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, just looking to see if anyone else has had a similar experience.
First a little background, found out I had the h pylori infection and had the treatment for it, breath test showed clear. I still had symptoms of pain on the left side below ribs. Gastro doc preformed endoscopy Oct 2010 and it showed erosion and gastritis, biopsies came back neg for h pylori and my doctor said there was no sign of cancer. Still had problems for a while but got better over time. With bland diet, lowered stress, and it was a relief that nothing more serious was wrong.
Then in March of 2012 I had episode with food poisoning and had stomach pain on the left and middle and burning. Went back to doctor and again over time (wish I could remember how long) it got better.
I have not had any real problem since, until December 2013 I had been depressed and stressed and had some stomach issues that would come and go. I did nothing as far a changing my eating habits. I just ignored it, big mistake. Then the pain and burning became pretty much non-stop. At the same time I had a uti and I had to take antibiotics for ten days. That did not help my situation. Problems continued, then I came down with something like the flu that lasted about three weeks. Finally got over that and now I have stomach problems on a daily basis either pain across the top middle of my stomach, burning just below the sternum or pain on the left side below ribs and major back pain. I do not get all of the symptoms at once but I have one or more at any given time.
I know I need to go to my gi doc again but I am afraid of another endoscopy. I am too old to be this big of a baby but here I am. Anyway, just wondered if anyone else thought they were done with this only to have it come back unexpectedly.
Thanks for reading my long post. Hope everyone here is on their way to healing.
First a little background, found out I had the h pylori infection and had the treatment for it, breath test showed clear. I still had symptoms of pain on the left side below ribs. Gastro doc preformed endoscopy Oct 2010 and it showed erosion and gastritis, biopsies came back neg for h pylori and my doctor said there was no sign of cancer. Still had problems for a while but got better over time. With bland diet, lowered stress, and it was a relief that nothing more serious was wrong.
Then in March of 2012 I had episode with food poisoning and had stomach pain on the left and middle and burning. Went back to doctor and again over time (wish I could remember how long) it got better.
I have not had any real problem since, until December 2013 I had been depressed and stressed and had some stomach issues that would come and go. I did nothing as far a changing my eating habits. I just ignored it, big mistake. Then the pain and burning became pretty much non-stop. At the same time I had a uti and I had to take antibiotics for ten days. That did not help my situation. Problems continued, then I came down with something like the flu that lasted about three weeks. Finally got over that and now I have stomach problems on a daily basis either pain across the top middle of my stomach, burning just below the sternum or pain on the left side below ribs and major back pain. I do not get all of the symptoms at once but I have one or more at any given time.
I know I need to go to my gi doc again but I am afraid of another endoscopy. I am too old to be this big of a baby but here I am. Anyway, just wondered if anyone else thought they were done with this only to have it come back unexpectedly.
Thanks for reading my long post. Hope everyone here is on their way to healing.
Yes I know this issue can come back. Once you have it I think you are prone to it but it can be healed each time. I have had gastritis ocassionally. I am on the heartburn site. Gastritis is terrible. I eat very small amounts and lots of water. Oatmeal has gotten rid of it for me or small pieces of bread. I notice it can ger worse quickly.
I am a pro with heartburn more so but i know a little about gastritis. The gastritis and college thread has some very good messages on managing this issue. I went inot this site becasue someone was asking me for help woth gastritis and this thread has a lot of good info in it.
I know you will get better soon!
yes, gastritis comes and goes. I first had it 3 years ago and got healed. Then it came back 1 year after I was healed. There's always a trigger: be it food or stress. It came back 8 months ago for me again and during this time, I really got depressed.
It is not easy to shake it off but it is not impossible.
Antibotics may cause gastric prbolems so your recent problems may be related to that.
Just one suggestion : why don't you try to be on a PPI/Zantac type of medicine and try some natural remedy like mastic gum, Dr Best Pepzin GI that have been talked about in this site before taking the big step of endoscopy?
Maybe you will be healed after some time and the endoscopy might not be necessary.
just a suggestion.. since you said you are not comfortable with the idea.
YOu have to get back on track with your diet again. Try taking Zantac as well. It works for gastritis. Diet is the key to healing this and eating really small meals until it gets better.
You have to stay disciplined. It is hard but it seems to be the only way.