Hiatal or Inguinal Hernia Diagnosis

Hi @ladysky. Welcome to Connect! We are excited to have you.

I'm tagging @mnangelmom, @pinkmk, @SherryD, @ilenen and @cmaso67 who have all posted about hiatal hernias in the past and can hopefully jump in to this conversation and provide some thoughts.

Also, you may find this thread where people are discussing acid reflux to be of interest: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/i-have-acid-reflux-so-bad-it-is-coming-up-into-my/

Did your doctor give you any treatment options beyond medication? Also, logistical question... I noticed your "test" post. Can I ask what you were testing? Did you figure it out? I know this site can be a little daunting to navigate at first.

Happy to have you here!

Thanks for the information and connections. My test was to be sure I was doing things correctly and that I knew where replies could be found! I'm on a medication for the reflux, and thru research have learned to eat small meals and snacks throughout the day. My doctor left shortly after my tests and will be gone for several months, so I'm trying to learn as much as I can now.

I guess my answer would be what do you want to do? Do you want to treat it with diet and antacids or do you want to go to surgery or diet and PPI (Proton Pump Inhibitor) Once you know that answer you can figure it out. I could not treat with diet and antacids and they had me on meds from day one, mostly in the beginning on antacids but as I aged it moved to Pepcid and others like it and the to the PPI's. I went through a series of tests to see about the surgery and how bad my heartburn was and they decided I should have surgery and I thought it would take the problem away and they did also. Then I had to go for a couple more tests and found I had a swallowing disorder due to the GERD and could not have the Nissian fundoplication and would have to have a belsy fundoplication, much more complicated and not sure I would do it again, but they thought it would take the problem away, it did not Then I was on the Pepcid for a long time in 2000 when I began having trouble with Pepcid they moved me to Protonix and I have been mostly ok, somedays I have eaten to late a food I know will give me heartburn or just too late. I try to eat no later than 5pm so I can sleep. I tried to get off the PPI because of side effects but I had to quit after 5 days the longest I could make it due to misery. It took several days for my stomach and the GERD to settle down after that. My doctor said I should stay on it I want to discuss it with him further. I don't see another option as antacids alone and even being very careful with diet don't work. My friend who did it is on Pepcid several times a week and eating rice cakes, yogurt and kefir and nothing else. She has been off the ppi for a month now. Does give me a lot of encouragement to try again. The last set of tests were down due to nausea that felt like morning sickness and for 9 months couldn't eat, it turned out with the cat scan that it is non alcoholic fatty liver disease. The only way to treat it is to lose weight which I am doing but it is not helping with the GERD. I guess I am stuck with the PPI's and side effects. I wish you much good luck.

I was diagnosed with an inguinal hernia, I am a 76 year old female. I saw the doctor today (surgeon), and he confirmed it is an inguinal hernia. He felt it and I yelped in pain when he touched the protrusion on my lower left side. I liked the doctor and so we scheduled surgury in about 3 weeks. My question is about pain in my stomach area as well as the groin. I wonder (and I will call and ask him, but it's Friday and I must wait until Monday) if it is common that pain would radiate to the stomach also from the hernia. I mentioned pain is in my stomach area also but he did not comment on that, he was concentrating on the inguinal hernia. So naturally I'm hoping that the operation will take care of the hernia, but I wonder if something else is going on in my stomach. Here's why also: several months ago I overate a lot (I have since lost weight and try never again to eat like a maniac), and experienced horrible, horrible pain in my stomach area, vomiting and losing my feces. Never happened like that before. I'm wondering if my stomach will be better once he fixes the inguinal hernia. I mentioned this to him, but he did not talk about my stomach. Only my inguinal hernia.