u/petlove63

Well after my hiatus hernia (Hillary) showed up on my chest x-ray, my GP referred my for an ultrasound and bloods. It would seem Hillary has brought some friends along with her.....fatty liver disease, a gallstone stone....just the one🤣 ( i dont know why I find it so funny to just have 1....I've called him Gary). And the blood tests show that I'm anaemic and just short of being pre diabetic.

Now whilst none of these are particularly serious, coming all at once it feels particularly overwhelming.

For now we are monitoring everything and trying to keep things under control through diet and lifestyle changes. I've been prescribed iron supplements and accepted a referral to the diabetes prevention scheme- why not ..at this point I will accept any support offered.

I'm taking this as a wake up call, a chance to turn things around before I can't ....I've got 4 years to retirement and I plan to be in a state to enjoy it.

Has anyone else dealt with multiple diagnoses ?

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As a newly diagnosed hiatus hernia sufferer, I wanted to share my experience so far.

Went to my doctor originally with what I believed was a lingering chest infection. Prior to this I had been experiencing terrible indigestion for some time, which I had put down to age (63), bad diet and a serious love of red wine. When antibiotics didnt clear the chest infection my doctor suggested a link to stomach acid ....honestly I thought he'd lost his mind, I still hadnt even thought to mention the indigestion at this point.. but he put me on a precautionary dose of PPIs and sent me for a chest xray. I still doubted him as I hadnt been experiencing the burning throat that I associated with acid....then I did some reading and discovered silent reflux (LPR). The more I read, the more it made sense and I started making some small changes to my diet to see if it helped. It did.

Then the xray results came back....a large hiatus hernia. Never heard of it. My doctor briefly explained, says he doesn't think it's large enough to warrant surgery, but can be controlled via diet and lifestyle changes......cheerfully adding that this is a long term health problem. Oh joy 😊. He also prescribed a 2nd medication but I didn't get on too well with them....more on that another time.

How do I feel.....a little scared, its never good to be told you have a long term health problem- but I'm also aware that there are much worse ones to have. So I gave her a name...Hillary the hernia to make her seem less scarey.

I felt validated that I hadnt imagined how poorly I'd been feeling ,nor was I making a fuss about nothing.

But mostly I'm looking at it as a wake up call, a chance to do something to turn my health around and get Hillary under control. I did some research snd stumbled across Molly Pelletier ...she's on most social media platforms and has been a breath of fresh air - do look her up. I'm following lots of her advice which is really helping and I will share in another post.

I'm booked in for an ultrasound this week to double check that gallstones aren't also lurking, I guess it's possible and better to be sure but my symptoms fit hiatus hernia and LPR so well that I will be surprised.

Thank you for reading this far 🙏