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 everyone!
My name is Nick and I've been struggling with gastritis for a week. It all started last week when I pulled a muscle in my lower abdomen and I worried myself sick for two days waiting for the blood test. My doctor agreed it was just a pulled abdomen. Everything came back normal.
Last Tuesday night, I tried eating a meatloaf but I felt super nauseous. On Wednesday, I noticed a burning feeling right in the middle under my esophagus and left rib. I had a ton of stomach rumbling too (not hunger growls). My mom, who has been a nurse for 30 years, told me I probably self induced gastritis. I took mylanta and that seemed to stop the burning but I had no real appetite. Here we are a week later and I feel a tiny smudge better maybe but I have no appetite despite me feeling hungry. I burp a little more than I normally would but nothing excessive. I have normal bowel movements in the morning but throughout the day I find myself running to the bathroom after I eat. I've dropped 7-8 pounds in a week because I just haven't been eating normally and I've been so stressed out from this. I've spoken to 3 GP and they have all told me it's more than likely gastritis and I just need to give it another 2-3 weeks to heal itself. There's little to no burning anymore and there's no pain. I tend to feel full after small meals.
Lastly, I've been bouncing around medications for the past week. First, mylanta then Prilosec for a day, Zantac for two and now Pepcid.
Any suggestions would greatly help.
Thanks!
It sounds very much like gastritis. It is good to do a gastroscopy to make sure it is nothing else, strange they haven't asked you to do it yet. It is also normally recommended to take PPIs.
Gastritis might take longer to heal than what doctors say. So don't panic if it takes longer a bit. It's normal. Just get into the mindset that you will have to be very kind to your stomach for a while.
Just stay on a bland diet and eliminate stress and let it heal. Stress is one of the things that really really makes gastritis worse, so try to stay away from it as much as possible. Just take on a stoic attitude or something :D If that is too hard to do naturally: I've read somewhere that tricylic anti-depressants (like amitryptaline) do a very good job in weakening the mind-gut nerve connection. They are normally prescribed from patients with IBS. But natural way is of course better.
I cannot emphasize the importance of diet for gastritis. Just find a bland diet and stick with it until you feel healed. Eating unhealthy stuff just makes it worse. I even got lactose intolerant, and like you, had urgency after eating any dairy, so I cut all dairy out of my diet.
One hint: if whatever you eat causes pain and discomfort, just wait until your are super hungry then eat. For me, in the bad periods, it makes a huge difference when I eat on fake hunger or real hunger. On the first I will have pain, on the second, I will be fine. So try to find that difference, as subtle as it is.
If food is too hard, go for liquid food. I have drunk Fresubin in worst times. Find your local equivalent. or try banana soy milk shake.
Good luck
Thank you!
Hope you're feeling better now! It is indeed very stressful. Mine started after a course of antibiotics. I was retching a lot and initially my symptoms felt like they were in my throat. It turned out I had oral thrush. But indigestion shortly followed and I had this for weeks on and off - with burping and nausea after eating.
When I get stressed and panic my symptoms get much worse. I thought I was dying of this a month ago and gave myself heartburn for 2 solid weeks. I had a panic attack on Sunday because omeprazole isn't making this go away, and I can't always eat which really frightens me. I get good weeks and bad weeks. Doctor has diagnosed me with acid reflux but it feels a lot more severe.
Anyway, point I was gonna make is that the panic attack affected my sleep and I was waking up with a nervous stomach. After 5 days of this my stomach feels a bit burny again. I definitely think we need to find a way to get on top of our nerves and beat this thing, but it does take time and for me I only started meds a month ago. So maybe it's a case of sitting tight. I hope yours is acute and disappears!