Hiatal Hernia and Panic Attacks(Need some insight)
Posted , 27 users are following.
Hello all!
Before I begin:
-No history of cardiac issues(done around 4-5 tests, all clear)
-GERD for several years(Diagnosed 3 years ago)
-No particular family history aside from late 60s diabetes and high blood pressure late life.
-20 years old male, no drugs, no smoking, no alcohol, healthy diet
-Only real issue? Stress and sensitivity.
I've been suffering immensely due to an unknown illness. It'd cause long term tachycardia, general panic, insomnia, clammy cold hands, the whole slew of things. Generally what your body says when it wants you to know something is very wrong. I'd be fine one moment, and then suddenly have a weird feeling in my chest(turns out that was my hernia being pushed up from a stomach spasm) and then have a panic attack slowly come up. Of course, it's my body reacting to this, so it wasn't diagnosed as an SVT. I've had ALL the cardiac tests. Holter, Stress, Echo... You name it. I legitimately thought too many times that I was going to die suddenly and no one would know what was wrong with me. My heart would race and sometimes feel like it was going to just stop. I never passed out, it never happened without a precursor of panic(so if the tachycardia comes up SUDDENLY, like 90 to 160 in a couple beats, it's likely a cardiac issue). I starved myself in fear of having even more issues, but it turned out that it made it far worse. After year of being sick like this, the symptoms seemed to subside and disappear. I was fine for a while. I could run, do whatever with no issues. Then one day, it showed up again. Mysterious. I'd have runs of the same panic, the same chest pain, the same acid reflux...
I took all the damn tests, but it was a hernia. The doctors demanded I take a CT to make sure, but I prefer not to have a huge dose of radiation at only twenty. I went to a chiropractor and had my stomach pulled and it got rid of all my symptoms immediately. All those 150-160 BPM panic attacks, all those sleepless nights, all those times when I swear I was thinking I was going to die...
I'm far more sensitive than normal people. I notice things wrong with my body much more clearly and feel much worse. No one understood what was wrong with me(I had telltale signs of a hernia even then, back pain, chest pain, belching, acid reflux). A hernia that was missed by endo-scopy obviously isn't that big of a deal, right? Wrong. My hernia isn't permanent. It straightens itself out and cramps up repeatedly. It can come and go, but it comes with a vengeance when I have long term stress or if I stress my GI.
The point of this isn't to say that doctors are wrong, or that you shouldn't trust them. It's just that if you want to be healthy, you have to do your own research and find your problem if the fixes aren't working(this sadly happens more often than not). PPIs made me feel worse. My stomach spasms cause hernia and this hernia makes me feel god awful like I'm going to die(panic attacks randomly).
I'm having bouts of my hernia again, but when I use my chiropractor's method of pulling my stomach back down, VIOLA! No panic, tachy's gone, feelings of dying are gone.
Stress is a killer for any disease for the stomach. A lot of people say that "stress doesn't cause problems with health", but stress affects the sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system. It slowly breaks that balance and makes everything spiral out of control. The body's a well oiled machine and one part that breaks makes the whole thing stop working.
The final thing I want to point out is that although there are set definitions out there of symptoms and various things for various illnesses, DO NOT TRUST THEM 100%.
Everyone's body is different(if this is hard to understand, think of it like this; everyone's minds are different, right? So obviously, the way they handle things is definitely going to be different!). They may be the same anatomically, but the way they react to certain drugs and the like is VERY DIFFERENT. The was the main issue I have with the current healthcare system. Far too many times do people have horrible reactions to different medications because of misdiagnosis and drug rejection from their bodies. Some people experience heart attacks like they're chest discomfort and some people experience them like it's the end of the world. Some people don't even noticed GERD and some people have straight up freak-outs that are chalked up to anxiety.
That aside, how is everyone doing with their hernias? Hernias generally are considered "untreatable" aside from surgery, but even to that, I find that a good lifestyle with activity can hold back even diabetes. I still get bouts of breathlessness(one in the middle of the night when my stomach is completely empty, but a glass of water tends to fix it quite nicely), but it's significantly better now that I know what's wrong with me and can get a hold of my own health. I'm just curious, how many of you hernia sufferers have felt this before? I feel like I'm the only one who has such violent symptoms from what I've seen.
Thanks and good luck with your road back to health!
-Dan
4 likes, 34 replies
melanie84042 DMile10
Edited
Hi thank you so much for writing this! The same thing is happening tome. My chiropractor fixes it but then the next day or within a few hours it comes back up. I don't know what to do the adrenaline rushes and anxiety is a nightmare. and the pressure in my throat and back of my skull is a nightmare. I am afraid to pull my stomach down to hard and hurt myself more.
melanie84042 DMile10
Posted
Hi thank you so much for writing this! The same thing is happening tome. My chiropractor fixes it but then the next day or within a few hours it comes back up. I don't know what to do the adrenaline rushes and anxiety is a nightmare. and the pressure in my throat and back of my skull is a nightmare. I am afraid ot pull my stomach down to hard and hurt myself more.
Bilgi DMile10
Posted
Hi DMile10,
I feel very sympathetic for you. I've gone through a similar journey for the last couple of years. I've undergone three surgeries. Each time surgery lead to a great relieve of my symptoms. Panic attacks disappeared, breathing felt easier again and reflux was mostly under control.
Unfortunately, I seem to be amongst the lucky few where fundoplication and diaphragmatic repair repeatedly failed after only a few years, which is supposedly very rare. So after 2-3 years after the first surgery and the first redo I had another rather large hiatal hernia, with the same symptoms back on.
During third surgery they did a full redo. First undoing the previous surgeries, then doing a hiato plastic re-inforced with a mesh and another fundoplication. I was well for a year and a half, then something broke and another paraoesophagal hernia has formed. I have been on and off anti-depressants since then, because I feel continuously unwell and in a continuous mode of physical stress and sometimes agonising panic. I find it hard to concentrate on anything and I have lost joy in most things in life. I've consulted several experts, but they are extremely cautious to jump to another surgery, as risk increases with each re-do exponentially. This is why I was referred to several specialists to assess and we came to the conclusion it would be best to post pone a fourth surgery as long as possible.
Right now I feel clueless. PPI medication is at it's max.
Nutritionally, I've also tried anything from hardly eating anything to fully gluten free to high fat and low carb. Nothing really seems to make a big difference. Except for avoiding the obvious foods like chocolate, spices and acidic foods, no diet helps.
My GP wants me to go back to the surgeon again. He says the impact these problems have had on my life are too much to bear. I have quit my job 4 weeks ago as I felt I couldn't handle the stress any more, feeling unwell for the last 3 years. Sometimes there are episodes of a week or even 10 days, when I have hardly any symptoms, then I remember how much fun life can be and that I am actually also mentally well, but this never lasts long enough.
I was already in sheer panic before undergoing the third surgery, as I was so scared that it would fail again and I cannot picture myself going for a 4th surgery knowing that chances are comparably big that things could go wrong. I guess reassessing during another consultation won't do any harm. Good luck to everyone.