Hi brihan:
I hope you are feeling better. I was hit by a very bad bout of flu four weeks ago. One week into the flu I got a severe gastritis attack, very severe stomach pain and bad nausea for a few days. I went to the doctor and has been on Omeprazole 20mg once a day since. Then I've just been nauseous daily but there was no more pain. I have lost 3kg in the two weeks due to no appetite. I also took Zofran and Maxolon to reduce nausea but those drugs don't really work all that well for me as I could still feel nausea in the background. I also did lots of blood test but all came back normal. I think my gastritis was virus induced. My system is still trying to clear the virus this week and my gastritis is only improving VERY VERY slowly. I stick to a very strict eating habit: very small very bland meals every 2-3 hours. I eat dinner around 5.30pm-6pm and no more food after that. Cannot lie down for 2 hours after a meal to prevent indigestion. If nauseous after a meal I take Gaviscon to suppress nausea. The only way to heal gastritis is through diet. I'm Asian background so I also take Chinese medicine which helps with some issues that Western medicine won't address. I feel I'm improving everyday but still weak and lethargic and unable to go to work. I'm having a gastroscopy next Tuesday. I hope this helps. I hope you feel better with time but very careful with what you eat.

I have had gastritis for 3.5 months. It is better but I am by no means well. I had an endoscopy with biopsies. No H Pylorii, Barrett’s or cancer. Before being diagnosed I had been popping a lot of Zantac. I started having issues with my tongue. My mouth would be dry when I woke up each day with my tongue being swollen as well. I started getting a thin coating on my tongue and was having a LOT of acid reflux. I was put on 40 mg omeprazole and 4X a day Carafate by my PCP. I was on that 6 weeks prior to my endoscopy. The Gastro doc took me off the omeprazole saying to take Zantac up to 300mg a day instead and stay on Carafate. I have not had any days that I can eat whatever I want. I avoid the foods that bother me - fried foods, spicy, tomatoes, potato chips, all candy avoiding all sweets, no alcohol or sodas. I have lost 15 pounds. I am tired all the time even though I take vitamins. I started probiotics and added unsweetened yogurt (I add strawberries to it) to my diet about a month ago. My tongue is still sore and if I try to introduce a food that I used to be able to eat to my diet that does not agree with me I belch and my tongue will have burning sensations. My tongue has been ultra sensitive throughout this process. My PCP says he thinks the tongue issues are related to my gut issues. I also deal with tons of stress that is not possible to weed out of my life unless I quit my job. Has anyone else experienced the tongue issues with their gastritis?

First time I had it it lasted about six months. This last time has been almost a year. It is hell and I feel like I want to give up. I just had my second endoscopy (at my insistence as things had gotten so much worse I wanted to make sure there was nothing extra there). Now there is nothing else Dr's can do...which is almost worse than feeling like a lab rat as I feel like all hope is gone. So, yeah, I can relate. All that keeps me going is that some days the symptoms abate somewhat and my mood lifts and I can walk around and do stuff. So not quite ready to stop living yet. Hang in there. Apparently some people end up getting over it. I hope that is the case for you.

I've had gastritis for almost fifteen years. The terrible thing is that when it first began, doctors honestly didn't know WHAT was going on. I went weeks and months hardly eating anything but plain white rice, saltine crackers, bananas and plain applesauce. Basically, I was living off the "BRAT" diet. It was TERRIBLE in the sense of boring, bland food. However, the pain did subside. Better still, I lost 105 pounds. See, I was SEVERELY overweight (about 225 lbs. at only 5 feet tall). The first fifty I lost within four months. Another six months and all the excess weight was gone.

(I also walked a lot, because I was afraid I would get seriously ill in my home and no one would know that something happened to me. So, I spent all my extra time just walking around my neighborhood.)

With a new body and new mindset because the pain and weight were gone, I moved to a new town and got a new job working for some of the toughest attorneys around (note - seriously stressful job). I made friends with some of the ladies and we started drinking together. The next thing I knew, I was hosting parties at my house and getting smashed off Cosmos - so much so that I got incredibly sick one evening. I woke up the next morning feeling like someone was trying to cut my stomach open. I went to see a doctor who was from Africa and had a very interesting way of diagnosing patients. After all the office tests and reviewing my medical history, he prescribed Nexium. He was the first person to even SUGGEST there might be something going on with my stomach. The medicine helped some, but not much. So he referred me to a GI doctor who did an EGD. Sure enough, I had gastritis. It was like a bright red ring around my stomach. He prescribed me Prevacid and I took it for two months. Meanwhile, I went back to a very basic diet.

No alcohol, coffee, ANY tea, chocolate (really, any sweets or added sugars at all), citrus, tomatoes, spicy foods, dairy, or condiments.

I ate Fiber One cereal (or steel cut oatmeal) for breakfast with bananas and rice milk. Lunch ALWAYS consisted of a sandwich (usually chicken or turkey) with ONLY lettuce, red bell peppers and avocado. Dinner was usually a "kitchen sink salad." Basically, every vegetable I could think of went into the salad.

Within two months the symptoms were gone and STAYED gone for a few more years. Fast forward to now. I'm married (stress) with three children (more stress), trying to run my own business (shoot me now) and trying hard to keep to a diet that everyone will enjoy (which basically means more pain because they refuse to eat the way I want to and I don't have time to cook two different sets of food).

Needless to say, I've been off and on PPIs for months now. The last EGD I had revealed that I still have gastritis, but that it had spread and I now have esophagitis, a "Z-Line" and several small polyps, too - the last of which totally freaked me out for the obvious reasons (I don't want them to turn cancerous). Honestly, I'm at a complete lost. I no longer drink alcohol. Coffee is the rarest of treats. Aside from the occasional cheese tasting, I don't eat any dairy. I still go walking. I try to do the herbal remedies (licorice root, slippery elm, marsh mallow root, ginger, tumeric). Nothing seems to help much or help for long. I'll go on a PPI and it will work... but only for as long as I continue taking it.

Sigh. Sorry for the long post, but I guess this is just my way of saying that you are not alone. I hear you. I understand your dismay. This is a long, hard road to walk - one that I fear will be lifelong (for however long that may be). I wish you all the best and hope you find healing soon. Best of luck to us all!

BTW - YES to the tongue issues. I get "geographical tongue" (strange designs all over it) whenever I eat anything that doesn't agree with my stomach. I'll also get it (or raised bumps all over my tongue) if my gastritis is especially bad that day, or even if I come across something that smells strong and irritates me (like when my husband grills chilies in the house. My entire tongue will get red dots all over it.)

I can... I have been dealing with weird symptoms that started in my upper right abdomen for the last 90 days. Doctors thought gallbladder but after ultrasound and MRI, all was clear for that and surrounding organs. I started having lower abdomen pain which they think is IBS or just recovering still from some virus... Then the doctor set me on prilosec/zantac for suspected duodenitis as the pain and burning seemed to be a little more central. Then I got an intense burning in my stomach just under my sternum and my appetite disappeared - i started looking at things online and started getting horribly anxious that I was going to die... dramatic I know.. Then, I went back to the doctor and he reassured me that it is likely gastritis and that statistically I'm not going to die. He prescribed pantoprazole after the prilosec seemed to give me diarrhea, now I think it was something else- unless the pantroprazole has the same effect.

Anyway - Every Day is anxiety-laden with me and I never know what I am going to experience. I am also waking up multiple times at night over the last couple weeks with anxiety. It's hard to distinguish between what is anxiety and psychosomatic and what is gastritis. The GI has me scheduled for endoscopy on Nov 2nd if I don't get better by then. I don't know if I can wait that long. I thought I was getting better when I saw him last week, but then I had a "flare up" on Saturday/Sunday after taking risks eating for a couple days and now I'm freaking out again.

I sometimes get tingling under/beneath my sternum/breastbone instead of burning - does that happen to anyone? Also - overnight, when I wake up - its more of a general ache than a targeted burning. Does that sound similar to what anyone else is experiencing? I also sometimes feel if I push down under my sternum/breastbone there is something there maybe a bubble or something - hard to explain? I have lost 15lbs in 3 weeks (I am 6" 275lbs so I can stand to lose some) from reduced eating and healthier eating. I pray that's the reason!

I have had many weird sensations just like you beneath the sternum. I had major soreness in the stomach area and midline as well as off and on burning and side stitch type pains in the beginning. Even sand paper rubbing me beneath my ribs from the inside type pains. My gastritis triggered anxiety and apparently they go hand-in-hand. I did not have anxiety before the gastritis. I also did not have tongue issues before I got gastritis. Taking oral B12 for that.

Hi everyone,
I have been fighting this horrid condition for almost 12 months...I have mild gastritis of the antrum which basically means bottom of the stomach, I am a lot better but not 100% healed..Jkon1..I was just wondering if your burning pain is like mine...it's central stomach about 2 inch above belly button...sometimes a burn and sometimes an ache...also mine sometimes radiates to my back!! does anyone else have that??...i don't know why it does that...and I also get the tingling like little electric shocks around the stomach/sides......Just praying for us all to heal :)

boobear - yes i have had that sensation and the radiating to my back as well. i would say yes to to the pain area for the aches and burns. i get the burning usually higher up and the aching lower down if that makes any sense. D_R As sad as it is to say, it is encouraging to hear others have the same sensations and feelings. Sorry you have them, but glad I'm not unique. I sometimes feel that the anxiety is worse than the gastritis itself. Godspeed!

I'm so glad I found this, it gives me some hope. I swear I think I have some sort of stomach cancer. I've had what I think is gastritis for the past 2 years with little relief from omeprazole . I originally thought I had a stomach ulcer but after all the omeprazole you'd think it would have healed by now. I'm just so scared. My GI doctor keeps writing it off since I'm only 29 and is postponing an endoscopy. I tested negative for h. Pylori. I'm at a loss and hoping it's nothing major.

Jkon1 and D_R.... Do you have any idea what the burning/aching above the belly button (sorry only way I can describe where it is lol)...what could cause this?..I am wondering if it is actual food or possibly the stomach acid? or even a weird sort of indigestion?...I thought I was getting better but this pain still won't go away..I am scheduled for 2nd endoscopy this coming monday...hoping to get some answers..but I did not get on with the PPI's or H2 blockers..really bad stomach aches and depression so don't know what to do if the gastritis is still there :( also wondering if you guys get the pains every day or just now and then..for me it's discomfort every day....not good !

Hi all, so i have stumbled on this site whilst searching online for some more remedies for my gastritis. I have just joined this site. Soooo here goes nothing. I have had this pain on and off for the past 10 years. I have been to all types of doctors and did every test you can imagine. 10 years ago i was diagnosed with a mild oesophagitis as my report says (i don't know what this is) and fast forward 10 years later i was diagnosed with a mild form of gastritis antrum.

The pain: It has ALWAYS been 8cm above my bellybutton and ALWAYS centred. (never to the left or the right) The pain is usually a constant ache in that same spot and even when i am well and the pain is gone i still feel something there (very lightly like someone is gently poking/touching me)
When the pain gets really bad it is accompanied by burning sensations in that same spot as well as a loss of appetite and the weirdest of all is my ears get somewhat blocked like I'm in a plane. (i never understood the ear thing. Does anyone else experience this? Th only thing i can think of is pressure from the pain)

So this pain started in 2007 and it has been on and off for 10 years but lately it is more frequent. Lately the most i can go without it is 1 month. In 2015 i didn't have the pain at all which is very weird to me because my work, lifestyle, diet was exactly the same as now (i changed nothing)

My most important question that i am trying to answer now is this: Is it possible that i have gastritis antrum without ever being diagnosed with H.Pylori?
(Over the years i have always been doing all types of tests and i was NEVER diagnosed with H.Pylori, now on various sites and from various people i hear that you can only have antrum gastritis if you have H.Pylori. Soooo do i have H.Pylori but it was never found through the tests? Were the tests inaccurate? Or do i not have gastritis antrum at all?)

I can go on forever talking about my diet and giving you all types of information so feel free to ask.
My weight is 57kg and i am 5'7 in height. I was always underweight and never managed to gain weight with this pain in my life.

I believe there is a solution for each and everyone of us. We just gotta figure it out because some of these things are so difficult to accurately diagnose.

All the best to all.

Boobear - I have no Idea - I am still figuring this out, myself! Are you taking medication? Can anyone explain any side effect stomach pain location with Pantoprozal/protonix or any other acid blocker/ppi?

Boobear the burning is more than likely the irritated stomach’s response to the acid. The protective lining it normally has is damaged with gastritis. It is all inflamed in there. Could possibly even have a duodenal ulcer. You need Carafate/Sucralfate to proect the lining of the stomach. It will also help an ulcer to heal if you have one. A PPI in combination with the Carafate will bring you relief. I suffered so much before I was diagnosed that I was certain I had stomach cancer. I was extremely ill. Once I was put on the meds I was feeling better within a few days.

DrewDrewDrew - bile reflux can cause antrum gastritis. I haven’t had ear issues but have had tongue issues. I am sitting here burning right now. I pushed my luck since I have been feeling much better. I ate pizza today. Paying for it now. I thought I possibly was healed enough to eat pizza. Haven’t had burning for almost two weeks. Sigh.