I am sorry for this post but I am not feeling well and I need to write about this as I am at work and I have to do something in order to resist the offer to just go home and go to bed. If you are sensitive about sickness - do not read. (don't worry there are not bodily functions mentioned or anything like that!)
I have been sick for three days. It happens all of the sudden like a knife to the ribs and it does not let go for days sometimes weeks. I can calm myself down by reminding myself that it comes the week before my period- that my body is just crowded with fluids and therefore sensitive. But each month that I get away with no pain I barely exhale for fear of it and each month that it does come I can not leave my bed. I am the most surly person on the planet for it. It starts as just a down right piercing pain behind my ribs and then after pumping me up on proton inhibitors, phenobarbital alkaloids and Tums it quiets down to a loll that I can sort of handle while lying very still propped up on pillows and watching bad TV or reading. It goes from my front to my back. There is no position to lie in. There is no reprieve. It hurts to sit up straight and it hurts to haunch.
This is day three. Now added to all this is that my Doctor is my father and he is a GI specialist. But it is hard for us to be completely one relationship or the other- when discussing my pain, am I his daughter whining for comfort, or am I his patient asking for treatment? I am never entirely convinced that he has it straight either and although my mother, myself, my sister, all of Staten Island, and half of Brooklyn think my Dad is a genius at what he does- it never feels like we (mom, Sanj and me) are getting THAT doctor. Instead we are getting the watered down by emotion hard to talk to doctor who takes it personally when you don't heal. The major issue is verbal communications and overproduction of brain activity. I will tell him what is wrong and he will say what he thinks I have, then i will ask him what he thinks the symptoms are that I have and he will reiterate something entirely different from what I think I said. I will yell for not being treated as thoroughly as a patient, and he will yell for not being respected as the father and the doctor he deserves to be treated as. And then my stomach starts to hurt worse.
He thinks I have a hiatal Hernia- this is pretty serious. Its when the stomach starts to move upward and press through the hiatus ( a lining made of thin tissue) up into the esophagus. It causes major pressure in the body because it is right beneath your ribs and you can imagine this is quite the crowded area.
This also causes GURD:
Gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GURD, occurs when the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) does not close properly and stomach contents leak back, or reflux, into the esophagus. The LES is a ring of muscle at the bottom of the esophagus that acts like a valve between the esophagus and stomach. The esophagus carries food from the mouth to the stomach.
When refluxed stomach acid touches the lining of the esophagus, it causes a burning sensation in the chest or throat called heartburn. The fluid may even be tasted in the back of the mouth, and this is called acid indigestion. Occasional heartburn is common but does not necessarily mean one has GURD. Heartburn that occurs more than twice a week may be considered GURD, and it can eventually lead to more serious health problems.
I think I have a peptic ulcer and I will admit that in lieu of a medical degree, a residency, an internship and 46 years of practicing I use GOOGLE. When I googled my "condition" I learned that the only treatment to this was surgery- although one site did say the meds that I was on does treat it. Often the sites would discuss that an untreated Hiatal Hernia could lead to eruption and death. This made my pains double.
So when I plugged in what I thought was my symptoms it came up with: (after the jump)
Recent Comments