Following months of stomach problems, a Gastroscopy I had last month revealed two hernias. One was a normal 'sliding' Hiatus Hernia and the other a more dangerous Para-oesophageal Hernia....so my surgeon wanted me to have a barium swallow to elicit size of the POH and its exact position before surgery on the 9th January! (For the last two weeks I have been on a totally liquid diet prior to the barium swallow).

So I had the barium meal yesterday and there was no indication of either of these two hernias present. So my surgeon says he needs to do another Gastroscopy (he didn't do the last one) to see what he finds! The surgery for the 9th is now obviously off.

However he said an alternative diagnosis for the stomach issues I have been having is "something called Gastroparesis". Of course I then said well that's interesting and I reminded him of the onset of PN in the past 15 months. He now also wants to do a nuclear gastric emptying scan (scintigraphy) to assess whether I have Gastroparesis.

I admit my heart sank when he said that, knowing that at least for the hernias, a surgical option often 'fixes' something but when he said gastroparesis I could only think of the chronic and often debilitating nature of it.

The surgeon said he will contact my neurologist now and will also follow up with the gastroenterologist who did my gastroscopy who ???misdiagnosed something he saw!

We thought we were getting some answers which explained the dreadful cough I've had for eight months and the stomach problems but alas - no! So frustrating!

More waiting and testing!