My hiatus hernia story: living with the beast

Hi everybody,

I am 48 yrs old and been diagnosed with a small hiatus hernia (12 years ago) and have all the symptoms - breast pain, lower chest pain (right side mostly), esophagus pain, gerd. My conclusions so far regarding ways to improve the quality of life are: stay away from trigger foods - for me this means: dairy products, spicy food, tomato sauce, caffeine, alcohol, most sweets, chocolate, eat small meals, exercise mildly (and see what works for you and what not), never sleep when full,  raise your bed, share your problem with others and try to maintain a positive attitude towards life (I know its hard, I am living with the thing!), keep yourself occupied by reading books, listening to music, doing things that please you. I take prilosec 20mg daily and gaviscon or maalox tablets when I get heart burn. I up my dose of prilosec to 40mg daily when in crisis. But this normally occurs when eating things I shouldn't. I have had outbursts when I had to up even more my dossage but also had quiet periods when I skipped prilosec for a day or two. I always search for ways to get rid of the pills but I think that either surgery or a monastic way of living could probably achieve it. Physicians and doctors have told me that I won't be able to shake them off. All in all I have come to this: our way of life, even the place we live in (pollution) makes it very hard to adjust to a healthier diet. So we just have to try and stay away from trigger foods for the most part of our lives. And the most difficult part is when you actually begin to feel better and decide to add some of these foods in your diet. 

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