Hi Michelle, This is day 2 of sleeping on my 2 1/2" elevated bed and day 2 of not having pain in my stomache! Is this for real...it is not much elevation but seems to help. DH will raise it more if I need it. He likes it too...seems to help his sinuses. Three days of taking the apple cider vinegar..just 1 spoon at night. Don't know if it is helping the guts but my throat feels much better and I haven't coughed for 2 days. I found some real tasty applesauce by Motts. Enjoyed that today with toasted rye bread. I eat oatmeal for breakfast and am not a big bread eater..I like speciality breads best. I am one up on you...I'm having my third colonscopy in Aug. and 1 endoscopy. The GI specialist I see for the colonoscopy is not local but I think I will ask my GP to refer my hiatus hernia condition to him as well. If anything developed I would want him taking care of it...he's very thorough. What is a hydascan? I have never had any major surgery. With just DH and I to cook for, our meals have suddenly become sporatic. He likes fried food..not on my list so we are worse than a restaurant. It will settle down and I hope he learns to eat more my style...it will be healthier for him. Thanks for all the food suggestions, it has really helped. I hope you are enjoying a lovely summer weekend and felling well. Keep in touch. If anyone else wishes to contribute ideas or their experiences with acid reflux, please do so. Jean

To me it sounds like you should get the surgery but I'm not a doctor. There isn't much more you can do, any strenuous movements will set off an attack so you won't be able to exercise to lose weight until the hernia goes away. Apple Cider vinegar is just a tool to re-train your stomach when to make stomach acid and in what strength and what amount. It doesn't do anything to acid reflux. I was told that as we age our stomach lining gets lazy about stomach acid production (part of this could be due to H. pylori bacteria which is everywhere and pretty much everyone over the age of 40 that drinks city water has it). Splashing the walls of your stomach with tiny amounts of acid help to re establish the right acid at the right time. For me it took a solid year of sipping to see permenant results. All the pills available are acid supressors meaning they either stop completely or cut in half the amount of acid your stomach makes. This isn't a great thing for your stomach or food, since the acid bath your stomach performs is an important function - BUT, you don't want extra stomach acid splashing up into your esophagus either which is what normally happens with a hiatal hernia. So I would keep taking acid reflux pills if you are. You need to slow down acid production until you solve the hernia thing. It sounds to me like the top of your stomach is poking up into your chest cavity like permenant hiatal hernia does. Either the stomach gets pinched by the muscles of the hiatus and this causes pain or the opening (hiatus) itself gets stressed by all the object poking through it (also painful). The surgery they used to do (10 years ago) was to simply go into your belly through tiny little openings (no big incisions) and take the top portion of your stomach (which is like a floppy rubber sack) and stretch a section of it up and around the junction where the stomach and esophagus meet. This little wrap around of stomach tissue makes the top of you stomach stay below your hiatus which would end the pain. It works like thick rubber band around the bottom of your esophagus. Your stomach adapts after a while to it so you can then eat normally (stomachs are stretchy and flexible). Everyone I know that had this surgery loved the results. It was considered a minor ordeal with minimal time under anesthesia and only a few tiny scars. In their case it was covered by insurance and not that expensive. I don't believe they will do the surgery without first performing a endoscopy of your esophagus, which is similar to a colonoscopy but without the 'cleaning out' chemicals.

Yup, I've got one now. I cough a lot since I have asthma and I live on a dirt road where avoiding dust is impossible, on top of my regular allergies. Two years ago I was laying on my back watching TV in bed. Not a good position to be coughing. All of a sudden I had a very heavy cough, felt a weird pain at the top of my abdomen. I put my hand there and there was an egg size bump. It didn't hurt after it popped out but I still went to the doctor. He said my hernia is around scar tissue where I had surgery there 10 years earlier and it's common for that to happen. He said most people just live with it unless it causes problems. And he told me about the mesh surgery but said I would be a good candidate to get the hernia AGAIN since I'm a cougher. The only time it hurts is if I bump it into something, like leaning over the washing machine getting clothes out which hurt like He!! and I never did that again. So I'm keeping an eye on it and if it starts to feel strange in the least I'll have it fixed. But I'm sure my hernia is way different from umblical hernias.

Dear Bleusblue2, Shouldice certainly has a good PR person... I was completely pulled in. Right now I just need to lose this weight, not just for the hernia surgery, but because I am feeling unhealthy and unhappy. I don't go around sad, but I don't feel as confident as I used to, because of a lot of things: the hernia, going into nursing which turned out to be very bad for me health-wise and mentally/ I am basically having to start over again, yet again! I am returning to being an administrative assistant like I did before nursing school. Less stress, less wear and tear on the body and mind. So... maybe the best thing I can do right now is concentrate on small steps... like lose 10 pounds and then go to the next 10 pounds.... I have completely given up bread and sugar and it shows you something that I already feel better after two days! And I am not as hungry as I always am. Lose the weight and then see where I am with the hernia surgery. I hate the idea of having a foreign body placed in me (mesh) -- but maybe I need to do more research on it. And absolutely, yes, do not gain any weight! From what I have read that is more dangerous to our health than anything and to surgery repairs, etc. Do you have an exercise regime? We have just passed through one of our "worst" winters here in Arkansas and now the sun is out daily. I have no excuses for not walking every day! So that is part of my plan: losing weight and walking at least 45 minutes three times a week. Thanks for you feedback on these matters. Otherwise I would have gone around thinking Shouldice was the best place in the world to have that surgery done. When you say that submarine guy... are you talking about Subway? Because I am not eating bread, yesterday I went into a Subway shop and got them to put tuna salad in a little bowl and then all the veggies that would have gone on a sandwich on the side. It was delicious! The reason I am giving up bread is because in the past when I have lost weight, the only thing that really worked was giving up bread, potatoes, rice, and all those comforting starches... I don't think these are "bad" foods -- I just know for me that is what has always made the weight "move"..... I have not always been overweight. It's just been the last 15 years or so... it's a different world in many ways... people do look at you differently... some people even act like you are immoral or just "not with it" -- even though I am one of the brightest people I know! How's that for some confidence? LOL. Thanks, again. Write back if you feel moved to. Do you have a garden? Cheers, Sasha