Hello friends!! Last Wednesday when I woke up I was feeling very dizzy, I had a huge difficulty to breath and also I was feeling a very intense vomit tendency. Generally I was feeling very weak and I didn't had the power to do anything.
The last two years, occasionally I was getting sick and I had the same symptoms as yesterday and the only thing that was making me feel relieved was a good sleep because when I was waking up, I was more than fine like I was never sick before I sleep. But every time I was feeling these symptoms, sleep was impossible to happen because when I was trying to lie down on my bed the whole room was turning around me.
Every time I was visiting the emergencies at the hospital, doctors could not find what was causing these symptoms and most of the times they were telling me that it was just a food poisoning and always after my request they were giving me anxiolytic drugs like Xanax or Stedon in order to sleep and feel better the next day.
Yesterday I visited the emergencies again but I went to another hospital cause I am away from my hometown. When I arrived I have told to a doctor what was wrong with my health and how I was feeling, Ηe recommended me to see a pathologist. The hospital was very crowded and I was thinking to leave and go somewhere else but lucky me a very kind doctor observed that I was suffering and I was very pale so he told me to go immediately to the doctor to check me so I didn΄t have to wait for my turn to come.
The pathologist measured my blood pressure and make me a cardiogram. He also checked a lot of other possible causes of my sickness like diabetes mellitus, cholesterol, my thyroid gland hormones and generally a lot of blood tests. My blood pressure was quite good and the blood tests even better but the cardiogram was not that good. It showed that my heart beats were forty per second and they were very low for a 30 years old man! The pathologists sent me immediately at the cardiologists who they made me several tests like cardiogram, thoracic ultrasound and thoracic x-rays in order to explain the low heart beats. All the tests were very good except the x-rays that were showing a big tallow in front of my heart!! I reassured the doctors that it was nothing important cause I am seeing this tallow on my thoracic x-rays since I was 15. Indeed later they show on the ultrasound that my heart was working normal. But they just could not ignore this big tallow in front of my heart and they asked me to do a thoracic CT scan and finally after 11 hours and a lot of tests doctors found what was causing to me all these unpleasant symptoms.
The tallow I mentioned above is at the left side of the x-ray and it is huge..The tallow at the right side is my heart..
The pathological condition that has plagued me so long is called Diaphragmatic hernia or hernia morgagni
In order to understand exactly what Diaphragmatic hernia is, we must first see what is the diaphragm and what is its role on our body!!
The diaphragm is a curved, skeletal muscle which looks like an umbrella and is located below our sides between the chest and the abdominal cavity. (Ιn the thoracic cavity, there are the lungs, the heart, the esophagus and the great vessels. On the other hand in the abdominal cavity there is the end of the esophagus, the stomach, the duodenum, the small and the large intestine, the liver and the pancreas.) Normally, there are some holes in the diaphragm that anatomical elements pass through these holes from chest to the abdominal cavity. That΄s why the diaphragm role is very important in breathing because it pushes the contents of the abdomen downwards resulting the air to increase in lungs.
Diaphragmatic Hernia
Diaphragmatic hernia is a condition in which part of the stomach enters the chest upward through an aperture in the diaphragm.
There are various kinds of this disease.Some of these are:
- Congenital diaphragmatic hernia
- Morgagni's hernia
- Bochdalek hernia
- Iatrogenic henia
(I am suffering from Morgagni's hernia which I will write more detailed below!)
Symptoms
Τhe symptoms that can occur when you suffer from diaphragmatic hernia are many and it is quite difficult to understand what you have just of the symptoms. Some of these are pain in the stomach, acid and food reflux, pain in the chest, difficulty to eat, vomiting, nausea, difficulty in breathing heartburn's etc.
Diagnosis
diaphragmatic hernia is diagnosed by taking the patient's history and by thoroughly evaluating the complications. In some situations the diagnosis is made by CT or X-ray radiography with contrast liquid but the most usual and effective way is through gastroscopy which is a very easy and effective test that does not affect the patient at all. Τhe whole process is done through a thin tube that has a camera at the front and is placed in the patient's mouth and then lowers into esophagus and then into the stomach in order the doctor can have a clear picture of the stomach and confidently diagnose.
Treatment of diaphragmatic hernia
The ultimate treatment of diaphragmatic hernia is achieved through surgery but when the patient has no symptoms and the bleeding is small, a therapeutic approach is not necessary. But when there are serious heartburns, intense acid refluxes of gastric juices, esophageal narrowing or when the patient is suffering from esophageal diaphragmatic hernia with the risk of trapping the stomach in the chest, surgery is appropriate.
The most common surgical procedure for the repair of the diaphragmatic hernia is Nissen fundoplication. Τhe surgery can be done either laparoscopic or open and it depends on the size of the hole in the diaphragm. To stop the reflux of gastric juices in the esophagus, the surgeon strengthens the lower esophageal clamp. This is accomplished by folding the upper part of the stomach around the lower part of the esophagus
What is Morgagni's hernia
Morgagni Hernia (MH) is a retrosternal herniation through inherent diaphragmatic defect manifested by respiratory and/or gastrointestinal symptoms and is repaired through transabdominal or transthoracic approaches.
In my case there is a sizable hole located to the right side of the diaphragm and through it ascends the contents of the abdominal cavity in the chest. When I first diagnosed with Morgagni's Hernia my intestine was next to the heart and I was the star of the day at the hospital because it is a very rare condition. Doctors asked me to publish my situation but I'm getting ahead of them here on Steemit. :)
One of the best surgeons in Greece, Mr. Teodorou, will operate me on Wednesday. I want to thank deeply from my heart all people who were working at the Emergencies of the Ippokrateio hospital last Wednesday because I went there alone in a very bad situation and they helped me so much like they were my family!!
REFERENCES
gastrenterologos.net
wikipedia
esophagus.gr
ginosatis.com
sciencedirect
sakellarioumd
endoscopicsurtgery.gr
giourdasxeirourgiki.gr
thanks for reading.. See you in the future!!