ps. It turns out the gastroenterologist was right in prescribing his homespun remedy I have been eating two tablespoons of organic ground flax seed in a bit of Greek yogurt every single morning since about two weeks after he told me to (at first it was awful and painful but I was still sick) and while I don't always take the apple cider vinegar I have been craving and eating pickles and looked it up online the New Medical Dictionary For All Ills Real Or Imagined and the pickles are doing exactly what the apple cider vinegar does which is to put acid back in my stomach I really wish the gastroenterologist had explained all this to me at the time of our follow up appointment of  course as with most physicians in particular specialists I was treated as a three year old with no ability to comprehend anything beyond tying my shoes Oh hurry summer and warm so I can plant the rest of my garden and eat again straight from the earth thank you