Anticipate the Worst, Hope for the Best.

You know how you expect the worse case scenario, then after it's all said and done you realize it wasn't as bad as you thought it would be? That's what happened to me today.

For the past couple of months I've been having pain right where my ribcage meets in the middle, where my stomach is, and pain right between my shoulder blades.  Because I've never experienced this before I was concerned.  I made an appointment that week with my doctor and we had everything from my heart to my gallbladder checked.  

I learned that I have gallstones, and that my irregular heartbeat was due to inactivity.  But neither one were reasons for my pain.  So I was scheduled to meet with a surgeon for a consultation.  

Before today, I have never been put under anesthesia.  Last year when I had a breast biopsy (which thankfully turned out to be a cyst), I was given shots of Novocain.  So the idea of being put under freaked me out.

Not only that, but I had to be put under for an upper-GI scope.  The idea of having a tube in my throat, when just watching someone chewing on a pen cap makes me want to gag, terrified me.  I have a hard time chewing gum for more than 10 minutes before I have to spit it out.

As you can figure out, my imagination was really taking off on what to expect.  Although pretty much everyone in my family said they've gone through it, and that it was a piece of cake, and that I won't even know what happened, I didn't feel any better.

So, this morning I'm laying in the hospital bed with an IV in my hand (which was a challenge finding a vein to put it in, and I HATE needles!) and pads attached to my chest to monitor my heart-rate during the procedure, and I'm really trying hard to focus on the book I've been reading on my Kindle app to distract myself.  

Then the moment came.  

Although I could feel the start of panic grow, I somehow felt peaceful.  I'm sure the praying I did for courage to go through this helped.

I was wheeled into the procedure room, they positioned me for it, attached me to the monitors, put the bite guard between my teeth, started the "good meds", I took two deep breaths, and the next thing I remember was waking up about a half hour later in another room.

Talk about a deep sleep!  

I felt so relieved about it, that when my surgeon came in, I asked if I could schedule my next one for next week.

So, after all was said and done, I learned that my pain was caused by a hiatal hernia.  So, now I know what could be triggering my pain, and what to do about it.  Although it's something that I'll have to live with, unless it gets much worse and I need surgery, I feel peace at least knowing what's going on.  Having answers make all the difference.  

The kind of hernia I have is the sliding hiatal hernia. 

via Webmd

So now I know to eat small meals and avoid overeating and acidic food.   Oh well, now I know.