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.

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WriteNow 03/30/2021

I was just curious to see if there are others with this specific symptom of having a tight stomach. I was diagnosed a year ago with moderate atrophic gastritis. I thought it was healed but in last few weeks, I'm struggling with it again and anemia has come back. Thankfully, I don't have as many symptoms as some people. But my two big ones are loss of appetite and stomach feels very tight - especially when I stand up and walk around. I find myself with my hand on my belly a lot. Sometimes, I even feel like I can't finish my breath. I don't struggle with breathing or anything.

My dr. did prescribe a smoothie that soothes it almost immediately after drinking it. It has: fruit, slippery elm, glutamine, probiotics, aloe vera, and chia seeds. Bone broth seems to be calming it as well.

Anyway, it seems that when I read about others' symptoms, I hear a lot about acid reflux symptoms, or bowel issues. So, that's why I'm curious to hear from anyone with these specific symptoms. Thanks!

Lesleygm 04/02/2021

Hi writenow.. when I read your symptoms it doesnt sound like typical gastritis. It could be the cause is atypical. Like not stress, mental heath or gerd(reflux type symptoms) or hiatal hernia etc. Which is more typical causes.

WriteNow 04/02/2021

Hi there - thanks for your reply. So your thought is that different causes could cause different symptoms. My theory for the cause is that I took many years of ibuprofin for migraine headaches. So nsed damage which is a cause of gastritis but maybe leads to different symptoms than the causes you mentioned. I do have a hiatal hernia the dr told me after the endoscopy. He didn't seem concerned about it.

Lesleygm 04/10/2021

Hi, yes, the NSAIDs can cause stomach issues! A few other people were on this site years ago and had the same issue. They did get way better. It just takes time. I have a small sliding HH. It was the cause of my typical reflux symptoms. Then I got gastritis too. I have read that people with a HH are more prone to gastritis. My HH is minor but after a year of having reflux I got into a gastritis flare up. It is more challenging to deal with than reflux but I wondered if the inflammation in the esophagus spread to the stomach and that was the cause of my gastritis. I remember a few people on this site who had atrophic gastritis and the cause was Hpylori. Did you get tested for that? It is treated differently. The main thing is to work hard on reducing the inflammation. That will get you to a much better place.

WriteNow 04/10/2021

Interesting to hear about a possible connection between HH and increased risk of gastritis. I hadn't heard that yet. As far as H Pylori, I actually just got tested last week for it and am waiting for results. The P.A. just did it to rule it out. For some reason, the dr did not do it with my endoscopy and I wish he would have because that would give the most accurate result, I'm sure. Anyway, thanks for your comment. I'm guessing these boards are kind of dead now that people can go to facebook pages with quicker response times.

Lesleygm 05/10/2021

Yes
It used to be the only site that dealt with these issues. It was really busy from 2013 to 2016. Then the site was changed over to this current site and lots of people did not like it and left.

I hope you h pylori test was negative.

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