try to drink about 10 glasses of water a day mostly because I'm the kind of person that makes stones, but I think it also helps my IBS. I'm almost 7 years past surgery, but I took swallowing lessons because I had aspirational pneumonia in July but that was because I had uncontrollable refluxes in December January, March and June and July and that's when I got on the extra omeprazole so I've only had two tiny little bouts of reflux since July nothing nothing nothing like what I had before when it was 40 minutes of burning throat coat. Tea is very helpful if you wake up with very bad burning at that time I also took Pepto-Bismol and Pepcid I also take three 20 mg of Pepcid a day. I do have trouble burping a lot, which cannot be fixed. Says my Gastro so I take two times at around 10:10 AM. I do have a lot of phlegm. I hope some of this helps you naomi shapiro.

@naoshapiro1 @cjj2 @roch when I get the chest pains with acid reflux, I take a few sips of water and that eases it. Also, I avoid bending or lifting anything.

Thank you. I, too, would find it helps to take a few sips of water, and avoid bending over

Hi, Naomi,
Thanks for your tips - they are helpful! It sounds like we are on a similar routine with the omeprazole and the Pepcid. My esophagectomy was 4 years ago and I’m still learning how to manage all the digestive issues that resulted from the surgery. At least, I’m doing much better than I was the first year. Thanks, again!
Connie J.