Is diaphragmatic hernia causing problems?

My 15 year old doggie, Pepper has been diagnosed with a diaphragmatic hernia & the Specialist we seen said since no one is sure when it happened or if it is congenital, they would not recommend surgery. I have had her since a small pup & have no knowledge of her being kicked or falling from anything, & I know she has never been hit by a car, so I am guessing it is congenital. About three months ago she had a rather large growth removed from her rear end just to the left of her anus & a "mole" removed from her lower left lip right at the corner of her mouth (she has them all over her body some of them bust open & seep). When the Vet done her surgery he kindly removed some plaque from her teeth, without me even asking (I had asked her old Vet to do it probably 5 years prior but they did not want to "put her under" because of her age)I was very appreciative that he done this! I brought her home the next day with a prescription of Cephalexin & she done well for about a week, other than the fact that she wouldn't take food from the left, she had a squeak when she chewed (she still has that sometimes)& some of her food would just fall right out of her mouth (I figured it was all from the stitches). She had surgery on a Friday & the following Saturday she started vomiting up bile, she has done this from time to time in the past but never lasted more than a day. Well this time was different, she threw up 3 times that morning & for a week after she threw up bile anywhere from 1 to 3 times a day, even if she had just eaten the only thing that came up was the yellow bile, the food stayed down. After a week of that I took her back to the Vet(she also needed her stitches out). They checked her & she was running a slight temp, which the Vet said could have just been from her being anxious from the ride there. She had lost a pound & when I told her Vet what was going on they recommended doing a CBC test & suggested that Pepper may have acid reflux. We done the CBC test & she gave me some pepcid & anti nausea meds to take home & try. She was still throwing up & swallowing really hard (dropping her chin to her chest & pulling her head back while keeping her chin down to her chest) for about 5 more days. I had gotten the CBC results & for a doggie her age the Vet said everything looked pretty good. Her iron was down a little, her electrolytes were slightly low, (but thought that was from her being anxious from the car ride there before having her blood drawn) her liver enzymes were off a little & her Vet thought she might be in the beginning stages of a bile duct blockage so she started her on a prescription of Ciprofloxacin & Prednisone they also gave her more meds for the nausea. I gave her the nausea meds the next morning & about 20 minutes after taking them threw up bile, but that was the last time. Around that time she started having very labored breathing (panting), excessive drooling (long slimy strings from both sides of her mouth) & still swallowing hard. I was having a hard time finding something she would eat, I was giving her peanut butter sandwiches to make sure she was getting all her meds but was afraid that was not enough. She has been eating Purina Beneful Healthy weight formula for at least 10 years,she had never gotten table scraps or other human food, besides vegetables (she loves corn, green beans, peas, lettuce, even watermelon & cantaloup) I couldn't get her to eat any of those things. I talked to her Vet & they said they were not sure what was wrong with her so they recommended a Specialist, so I called & made an appointment. They couldn't get me in for two weeks, within that time I was doing research online & I had found something that matched some of her symptoms (by this time she had started heaving up a really thick white foamy mucus also & heaving hard enough she would fall over from being short of breath, also pacing & panting really hard) what I found was congestive heart failure & also learned it could be diagnosed with an x-ray. I then contacted a local Vet that advertised having an x-ray machine, was open on Saturdays & took her in. They done the x-ray & said she did have a slightly enlarged heart & gave me Enalapril & Furotabs (very low dose of each until I seen the Specialist) & recommended a low sodium diet. I went to the pet store & found that most dog foods don't list their sodium content, but did find a vegetarian dog food that had it listed & said low sodium, the Vet also said I could try baby food so I tried it also, she would eat the baby food but not the other. Peppers first trip to the Specialist ended with me finding out she had swollen salivary glands (which she thought could be Phenobarbital responsive sialadenosis) plus arthritis in her neck & back. She was concerned with the hard swallowing because she was not sure if it was that or a possible seizure, so she told me to count how many times I seen Pepper do it in a day & let her know. She also told me to take Pepper off of the heart meds. I counted how many times she swallowed hard the next day & in two hours that morning before I went to work she had done it 20 times & within an hour that evening she had done it another 10 times, so I let the Specialist know & she prescribed Phenobarbital. I started her on it & finally found a canned dog food that she would eat & she is has continued eating. She had slowed way down on the hard swallowing so I tried to get her to eat some of her soft treats & her Beneful & she would chew the treats into pieces but not swallow them & her salivary glands were still swollen after more than a month of taken the Phenobarbital, so I made a second appointment with the Specialist. Pepper was still heaving really hard until she would throw up that white foamy mucus & falling over from loss of oxygen, she also sounded really rattly (like she had a lot of mucus in her sinuses) when she was pacing & panting, so I asked them to do an x-ray of her lungs to make sure she didn't have pneumonia & that is when they found the hernia. She asked me if Pepper had been kicked by a horse or hit by a car & I told her not since I have had her & she was just weened when I got her, so they are thinking it is congenital. We were sent home with Clindamycian, Carprofen (50mg once a day)& told to stay on the Phenobarbital since it seemed to have helped with the hard swallowing. She has ate a little of her Beneful & I have got her to eat some Dentastixs, which makes me feel a little better. What I need to know is, is there anything I can do to make her more comfortable? Do you recommend another type of pain medicine or perhaps just more of the type she is taking? I don't have children & she is my baby, I hate seeing her like this, I don't know if she is really in pain, I haven't heard her make a noise, bark, whine, yelp, or whimper in over a month. I can tell when she paces & pants she is a little anxious & I try to calm her down but I am not sure what to do because even if I try to hold her she will only stay for a few minutes then she is right back to pacing. Please help me, help my baby girl. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I wanted to let you know that God made the decision for me last night, she past around 2am. Even though my heart is broken I know she is no longer suffering & that is a relief to me. I will miss my baby girl something fierce & will always cherish the memories of her, I could not have asked for a better doggie. Thanks again.