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,
I hope you are doing well. I have a question for those who have experineced worsened burning. At the beginning of this, my main issue was nausea. Yes, I had burping, indigestion, some pain especially on the left side, under the ribs and very mild middle of the stomach pain, but only very slight burning the first few days - the burning all went away after a couple of days. I was on 60 mg of Pepcid for 8 weeks, by the 6th week mark, while still on a restricted diet, my sx were about 90% gone!!! I was very careful with the diet and had no nausea nor pain.
I then went down to 40 mg. The switch happened at the same time I was visiting family overseas so I had to relax my diet. I was on a very very strict diet for 6-7 weeks, then while on vacation, though I still tried to avoid eating/drinking too much of the bad stuff, I nonetheless ate a much more varied diet with some of the big no no foods (citrus, cured meats, etc.) and did end up having soda a few times as well as coffee. Plus I got a stomach virus and had to go on antibiotics for something else for a week. At the time I didn;t feel so bad, but after a couple of days of returning home, I got HORRID pain in my stomach. Diffuse pain in ALL my stomach area as well as CONSTANT burning. It has been a week now and it is not letting up. Even water burns. Everything burns. It burns when I am hungry, it burns when I eat, It just burns.
Is it a flare from the bad diet or is it an adjustment to the lowered Pepcid dose?
Any ideas/any experiences? One thing I don;t understand is my stomach certainly can;t be WORSE than when this first started (I was eating spicy foods, driking very strong mineral/carbonated water and not paying attention to my diet at all then). So, how can the burning be worse? Burning to me means an irritated/inflamed stomach - but I can;t conceive that it is more so now than it was before all the dieting and Pepcid. Besides, I am still on 40 mg. of Pepcid.
Please share.
Thanks!!!
I am having EXACTLY the same symptoms as you are, it's weird!!! I had to come off the PPI's about 5 weeks ago and ended up doing this cold turkey.... I was ok for the first 3 days then started having nasty side pain and under ribs..along with the burning pain...mine is just above the belly button and below the ribs..and it goes straight through to my back. I your's the same ???.... I have found that the side/and pain under ribs has got better but NOT the horrible burning...I am so close to going back on the meds....but in myself feel so much better without them (bad side effects). I went to the DR about 3 weeks ago and she did say it may be the gastritis hasn't healed...but some days I feel the burning goes to a slight dull ache...does your pain do the same?...I am going to give it a few more weeks and keep my diet bland to see how it goes...keep us updated on how you feel and if it goes,this thing is difficult to shift!!,,keep well :)
thank you for responding. I didn't really have pain above the belly button much at all before but now I do. I also get a twingy/crampy pain right in the middle of my stomach many times in the day, which I didn't have before, either. It doesn't go through to my back, thank God. The burning does change to a dull ache now here and there, since yesterday as well.
I am beginning to suspect lactose. The horridness I am in now came over a week ago after I ate a few spoons of plain yogurt, which I had been staying away from since gastritis began as it did me no good. I ate a little feta cheese here and there since and each time it bothered my stomach. For two days I stayed away from cheese and I felt some improvement. Yesterday I tried a small amount of feta cheese again and had worsening sx in a couple of hours. I know I am lactose intolerant (know through a breath test), but never had any actual sx until now. So I will stay away from all dairy (except a little part-skim mozzarella seems tolerable) until the gastritis is healed very well.
I think in my case this flare up us due to an unhealed stomach; I don;t think it is rebound from the pepcid. I had gastritis for over 3 years (though not symptomatic till the last 4 or so months) and I think it will take longer than the 3 months of treatment I afforded to it to cure my poor stomach. Back to babying it - which I don;t mind so much except the weight loss.
Stay in touch :)
Anyone else who would like to pitch in about increased burning and pain after sx having gotten better and help us out?
I've been on a ppi for several weeks now, they increased my dose from 20 mg/day to 40 and the pain under my ribs and side is now totally gone, but I've been having increased burning in between my breasts, terrible heartburn !!! They just started me on carafate 3 to 4 times a day and I've been on that now for almost a week, it's a tiny bit better but the heartburn/ chest burn is off and on daily still .... I am getting depressed that nothing is going to help this... my diet is extremely bland, my bed is elevated, I'm doing absolutely everything that I've been told to do... please can anyone give us some encouragement?
I have had gastritis for 4 years & still struggling to even get a half better.
My only option now is to retire early so I can concentrate on just eating, exercise, rest & recovery..
As much as early retirement sound great, I like my job, I was good at it & I got paid well, but as my family keep telling me I'm just going around in circles.
I now have to take sleeping tablets, just changed my medication to ranitidine 300g, but I think the esomeprazole 40mg worked better.
I also take vitamin B & vitamin D, zinc, magnesium supplements because these drugs makes cause vitamin &mineral deficient.
I have been reading up on Plexus so I'm about to give that a go, they promote gut health & mine poor gut is struggling big time.
I will keep you posted
Corah
Boobear, is your burning better? I just read that you feel 90% better. That's fantastic. Are you still on a very limited diet or have you been able to expand the diet a bit? You aren't on any meds for gastritis at the moment, are you? And finally, how long were you on the Ppis and Zantac? I know you ended up having to quit them due to side effects, but how long did you end up being on them? Please let me know if you have been able to expand the diet. The weight loss is bothering me.
As an update, my non- stop burning lasted for 10 days, it's mostly gone now but comes back for a portion of the day here and there. I'm still on a very bland diet and recently started Aciphex since being on Pepcid 60mg wasn't enough for healing, the GI dr. said.
I got different symptoms last year, no nausea like with gastritis, but pain in chest and throat and tummy ache. Camera showed HH/GERD/Esophagitis. Had to stop eating out as food would suddenly stick half way down and I had to go to the loo to bring it up - not a good look when you have lipstick on lol. Gastro guy prescribed PPI's but no thank you. Told the doc this and she gave me Ranitidine 150mg am and pm. They are working ok. Another thing I take (from someone here actually Shihonage) was to take Pepzin Gi. I take that and also Mastic Gum which lines the stomach and promotes a healthy gut. I have been much better. I felt so much better, pain in chest gone, pain in throat gone, pain in back gone. Left hand cramping gone. So what did I do, started back eating normal. I made the massive mistake of eating some spring onion with a salad. BIG mistake. Anyway this set me off big time for weeks, even on my same meds - so started looking into Probiotics and good gut bacteria/flora. I tried one last year and it hurt me so left it. This time I went for a brand called Solgar - expensive but so worth it. I put some Lechitin in a cereal bowl and break a cap into it in the morning. The other thing, without a doubt, is Kefir - plain Probiotic yoghurt hurts my tum, but this Kefir does not and is so beneficial. Got that from another site. I feel so much better. Have you guys looked into Probiotics for gut health - it really has made a huge difference - the best for ages.
Hope this help a little - I know how awful you feel - it makes me tetchy when the old tum is misbehaving.
how is everyone doing?.. Iam feeling quite a lot better but have had some nasty flare ups over the last few days :( ...... just when I think it's going ok and Wham!! I get either the horrible burning again which goes through to my back or a weird aching feeling on the sides of my ribcage!!...do any of you guys have an aching that sort of goes under your rib cage as if its slicing into the top of your stomach? it's not sharp but intermitent and achy?..I had it really bad when I came off the PPI's but it got milder over the last 6 weeks...I can't think how it could be rebound pain after all this time but just wondering if anyone has had it?. It's so good to hear that everyone is getting that bit better, I am still really watching what I eat...I find simple basic meat and veg best, sad that I can't eat chocolate but can eat a cake :) had a bad time with simple tomato soup the other day..3 days of pain! Kimghds? what was the pain like under your ribs and sides? was it burning?, or aching wondering if you had the same as me?.how are you feeling?
anne1...I was on the mixture of PPI and zantac for about a total of 8 weeks, I was so worried when I came off as I stopped cold turkey and had really bad weird rebound...burning and rib ache, but it's much less now... only this really bothersome aching under ribs, roughly every other day. My diet is really basic meat/veg/little fruit (bananas and grapes)...cake is ok...eggs/fish/cheese/yogurts/chips/cereal/...nooo to tomatos/chocolate/alchohol/fizzy anything/sweets too much sugar or spicy!... anne1 ....did you say you are loosing weight? how are you feeling? everyone keep in touch..My Prays to you all :)
All our little findings may help one another.
Take care all
G.
I had to stay on Zantac and Prilosec for awhile after eliminating gluten from my diet. I also avoided alcohol, coffee, and dairy for a little while, but once my intestines and stomach had healed I was able to return to a relatively normal diet (minus gluten).
I still get gastritis every once in a while if I eat too much spicy food or drink too much. When I do I get the ache underneath my left rib and stomach pain that radiates to my sternum and through to my back.
Hope this helps and you can find this useful.
Alex
Alex, yes, Celiac is a problem for many - I was tested for it and it's negative.
Boobear, I do have pain under the left rib cage but it's not too bad. Achy/burning type. Yes, I can't stop the weight loss which is concerning me. It makes me cheat, too, since I want to increase my caloric intake, then I get so much worse and end up losing more weight :(
The dr. had me try Aciphex. I was on it for a week and am quitting as of today. Lots of muscle aches, neck pain, and I have a horrid sore throat. Pretty sure it's from the Aciphex. I hope it all goes away now that I'm back to Pepcid.
I hope we all get better soon.
First day in er they gave me pantoloc but I was back the next day, unable to sleep, spasms in my stomach and esophagus, crazy gas, my throat was burned and my voice was changed. I had rapid heart rate and severe anxiety (more severe than usual). So the second time in er, was given zantac whiched helped eight away with the burning under the left rib cage, that seemed to have srpead a bit over to the centre and right. After 2 weeks of extreme fatigue and nausea, I seemed to be doing better. Than BAM. Here I am 1 week later. Went to the er 4 days ago and I was switched from pantoloc to dexilent. I was also given a antispasmodix which brought a lot of relied for the hard mornings. It wakes me up at 6 every morning and last usually from a few hours to most AM. In pm, usually have a bit more energy. Lost a lot if weight. Pretty depressed. I feel like I'm dying of cancer.