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
This may be a little bit long so please bear with me and thanks for listening. I have suffered from two bouts of gastritis in the last five years or so and I may be on my third. The reason I am not sure is this has lasted almost three months but the symptoms are quite different from the last two.
The first one was in 2010 and it lasted months and months after high stress and nexium didn't help and endoscopy only showed mild gastritis. It went away on its own eventually after I think I stopped being anxious about what it could be. During this time, I was bloated, could hardly eat and I burped hundreds of times a day.
The second bought I had in 2013 and it lasted a few months as well and endoscopy showed moderate gastritis. This was also after a period of stress. In both cases I was sent away without any treatment and the symptoms resolved themselves. This time I could also hardly eat without refluxing and was bloated and burped and had mild prickling pains very ocassionally.
This year I have been stressed for about 5 months, plagued by anxiety. Around May, I started having a similar pin prick sensation at a spot in my centre stomach and I would burp and it would go away. Soon after, a friend of mine got diagnosed with lymphoma in the stomach (she is younger than me - I am 37) and a little after this news I started having all this pain in my stomach. The pain lasts only seconds and is sharp / cutting / scratchy if it makes sense and would happen once or twice a day but enough to make me stop in my tracks but it wasn't unbearable. Then I started to get burning so I started on Somac for a week (which I believe is a PPI of some sort) that you can get over the counter. This did nothing and made me worse. I had gas pains all up my back so after about a week of this I stopped and decided to see how I would go for a while.
The burning and pains still came back daily and I have a sour (gnawing) feeling in my upper stomach and oesophogus. I went to see my GP finally after a month of this and he sent me for an abdominal ultrasound and a h.pylori breath test. Everything came back normal so he thinks it's acid or maybe inflammation again and prescribed me Famotidine 40 MG (pepcid?). I took that for a while and the scratchy pains went away for a while but I developed this new pain near the bottom of my left rib and just above the belly, it was more dull and sometimes throbbed and would last a few minutes at a time and happened every other day. Eventually I had a period of five days of feeling relatively ok on the Famotidine after being on it for three weeks so I thought I was getting better and I had a some cream puffs (oh so yummy) after dinner for two nights and after that the pain under the ribs was back, I also developed a pain that felt like was had been kicked in the stomach, it felt sore when I bent over to tie my shoelaces and also the scratchy stabby pains came back!
So now I have been dealing with this and I am most scared of the stabbing pains, sometimes it feels like my stomach has been twisted for a split second, other times it's like someone took some needles and poked me from the inside all over. I then decided that maybe famotidine wasn't working so now I have brought myself down to 20MG a day. It's been over three weeks on Famotidine.
I suppose after all this my main questions are:
1) Can chronic gastritis manifest with these sharp stabbing /stinging pains ... I have heard that the pain is dull (which I also have) which is why I am so scared. What did your pains with gastritis feel like (especially if it is chronic)
2) Should I go back up to 40MG famotidine - just not sure why I would still be in pain shouldn't it be controlling my acid? Or should I take 20mg one in the morning and evening or should I try something else.
I haven't gone for a third endoscopy yet (I have anxiety) and I am very scared I have developed something really bad and I have health anxiety so it doesn't help. I was feeling quite positive about this in the first month but by now I am feeling very defeated as this is almost three months and right now I am sitting her with a sour feeling in my stomach near my chest feeling like crying and my anxiety is coming back.
If you have read this far, thank you so much :(
I love your description of the pain. I know about the sour scratchy pain. My pain was a burning gnawing pan as well as stabbing pains at times. There is little normal about this horror. If another endoscopy will help your anxiety then maybe have another one.
This morning getting transient throbbing pain on the left near my bottom rib cage - is this also a normal type of pain? I guess I've just never really had pain with my gastritis before the last two times so this is all new to me. I am not on any meds for anxiety - the anxious me don't like being on any anxiety meds as the thought of them makes me anxious. Ironic aye?
I think I am going to get some probiotics as well and am trying to eat super bland - oatmeal, rice porridge with bit of chicken and maybe going to make some pasta. I haven't been very good with staying bland but I thought that the pepcid would control the acid so I could eat reasonably normal just not spicy ...
I guess endoscopies and any other procedures also drive my anxiety through the roof. Surprisingly I am actually coping with these stomach issues with minimal anxiety - the anxiety I was suffering in the five months prior to this happening was way worse.
Thanks for responding!
All the symptoms and varying feelings from throbs to sharp pain to sore feeling when leaning over--> all normal! I can relate to everyone. In fact depending on the time of day, my stomach may feel one way or another. For example, in the morning my stomach acid isn't that high (I can tell by how much I can feel the inflammation in my stomach) and thus the pain is more of a dull or "throbbing" not really pain just like noticeable, the later in the day however the more the acid kicks up and thus the dull sensation turns into shooting and stabbing pain, or some ppl describe it as a gnawing pain. That's all normal. Your diet is absolutely crucial, eating something hard like chips or nuts will create more inflammation and thus more pain..... so good job with the bland diet. you should only be eating foods that do not exacerbate your tummy. Then, your gastritis will heal naturally with your PPI, as it sounds like those work for you! Which is good news, for a small percentage of us, the PPIs don't cut it. Thats where all the natural remedies come in! : ) Anyway, I just wanted to respond to your post...... to be honest I wouldn't worry about yours, it seems like it'll go away quite quickly...... if you have any questions or if the symptoms have gotten worse respond here....I've gone through gastritis for long enough to feel like I can really help and would love to do so! Happy healing!
Like you JKR I am generally better in the mornings and it gets worse as the day goes on.
I started on nexium. First couple of days didn't really seem to do anything in fact put me in more pain. I dropped off my famotidine. Today is Day 5 and I am actually feeling better. The last two days have been mostly painfree and no burning. Sometimes I still get a choking like feeling in my chest (reflux?) or a slight dull pain at the top of my stomach but better. I am hoping that it will continue to improve.
I guess the pessimist I am is really concerned that it will come back once I get off nexium. I am planning to take it for a month and then maybe go on a lower 20MG dose for another month and then taper off like that. Do you guys think that's the way to go or can I just stop?
Also, I have noticed that I have been very constipated (sorry) since this all started -not sure if the Famotidine and nexium can cause this and there has been a change to colour.
I am still anxious that I have given myself something bad by being anxious - Can st John's wort affect your tummy or anything else long term? I just don't like meds in general so being on all these tummy meds is kind of doing my head in and part of me is wondering if the meds is just masking symptoms and not healing me if you know what I mean. :(
I will keep posting with updates. It's good to have such a supportive forum because I feel quite alone in this.
Anyway it's making me anxious because I thought that I would be o.k since I had been improving on nexium. Anyone still feels pain come and go even when they are on medication? I am just so confused as to how I am doing too.