Hiatus Hernia

[Carluke]

I was diagnosed with hiatus hernia 3 years ago. I have no trouble with reflux only a bout of belching in the morning. During the day I have no trouble at all,I exercise every day and again it does not cause any trouble. In bed is a different story,no trouble with reflux. I get off to sleep ok but I wake after 2 or 3 hours and I feel uncomfortable no matter what I do. I keep my head raised and try to keep on my left side but that is no help. I am not in pain but it is a very uncomfortable situation. I often get up and of course my sleep and rest suffers.

The feeling is of a pressure at the top of my stomach under my rib cage. Does anyone have this.

Thanks.

[PadThaiNoodles]

Same here. I did have some issues with reflux as well so I'm on ranitidine.

Do you have your whole bed tilted a bit, or just your head up on pillows? I know some do the later but I get better results with the whole mattress tilted about 6". (Any more than that and I tend to slide down the bed over the course of the night.)

[Carluke in reply to PadThaiNoodles]

Thanks for reply. Will look in to bed situation as I only raise head. Have you electric bed or do you just raise the head board end.

[PadThaiNoodles in reply to Carluke]

I’ve just got a stack of old paperback books on each side at the headboard end, and another pair of stacks half as tall in the middle. It was mostly a bodge to see if it worked, but it’s been that way for decades now.

[Carluke in reply to PadThaiNoodles]

Will give it a go. Fingers crossed. Thanks

[fishonabike in reply to Carluke]

As PadThaiNoodles suggests, raising the head of you bed is advised - using pillows to raise your head and shoulders can give you a "kink in the middle" which increases pressure around your stomach in a way which make the chances of reflux greater

You might find more help on a forum for GERD, but it is also important to be able to tell the difference between GERD and heart-related symptoms as they can be confused

[DiyChas in reply to Carluke]

I raised the top of the bed 2 inches with blocks of wood under the rollers. And use 2 thick pillows.

Are you not on meds for GERD or Barrett's syndrome?

[scentedgardener in reply to PadThaiNoodles]

Can you get ranitidine? I was on it for years with great success and it stopped being available about 2021. I can't take PPIs, and famotidine doesn't agree with me so if ranitidine is back I will be delighted.

[PadThaiNoodles in reply to scentedgardener]

No, sorry, faulty memory. I switched to famotidine when they took ranitidine off the market. (It appears my brain never switched though.)

[scentedgardener in reply to PadThaiNoodles]

Oh, that's a bit disappointing, I thought for a blissful minute we'd got ranitidine back.Thanks for letting me know.

[PadThaiNoodles in reply to scentedgardener]

There is a 3rd one (cimetidine) available in the States, but I'm not sure if you can get it over here or not....

[Lowerfield_no_more]

As someone with reflux disease and a possible occasional grumbling hiatus hernia I can identify with this when I get a relapse from time to time, although I take a daily PPI and have done so for over 15 years. So in addition to the measures you already take I suggest you keep a food diary which may help you find any trigger foods which are usually bloating, acidic or irritant of some sort although that is not always the case. Also avoid eating 3 hours before you go to bed. Finally I found out by accident (during decorating) that compressing my abdomen caused me problems and so I am careful to avoid this if possible, and had to stop yoga because of it. And in my case if I do get a relapse I go back to a basic diet fro a week or even two to allow my insides to heal.

[Poppy-Pops]

I get acid reflux because of a hiatus hernia.

I put a brick under the bed to raise the headboard, that helps, my triggers are fizzy drinks, chocolate and spicy foods. I use to take esomeprazole which was the best PPI but interacts with clopedogrel so now take lansoprazole, also gaviscon advance you can buy over the counter.

Try the gaviscon for when you get symptoms it does help.

[Seal59]

Yes my husband had this. It was really bad and nearly every night. Raised the bed, that didn’t work for him. The doctor doubled his dose of Omeprazole and changed the aspirins to enteric coated. He has been months now without an issue but weirdly last night he had an episode again.

[Cavalierrubie]

Try not to sleep on your left side. It’s bad for digestion and heart, or so l am told.

[RaisCrisp]

I agree about raising the bed head end , but out of interest, did anyone find they were worse on taking Lansoprazole? I found I had worse indigestion symptoms and despite hiccups when initially eating and an annoying cough, I am better despite the HH without the meds. I was sorry that Ranitidine was taken off the market as well!

[wischo]

I take esomeprazole and prior to that omeprazole for 20yrs at least and never had a problem at all with it despite a fairly bad hiatus hernia. Ranitidine was shown to have a high risk of cancer and taken off the market and yet the PPIs get really bad press from the forum members here and have never been taken off the market or come under serious review. All my B12 and all blood levels are normal and I had a bone density test done just over a year ago and all normal. That would be my first go to even for a couple of weeks and see if it stops your problem.