Posted by ptiming at adsl-64-164-11-249.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net on March 17, 2002 at 11:05:00:
Glad I could do my part, even tho the copy of Jay & SB that I ordered
from the Stash nearly three weeks ago has not yet arrived..
hmmmm...
Oh, Kevin.. Regarding your last Arena column.. Sorry to hear it, bud..
Might want to check into the possibility of a hiatal hernia, tho. I've had
GERD for a long while now and it turns out thats the main cause.. To
sum it up as neatly as possible: The top of your stomach has a valve
(the cardiac sphincter valve) at the point where it connects with the
esophagus (or oesophagus if we want to keep pretending to be limey
fops). That valve normally holds your stomach acid within the
stomach where the tissue is able to deal with the high acidity. With a
hiatal hernia, the stomach is displaced slightly (typically by our
"morbidly obese" guts) and is pushed slightly upwards. The top
portion of the stomach is pushed into the thoracic cavity (hence
"herniation") and the cardiac sphincter valve cannot close properly.
So you get all this acid splashing up into your esophagus and ow, it
hurts.. Rolaids work, for maybe an hour, but what you really need to
be on is something like Prilosec, Prevacid, or Nexium which are
proton pump inhibitors that actually shut down the production of acid
in your stomach. I've been on and off that stuff for a couple years
now. May at some point look into a surgical option, but not until I
maybe lose some weight... But considering I've just moved to the Bay
Area, left all of my friends behind me, and have no social life and am
suffering a lovely bout of depression over knowing no one, having no
sexual outlet, and nothing but latenight titty-flicks and tubesocks to
satisfy any primal urges... Lets just say I don't see that happening
anytime soon.
Seriously, if you have any questions about the medical thing, let me
know..
pt...
Ira...