Hiatal hernia?

[Melissa, Oregon]

I've really never had heartburn or any other stomach problems before, so the past couple weeks have been pretty weird. Strangled feeling in my throat, BAD gas pains in my chest, needing to belch, generally urpy. But no stomach pain, sour taste, or burning feelings. Been on Nexium for a week, no change, and OTC antacids don't make a dent. Had the barium test today, and he saw a hiatal hernia, so I've been doing a lot of reading about GERD. Can't get in for a followup visit to my doctor for a couple weeks, so am hoping you all can answer some questions for me.
--I understand that many people have the hernia with no symptoms. Are the symptoms caused by GERD too?
--Do these symptoms appear all of a sudden due to excess acid, or did I strain something while moving a mattress the day before this started? My grandmother had a hiatal hernia after pounding in tomato stakes when she was 85.
--Seems like the treatments for the hernia and GERD is the same, short of surgery. Can a couple months of Nexium heal the hernia, or will I have to put up with this forever?
--What has helped you the most? Drugs, herbs, bland diet, small meals, no caffeine, losing weight?
Would sure appreciate hearing from folks who have had the chest/gas pains with no other heartburn symptoms. Thanks! Mel

[Harry]

Mel,
The thing that helps me and my wife the most is taking a magnesium supplement. Problems are usually caused by spasms and magnesium seems to help the spasms.

It is more effective if you take it in divided doses 3 times daily -- It seems to increase the absorption.
A good homeopathic remedy is Magnesia Phos --- it usually reacts in 20 to 30 minutes but it is not a permanent cure!!

God Bless---Harry

[Melissa, Oregon]

Thank you very much Harry! At this point I'm willing to try anything. Will hit the vitamin aisle today. Is the product you suggested more effective than just a plain magnesium pill? How much should I take? Any side effects, anything else to be careful of?

[Harry]

Mel-- I think the chelated magnesium is more bio-available than any. It is smaller so it passes through your intestine walls more readily. It is a patented product that bonds protein(amino acid) to magnesium -- glycinate or lysinate --- produced by Albion Labs and sold to many manufacturers.

The daily requirement is 400mgrams.

[ReeAnn]

Dear Melissa,

I too had a hiatal hernia and the GI theorized I had it for more than 20 years with how bad my esophagus was ulcerated. He thought the hiatal hernia came from carrying twins. He immediately recommended the Nissen Fundoplication surgery, but I opted for trying the lifestyle changes first. Over the next 6 months, it seemed the more positive changes I made, the worse I felt. When I first saw the GI my only symptom was a constant sore throat. It got so I couldn't eat plain pasta without a lot of burning. So I did eventually agree to the surgery. And yes the symptoms are caused by the GERD/Reflux. And yes the treatments are the same outside of the surgeries.

I do NOT recommend anyone to have the Nissen Fundoplication surgery. It was the start of a living nightmare for me. I had my gall bladder removed at the same time. This dual surgery was done in April 2000.

About 3 weeks after the surgery, I tried to advance my diet from soft foods. One of the first things I tried was watermelon. It got stuck at the surgery site and I hurt all the way up to my ears from it. I had to induce coughing in order to bring the watermelon back up again. It was just the start of my problems with swallowing and food getting stuck at the too tight fundo surgery site.

Since then I have had 3 or 4 dilations trying to open it up a bit. These helped very little. Then I wound up without insurance for almost two years. Just last year I got back under the care of a good GI and he tried a Botox treatment. Again just minor improvement. To this day I can not eat any meat sandwich without majors problems, inspite of the treatments. Other foods will give me trouble too.

Another problem from the surgery is the dumping syndrome. For most people this will clear up within a few weeks. It has been more than 4 years for me now. And with going on this long, will probably last the rest of my life. Another drawback to the surery is the inability to vomit. At first this sounded pretty good to me - never to throw up again. But believe me - the dry heaves are 100 times worse!! I also have developed chronic pancreatitis since the surgery - but that is a whole other story. In relation to the discussion at hand, just means I am nausated a lot of the time and get a LOT of dry heaves.

Shortly after I had the surgery, there were two proceudres that entered the study stage. One involved "sewing" the area to prevent reflux. The other did something like burning to create scar tissue and to close up the area. If I am remembering correctly, these can be do to fix SMALL hiatal hernias. I wish I could tell you more about these procedures, but as I had already had the surgery, I did not follow up on them.

Wishing you the best of luck in dealing with the Reflux/Gerd!!