First, I'd like to thank you for your concern and your prayers. Yes, sister Zaria, I did have a fibroscopy/gastroscopy. In addition to the hernia, I suffer from an oesophagitis type2. Well, my case is hereditary. My father suffered from it and so does my elder brother. Concerning the surgery, my doctor advised me not to choose this option for there are 50% chances that the symptoms get back. I was told to adapt my life style to this illness: Never eat right before prayers or sleeping, take liquids three hours before or after the meals, walk a lot, always elevate the level of the matress when sleeping AND try to avoid all kind of stress. I think the last one is the hardest part. But anyway, I'm not giving up trying. One more thing, I know all the values of dates, however, when I eat one or two, it causes heartburn. Is it just me or is it somehow common?
sister,
The oesophagitis (which means inflammation of the food-pipe), that you have mentioned is a complication of long-standing reflux (rather than being an seperate diagnosis in itself).
This occurs because acid and bile are not meant to come in contact with the lining of the food-pipe (the cells that line the oesophagus are very different from the cells that line the stomach, and chronic exposure to this acid can sometimes cause transformation of these cells - a term called Barrets oesphagus) - and hence this causes hurt and inflammation.
Most literature reports a success rate of surgery for GERD (referring to a procedure called laproscopic Nissan Fundoplication with correction of the hiatal hernia as well - which is the current 'gold standard') at 90-95%.
However, the most important factors to, in shaa Allah, achieving long-term success are:
1. The expertise of the surgeon: <--- Really, really important!
'Expertise' is generally regarded as a surgeon who performs at least 20 of these procedures per year.
If it is not a 'high volume' surgeon, then success rates may differ/ be less.
If your doctor has quoted a success rate of 50%, then this could be his personal figures :hiding:, or perhaps he is considering a different procedure.
2. Weight
Patients who are obese tend to require a more detailed procedure and have poorer long-term success rates.
If you ever reach the point where you wish to consider surgery (e.g. because of the severity of symptoms, impact on your daily living, and other complications), then the pros of surgery carefully need to be weighed against the cons, with your surgeon of choice.
The following 3 links provide may be helpful in providing a balanced view between medical and surgical therapies, as well as more detail on the procedure:
http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2010/07/medicine_versus_surgery_for_ge.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2886454/
http://www.refluxmd.com/learn/resou...phageal-reflux-disease-gerd-procedures-glance
(With regards to dates causing heartburn - in your case, this is most likely due to your hernia/ reflux, rather than the dates itself.
Your reflux does sound quite severe, considering that you have symptoms even when fasting (and the stomach being empty), and being on medical therapy).
May Allah grant you complete shifaa', and make this trial a means of great rewards for you.
Ameen
:wa:
