Living with a Hiatal Hernia and Acid Reflux Pt. 4 “It Was My turn”

Filed Under: African American Health · Baby Boomer · Black Health · Black Men’s Health · Black Women’s Health · Diet and Nutrition · Hiatal Hernia

by CK Dillon

Living with a Hiatal Hernia … By: Kathy D, Contributing Author

It Was My Turn . . .

“See you when I get back,” I smiled and waved at my husband and mother-in-law as I walked through the door for the procedure. We all had on our game faces, although I was pretending not to be nervous, I failed miserably.

The procedure, surprisingly, wasn’t uncomfortable and didn’t seem to take too long. I don’t remember feeling a thing. After they wheeled me back to the recovery room, the nurse placed a weight on my incision area to keep pressure on it.

Hospital Bed

“Ok,” I’m thinking, “I’m laying here in a hospital bed, with a heavy weight on an incision, on an empty stomach. How much more am I going to have to take? ” Hospital visits tend to make some people irritable. I am normally in control of emotions but I was beginning to understand their rationale.

After about an hour, an orderly, or somebody, came in with some juice for me to drink and a light snack to munch on while I continued to wait for my results from the testing.

Hospital Food

Crunch time (so to speak)

As I sat up in the bed eating every drop, the doctor came in and said, “We have the results and you’re fine in that area, we’re giving you a clean bill of health. You don’t have any blockages.”

Relief flooded through me. Yes! Thank you God!

Feelings of anxiety returned within a half hour. Even with the news of no blockage, to lift my spirits, I was still having major chest pains before I arrived home that day. I had to find out what was causing them.

After scheduling the earliest appointment I could get, a week later I went to see my regular doctor. I didn’t sit down because it hurt too much to get back up. I said, “We have to find out what’s going on with me. I can’t take much more of this.”

He could tell right away something was wrong and scheduled me immediately for more x-rays. Off to the hospital I went.

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Standing xray

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The Prognosis

When Doc came into the waiting room, he was smiling. “Further testing has confirmed my suspicions, you have what is called a “Hiatal” hernia. “A what?” I asked.

Doc began to explain. Now this is not his exact explanation, but this is the gist of what he said.

“A Hiatal hernia is an anatomical abnormality, where part of your stomach protrudes through the diaphragm and up into your chest. Sometimes this condition causes acid reflux.”

I had heard of acid reflux.

“You see,” he continued, “your esophagus sits on top of your diaphragm. A Hiatal hernia is located between your esophagus and your diaphragm.

Hiatal Hernia

Because of this, it causes acid to back up into the esophagus. Therefore you experience pain in the upper abdomen.

The pain can be in the form of heartburn, chest pain, regurgitation or nausea, some of the symptoms you were having.”

I’m a woman who likes to get to the point, so I said, “Ok, my question is, now that we know what’s causing the pain, how do we fix it?”

“We have to have an endoscopy done to see if there is any damage to your esophagus,” Doc went on to explain, “the acid could erode your stomach lining and cause cancer.”

“Cancer?”