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.
On the 13th of May, I awoke from choking on acid.
I went to the Er and they did nothing for me but say take Nexium.
I later found a gastroenterologist. After an endoscopy, I was told I have strictures (which were dilated) and inflammation of esophagitis and gastritis. I also have a small hiatal hernia.
I was put on 80mg Nexium and 150mg Zantac.
I have lost 38 lbs due to not having any appetite.
I bought a wedge to put under my mattress so that I could sleep upright.
I don't eat 3-4 hours before bed.
I have only eaten a few slices of peeled apple at a time, saltines, one scrambled egg and half a piece of dry toast, boiled broccoli, attempted salmon/chicken, and a dry baked potato.
I've been drinking Smart Water for the electrolytes and also Pedialyte.
I'm constantly nauseous, bloated, and miserable.
I get this sweet taste in the back of my throat, and I can tell my throat is a it sore.
I don't think the Nexium is helping me. In fact, I feel worse since I started taking it. Before the acid reflux asphyxiation...I felt fine, aside from the occasional heartburn from highly acidic foods (tomatoes mostly).
I want to get off the ppi's but I am not sure how to heal the inflammation in my esophagus and stomach without them.
Even with them...I still feel reflux.
I've been weaning myself down to two 20mg Nexium a day and one 150mg Zantac before bed.
I would like to do something more holistic/natural, such as DGL, Digestive Enzymes, Probiotics, Apple Cider Vinegar (though I read not to use if you have esophagitis).
How do you know if you have too much stomach acid or too little?
I feel like doctors are too quick to just shove pills at me.
Please, if you have any recommendations...or if you've gone through something similar...and come off the ppi's successfully...I could truly use your advice and suggestions.
Feeling entirely defeated
I went to the Er and they did nothing for me but say take Nexium.
I later found a gastroenterologist. After an endoscopy, I was told I have strictures (which were dilated) and inflammation of esophagitis and gastritis. I also have a small hiatal hernia.
I was put on 80mg Nexium and 150mg Zantac.
I have lost 38 lbs due to not having any appetite.
I bought a wedge to put under my mattress so that I could sleep upright.
I don't eat 3-4 hours before bed.
I have only eaten a few slices of peeled apple at a time, saltines, one scrambled egg and half a piece of dry toast, boiled broccoli, attempted salmon/chicken, and a dry baked potato.
I've been drinking Smart Water for the electrolytes and also Pedialyte.
I'm constantly nauseous, bloated, and miserable.
I get this sweet taste in the back of my throat, and I can tell my throat is a it sore.
I don't think the Nexium is helping me. In fact, I feel worse since I started taking it. Before the acid reflux asphyxiation...I felt fine, aside from the occasional heartburn from highly acidic foods (tomatoes mostly).
I want to get off the ppi's but I am not sure how to heal the inflammation in my esophagus and stomach without them.
Even with them...I still feel reflux.
I've been weaning myself down to two 20mg Nexium a day and one 150mg Zantac before bed.
I would like to do something more holistic/natural, such as DGL, Digestive Enzymes, Probiotics, Apple Cider Vinegar (though I read not to use if you have esophagitis).
How do you know if you have too much stomach acid or too little?
I feel like doctors are too quick to just shove pills at me.
Please, if you have any recommendations...or if you've gone through something similar...and come off the ppi's successfully...I could truly use your advice and suggestions.
Feeling entirely defeated
So dump Nexium cold-turkey, shift to 150mg Zantac taken every 12 hours. You've only been a month+ on that terrible regimen, maybe you can hold with two Zantacs.
If you can't, if the burning starts way before it's time to take the next Zantac, buy Zantac 75 as well, and then take (150+75) every 12 hours. If that doesn't work well either, take Zantac 150 every 8 hours, which is the same dosage, but more evenly distributed through the day.
2) "How do you know if you have too much stomach acid or too little?"
"On the 13th of May, I awoke from choking on acid."
With having the inflammation in my esophagus...would Zantac be enough to help heal that, or is it wiser to stay on Nexium longer?
Even on both....I lay down after taking the Zantac, and I wake from burning in my esophagus/throat...feeling acid rising up.
I basically get about 1-2 hours of sleep a night, at this point.
I do use a wedge under my mattress, too.
I don't eat 3-4 hours before sleep.
I was extremely dehydrated and was given 2 bags of saline intraveneously today, so I had felt better til I had to take the Zantac before bed. I was also given Zofran to help with the nausea.
--------------------
1) I don't think going off acid control entirely will be good for you. Zantac is a pretty safe drug compared to PPIs, due to its indirect mode of action.
So dump Nexium cold-turkey, shift to 150mg Zantac taken every 12 hours. You've only been a month+ on that terrible regimen, maybe you can hold with two Zantacs.
If you can't, if the burning starts way before it's time to take the next Zantac, buy Zantac 75 as well, and then take (150+75) every 12 hours. If that doesn't work well either, take Zantac 150 every 8 hours, which is the same dosage, but more evenly distributed through the day.
2) "How do you know if you have too much stomach acid or too little?"
"On the 13th of May, I awoke from choking on acid."
That should answer it, methinks.
3) Diet is crucial. Without proper diet, acid suppression will not work. Eat small bland meals every 3 hours.
Dump abrasive items like apples and tomatoes. There are extensive lists of what to avoid, on various websites.
Brief safety scale, going from most safe to most normal:
* White rice
* Oatmeal / Mashed potatoes
* 1 mashed egg eaten 30 mins after oatmeal or mashed potatoes
* Fish (like baked salmon)
* Plain boiled chicken (the point of relative normality)
Plain unsalted crackers should be pretty safe. A bit later, plain dry cookies perhaps, without stuff in them.
Broccoli may be fine. I used to eat a lot of it. Steamed broccoli should have more healing qualities than boiled broccoli.
Take 4 capsules of Source Naturals digestive enzymes - seconds before food hits your stomach. Every time you eat.
4) Start taking PepZin GI (zinc carnosine) 4 times a day. Once as you wake up, once before bed, two times spread in the middle of intervals between meals.
Avoid Apple Cider Vinegar. DGL I didn't find helpful, either.
Well, I'm certainly not cured.
I will try the list of recommended foods you mentioned.
I'll check back here after a few days to see if there's been any change.
I speak to my Gastroenterologist on Monday.
I'm afraid he's going to scoff at me...as he doesn't seem to be very compassionate as is. But once I say I want to try to be off the PPI's...I can only imagine what he'll say.
As I said, diet is crucial. If you abuse your stomach, don't listen to it, and rely on drugs to heal you, you will only keep getting worse.
Honestly I feel that combination of Nexium and Zantac is pretty screwed up. They're doing a similar thing through very different modes of action. Nexium could be creating a lot acid rebound effect that Zantac can't deal with.
You should switch clean to Zantac as described above, combined with other things, and see if the situations clears itself up. Otherwise you'll never know.
The longer you wait, the more used your body becomes to Zantac, especially thanks to Nexium, and the less chances you have with H2 blockers.
I will try one Nexium tomorrow....and then the Zantac before bed.
I'm just afraid of having rebound and causing further damage to my esophagus.
My mother has Barrett's....and I certainly don't want to risk cancer.
I just bought the book Dropping Acid...and it should arrive by Saturday too.
Note that I said, switch cold-turkey. This gradual thing is not good IMO - I don't know how you can measure that "weaning yourself off" anything has actually worked without causing more damage, if you're in such a dire condition in the first place.
See 1).
I take 30mg Lansoprazole before breakfast & 300mg Ranitidine in the evening/bedtime.
PPIs are more effective than H2 blockers in terms of their ability to suppress more acid & have a longer duration of action than H2 blockers. However they need an activated parietal cell (food!) to work so are only useful for daytime acid suppression. It is pointless taking a ppi at bedtime.
Evening/Bedtime H2 blockers are more effective for preventing nocturnal acid breakthrough because they do not rely on meals to be activated.
Neither ppi's or H2 blockers will neutralise any acid already present in the stomach. They only inhibit production.
Now the following info will be interpreted as a benefit by some & a flaw by others.... H2 blockers only inhibit gastric acid that has been produced in response to histamine. However.... Histamine is not the only fiend that stimulates production of stomach acid. Gastric acid is produced in response to many other stimuli, eg, gastrin, acetylcholine, calcium, enkephalin and bombesin... which is why H2 blockers are less effective at suppressing acid because of their action only on histamine.
I find a combo of "low dose PPI" + H2 blocker... to be more effective & preferable to a high dose of PPI.
If someone finds a regime solely of H2 blockers ineffective then it might be cause their hyperacidity is not caused by histamine... but by another stimulus eg, high levels of blood gastrin which has many causes.
450mg Zantac did not work out for me due to experiencing brain fog, headaches, dizziness... but that was just me. Otherwise the acid suppression was fine.
So that's why I choose a combo (low dose PPI + Zantac) over purely PPI or purely Zantac.
mmw... you are having silent reflux symptoms for sure as well as gastritis it seems. The silent reflux is due to the small HH. Did you read what I said to you in the GERD site?
A lot of those foods you are eating can be bad for reflux. Salmon can be really bad for it.
You need to put your wedge on top of the bed not under the mattress and stay up on it all night long. Dont allow yourself to slip down or that posture will create a compression issue with the stomach and then it herniates up. With even a small HH you ideally need to stop eating about 7 -8 hours before bed and that last meal has to be small and very very boring!
I am not convinced at all that the all natural stiff will work on the esophagus. I think you need a PPI to get yourself to a better place and then try the other stuff. 80 mg of nexxium and zantac is a lot but when you have strictures it means there has been inflammation of the esophagus for a while. The constant inflammation of the esophagus is not good. Chronic inflammation in that area over a few months needs something strong to help heal it more quickly and the fact that you had strictures tells me you have had reflux for a lot longer and it may have been silent reflux. So it will take at least 5 months for it to heal.
If you want the esophagus to heal more quickly the PPI is the way to go and then you can get back to more natural stuff. Zantac takes longer to work on the esophagus but as shihonage says it is a good place to start for the gastritis.
healing the esophagus and stomach takes a ton of discipline. That is the hard part for most people. If you do the hard work it will get a lot better. it requires a huge change in your diet for a very long time.