Than I Imagined
Sitting at breakfast taking my first sip of coffee I remembered MRH's comments at lunch on Friday. He has a hiatal hernia too and his goes off on a single cup of coffee. Heartburn, rather than soreness. They warn you about coffee and caffein. I drink one or two cups in the morning and as I was taking my first sip I wondered if I wasn't beginning to feel it in my chest. OK. You look for these things and you find them, even when they aren't there. This, however, happened as I was also thinking about my doctor's recommendations at my annual physical on Friday.
There are evidently various ways to treat a hiatal hernia. Antacids are one, Prilosec and Zantac are two that you see advertised on television. I've been taking a generic Zantac tablet now for years. The doctor said, well, Zantac is about 5 on a scale of ten in effectiveness, Prilosec maybe a nine. Let's try some Prilosec and see what happens. Which led me (finally) last night to think about the two whiskey and waters I have in the evenings.
How about a week or two with no alcohol and a Prilosec at night followed by another Prilosec and no coffee in the morning? Evidently undergoing an operation to correct a hiatal hernia is no panacea, drugs have a similar record of success and the damned things can return even after the operation. There's also a procedure where they snake something down your throat and do ugly sounding things to the junction with your stomach, but less invasive ugly sounding things than going in from the outside with a scalpel. I am going to put off the surgery, try the Prilosec, stop the alcohol and talk to the doctor who does the run a snake down your throat routine.
This is probably more than most people wanted to know.
Screw 'em.
And, yes, I bought an Element this morning. They need to order the fog lights and the other stuff and install them on the car in the photograph before I can pick it up, but I made a down payment and signed the contract. How do I feel about owning an Element? Better than I imagined.
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