Hiatal hernia - anyone else have that?

[StephN]

Hi -
Even being NED this long, various other issues crop up.

My May PET/CT mentioned a "small hiatal hernia" in the report (first time). I have not had much in the way of symptoms, so that was news to me.

As of now, all I notice is burping a little more and get the hiccoughs more often.

The "literature" says that about 60% of people over the age of 60 will have this defect show up. My next scan is in a couple of weeks so I will be curious to see the difference.

Just wondered if others have hiatal hernia and how you deal with it.

[Yorkiegirl]

Yes, I have one as well. I have to take 2 Prilosec every day. I also have to becareful what I eat.

[Pam P]

I have one too. I take omeprazole 20 mg once a day. If I eat certain things or right before bed I get heartburn so I try to avoid that. I think I've had the h. hernia for several years now. It hasn't ever gotten larger as reported on the scans.

[ElaineM]

I have had that. I was at my doc's office when it happened. I got such a bad chest pain and asked his assistant to get him right away. He checked me for heart attack and all the other possibilities. He told me what happened and said my stomach was pushing on my other organs. He helped me get on the table and re postioned my stomach. It was pretty uncomfortable, but re positioning it did the trick. My abdomen was a bit tender from all the pushing for a few days, but that got better and avoided gastrointestinal surgery and/or invasive testing. I reported the incident to my other doc who checked it a few days later and told me it was much better. Now I get much less heartburn !! If you are going to have an emergency do it in a doc's office. Smile everyone !!

[tricia keegan]

Me too Steph!

I had just finished my year of herceptin and still had no apettite and continued to lose weight. I had myself convinced it was esophagal cancer so when they did an endoscopy I had a nice surprise to hear this.
(never thought I'd welcome one lol)
I've been taking a daily nexium ever since which keeps it under control for me although I do have problems if I eat greasy or fried foods and also wine:(

[Marlys]

Steph,
I was diagnosed in 1968 after my first child was born. The treatment was to eat frequent smaller, bland, lo fat meals and sleep sitting up. They might as well have told me to cut off my head. Next, in 1977, after a gall bladder attack and an upper G.I. series I had a cholecystectomy and a hiatal hernia repair for a "large sliding hiatal hernia". No symptoms for a few years. However, I'm sure you have heard that surgery does not always produce permanent results. When I started having all the troubles with my Chron's disease the upper G.I series now showed that in fact the hernia was fixed and at least half of my stomach now resides in my chest along with my esophagus and lungs. And, amazingly, I pretty much am symptom free as long as I don't eat too fast, chew my food enough, and take Nexium. I am not sorry I had the surgery but I will not do it again if I can control the symptoms with common sense. I assume you know that it is a herniation of your stomach through the diaphragm into the chest. Oh, I also quit wearing a girdle in 1968, which really helped, as you might imagine. Does anyone still wear them???
Anyway, hope you do O.K. with this.
Love & hugs,
Marlys

[Joy]

and a chiropractor fixed it with some repositioning. That was years ago and I have had no problems since. I hope whatever you choose works and works fast, cause they can get to be miserable. Still think we should all be exempt from other medical conditions-or maybe even make a trade-in.

[StephN]

Thanks for the reports, Ladies.
Had not thought of a chiropractor as Joy suggested, but there is a good guy in my neighborhood. Might give them a call and see what he says.

Had my Ct scan today, and they will see what the H hernia is looking like now. Then I can go from there.

Since I rarely eat anything greasy (no junk food in this house), but DO drink a little wine, I am probably not doing myself any noticeable harm with the wine at present.

What specific foods bother those who did not list them yet??

[JustwannaBE]

Hi StephN: I have had a small hiatal hernia for the last 20 years. My gyno is the one who found it back then as I thought I was swallowing my tongue when I would sleep on my right side and start vomiting and it would burn my throat, so he ordered an upper GI and found it. Back then, Zantac was only by prescription so I would pop one when I felt it coming on. He told me being overweight, chocolate, alcohol and eating at least 2 hours before going to bed can make the acid reflux happen. I don't have problems with it much, but when I do, I pop a zantac (over the counter now - 150's). I also noticed that when I was on chemo, it really flared up, but off chemo, no problems. I noted that I went for about 3 months without taking any zantac and thought, wow, this is great. I eat anything I want, I just don't eat after 7:30 at night, and if I do, I watch how much and what it is and then, if I feel I need to, pop a zantac before going to bed. Every scan that I get shows it, and it is nothing for me to worry about. Before breast cancer, I used to drink alot, and that would bother it, and I would take a zantac before going to bed if I drank. Since breast cancer, I quit drinking and have lost 20 pounds and I attribute that not having minimal problems with it. Good luck, and don't worry to much about it. Mine hasn't grown any in over 20 years. Just take a prescription if your dr gives you one, or try either pepcid or zantac (either 75's or 150's) to stop the acid reflux from happening. To me, pepcid took too long to work, zantac works much faster for me (usually within an hour). And boy, make sure you have whatever you are going to take always on hand, because the only way to make it stop happening, once it starts, is to sleep sitting up (and I have done that on many occasions because I was out of it). Cheers and take care.