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 am 22 years old, and I was diagnosed with acute gastritis about a year and a half ago, and I have had an exhausting battle since then. Initially when I first went to get my endoscopy done, I had a horrible horrible reaction to the procedure (not sure if it was from the anesthesia or the tube or both) which landed me in the ER a few days, and ever since then, the burning/gnawing sensation flares up almost every day if I am not super careful enough. Now I try to keep a very strict dietary restrictions, like cutting out dairy and generally fatty/processed foods and not eating after 8:30 pm. However, at times it seems like the symptoms/discomfort come back with seemingly no apparent cause, usually when I wake up in the morning or what not. It makes me feel like I really have no control over my illness, which makes me extremely sad. I feel no joy in eating anymore, and since my illness I am at my thinnest in my life, around 90 pounds and struggling to put on some more weight.
The only sort of comfort and remedy that I have had over the year was actually marijuana (which I never tried before my illness), and with a vaporizer that doesn't do smoke damage to my lungs or stomach. It seems to immediately control the inflammation. I am always hesitant to bring this up because of the stigma, but it is the only thing that will calm down my symptoms when I am vomiting and feeling intense pain, and helps me eat when I can't.
TL;DR: The chronic pain that I live with has really turned me into a depressed, reserved person who feels anxious about leaving the house or eating out or really, going anywhere for a prolonged amount of time. I do have a doctor's appointment coming up that I finally made, and really I wish that he could make it go away forever. But if anyone would want to be some sort of a support buddy for chronic illness, or have any advice on how to live with (to me at least it feels) like debilitating symptoms or any sort of tips and tricks on quick relief on symptoms, please let me know.
So sorry to hear you are feeling so unwell and down. I have been going through this myself for nearly 7 months but only got diagnoised properly about 3 weeks ago, and know what a horrible condition this is, but you must be strong and you will get better. If you read some of the posts on here you will see that most people are on medication, normally a tablet called a proton pump inhibitor (PPI for short) I'm on omeprazole, but there are different makes. They are used to reduce the acid in the stomach to help the inflamation to heal, are you on any of these?? I had terrible burning at the start and it's much better ( although not totally gone yet but bearable) after being on them for about 4-6 weeks. When is your doc apt? ask him about medication for the acid. Usually that combined with a bland diet and plenty of time will help heal the stomach. It is a long process but hopefully we will all get there and heal. :)
After I made this post I took some time to read other people's post. Realized that: 1. my intuition for cutting dairy was right, but I should also eliminate fatty foods in general and maybe gluten. It sucks to see that I shouldn't eat spices because I'm mixed race and I love cooking with spices.
2. I should ask my doctor to run an allergen test.
As for the PPIs, when I went to the ER they prescribed me Prilosec and some other nausea medication which I still have. Maybe the doctor will recommend me some more.
I have also become very depressed over this. It is a natural byproduct of feeling terrible day after day. You are not alone. You may want to speak to your doctor about the depression. Sometimes I don't think they realize what agony their patients are in.