I went off to the doctor. My doctor seem to think I had some sort of gastrointestinal event and that it had screwed up the balance in my stomach acid and that’s what I was experiencing. He gave me a drug that would over time bring the acid back into line. In the mean time I could pop a tums when I got heartburn.
Well the condition of my stomach got better but the pain around my abdomen didn’t go away. It got better over time but there was still discomfort while walking. The strange thing was I didn’t experience any discomfort when I went spinning or worked out.
Last week I decided I needed to go back to my doctor and see what was going on. He still thought his original diagnosis was correct but he was at a loss for the discomfort around the abdomen. So he decided I should go and see a gastroenterologist and in the mean time I should get a CT scan of my abdomen. Both places were near my doctor’s office so I walked to the offices and set up the appointments.
The CT scan was set for Tuesday. Now I tried to be calm about all of this. But you know how you start thinking about things. I was a nervous wreck to say the least.
The morning of the test came. I got to drink two bottle of this wonderful vanilla barium sulfate suspension shake. I’m sorry they call it a creamy vanilla smoothie. Half a bottle every half an hour. Then a final cup of the stuff once I got to the office.
Now on to the scan. I got to lie down and my legs were propped up. The technician said the machine will tell you when to hold your breath. And that’s just what it did. I was moved into the machine (rally just a big doughnut not an enclosed space say like an MRI) It said take a deep breath and hold it. I got my picture taken without any contrast in me. Next was the contrast. I was asked if I was allergic to latex or fish. The first one seemed to make sense the second one didn’t to me. I asked and was told that the contrasting agent is iodine and some people can be allergic to it. Several pictures with the contrast and then I was done.
I got to the place at 9:05 and was done by 9:45. I was told I needed to drink lots of water over the course of the day. But all that barium smoothie made me feel really really bloated. I ended up getting a couple of cookies from a place next to the office.
A friend came by to make sure I got home fine and we slowly walked to the subway and went back to my house. Once there I made sure I drank lots of water. I called my doctor’s office to let him know I had the test and what number to call with the results. I was hoping if I was lucky to get the results later in the afternoon. But around 12:10 my doctor called. It seems I have an hiatal hernia. As Webmd defines it:
A hiatal hernia (say “hi-AY-tul HER-nee-uh”) happens when part of your stomach bulges up through the diaphragm and into your chest. The diaphragm is a sheet of muscle that separates your belly (abdomen) from your chest.
The hernia bulges through the diaphragm at a place called the hiatus. This is the opening in the diaphragm that the esophagus passes through. The esophagus is the tube that connects the throat to the stomach.
Depending on how bad it is I’ll probably just have to adjust my diet.
But I won’t know more about that until I see the gastrointestinal person which is on Monday.
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