My Stomach Was in My Chest Cavity and it Almost Killed Me

I Was Away But Not Because I Wanted To

I’ve been away from writing for about a month now. No writing, no reading, no interaction with anyone. Not that I have nothing to write about, on the contrary. I have so much to write about! First, my husband and I took a two-week vacation traveling through five countries in Europe. See, that alone is plenty to write about. It was amazing and the best trip we’ve done so far. But once we arrived home, illness struck me. It was not COVID or any disease I brought from abroad. It was something else building up as time went by.

The Not Such a Big Deal Diagnosis

In 2017, my physician discovered I had a small hiatal hernia. The discovery came about after going through several heartburn bouts, which were not common for me. Once discovered, my physician said to me, “since it’s small, let’s just watch it. In the meantime, try the Prilosec treatment for 14 days.” That’s what I did and worked just fine. Whenever I had the heartburn bouts, I’d do the 14-day Prilosec treatment and was well for a few months. I began doing it twice a year, then three times a year, until early 2021. My last Prilosec treatment in early February did not work. Mind you, these heartburn bouts were severe and included heavy vomiting. I would also experience rapid heartbeats — over 100 beats per minute. Therefore, when I visited the doctor after the Prilosec treatment failed, I let my physician know about the rapid heartbeats. Her response was, “let’s check your heart first, then we will check the hernia.”

That sounded fine to me, so she referred me to the cardiologist. The cardiologist performed many tests, and all came back clear. No heart issues, great! But these tests take time. My appointments were as far as two months, so while I waited, my heartburn got worse. After my heart tests, they sent me for a CT scan of my gallbladder. It turned out I had gallbladder stones that needed surgical removal. However, this had already happened to me in the past and they magically disappeared before the operation took place. Therefore, I did not want the surgery this time. You know, just in case. My physician agreed and referred me to a gastroenterologist for an endoscopic procedure of the hiatal hernia. They booked me for January 28, 2022. With that taken care of, we proceeded to our well-deserved trip.

Unexpected Outcome

I am so grateful I had no heartburn episodes at all during our trip, even though we ate to our heart’s content and drank wine daily. It wasn’t until we arrived home that it all unraveled. We arrived on Tuesday, November 9th. All seemed well. The next day, I did all the laundry and sorted out the souvenirs. But on Thursday, things took a turn for the worse. After a healthy breakfast of English muffins, blueberries, yogurt, and coffee, I felt the effects. At first, I confused it with diarrhea since that’s what it felt like, so I took a couple of Imodium pills according to the instructions. That did not work but made it worse and I quickly realized it was the heartburn. I popped in two Tums, which most of the time helped. But there was no relief in sight. I followed with some Mylanta after a couple of hours, which made it worse. I couldn’t breathe, was vomiting, and was in so much pain, and ended up in the ER that afternoon.

“You need a Esophagogastroduodenoscopy and surgery to return stomach to its place.”

After several tests, they discovered that the hiatal hernia was now bigger than my stomach and had pushed the stomach to my chest cavity. My husband and I were in shock. I had no clue our internal organs could do such a thing!

They sent me home with instructions to see a gastroenterologist immediately. The next day, I called my primary care physician and was in her office that morning. She got my gastroenterologist appointment pushed to the following Monday and gave me some instructions to follow until my Monday appointment. However, once at home, it did not cease. The pain was unbearable, and I threw up a dark ground coffee-looking thing which then I learned was blood. I called the gastroenterologist, and they told me to go back to the ER. More tests revealed coagulated blood surrounded my stomach lining. They released me that night after helping me ease the pain and vomiting.

On Monday at my gastroenterologist appointment, I was told that most likely I needed surgery to move my stomach back to its location. The surgeon was going to see me on Tuesday. During the surgeon’s appointment, he determined that the surgery had to be done immediately and scheduled it for Friday.

I Survived the Surgery

I am thankful the surgery went well and I’m on my way to recovery. I understand it will be a long one, but I’m sure I’ll get there. In the meantime, I’m ready to get back to writing.

Originally published at https://travelerwows.medium.com on November 24, 2021