After hours clinic

Monday I was so tired and was having trouble breathing so I layed on the couch all day. I went to bed Monday night and woke up at 4am and got sick. My esophagus was hurting and burning and it wasn't good. I'll spare you the details but it was not fun. That went on the rest of the night. I finally got to sleep at 8am and slept a couple hours.

Ever since I went to the hospital a month ago for esophagus spasms, I've been taking medicine to help it. If I miss a dose, It is very painful and I can't eat.

When this happened Monday night we knew we had to do something because I had been taking my medicine.

So yesterday I didn't want to eat or drink because it hurt a lot and would come back up. I doubled up on my medicine and also took this other liquid medicine they gave me at the ER. I didn't help at all.

We really didn't want to go to the hospital again or be sent to another specialist so we went an after hours clinic. Of course they know me there too. The doctor there is the doctor who ordered my PICC line and IVs at home. His nephew I think has Lyme. He was a guy in the army and then all the sudden got extremely sick and had to quit. So this doctor has seen what it does to people. He doesn't know how to treat it, he just will help in any way.

We went through everything that has happened the past month and he said I probably have a hiatal hernia. Yeah I didn't know what that was either. He even had a nice picture of it...

A hiatal hernia is when the top of your stomach comes up into your esophagus for whatever reason. There is a muscle that keeps your stomach from your esophagus but if that muscle is weak, your stomach will come up through it, causing a hiatal hernia. This also means that the acid that is in your stomach no longer has a muscle to keep it in your stomach. That is why I couldn't eat or anything because my stomach is just open so acid continues to come up.

I know that is more than you want to know! He said that since this has been going on for so long he is worried that the acid has done damage to my esophagus. Obviously stomach acid is supposed to stay in the stomach and will erode the esophagus.

He is switching me to a prescription medicine (I was just taking an over the counter medicine) that will hopefully help. He also gave me a prescription for the drink they gave me in the hospital. We didn't know you could actually have that at home!

It's a real tasty green mixture of lidocaine and a few pain medicines. It might be the weirdest thing I've ever taken. Your mouth and throat and esophagus stay numb for a while until the pain medicines kick in. And wow they hit fast! I was laying on the couch and all the sudden got so hot and tried to lift my head and bam! I realized I wouldn't be lifting my head for a while. It made me so loopy and tired. Finally after a while I could get up and I went to bed early!

I'm really hoping that the new medicine helps!