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.
Hi all!
Completely new to this sort of thing but I thought I'd join a support group such as this to try and get some reassurance than 1, I'm not on my own with this. And 2, that there is light at the end of the tunnel!
Around the end of February this year, I had a few rather heavy weekends in terms of food and drink for a number of occasions which all seemed to come at once. It's also been a very stressful period due to exams, a house move, work stresses. I'm a 28 year old male and exercise at least 4 times a week. Have had issues with IBS in the past but generally very healthy.
After one evening of a few beers and some food I woke in the middle of the night shivering, and was sick randomly. I went back to sleep and then woke up the next morning fine.
Later on that day, I started to get what I can only describe as hunger pains in the upper abdomen which gradually got worse and worse as the day went on, so much so that at around 3am the following morning my girlfriend was on the phone to the hospital as I was in so much pain with the burning / gnawing sensation in my upper abdomen. I was like this for around a week.
Anyway, for the last 3 months I have been on various PPI medication which was stopped temporarily for 2 weeks (which I am now back on), in preparation for my endoscopy which showed mild gastritis in the lower part of my stomach.
I had some biopsy’s done, and it showed that the stomach mucosa was 'normal'. It also didn’t show any H Pylori which also was supported by a stool test completed earlier in the year.
I am on a restrictive diet, eating no spicy food, fast food, caffeine, alcohol, etc. I'm also limiting gluten and dairy. And please don't get me wrong, I feel so much better than I did at the start. Diet I think has helped massively in conjunction with the PPI meds. Hardly no pain whatsoever now. However, every now and then I'll try and reintroduce something 'normal' back into the diet and then the pain returns.
My main question is.... Is there any hope of returning back to a normal(ish) life in terms of being able to have a few beers with your mates, or the odd takeaway on a Friday night? Sounds trivial as I know people are in a much worse state than I am, but I feel I am constantly missing out on so much due to fear of slipping back to how bad it's been in the past. Instead of going to parties and meals I’ll just opt to stay home on my own.
My second question is do you think this is an acute issue, or chronic. Would the docs been able to differentiate from the endoscopy?
I'm taking slippery elm with food along with probiotic supplements to try and support healing.
Any encouraging words would be really appreciated. Just feels like this is never ending!
Thanks all.
At the end of January, I got the flu. My doctor prescribed 5-days of Tamiflu. Of course with the flu, I also had symptoms of poor appetite and a raging headache. Silly me, thinking that in order to get my appetite back, I pretty much ate badly and gorged myself on bad food. I even ate a whole bag of Flamin Hot Cheetos! I was also constantly taking Ibuprofen for my raging headache in addition to taking Mucinex. Three weeks later was when my stomach issues started. My symptoms were pain in my upper abdomen; I also had lots of gurgling and burning. Every time I ate, my stomach hurts so badly and it felt like a brick was sitting in my stomach. It was awful so I know what everyone is going through. I also have anxiety, which makes the whole situation even worse. I also had fear of eating and in about month, I lost about 15 pounds. I was constantly crying every day and was pretty much an emotional wreck.
About a month later, I had an EGD and my doctor said it was “very mild gastritis”. I also tested negative for H.Pylori. I was prescribed Dexilant 60mg for a month and I started to feel better. I had no more pain after eating, however, I still felt full after eating. After 4 weeks, my doctor lowered my dosage to 30 mg of Dexilant. I was on 30mg of Dexilant for another 4 weeks. After my next check-up my doctor took me off of Dexilant completely. After coming off of Dexilant, I did experience hyperacidity and this lasted for another 4 weeks or so!
I also took natural remedies such as DGL, Slippery Elm and Pepzin GI.
It’s been about six months since my stomach issues started and I can honestly say that I am 95% better! I’m just writing to let everyone know to stay positive bc it will get BETTER! I know it’s hard to stay positive when you’re feeling so miserable but believe that it will, also try to have patience as well. Like I said, it took me almost 6 months to feel close to 100%.
As way of an update for everyone else on my own story, it's now been about 7 months since I initially diagnosed with gastritis. During those 7 months I struggled massively with not only the physical effects of our condition, but more so with the mental side. I wasn't going out with my friends / family due to fear of making my symptoms worse. I wasn't eating and lost around 2 stone in weight. It felt hopeless.
In terms of my symptoms, they progressively got better but I still wasn't right. Although the pain was not severe, I constantly felt like I had indigestion and a sort of hunger/uncomfortable feeling even though I had just eaten. I was going back and forth to the doctors with no one able to give me a definitive answer as to why I was still feeling this way.
Around a month ago I decided to pay for private healthcare and to see a specialist GI doctor. His initial prognosis was that he suspected it was non ulcer dyspepsia. He did however prescribe me sucralfate on the off chance it could be bile refluxing back into my stomach which could be irritating my stomach and causing the symptoms to persist. This was alongside the PPI drug I have been taking since the beginning.
I took the sucralfate for 6 weeks alongside the PPI and actually saw a fairly good improvement. I finished the course and also came off the PPI.
Since then I have had really bad acidity but I assume this is because of stopping the PPI without tapering off. Therefore causing a rebound effect. I also still however get an uncomfortable indigestion feeling in my upper abdomen and neck around an hour after eating.
In general however, I am doing a lot better. I am eating a relatively normal diet except the normal trigger foods. I am also trying to steer clear of gluten and dairy where I can. I have put on around a stone again and working hard to get back up to my normal weight. I am still working with my GI to understand what is still causing the indigestion but I am hopeful things will continue to move in the right direction.
Finally, and probably most importantly, my mind-set is in a much better place. I know how hard this can be and to be honest, I think I am one of the lucky ones in terms of how mild my symptoms are. But since I started to not let this run my life, I have felt much better.
Patience is key. I have stopped asking Dr Google to try and diagnose me and searching the internet for recovery times, feeling that little more hopeless when I see that someone is still struggling longer than I have been. I am also getting therapy in order to try and build coping mechanisms which will allow me to not only continue to keep a positive mental attitude with my health, but in everyday life also. I would encourage people to talk about how they are feeling to the ones close to you as when I continued to internalise everything about how I was feeling, I was becoming increasingly depressed.
Don't get me wrong, I am not 100%, but everyday I am getting a little closer to feeling back to normal. And so will everyone else, it just may take a little longer than you think.
Stay strong. And keep positive.
My gastritis started in June. I wasn't able to eat much of anything and I lost 15 lbs within 3 weeks. I finally got in to have an endoscopy done in August and it confirmed gastritis and esophagitis. I have been on 40mg protonix for acid reflux for a number of years and now have started carafate (10ml x 4 per day). I have noticed a slight improvement as I can eat most meals. I also have reflux in my throat which really has been the worst part of this. Any one out there have this as well?