Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
The symptoms could be exacerbation of the GERD. It could also be hiatal hernia. Treatment is a combination of drugs to reduce the acid and lifestyle changes. You will need to take a combination of medications (under medical supervision) like a proton pump inhibitor such as omeprazole, lansoprazole or pantoprazole empty stomach in the morning and an antacid gel after meals for complete relief. Possibility of H pylori infection too should be looked into by a carbon urea breath test and a combination antibiotic tried. Many a times a persisting H pylori infection can be the cause behind acidity not responding to treatment.
Life style changes that will help include: Avoid heavy meals and eat frequent small meals. Avoid too much of caffeine, tea, smoking, fried food and drinks both alcoholic and non alcoholic fuzzy ones. Avoid heavy exercises within 4 hours of a heavy meal. Raise the head end of the bed by pillows to 30 degrees. Avoid lying down for least 2 hours after food. Maybe these tips will help you.
If these tips do not help, then liver function test, pancreatic enzymes, and HIDA scan for gall bladder should be done. Food intolerance and inflammatory bowel conditions such as IBS, Crohn’s, celiac etc should be considered. Log in what you eat and see if there is a correlation between a certain food type and the symptoms.
You should consult a gastroenterologist (a specialist who looks after the diseases of our digestive system) or a physician for this. Take care!
Also, I never got my hernia taken care of. If you have had a child recently it can be common. My husbands grandma and my aunt both have hernia's in the same spot as I do and they never got them taken care of. If it is one, within a week the pain MIGHT subside a little and in another week it may go away, until you strain yourself doing something, like sit-ups, which I learned the hard way. But every time I strained myself the pain went away in less time and it has been 4 years since I got this hernia and I have not strained it in over a year. I go light on my exercises and do more cardio instead of sit-ups now. However, if you do have one and you exercise regularly on your stomach, I highly suggest getting it taken care of. There is always a chance it will pop back through later on in life though.
Hernia? I have a hernia right above my belly button and it is also a small lump. Did you hurt yourself over the last few days? When I got hurt, I slipt and fell backwards on black ice and smacked down on concrete and hit my head on a concrete step, it popped the hernia right through my stomach and I landed on my back, so that was different. But I also just had a child and my muscle was weak enough for it to go though after falling on my back. I did not experiance any pain in that area for about 2 or 3 days after the accident. It was weird. But the first thing that comes to mind as far as a small bulge in that area that hurts bad, is a hernia.