Hietal Hernia

[mildie]

I have been told I have a large  hietal hernia.  I am trying
to lose weight, plus take nexium.  I do not have heartburn per
say.  My problem is I have a constant cough which causes
gagging, dry heaves anytime during the day & at night I spend
the night coughing (have bed propped up, etc.)  If I bend over
it causes me to get nauseous and start heaving, etc.  I also have
a umbilical hernia which the Dr. says not to do anything about.
It is very large and protrudes from the belly button. Would
the 2 of them together cause this sickness?  I am not wanting
surgery if there is any other way to take care of this problem,
if this is the cause.  I have seen more than one doctor and they
all give the same diagnosis.  I have not seen them since I
started the constant nauseau, dry heaving & coughing.  Would
like your opinion if it could be caused by something else since
it has gotten worse?  I sometimes have wheezing along with this
condition.  It is embarrassing to say the least because I never
know when it going to happen.,  I do know that a change of
temperature sometimes causes it, from getting into a hot car
from air condtioning.  Thank you for any help you might offer.
I will be seeing a Dr. soon, but would like to know what you
have to offer as advice.

[Kevin Pho, MD]

Chronic cough can be caused by reflux stemming from the hiatal hernia.  Other possibilities can include asthmas as well as chronic post-nasal drip.  

With the presence of a hiatal hernia, it would be reasonable to pursue the reflux avenue.  A 24-hr pH study can definitive rule in or out the presence of reflux.  If this is the case, a proton-pump inhibitor (i.e. Protonix or Prilosec) would be the initial treatment.  If medications cannot control this, then surgery would have to be considered.

Tests to evaluate the other possibilities would be pulmonary function tests or a methacholine challenge to evaluate for asthma, or a sinus CT to evaluate for sinusitis leading to post-nasal drip.  

These options can be discussed with your personal physician.

Followup with your personal physician is essential.

This answer is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice - the information presented is for patient education only. Please see your personal physician for further evaluation of your individual case.

Kevin, M.D.
http://www.straightfromthedoc.com

[breeze111]

sounds just like my mother and hers was lung cancer stage 4 that doctors failed to look for.. it took a emergency room doctor to find it..in both lungs and lived on the purple pill and protonx.. you name it..

[breeze111]

Hietal Hernia,Reflux Esophagitis.. what her doctor always told her and all the specilest she went to told her also untill this month a doctor at a emergency room hospital (not the hospital she was put in in may either!!found different-  my mother had thyroid problems and had her thyroid removed , Then in may of 2005 she was in the hospital in which she thought it was the flu, Throwing up and fever just sick and X-rays were done and blood taken, she thought because she could not swallow good that her hitial hernia was acting up, when she came out of the hospital she started loosing weight and she weighed a good 230 pounds and always complained of her throat a knot in it and hard to swallow for 4 months, she said the food would come up from her throat and so she thought that was what was causing her to loose a lot of weight because she thought it was her hitial hernia acting up and so did her doctor. She said it felt like something clogged in her throat, She was on medication for it, she thought it was from the flu she had in may, well this sept she got where she could not swallow with out coughing up flame and the weight loss became to much in a week and a month and it still bothered her so she went to the emergency room at another hospital, They did a cat scan and it was lung cancer in both lungs stage 4 , small cell and in the throat it was closeting up , no radiation just chemo but the survival is hopeless , they said they can open the throat some and that's it , 4 cancer doctors said if only they would have did a cat scan and pt scan and more bloodwork at her doctors office and in the hospital, maybe they could of found it faster.. So I would tell everyone if you think you have a hitial hernia and problems swallowing do not waite around for she was also on thyroid meds and protonix for the stomach and throat.. and all this time wasted was lung cancer in both lungs and we thought she was on a diet and the hitial hernia was acting up to why it bothered her to swallow.. you seek further help and do not rely on some doctors or hospitals like she did ..you can be fooled like she was..and the x-ray of the chest did not show it!! and the tube down the throat. she also thought that is what caused her throat to hurt when she had that done in may.. also .. no sines of blood either just problems swollowing and weight loss.. it has been a blow to us for she was always healthy except for that problem with her Hietal Hernia, and thyroid .. senthyroid she was on also.. such a shock to us and her .. she got mad .. my family called the doctor and told them off!!

[breeze111]

I was reading this in the forum Topic: Swallowing
Subject: suggestions on lump in throat feeling .. all of it my mom would complain about .. she had the colon test done scope down the throat .. all of it and the complaining of the  Hietal Hernia went to specilist all of it.. do not take chances .. you seek other opions from other doctors and if you get no answers you keep seeking untill they find out what it is!! I am looseing my mother from doctors and hospitals mistakes.. and that copd **** they always claim is bull!!

[mildie]

   Thank you for your information.  I will pass it along to
   my new doctor.  I hope your mother will have peaceful and
   calm days in the future.  Put your faith in God and His
   will will be done.

[breeze111]

Your welcome,My older sister and us children are getting ready to file a lawsuite on the Doctor and Hospital, On this, Then hopefully and lets pray that no doctor or hospital makes the mistakes again when the symptoms were plain as day that they failed to over look, Of course the hospital was sued once before for injecting this familys mother with a wrong shot inwhich killed her and that was around a year ago,This is what my mom was Diagnose with by four cancer doctors out of the town in which we live at, #4 Extensive Lung Cancer (100% coverage)  in Both Lungs, also Extensive Metastatic Cancer in the Entire Body. on sept 27th2005 - on the 25th at ut hospital in knoxville report from emergency room- History: lung Nodule.     Weight loss. Dysphagia - Comparison: Chest X ray. Technique:Routine Noncontrast ct of the chest.  Findings:Adenopathy is present throughout the mediastium, with the largest nodes in the right paratracheal and subcarinal regions measuring up to 15mm in short axis diameter. Extensive atherosclerotic clarification involves the aorta and  pulmonary arteries. A moderate hiatal hernia is present with fluid within the distal esophagus. There are innumerable bilateral pulmonary nodules with the largest lesionmeasureing 11x 8 mm in the left upper lobe on image # 23 and 9x8 mm in the right lower lobe on image # 26. soft tissue mass in the infrahilar region on the left is intimately associated with the left lower lobe bronchi and measures up to 3.1 x 2.1 cm in diameter on image # 28.There is no penumothrox, pleural or pericardial effusion.The bony thorox is intact with no suspicious lesion.  Extrathoracic soft tissues are unremarkable. Limited images of the upper abdomen demonstrate atherosclerotic soft tissues are unremarkable. Limited images of the upper abdomen demonstrate atherosclerotic vascular calcifications and a 17 mm nodule in the left adrenal gland on image # 50 with density of 3.6 HU, CONSISTENT WITH A BENIGN LIPID-RICH ADENOMA. There is thickening of the right adrenal gland without discrete mass or nodule.  Impression:  1. Innumerable noncalcified bilateral pulmonary and mediastinal adenopathy are consistent with metastatic disease. soft tissue mass in the infrahilar region on the left intimately associated with the left lower lobe bronchi could could represent  a primary mailignant  lesion or an additional metastatic focus,  Consider bronchoscopy  for further evaluation.  2. Hiatal hernia.  3. Benign left adernal adenoma.  results were called to dr. smith from KIP on  the morning of 9/21/ 2005 by DR. Bowen.(the day she was admitted)

ct scan showed lung cancer in both lungs after this test was done inoperable..  Her Doctor whom she has now dropped in the town in which she went to for years is a Pulmanary Dr. Heart and Lungs, Internal Medicine also Sleep Disorders, (words of advice always seek 2 and 3 doctors if the one you trust or think you do still does no answers for you, I wish to god my mom would have for his records we just got he was treating her for copd and the Hitial hernia, and bloodpressure and cough and said in his records it was sinus problems.. watch who you trust!!!!make sure the hospital you go to have not had lawsuites in the past for past mistakes!! that they do read xrays scans ,etc

[breeze111]

we have been looking into other alternitives what do you think about this treatment > and what is the best cancer center in america if anyone know please put it in here also is the mayo clinic good for the treatment of cancers in stage 4? This makes sense-http://www.gerson.org/about/programs.asp   Max Gerson, M.D. was born in Wongrowitz, Germany (1881). He attended the universities of Breslau, Wuerzburg, Berlin, and Freiburg. Suffering from severe migraines, Dr. Gerson focused his initial experimentation with diet on preventing his headaches. One of Dr. Gerson’s patients discovered in the course of his treatment, that the “migraine diet” had cured his skin tuberculosis. This discovery led Gerson to further study the diet, and he went on to successfully treat many tuberculosis patients. His work eventually came to the attention of famed thoracic surgeon, Ferdinand Sauerbruch, M.D.

Under Sauerbruch’s supervision, Dr. Gerson established a special skin tuberculosis treatment program at the Munich University Hospital. In a carefully monitored clinical trial, 446 out of 450 skin tuberculosis patients treated with the Gerson diet recovered completely. Dr. Sauerbruch and Dr. Gerson simultaneously published articles in a dozen of the world’s leading medical journals, establishing the Gerson treatment as the first cure for skin tuberculosis.

At this time, Dr. Gerson attracted the friendship of Nobel prize winner Albert Schweitzer, M.D., by curing Schweitzer’s wife of lung tuberculosis after all conventional treatments had failed. Gerson and Schweitzer remained friends for life, and maintained regular correspondence. Dr. Schweitzer followed Gerson’s progress as the dietary therapy was successfully applied to heart disease, kidney failure, and finally – cancer. Schweitzer’s own Type II diabetes was cured by treatment with Gerson’s therapy.

In 1938, Dr. Gerson passed his boards and was licensed to practice in the state of New York. For twenty years, he treated hundreds of cancer patients who had been given up to die after all conventional treatments had failed.

In 1946, Gerson demonstrated recovered patients before the Pepper-Neely Congressional Subcommittee, during hearings on a bill to fund research into cancer treatment. Although only a few peer-reviewed journals were receptive to Gerson’s then “radical” idea that diet could effect health, he continued to publish articles on his therapy and case histories of healed patients.

In 1958, after thirty years of clinical experimentation, Gerson published A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases. This medical monograph details the theories, treatment, and results achieved by a great physician. Gerson died in 1959, eulogized by long-time friend, Albert Schweitzer M.D.: “...I see in him one of the most eminent geniuses in the history of medicine. Many of his basic ideas have been adopted without having his name connected with them. Yet, he has achieved more than seemed possible under adverse conditions. He leaves a legacy which commands attention and which will assure him his due place. Those whom he has cured will now attest to the truth of his ideas.”

[mildie]

Contact your local cancer society to find out where
the best cancer treatments can be had.  Explain to them
that your mother is in State IV.  Just be careful not
to take anyone's advice other than professionals as there
are so many quack treatment centers out there.  Hope this
helps a little.

[donna-donuts]

I've had a dry cough for months now, but I smoke. Now, in the evening or overnight, I have like asthma atrtacks. I was worried about lung cancer, so went to my family doctor. She said there was a little noise in my left lung so did an x-ray and bloowork. According to her, my x-ray showed a little imflamation in the ledft bronchi and what could be just a little sputum. My bloodwork showed that my white count was up a little. She put my on prevacid, albuterol inhaler and an antibiotic. I needed to know what the radiologist thought and my dr. was onvacation so I spoke to a triosch nurse and demanded my radiologist report. He said everything was normal. I have some of the same symptoms as your mother. Now I'm freeking out since I read your posts. I'm actually having anxiety attacks because I thought there was nothing more to be worried about.