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Frustrated! Gerd / hiatal hernia

I am 28 years old and went to the hospital June 09 with what I thought was a heart attack. My symptoms were: radiating back and chest pains mostly on my left side, trouble breathing, knot in my throat, throwing up, severe acid reflux, stomach burning, etc.. They sent me home and said my gallbladder needed to be removed and to follow a low fat diet. I did as they said, but the next night was even worse. I went back and was admitted... saw a GI specialist and he said the gallbladder was fine and that it was most likely a hiatal hernia. They kept me a few days and did multiple tests (none of them was an endoscopy). I was sent home with Protonix and said things should get better within 6 weeks and to follow the Gerd diet. As a side note while in the hospital I was on a liquid only diet through an IV... after 5 or 6 days I was sent home, but the IV arm had become swallon and was very painful. They said this was common due to infultration of the Iv and to go home and put ice on it. I was in alot of pain, but did what they suggested. They next day I was in so much pain from the arm I could not move it, a nurse friend of mine suggested I get it looked at.... I went back to the hospital and have a sonogram done in which they discovered the entire arm had massive amounts of blood clots. This entire time my hernia was also cause great amounts of pain. I was then adimitted to the hospital again for the blood clots and was in this time close to 2 weeks. I have had only one doctor so far admit that the IV being left in too long can cause clots. They say it is rare to even get them in the arm to start with....I have had every test possible done on my entired body with hospital bills / doctors bills closing in around $100k and going.... they checked for lupus, crohons, etc. with nothing showing up.

I am now on a blood thinner to help the clots from forming and waiting on the existing ones to dissolve. I am still on Protonix for the hernia although they were never able to confirm the hernia with an upper GI x-ray  (they say that is common if the hernia is small... also I am short so my torso is short) and they will not do an endoscopy because of fear that I could bleed to death if something were to go wrong due to being on the blood thinners. I have tried all of the suggestions... I eat small meals, I don't eat after 7pm, go to bed around 11, take my medicine at night and supplement with tums or maalox during the day, I sleep almost completely sitting up. I can eat almost nothing - which includes nothing spicy or anything with any kind of sauce, no chocolate, no caffiene, nothing minty, no beef, nothing fried or containing over 10 grams of fat, nothing carbonated, nothing with citrus, no tomato /garlic /onion... in addition to these restrictions I also am on a coumadin diet (blood thinner) meaning nothing green, or anything with oils and certain other things containing vitaming K. This makes what I can have very limiting. Almost everything I eat bothers me, after being able to only eat a small meal I have severe burping/ hiccups which can last hours. I wake up in the night not being able to breathe. I have constant panic attacks or anxiety which I am not sure is from the hernia or the blood thinner. I cannot watch anything with violence or sad as it makes me very nervous and jittery. In addition I get very dizzy and tire easy from the blood thinner changing doses weekly. Additionally I have "passing out" spells where I get so tired I cannot move much or speak normally lasting 5 minutes which I am also attributing to the blood thinner as it started when I started taking it. A friend of mine said this can be caused by anemia. I have also developed pain under my ribcage on the left hand side as the hernia seems to be getting worse.

I was out of work for over a month with these issues and continue to be out often. I am sooooooooooo frustrated at this point. I have lost 26 pounds in 2 months from loss of appetite and diet restrictions. You think it would have helped the hernia as some say it will, but it has not. There is nothing more the doctors will do for my stomach until I am off of the blood thinner which they say could be 4-6 months or more.... I have been looking for any natural remedies that I can do for the hiatal hernia, but have not had much luck. I am tired of waking up in pain, and being a nut all the time about food and what I can eat. There is almost nothing I can eat that doesn't bother me and I am tired of plain grilled chicken. Can anyone help? I have heard surgery doesn't seem all that great either... am I going to live like this forever? What can I do to make this better?  
6 Responses
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620923 tn?1452915648
Hi and welcome to the GERD forum.

Wow, u have been thru the ringer.....goodness. I wish I could say I am a dr and here is what u need to do, but I can not...I am just like u...just a person with a hiatal hernia.....I have not had issues like urs tho.

I would ask if u were checked for a bacteria called H. Pylori....I say it alot, but it can get overlooked and cause alot of problems.

Keep us posted on ur progress
"selma"
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Thanks for your reply.... they did check me for it and it was negative even with it being negative they put me on a 2 week regiman of antibiotics just in case. It didn't change anything unfortunately. I appreciate the suggestion :)
Helpful - 0
620923 tn?1452915648
...hmmmmm...and they checked ur Gall Bladder?


I am sorry, I have no idea....please keep us posted on ur progress.

"selma"
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Avatar universal
So I am now 29 soon to be going on 30 and still having problems.... since my above post I have had an endoscopy to rule out a hiatal hernia, they also ruled out ulcers and any kind of stomach problems as they did a biopsy of the stomach tissue which was fine. I also had a digestion study done which showed my food following the normal breakdown in 2 hours or less.

I continued having attacks mostly durning the night, sometimes with what seemed like no connection to food bothering me. For whatever reason It gets much worse during menstration... also still having the mini passing out episodes where I just get so tired all of a sudden I can't talk, walk, sit up, etc. They normnally last less then 3 minutes, but come out of nowhere. I randomly get what feels like sudden drops in blood sugar which have me sweating heavily and feeling as though I will pass out they normally also pass within a few minutes. The GI doctors were finally stumped and referred me to a surgeon who seemed to think he could help me. Last week I had my gallbladder removed... I still have all of the same problems afterwards except now I have to watch what I eat even more it seems..... I am so frustrated and at this point am thinking it has to be something neurological or possibly an auto-immune disease. The week it originally started over a year ago now the only things that were different in my life was that I went to a water park for the first time and got a very severe sunburn. I have visited a neurologist who mentioned Porphyria to me... some kind of genetic disorder which I do have some symptoms of... but then I also have some symptoms of everything I think. I cannot express how lost I am in all of this... I am on the verge of being fired from work for missing so much due to being sick. I would really appreciate any suggestions or advice....
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Avatar universal
Forgot to add to the list of symptoms that I now have arms that itch all the time even though there is no rash :(
Helpful - 0
620923 tn?1452915648
Well, I am glad that they finally looked at urr GB...on u still on meds?....if so, u may be having an allergic reaction with the itching...call ur dr ASAP !!

From what I have read on porphyria u will need to avoid prolonged exposure to the sun and be sure to wear sunscreen...just one of the many issues u will need to deal with if in fact this is what u have..discuss this possibility with ur dr and family to see if there is a history of it.

Good luck and do keep us posted
"selma"
Helpful - 0
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