Does anyone here know that they have a hiatal hernia? If you do, is there some exterior sign of it, like the shape of the "bumps" on your abdomen when you're doing ab crunches, for example? Do you feel a certain way after you eat certain things, like, you want to burp but cannot?

I searched this forum for "hiatal hernia" but there were no hits. This is one of a couple of issues I intend to discuss with my Dr. very soon.

BACKGROUND: I see a bump on my abdomen when I do crunches, that I don't remember from my earlier fit days of over 20 years ago. It's right at the base of my breastbone, above my navel, on centerline, between the top two abs in the "six pack." It's roughly oblong or oval in shape. I do not have pain when doing crunches. I am wondering if the lump is just fat, or if it's something more ominous. I had a friend age 50-51 who did not survive during post-op for a hiatal hernia - I believe his was at the "strangulated" state.

I had a right lower hernia surgically corrected at age 21. I think it was called an "inguinal" hernia. It was congenital - all males in my immediate family have had it surgically corrected. But no one in my family has had any hiatal hernia that I know of.

Somewhat alarming was the pain I felt briefly yesterday. I am thinking it was simple, common gas originating in my stomach after eating oatmeal. I felt an urge to burp, and did burp, but did not expel much. There was no reflux. The slight pain lasted on and off for about an hour. As "digestive days" go, I had a fairly typical day.

Thanks to any and all with replies! -Martin

Does anyone here know that they have a hiatal hernia? If you do, is there some exterior sign of it, like the shape of the "bumps" on your abdomen when you're doing ab crunches, for example? Do you feel a certain way after you eat certain things, like, you want to burp but cannot?

I searched this forum for "hiatal hernia" but there were no hits. This is one of a couple of issues I intend to discuss with my Dr. very soon.

BACKGROUND: I see a bump on my abdomen when I do crunches, that I don't remember from my earlier fit days of over 20 years ago. It's right at the base of my breastbone, above my navel, on centerline, between the top two abs in the "six pack." It's roughly oblong or oval in shape. I do not have pain when doing crunches. I am wondering if the lump is just fat, or if it's something more ominous. I had a friend age 50-51 who did not survive during post-op for a hiatal hernia - I believe his was at the "strangulated" state.

I had a right lower hernia surgically corrected at age 21. I think it was called an "inguinal" hernia. It was congenital - all males in my immediate family have had it surgically corrected. But no one in my family has had any hiatal hernia that I know of.

Somewhat alarming was the pain I felt briefly yesterday. I am thinking it was simple, common gas originating in my stomach after eating oatmeal. I felt an urge to burp, and did burp, but did not expel much. There was no reflux. The slight pain lasted on and off for about an hour. As "digestive days" go, I had a fairly typical day.

Thanks to any and all with replies! -Martin

Yes I have one, no you cannot tell from the outside as far as I know.

Thanks jesse1, I hope you'll be all right with yours. At this point I am presuming that treatment depends on severity coupled with other patient-unique conditions. -Martin

Thanks jesse1, I hope you'll be all right with yours. At this point I am presuming that treatment depends on severity coupled with other patient-unique conditions. -Martin

I have no problem with mine at all anymore. I raised the head of my bed so it slants slightly downward, and I don't eat within 3 hours of going to sleep. I also try not to stuff myself or eat certain foods that disagree with me. Worrying about it wil bring you more pain than the hernia will.

I'll lay odds that you have a condition called 'divarication of the recti'.
It's not serious, and usually doesn't need any treatment. The rectus muscles lie parallel either side of the midline down your abdomen. The fibrous layer between them, running down the centre through your navel is called the linea alba (literally 'white line'). If someone is pregnant, or lacks muscle, or is getting a bit older (sorry Martin), the linea alba can stretch a bit, and that stretched portion is usually in the upper third, exactly where you are seeing your bump (I'm assuming that the long axis of the oval lies vertically).

A hiatus hernia is where the stomach, which should lie below your diaphragm, gets pulled up into the chest through the gap (called the hiatus) in your diaphragm where your oesophagus runs. There is no external sign of this, it can cause a wide range of symptoms from nothing to intractable dyspepsia, and may require a surgical correction (however, indigestion medication is excellent nowadays, and surgery is much less common).

Strangulation of any piece of your gut is bad news, and a piece of dead abdominal contents stuck up in your chest doubly so.

Andrew.

Andrew, thanks again so much, and you know, you might be taking away business from my Dr. ;) The long axis of the oval is vertical, just like you describe. I am chuckling as I think of my "7-pack." Nice bonus for us older guys! :lol:

Thanks again too, jesse1. It is unsurprising yet nonetheless amazing, how much more constantly comfortable my "gut" feels, overall, now that I am not constantly stuffing (and over-stuffing) it anymore. -Martin

First, hiatal hernia is a herniation of organs in your belly into your chest. Many people have it and mostly asymptomatic and you definitely cannot see this type of hernia from "outside". Symptomatic ones usually only cause heartburn but can sometimes lead to problems if there is too much herniated organ in your chest - these needs surgical therapy. The surgery can usually done laparoscopically (with cameras through 5 small incisions.).

Second, the little bulge you notice can be 3 different things-1. incisional hernia: hernia that happened after you had an incision there for an operation - these should be fixed surgically. 2. epigastric hernia: just like #1 except it arose without having had an incision - these should also generally be fixed, especially if you're gonna be working out and it causes symptoms. 3. diastasis recti - this is NOT a hernia and is just a natural separation of the rectus muscle - these do not need to be fixed, since there's nothing to fix - you'll just have to live with the bulge. Given your symptoms, it sounds like it's #2, but odd that you didn't notice it before.

Barber, thanks for the additional info! :cool:

I definitely do not have any incisional hernia. I am virtually convinced that I do not have a hiatal hernia. At this point it's either the epigastric hernia or the rectus muscle condition. I am not doing crunches right now, so I am not experiencing any possibly related symptoms. But I want to start crunches very soon. Digestion is working well, all the way. So I am thinking it's most likely recti divarication, or diastasis, whatever.

I think I scared my wife last night, when I lay down on the floor and did a crunch to show her the bump. It seemed bigger to me, too, than I recalled it looked the last time I paid it attention. (I rarely pay attention to how I look on the outside - a vestigial hippie thing.)

My theory: perhaps it looked bigger because I had more fat for it to poke through the last time I looked, which (very seriously) was probably sometime before the Thanksgiving holiday. (Ever the optimist! :lol: ) -Martin I WILL SEE MY DR. SOON

According to the endoscopies that have been performed on me I have a hiatal hernia with several erosions around it. From the outside, you can't tell. I take one 20mg pull of Prilosec and that takes care of the acid. On top of that, I'm eating clean due to my goals and I rarely eat anything fatty or fried. The endoscopy was performed years ago and I feel much better but if I stop taking the Prilosec the acid reflux comes back which leads me to believe that the hernia is still there.

Nando

I'll have to research epigastric hernia. I just remembered something the other day. It's something that I have experienced most often when in the shower stall. I can't remember for how long I have been noticing it - maybe for a year, more or less. When I shower, I use a squeegie and towel to dry out the stall. I do lots of reaching and bending and wiping. I have done stall-drying by habit for 5 years.

Some percentage of the time - not all the time, not even most of the time, but some noticeable percentage of the time - I do the stall-drying thing, and...

I burp.

The only other times I've noticed a similar burp is when I'm bent over, tying or untying my shoes. There doesn't seem to be any correlation to when or what I eat, or how much I eat, or how soon I eat before the bending.

So now I am wondering: would a burp effect like that - which I am fairly sure I would have noticed a long time ago if it had been happening since a long time ago - be a symptom of epigastric hernia?

Just another thing to ask my Dr. about! :o -Martin