Gastritis Support Group
Gastritis is a medical term for inflammation of the lining of the stomach. It means that white blood cells move into the wall of the stomach as a response to some type of injury. Gastritis has many underlying causes, from infection with the bacterium H. pylori, bile reflux, or excessive consumption of alcohol or certain foods or drugs like aspirin.
Hey guys and gals, this past June I started getting really bad upper left abdominal pain (that sometimes also is present in the upper right abdomen). It came on suddenly without a lot of buildup. I'm an otherwise healthy 35 year old male.
After about a week and unable to take the pain anymore, I went to the ER and they gave me some painkillers, prilosec, carafate, and made an appointment for me in the family practice at the hospital.
I had a urine test, blood test, ultrasound, and h. pylori test. All tests came back fine, so the doctor thinks this is either an ulcer or gastritis.
I was a heavy drinker for many years up until the time the pain started. Once the pain started, I quit and haven't had a sip of alcohol in over 6 months. I'm thinking the pain is the result of years of drinking.
I have a great appetite, bowel movements are normal, no vomiting, and I'm not nauseous much. It's just this unrelenting pain in the upper left abdominal region that sometimes feels like it shoots through straight to my back. I also experience the pain on my left side near the bottom of the ribcage. Sometimes the pain also appears on the right hand side (A problem I had commonly during drinking binges which my doc said may have been reflux/ulcers due to alcohol).
I have been doing a lot of reading online and it seems all my symptoms points to gastritis or ulcer even though my doctor hasn't given a definitive diagnosis yet.
I take 150mg zantac everyday when I wake up and I am on tramadol for the pain... usually around 100-200mg day depending on the pain level that day. I did prilosec for a few months but it didn't do anything. I may try nexium.
This is stressing me out bigtime. I feel like it's never going to go away. I feel like it may be cancer, even though I have no other major bowel symptoms. All these negative thoughts keep running through my head and it's hard to stay positive when I'm constantly in pain.
Six months of this. How long does gastritis and/or ulcer take to heal... especially when I was a heavy drinker for many years. I have put down the bottle. I have no intention to start drinking again, I just want my life back and the pain to go away.
Is it normal for gastritis pain to last over 6 months???
Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you for reading my story.
After about a week and unable to take the pain anymore, I went to the ER and they gave me some painkillers, prilosec, carafate, and made an appointment for me in the family practice at the hospital.
I had a urine test, blood test, ultrasound, and h. pylori test. All tests came back fine, so the doctor thinks this is either an ulcer or gastritis.
I was a heavy drinker for many years up until the time the pain started. Once the pain started, I quit and haven't had a sip of alcohol in over 6 months. I'm thinking the pain is the result of years of drinking.
I have a great appetite, bowel movements are normal, no vomiting, and I'm not nauseous much. It's just this unrelenting pain in the upper left abdominal region that sometimes feels like it shoots through straight to my back. I also experience the pain on my left side near the bottom of the ribcage. Sometimes the pain also appears on the right hand side (A problem I had commonly during drinking binges which my doc said may have been reflux/ulcers due to alcohol).
I have been doing a lot of reading online and it seems all my symptoms points to gastritis or ulcer even though my doctor hasn't given a definitive diagnosis yet.
I take 150mg zantac everyday when I wake up and I am on tramadol for the pain... usually around 100-200mg day depending on the pain level that day. I did prilosec for a few months but it didn't do anything. I may try nexium.
This is stressing me out bigtime. I feel like it's never going to go away. I feel like it may be cancer, even though I have no other major bowel symptoms. All these negative thoughts keep running through my head and it's hard to stay positive when I'm constantly in pain.
Six months of this. How long does gastritis and/or ulcer take to heal... especially when I was a heavy drinker for many years. I have put down the bottle. I have no intention to start drinking again, I just want my life back and the pain to go away.
Is it normal for gastritis pain to last over 6 months???
Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you for reading my story.
I too have been struggling with this and I feel the same even though I have a few more symptoms than you I still freak out and think I have cancer and that anxiety will make everything feel 6x worse so the best advice I have is control the anxiety because what's the first thing you feel when overly stressed? Upset or nervous stomach. Now on the healing time it all depends on you if you control your anxiety and control your diet with bland healthy food , for me I've had gastritis for about 7 years and it's a daily struggle. I've had it so long cuz I have trouble controlling my anxiety and when I start feeling a little bit better my diet goes out the window and I fall right back where I started. So the key is discipline and a positive attitude I wish you and your family the best. Good luck
I was under the impression this is something I can heal much quicker. I've already been dealing with it 6 months, I can't imagine a lifetime of this, especially as a young guy.
Not to mention the pain meds I am on. They can be quite draining at times. I don't want to take them long term, and I've already been on them about 6 months as well. They are the only thing keeping me sane at the moment as NOTHING else I try even puts a dent in the pain.
I even lost 35 lbs through diet and exercise, hoping that would help a bit, but it didn't do anything at all to ease it. I've tried zantac, prilosec, carafate, bland diet... everything. At my wit's end here.
I may not have damaged my liver from drinking (ultrasound and blood tests were fine), but I sure damaged my stomach lining.
Pureeing food is a very good idea. Much easier to digest.
Mine is over 2 years now.. chronic, mild gastritis. I have not had another scope so don't know where I stand right now. Got much better for awhile, then slid back downhill. Now I'm so-so. My doctor told me there will be good days and bad days. Sounds like it's a forever thing.
Get the Pepzin GI if you can. It really helped me over the worst of it.
No change in the pain department. Same pain every day. So tired of this. I just dread waking up in the morning when the pain seems to be at it's worst.
Currently, I am taking prilosec when I first wake up, about 30-60 min before breakfast. At night, I take a Zantac 150mg right before bed. And of course, the pain killers during the day when things get really bad.
I really hope this is just gastritis and not something more sinister. I mean, I've been having this problem since June and it's hard to stay positive when the pain is so persistent and life changing.
It might be worthwhile to get an EGD done as well as possibly a HIDA scan.
You have to do a ton of hard work to make this better. It requires a lot of discipline with the diet and avoiding a lot of foods all together.
With hard work this gets way better A huge change in lifestyle is the only way to do it.
Many have this for years. So do the hard work now and it will go away. Gastritis can become chronic over time
The doctor should take the ulcer issue more seriously. It has to be managed really well to get rid of one. It is unlikely you have anything more scary but see if you have an ulcer. Get the lining looked at.
If you have anxiety/stress/trauma get help with the mental part as well. Anxiety and stress seem to be the number one cause of gastritis. It makes it harder to get rid of gastritis. The stomach is very sensitive to stress and anxiety.
Once you take control of this issue the anxiety goes away unless you have it from another source. Then you need therapy too.
Do the hard work now!
join the facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/420027964703338/ and look for posts by Jerry Claxton and how he healed his gastritis.
"I lost 30lbs in 6 weeks, thought I was going to whittle away and die. I had to go through trial and error with the diet. Ended up only being able to tolerate pureed food (via food processor). Very long story short....I'm 95% better and can eat almost everything I used to. But 3 months of sacrifice, eating the same 4 things all that time is what it took to get my life back again. Being so easy on my digestive system all that time is what allowed it to heal itself."
i plan to do this myself sooner or later because it seems i hit a plateau in terms of healing still can't eat fruits !...wether i have the willpower to stick to it or not...i'll have to see. I hope you do.
I am planning on doing the super bland diet as well. I don't know what else to do at this point.
Another thing is that I chew tobacco which I know is absolutely horrible on the stomach. It's possible it's a peptic ulcer which is what my doctor was guessing originally.
But the pain seems to shift around in the stomach area. An ulcer would most likely be pain in the same spot. Which leads me back to gastritis.
I wish I could stop guessing and just get an endoscopy but I simply can't afford it right now.
I'm hoping if I quit chewing and go on a super bland diet for 8-12 weeks that I will feel much better. I am in otherwise good health minus this abdominal trouble.