Has anyone had a hiatal hernia?

Any nurses, Dr’s, or anyone with medical knowledge is appreciated

Just checked with my wife, the nurse. she asked if you have been under a lot of stress? you may have an ulcer or acid reflux. try drinking a pint of half and half coffee creamer. real milk, not a substiture. drink it all. purpose is to coat your stomach lining. if you have an ulcer, this should give you temporary relief and noticeable by you. it this works, Maalox has helped me in the past to heal an ulcer. let us know.

Other irritants for acid reflux or heartburn (particularly if you lie down afterwards) are chocolate, mint, acidic stuff like citrus fruits and tomatoes), overeating and wolfing your food. Edit; no spicy foods.

I would suggest trying an antiacid before dairy products. Sorry. I see that you have tried that.

Try some milk. See if it helps. Cream is very fatty, remember.

How about very small meals of safe stuff like white rice, white bread, lettuce and chicken breasts?

A while ago I was…but not so much anymore. I used to have a lot of heartburn problems but only once in a while would I get any heartburn…I know it’s definitely acid reflux. I’m just scared of the damage as it has been non stop. Coffee creamer? Well, I don’t own any seeing as I don’t drink coffee! lol, An ulcer is possible? Yes i have been having a lot of Maalox, but I stopped cause it said you can’t use it for more than 2 weeks so I’ve been trying to give my stomach a break?

Antacid before dairy? Really? I though dairy would coat your stomach? And i have been staying away from anything I could think of to prevent it worsening, but it’s worse than I’ve ever felt! Even worse than the end of pregnancy!

Here is one example of a GERD diet. Both the do’s and the don’t’s.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/gerd-diet-restrictions.html

You do need to see a gastro. He’ll probably do an endoscopy to see what is going on. It doesn’t sound like a hernia to me, but I’m not a doc. I do, however, have one. What happens to me is more of an “attack” with heart attack symptoms—not a prolonged period of pain. It may be different for different people though. I find ice cold water to calm it down when it happens. I take a Prilosec each day which pretty much keeps me attack-free.

My husband had one. Antacids didn’t work on him. At first they thought he had an ulcer. Thirty years ago, the solution for ulcers was lots of cream and milk products. He had quart after quart of half and half, which didn’t help either. He had prolonged pain like you, but not quite as bad. Eventually he had surgery and they wrapped a fold of the stomach around the bottom of the esophagus, took a little tuck, and sewed it down. It solved his problems.

My dad has one. He takes prilosec for it, but he has had it since I can remember, which was way before they invented that drug. Anyway, he gets his esophagus checked every so often for signs of damage or precancer.

But, you said your symptoms just started, so don’t get all caught up in this diagnosis I would say. My questions are these:

1. are you constipated?
2. Have you taken any meds recently that can cause ulcers like ibuprofen, aspirin, fosimax, augmentin, there are so many it is impossible to list them all.
3. Has there been any major event in your life that would be stressful, a death, birth, divorce, moving to a new city, etc.?
4. Have you ever had abdominal surgery? Or, serious pelvic infections?

If the answer to all of the above is no and it doesn’t let up, I think you need to be scoped so they can see what is wrong.

Before jumping to conclusions (take into account that I’d be going by what you respond and without the benefit of an actual physical evaluation. Any diagnostic information you get online will be dubious at best since it’s based on a perception that may or may not be erroneous and cannot substitute a proper examination. I am an MD and I would strongly suggest that you do go in for your gastro appointment. There’s no way to diagnose a problem online with any degree of certainty.

Having said that I’d like to ask your age, what your occupation is, what your diet is like, fluid intake, smoking and or drinking habits as well as any previous GI issues and any medication or supplements you may be taking.

As far as the symptoms you describe a hernia is a possibility. The surgery someone mentioned before on the thread is the standard procedure and is called a Nissen fundoplication. It’s a bit more involved that what was mentioned but is an endoscopic procedure and it’s relatively simple.

As far as taking milk for your heart burn, It depends on whether you are drinking whole milk or skim milk. The fat in milk (any dietary fat, for that matter) “triggers” the stomach to kick up its production of acid and digestive enzymes. Any food will do this, but fat happens to be pretty good at it. Consequently, one of the common bits of advice we give people with GERD is to reduce the fat content in their diet. In particular, the evening meal needs to be as low in fat as possible.

Does skim milk help neutralize stomach acid? Perhaps a bit, but I suspect that this buffering quality is overwhelmed by the stomach’s amazing ability to produce acid and digestive enzymes. So in all reality it might be doing more harm than good.

I’ll check back to see if you’ve posted a response and if you’d like we can continue this via PM.

Hope that helps.

Thanks guys for all the input….

JLeslie: I’m on Propranolol and Ativan….but I was slowing stopping it (Ativan) and troubles started.

Dr C:

I’m 21, Stay at home mom, My diet isn’t the greatest but I do the best with what I got…deff a lot of breads! I can say that! I always drink water and sometimes orange juice but I drink water all day long…never smoking, drink (like a glass of wine or wine cooler) like once a month, but haven’t had anything in about 2–3 months due to being on Ativan…I used to have heartburn quit a lot, but since I was pregnant ( almost 4 years ago) I have only had it once in a while…so not much trouble since then….
I am on Propranolol and Ativan…My dr gave me samples of Aciphex a week ago I took one then stopped cause I was so sick to my stomach (and have been since) and my mom wanted me to try the natural approach, so she got me some enzymes to take called Parazyme that’s supposed to help with heartburn, and digestion and help your stomach acids and I’ve been taking them 3 times a day with meals, and also Heartburn Stop tablets to try to help…and of course tums, and liquid Maalox, just trying to get through my days…which nothing has taken it away, so today I took another Aciphex to give that a try….
Thank you for giving me your insight

@Steverpeeps I’ll tell you my short story. I am very bad at swallowing pills and one evening I took a big generic ibuprofen reluctantly because no one ever accepts that I have trouble swallowing pills (but that is beside the point, I just mention it because it really bother me). Anyway, the next morning I woke up in incredible pain in my esophagus. I went to the hospital and they kept saying my stomach, and I said, “no, my esophagus, I am afaid I scratched it on a teabag staple or maybe a bone or something, that is how it feels.” The pain was constant, no relief. They took an xray of me and somehow I got lucky and they saw something odd on the xray. They scoped me and I had mega huge ulcers in my esophagus, seems the pill had not gone down well, and laid in my esophagus all night and ate away at the lining of my esophagus. Just before I was discharged with a prescription and advice to swallow a teaspoon of chloroseptic every so often for relief (which really worked by the way) the nurse said to me, “there was a problem on the xray, it should not have shown anything, it was a random mark, if you had not been adamant about thinking something was poking or stabbing you, they may not have found out what was wrong.”

I still take ibuprofen, but always with several ounces of water and at least a few crackers. I have never had a problem again. If one of the drugs you take is known to irritate the stomach or cause ulcers, maybe this will help you, or someone else, or help you some time in the future.

Another thing, I had very bad stomach pain for a long time off and on; very bad. Literally up in my stomach, kind of behin my left breast, but the pain would go through to my back. After a few years I had exploratory surgery and my ovary and tube on my left side was in a ball and stuck to my colon. The doctor separated my ovary from my colon and 95% of my digestive pain went away.

You mentioned a choking feeling, do you have a goiter?

No, goiter that I know of!
That’s an amazing story! Because I’ve never taken pills until the last month or so and they go down my throat but hurt my chest at the bottom of my esophagus so so so badly… I will check right now if that’s possible if they can cause ulcers! Never thought of that! Your ovary was stuck to your colon?!? I didn’t know that was possible! You feel better now? How did they fix your ulcer?

@Steverpeeps I still have the photos of those ulcers, that story pisses me off, because my whole life my dad and others have not been willing to accept that I have difficulty swallowing. I doubt the ativan causes any trouble. The other drug I tried to google but had a hard time finding the insert on line. From what I did read it does not appear that it can cause ulcers, but if you are supposed to take it with food, or not lie down for a half an hour after taking that would indicate it does cause ulcers. You can just call your pharmacy and ask if that is a known side effect. Don’t call your doctor, they are many times clueless to side effects and most likely won’t bother to look the drug up before answering. However, no matter what the known side effects are, if you think the problem started with the medication, then you might tell your doctor to either change meds, or see if he has had other patients with the same problem.

Does your pain radiate from your stomach and come up your throat? Or, is it a constant pain in one very specific area? Does it come an go?

I took Carafate, a liquid med that heals the ulcers. I felt like crap when I took that med. Not bad enough to stop, but made me feel odd. And the first few days I “drank” the chloroseptic as I mentioned above.

Yeah I had the same prob with my family and they are like just do it and I’m like I just really can’t! Oy! Yes it does and it radiates past that to my neck shoulder and head.
I went back to the ER last night an the de said I prolly do have an ulcer… So he put me on prilosec. They have liquid stuff for ulcers? And it didn’t make you feel very well?

Mine did not radiate, I had very specific pain where the ulcers were, like a knife, it was only a couple of inches below the bottom of my neck, not down near where my stomach starts and radiating up. I don’t think you have an ulcer. Are you constipated? Do you see any relation to eating specific foods? My husband went through three years of not being able to eat peanut butter because he would get heartburn, and then it went away mysteriously. Is that drug you are taking, Propranolol, the type that you take for a while and it builds up in your system? Maybe it is affecting how the part of your stomach that keeps the acid in functions since it is a new drug for you?

Is the pain on your right side also? Kind of near, or below the right breast?

Carafate is to heal ulcers, I think it coats them? Prilosec is to reduce stomach acid. I guess you can argue that the acid agravates the ulcers, but I kind of think of it as two different things.

One last thing. You have to stop going to the ER and see a gastro guy. The ER only cares that you don’t die on their watch, that’s it. They are not specialists. Well, I don’t mean stop if you are having atrue emergency, if you become very accute then they will finally figure it out probably, but who wants to becoe that accute. They are testing heart enzymes every time probably, and giving you stomach meds hoping it will work, not really diagnosing you.

Yeah I know but I was so dizzy and sick and wanted them to do an xray or a barium swallow but they didn’t but they gave me mess to help so it was kinda worth it for that. And the nurse told me about a better gastro to go to so that’s a plus….my pain is mostly right between the breasts and very constant and I haven’t eaten much in the last week or anything that could really upset it….yeah the propranolol could deff be doing that! That carafate… Did you have to get a prescription for that?

Yes Carafate is a script. I don’t remember, does mylanta or tums help your symptoms? You say constant, never goes away? never changes when you eat something. Doesn’t change when you have a bowel movement? Always the same? Is the pain worse than labor pains?

Oh ok. Yeah they help for a couple mins then it comes right back, yeah it’s constant…I would say labor pains hurts a bit worse but it’s the next step down with UTI

They say gall bladder pain is worse than labor pains, plus usually that is felt on the right side, justthought I would ask. I say get in to see the gastro guy and get scoped probably. Although, if I were you I would try switching the meds first.