My partner and I biked 100 miles in the Pumpkin Pie Ride Century in Ottowa, IL, on 10/2/2011, to raise money for digestive health research through the Digestive Health Alliance. We raised $100, a dollar for each mile!

I’ve been working with people who have digestive disorders for 11 years now. In that time I’ve spoken to thousands of patients. Many are homebound. Almost all are limited in the types of activities they can participate in. It’s up to those of us who don’t have that limitation to do something to help them.

There’s also a family connection. Both my dad, my sister, and myself have “always” had nighttime reflux. As a kid, I knew I could always hit up my dad for some Tums – they stayed on his bedside table. He never left the house without Rolaids in his pocket. In middle school I started sleeping on a pile of pillows to elevate my torso, which helped somewhat. In the mid 2000’s we were all diagnosed with GERD. My symptoms improved significantly when I started omeprazole in 2005, but it didn’t work for either my dad or my sister. My dad ended up on rabeprazole, and my sister on esomeprazole, but both still have symptoms fairly frequently. There’s one other difference between us – in June 2008 I took up cycling. Between June 2008 and July 2009 I lost 80 lbs, and my GERD almost entirely went away. My dad and sister aren’t so lucky. They still are suffering from GERD, and are still in search of effective treatments to help relieve their symptoms.

If you'd like to see more research into treatments for GERD, you can still support our ride: