r/AskDocs•
riffsix

Drank just shy of 2L of water to deal with pain from GERD. I'm aware water toxicity is a very real concern, how scared should I be?

22M, 300lbs, 5'11"

As the title says. I tried to go to sleep but was struck with pretty sudden and intense acid pain, either from gerd or my lactose intolerance, and the pain in my throat was bad enough that i just kept drinking water to keep it as minimal as possible.

In the end, I drank about 1.9 liters across the span of 20 minutes. I took my last drink about 15 minutes ago and currently feel no adverse effecrs outside of feeling full. After all was said and done, it occurred to me that I drank an amount I already know to be in the danger zone for water toxicity, so I've been eating saltines (and just straight up salt) to try and combat the whole electrolyte imbalance thing, and I'm urinating as frequently as I can to get fluid out of my body.

Is there anything else I can do / need to do? I absolutely cannot afford a hospital visit unless it's an active, life or death emergency, and I feel like I'll know when I'm at that point, but I'd prefer not to get to that point in the first place.

I'm personally not TOO scared because of my size/weight, the fact that my kidneys are, afaik, healthy, and the fact that I'm making sure to keep my sodium up, but I would definitely like a couple second opinions to gauge how concerned I need to be.

Posted Mar 10, 2026, 11:37 AM UTC

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