Possible Hiatal Hernia?

Hi there...I'm usually on the fibro forum but thought I would ask my question here. So last Christmas I had some kind of flu virus. The usual....lots of coughing and congestion. The coughing was so severe that at one point and I thought I broke a rib. Anyway, I got this sensation of burning/stinging while eating or drinking in that small hollow right below where a mans adams apple is. Sometimes it radiated across my collar bone and actually when the stinging started, it hurt to have my clothes touch it. I thought I had irritated my throat with all the coughing. It disppeared completely but returned about a month later, after I was done coughing. A week went by and it disappeared again. Then one day while eating in a restaurant, I got the sensation of air in my throat...I needed to burp. I have gotten this before but thought it was because I eat very fast and swallow air. It got bad...with that radiating pain in the back so I got up to go to the rest room because I felt I really need to belch and I was with a group of people. I belched before I could stand up and all the food and drink came shooting out of my mouth all over the table...I regurigtated. Embarrassing. I had that stinging sensation again for a few days and it went away again. Now I have the flu again with coughing...thanks hubby. The stinging/burning in that hollow of my neck is back and so is the feeling I need to belch. These symptoms come and go. I ate a taco one day last week with hot sauce and nothing....I ate a baked potato and OMG. I don't get it. Does a hiatal hernia act so fickle? My father had one and would never eat in public because of the regurgitation and finally had surgery.

Here is another factor...I take 6 Advil's a day for fibro. I know that can irriate the throat and esophagus as the drug produces too much stomach acid but that wouldn't explain the feeling of an air bubble in my throat, the bloated sensation and compulsion to belch or regurgitation. I don't think. Anyway, I stopped taking it a week ago and it doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

I have pretty severe health anxiety so please be gentle with me....LOL! Is any of this common with a hiatal hernia? I want to go to the right doctor if it doesn't go away.

Thank you
Donna