u/True-Spell6832

I'm 20 and since im 14 I suffer from severe acid reflux and hiatal hernia syntoms.
This ruined my teen years and still ruining my life 90% of the time.

I've tried anything, specific diets, anti reflux drugs and some of the best gastroenterologist in my city, but in all these years I still didn't find something that stops it, so I constantly live in agony fearing that, in a random moment, syntoms may occur and ruin everything i'm doing.

The fact that everyone tells me that a lot of people have it (even if mostly from a more advanced age than me) and I have to live with it just make it worse. If so much people experience what I have in a daily basis I don't think they would enjoy eating as much as it seems. For me, meals and food in general, instead of being a pleasure, a mental pause or a social moment, it's the most stressful and painful moment of the day as I already know, no matter what I eat, I'll feel miserable during the meal and for the next 3/4 hours.

This impacted my mental health a lot in the last years, and I fear that, when I'll be some decades older, it will be much worse, and the only thought freakes me out.

If I look back at every majour moment of my life I always remember how this ruined them and I really hate this. I don't think that someone this joung should suffer so much from a desease that should appear in their 50s in average (and most of the time not this strong), instead of enjoying the time of its life when health issues should be the last of his concerns.

I already hated a lot spending my teen years always going arond with a lot of reflux medicines in my pocket(that never really worked) and avoiding going out and avoided a lot of important experiences because of this and I don't want to also waste my 20s. I want the freedom that this age should've gived me.

All of this to say that, even if I'm really scared of the anesthesia and most of the thing itself, I want to fix it at its roots, with surgery. I talked about it with my doctor and told me that at my age it's considered a desperate move, and even if I want to do it, I'll need to do more invasive exams like ph-impendance.

Also my parents are against surgery, even if they always see me struggling everyday life and hearing from me all the experiences ruined because of this, so they've never been really supportive about this option. This doesn't help a lot as I'm really scared myself with what I'll need to go through to try fix it.

Is someone ever been in a similar position as mine?
If someone already had surgery and had my similar problems, did it actually work?

I've done first year of computer engineering because i liked logic and development of smart things but burnout in second semester from the fear of writing abstract code all my life.
I realised I want to invent things in the real world, even better if those can help others feel better.

I've recently looked a lot of videos, asked AI and professors a lot and was stuck deciding between EE, BME and Biotecnology. In the end i tought EE first three years and BME in the next two for specialisation (european university) was the smartest choice for having more opportunities in different jobs.

My dream job is to help in R&D working and testing new medical devices and procedures.
I know that in today's world is impossible to make a project without a computer but my real fear is to be stuck all day behind it without ever testing and seeing the final product in real life (maybe even travelling to present it to sourgeons all over the world).

Is this a realistic scenario and how much will i really work soldering and testing devices irl intead of looking at a screen connecting dots?

I've done first year of computer engineering because i liked logic and development of smart things but burnout in second semester from the fear of writing abstract code all my life.
I realised I want to invent things in the real world, even better if those can help others feel better.

I've recently looked a lot of videos, asked AI and professors a lot and was stuck deciding between EE, BME and Biotecnology. In the end i tought EE first three years and BME in the next two for specialisation (european university) was the smartest choice for having more opportunities in different jobs.

My dream job is to help in R&D working and testing new medical devices and procedures.
I know that in today's world is impossible to make a project without a computer but my real fear is to be stuck all day behind it without ever testing and seeing the final product in real life (maybe even travelling to present it to sourgeons all over the world).

Is this a realistic scenario and how much will i really work soldering and testing devices irl intead of looking at a screen connecting dots?