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.
Stats:
Age: 27
Height: 5'9
Weight: 145lbs (at June 8th)
Smoker: No
Drink alcohol: 2-3 glasses of beer/wine a week before problems occurred.
First off, I just want to say how happy I am to find this place. It has given me a wealth of knowledge on diet and other such clues to my current issues.
My problems started around late April of this year. My eating habits, or lack there of, have not been that great along with severe, and untreated, anxiety/stress issues.
Anyway, the problem started the last weekend of April as I had a slight throbbing discomfort under my left ribcage. I did not really think about it as I have had stomach issues in the past that resolved themselves on their own. That next morning the pain had spread to my lower gut which was tender to touch. I went to the Doctor that Wednesday and he thought I had gastritis and wanted to do more tests. I could not as I had a vacation that next week that was 3-4 months in the making. He prescribed a 30 day dose of Omeprazole 20mg and recommended to keep a healthy diet. I did so and by the 7th day of taking it, I felt great, just in time for vacation where I did not watch my diet and over-indulged.
I continued on my dosage without any stomach problems during vacation and finished the 30 day course and resumed my normal eating habits, a lot of spicy/hot sauce and lots of anxiety/stess. I noticed the next week I started having severe skin itching that would not calm down even with calamine lotion. Finally, I got so fed up with the itching happening all day, I took a benadryl and the itching disappeared within the hour.
That Sunday morning, June 8th, about 11 days after finishing my meds I woke up with excruciating stomach pain. I ended up in the ER as I could not breathe because of the pain. They did blood and other tests and came back with my bilirubin, liver, and pancreas levels being normal. They did find one gallstone but felt it was not causing my issues and felt it was Gastritis and gave me a GI specialists name to go to and get an upper endoscopy.
After the endoscopy about a week ago, they confirmed I had mild gastritis with a slight hiatal hernia. I will know this Wednesday if I tested positive for H Pylori on the biopsy they performed. He prescribed me 40mg Omeprazole but I did not want to take it after reading the long term results of PPI usage
So far, I have stuck to a bland diet and I am switching between Omerprazole 20mg and Zantac 75mg daily along, as I do not want to use the PPI long term, with DGL Licorice 3-4 times a day and I feel like a lot of the bad stomach pain has been kept under the threshold. Sadly I had a flare up last night as my parents brought me some grilled shrimp and they had heavily seasoned it with pepper. The flare up is finally calming down today.
I apologize for the long story but my main questions are.
1. Could I have exacerbated my gastritis by quitting the PPI cold turkey or was it just making my symptoms?
2. Should I just start re-taking my PPI for time being with B12/Magnesium supplements until I can wean off of it?
3. I have been losing weight significantly since starting the bland diet and I am getting nervous about this as I do not look healthy. Can I take whey protein shakes with soy milk as my stomach can handle soy but not regular milk or stick with ensure?
4. Is the diet thing really just trial and error? I tried a cup of coffee for the first time morning in over 3 weeks, half caf/half decaf, and I felt surprisingly fine with the hard boiled eggs and steel cut oatmeal afterwards.
5. My bowel movements, while not as foul anymore, are still very oily. Could it be possible I have pancreatitis as well?
6. Has anyone had the itchy skin that I have been experiencing?
I understand recovery is different for everyone so I could be fine in 4 months or in 4 years. My heart really goes out to everyone on here still dealing with the symptoms. This is not how men/women were meant to live. Dealing with pain 24/7.
Age: 27
Height: 5'9
Weight: 145lbs (at June 8th)
Smoker: No
Drink alcohol: 2-3 glasses of beer/wine a week before problems occurred.
First off, I just want to say how happy I am to find this place. It has given me a wealth of knowledge on diet and other such clues to my current issues.
My problems started around late April of this year. My eating habits, or lack there of, have not been that great along with severe, and untreated, anxiety/stress issues.
Anyway, the problem started the last weekend of April as I had a slight throbbing discomfort under my left ribcage. I did not really think about it as I have had stomach issues in the past that resolved themselves on their own. That next morning the pain had spread to my lower gut which was tender to touch. I went to the Doctor that Wednesday and he thought I had gastritis and wanted to do more tests. I could not as I had a vacation that next week that was 3-4 months in the making. He prescribed a 30 day dose of Omeprazole 20mg and recommended to keep a healthy diet. I did so and by the 7th day of taking it, I felt great, just in time for vacation where I did not watch my diet and over-indulged.
I continued on my dosage without any stomach problems during vacation and finished the 30 day course and resumed my normal eating habits, a lot of spicy/hot sauce and lots of anxiety/stess. I noticed the next week I started having severe skin itching that would not calm down even with calamine lotion. Finally, I got so fed up with the itching happening all day, I took a benadryl and the itching disappeared within the hour.
That Sunday morning, June 8th, about 11 days after finishing my meds I woke up with excruciating stomach pain. I ended up in the ER as I could not breathe because of the pain. They did blood and other tests and came back with my bilirubin, liver, and pancreas levels being normal. They did find one gallstone but felt it was not causing my issues and felt it was Gastritis and gave me a GI specialists name to go to and get an upper endoscopy.
After the endoscopy about a week ago, they confirmed I had mild gastritis with a slight hiatal hernia. I will know this Wednesday if I tested positive for H Pylori on the biopsy they performed. He prescribed me 40mg Omeprazole but I did not want to take it after reading the long term results of PPI usage
So far, I have stuck to a bland diet and I am switching between Omerprazole 20mg and Zantac 75mg daily along, as I do not want to use the PPI long term, with DGL Licorice 3-4 times a day and I feel like a lot of the bad stomach pain has been kept under the threshold. Sadly I had a flare up last night as my parents brought me some grilled shrimp and they had heavily seasoned it with pepper. The flare up is finally calming down today.
I apologize for the long story but my main questions are.
1. Could I have exacerbated my gastritis by quitting the PPI cold turkey or was it just making my symptoms?
2. Should I just start re-taking my PPI for time being with B12/Magnesium supplements until I can wean off of it?
3. I have been losing weight significantly since starting the bland diet and I am getting nervous about this as I do not look healthy. Can I take whey protein shakes with soy milk as my stomach can handle soy but not regular milk or stick with ensure?
4. Is the diet thing really just trial and error? I tried a cup of coffee for the first time morning in over 3 weeks, half caf/half decaf, and I felt surprisingly fine with the hard boiled eggs and steel cut oatmeal afterwards.
5. My bowel movements, while not as foul anymore, are still very oily. Could it be possible I have pancreatitis as well?
6. Has anyone had the itchy skin that I have been experiencing?
I understand recovery is different for everyone so I could be fine in 4 months or in 4 years. My heart really goes out to everyone on here still dealing with the symptoms. This is not how men/women were meant to live. Dealing with pain 24/7.
I noticed I am not passing gas that much anymore which I do like.
My stomach seems a little more stable.
Unfortunately I still feel fatigued most days, mostly due to diet and probably having no caffeine. I have been taking a 1000mcg B12 supplement, two times a day along with a B complex vitamin and my muscle twitches/aches have disappeared, more or less.
Yesterday morning was the first morning in a while where I felt pretty good. Yet when I was leaving work, I had a something of a mini-flare up where my stomach started burning for a good 10-15 minutes before ending along with an itchy anus, TMI I know. After that my stomach seemed stable.
This morning I experienced hot flashes all over my body but I do not know whether that was the stress of driving this morning and almost being in a wreck.
I am hoping by this time next week, I turn another corner. If not, I will just do the full 40mg of Prilosec as recommended by my Doctor.
Want to give it another week, or so, before venturing out of the safe zone as far as food goes.
I would like to stop mastic gum but I am too afraid that is what caused my flare up a week or two back. I feel like it is causing constipation.
I think what caused the stabbing pain last week which has lingered since then but seems to be finally subsiding was a smoothie I tried at the gym.
I moved up to the 40 mg capsule of omerprazole my doctor described a week ago and I feel like it has been working better than the 20 mg tablets. Then again, it could be because I am on 3 weeks of taking omerprazole again. I find it works the best if I take it an hour before eating breakfast. I hope I can wean down to 20 mg once the inflammation is gone.
I have been running again to relieve my depression as I miss feeling like the old me and it helps, not as fast or hard but enough to get my heart thumping, it feels nice.
The pain in my lower gut is gone but I still get some slight pain in my upper left rib cage, faint but there, along with heartburn occasionally but has gotten better, same with back pain, still have a lot of gas along with smelly stools. I occasionally get nausea/dizzy but they are very short, about less than a minute. Had that twice this week when I woke up. I seen to get dry throat easily now with phlegm, I guess I have reflux *sigh*.
The good news is I no longer have a sore throat since starting 40mg and I can now eat Greek yoghurt without having these itchy histamine allergy-like reactions.
My diet is clean. No alcohol, no spicy/fried/fatty foods, and no coffee (the hardest to give up). Meals are small, every 2-3 hours.
I try to do positive thinking, telling myself I will heal and be able to have all the old things I use to eat and more importantly, laugh more. Still, on the days I feel good, does that mean there is more suffering in store? I hope not.
I hope by this time next month, I will have made more progress.