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.
i saw a few of you mention issues with breathing sometimes. I've had this recurring for about a year now in varying intensity. basically, my chest seems to tighten up and my throat swells, so I have difficulty swallowing. It doesn't seem to follow much rhyme or reason, but happens more at night when I'm laying down.
It's scary, because I can't breathe properly sometimes and I semi-sufficate in my sleep. So I'll be dreaming away and feel the suffocation and it becomes a part of my dream... (a few nights ago I dreamt I was walking around and the weather was so muggy that I couldn't breathe).
I obviously mentioned this to doctors before and got the usual (it's in your head, anxiety, etc...). I have a decent doctor now and she told me she suspects angio-adema, basically an allergic reaction which is very common with medication she says. hello ppi! I also suspected this, because it only happens when I'm on the ppi, I never had this problem before in my life. But I don't know.
Anyway, to end my rambling - have any of you experienced this, too? Some of you said that the diaphram can be pressed on when the stomach is inflamed and breathing is affected. I don't have huge inflammation at this point, just struggling with visceral hypersensitivity.
I thought of other causes - sudden allergy to nuts, my dog, but I can't explain it.
It's scary, because I can't breathe properly sometimes and I semi-sufficate in my sleep. So I'll be dreaming away and feel the suffocation and it becomes a part of my dream... (a few nights ago I dreamt I was walking around and the weather was so muggy that I couldn't breathe).
I obviously mentioned this to doctors before and got the usual (it's in your head, anxiety, etc...). I have a decent doctor now and she told me she suspects angio-adema, basically an allergic reaction which is very common with medication she says. hello ppi! I also suspected this, because it only happens when I'm on the ppi, I never had this problem before in my life. But I don't know.
Anyway, to end my rambling - have any of you experienced this, too? Some of you said that the diaphram can be pressed on when the stomach is inflamed and breathing is affected. I don't have huge inflammation at this point, just struggling with visceral hypersensitivity.
I thought of other causes - sudden allergy to nuts, my dog, but I can't explain it.
my throat sometimes felt very tight and i had trouble swallowing too. I don't think it was the ppi though because I'm still on it but now that my stomach is better than it was, i don't have those problems
Have you noticed if you're in any particular sleeping position when this happens? You say your inflammation is not a problem now, but I was wondering if you get any issues with trapped gas inside your stomach because this can have a similar effect & impede the downward movement of he diaphragm.
I get minor breathlessness/shallow breathing if I lay flat on my back - nothing overly severe now - not like the hyperventilation I used to get back in the early bad days.
yeah, dying in my sleep crossed my mind, too... :)
so you're ok now? I have these issues thoughout the day, but it's scarier at night. It doesn't follow any logic, though. I was fine for months, and it started again a few weeks ago. Now it's regular. My stomach used to be so much worse last year and didn't have the breathing issues during that, even though I was on the same ppi as now. I feel nearly normal now, but this still bothers me.
Maybe it's the lack of acid somehow??? I really wish there were clear answers. as I sit here I feel like someone is gently strangling me.
I guess it's just "one of these things"...
I've recently switched from 20mg Nexium back onto 30mg Lansoprazole (Nexium was sending my IBS crazy).
I only really get the breathless thing now during rare bad flare ups.
I don't know if others get this, but I get lots of trapped stomach gas - that I have to burp/deflate. I really don't know if that's a ppi side effect. If I don't burp out the gas then I would get breathless from the pressure.
johngreen - i feel kind of better that I now know this happened to someone else as well.. (you). This way I know it's the stomach issues and possibly a ppi side effect and not my dog!!! (my first doc's advice - "get rid of your dog")
The reason I think it's the ppi is because it happened for the first time only a few days into my Nexium. They swiched me to another ppi and same thing.. then I decided to not do ppi's at all, and enter several months of pain and misery, trying to cure myself with zantac and "natural" cures... in the end they basically forced Protonix down my throat at the ER. It was a very low dose, so I had no issues. When I went on 60mg Dexilant later last year the breathing started again.
@smilelikeyoumeanit - I don't think it's inflammation in my case... but I can totally see how that would contribute to the same problem.
Anyway.. sorry for the novel.