Posted 10/11/2016 2:38 AM (GMT 0)
Hello! First off let me say I've been lurking in the background a few days d and gained so much insight on my upcoming procedures. I am 43 yo female, who's been suffering from GERD since I was pregnant with my 1st child 23 years ago. When I was pregnant my son's head would constantly feel like he was pushing my stomach through my chest. Over the years, I learned what medications to take with what foods at what times in order to avoid being awakened out my sleep running to the bathroom to throw up. 8 years ago I was diagnosed with a hiatal hernia but never seemed like it was a big deal, so I treated it like my usual GERD symptoms.
There were so many mornings after a horrible GERD attack, it would set off migraines or I would feel fatigued. Recently I had trouble eating or drinking, and when I did it hurt like someone was stabbing me with shards of ice from the inside. I couldn't lay on my back, only on my sides to alleviate the pain, which felt like my esophagus having spasms. Finally, after suffering for over a week, with pain in my chest that came in waves every minute like spasms, I went to the emergency room. They checked everything cardiac related, all tests came back. They gave me morphine for the pain along with a super strong Maalox then sent me home on my way. The morphine helped but I had already discovered I could only eat without pain after taking pain medication. I suffer from chronic pain. Fast-forward another week and I was finally able to get in to see a GI. I love him, right away he pointed out that my anti-inflammatory medicine would be a culprit behind the GERD as well as muscle relaxants, all of which I take to try to control my pain levels. He prescribed Pantoprazole delayed release 40 mg and ordered me to immediately discontinue my NSAIDS. He scheduled me for an endoscopy last Thursday. Finally! I had been trying to get an endoscopy for over a week to no avail. Most hospitals claim they don't have a GI in emergency but he said they do in fact have one on call but if you say you have chest pain they look for cardiac and disregard other possibilities.
As I said, I was aware of the hiatal hernia but I didn't realize how bad it had gotten. He said my esophagus didn't show any inflammation, however my stomach showed irritation from gastritis and erosion. He also said most of my stomach was herniated and diagnosed me with sliding paraesophageal hiatal hernia that's pressing against my esophagus and that I would need surgery. I googled and found out this one is not as common and categorized as Type III, with Type IV being the worst with stomach, and other organs going into the chest cavity. During my Google search I discovered this forum.
I look forward to seeing what life is like with a normal stomach or as close to normal as possible.