Ok, a brief time line of my events.
A year and a half ago went to primary care physician for lower back pain, strange stinging pains in my chest right under my rib cage and lower-right abdomen. Diagnosis: acid reflux and "here's a sample and prescription", and a referral to gastro. Gastro scopes me and finds a few nodules in the colon and removes, tissue samples all normal. Told not to worry, nothings wrong with me excepts a little gerd. Symptoms progressively get worse, until this past February when I have what I call an event. I get this feeling one morning that my throat closes, my stomach bloats and feels like it's gonna explode, my eyes are bulging out of my head, dizziness, confusion, extreme chest pain like a heart attack. I'm not sure what's going on. Emergency room time. Same diagnosis. Well, two more emergency room visits and each time I'm treated for pain, given a diagnosis of acid reflux. Back to the gastro who puts me through a ringer-full of tests. CT scans, with and without contrast, ex-rays, barium swallows, lower abdominal, etc. etc. etc. Oh, and I forgot about the other diagnoses: gall bladder valve problem, peptic ulcer, IBS, functional bowel problems, and some others I can't remember. Out of all these tests there are a few things of concern that do show up. 1) enlarged lymph nodes in the mesentery adjacent to the cecum, 2) a nodular opacity on my lung in the right lower lobe. But these are interpreted by the gastro as being unrelated and I'm given a recommendation to follow up at a later time. Then I come across some information that tells about hiatal hernia, the symptoms and possible causes. I take this back to my gastro who orders up another test. This time the results show, and I quote from my dr. "a VERY SMALL HIATAL HERNIA, AND A SCHATZKI'S RING ON THE ESOPHAGUS". I ask what the treatment for this is, and I'm then told "NOTHING" as this is not the cause of any of my symptoms. Now I'm ready to ask my question: Does this sound right? I mean, all these tests, nothing is found. Then I get a test that actually shows something and I'm told we're not going to pursue it? And secondly, could the lung opacity, the lymph nodes, the back pain, and the IBS/hiatal hernia all be related, and if so how do I pursue this with a specialist so that I can finally get a diagnosis and maybe a treatment?