Hi there and I'm sorry you're in so much pain still. I've had gastritis for 18 months now and unless I consume something that will cause a reaction I don't have any pain. I know I'll manage it for life and may never get yummies like tomato and onion back again but honestly I've learned to live without them. Could also be the GORD but I'm not sure about how it plays out or plays up.
I don't know about the finish and all I care about is how I'm feeling and coping.
I hope others can offer more help for you.
Cas

Hi I hope your gastritis doesnt flare up again. I hope we can get better so that we can eat tomatoes and onions etc again. I used to love chilli con carne or a curry before the gastritis. I would love to have a glass of wine. I just hope it will get better soon. I think I have had it for at least 18 months but I had otheer problems before it,oesophaghitis. I don't know how long I have had the hiatus hernia. I keep seeing the doctors and hope to get a ph test done soon and they did a stool test for H pylori so I will see about that.

I think how long depends on so many things, not just diet. It also depends on what the underlying cause is, and what meds you're getting to help.

Just a thought for what it's worth: Maybe we need to post the foods we are eating to possibly get some input from others as to what works and what does not.
Then again, everyone is different! I know for me personally, when I decide to add a food (rarely these days), I often wish I had someone else with this condition next to me to ask, "what do you think--should I eat it or not?" Maybe even a small amount of certain foods we think are safe are not.
I don't know if I'm making sense here; just throwing this out as an idea. Because this is such an individual thing, I may not be helping; this is just one idea.
Hope things are better soon, poorlygirl41!

Thats a good idea sunlovinmum to post foods on the forum. Ive just bought soy milk as its suposed to be good for the stomach. Im finding it hard to eat anything at the moment as its so bad. I try to eat cereal in a morning,bananas and drink a probiotic yogurt like Actimal. I eat fish but just don't get any relief whatever I have. Im trying to stay off chocolate now and don't drink or smoke. I will try to take more Gaviscon but don't know what I can do to calm it down. Its in a bad flare up at the moment. I even eat fish which is meant to be good but only cod,haddock or salmon or tuna. I don't eat tomatoes. Nothing is working and Im at my wits end with it flaring up so bad. Im in agony. Its been worse since Thursday. The gastro changed my meds to two Pantoprazole and Ranitidine and its got bad since then. I was sick after taking Ranitidine so must have reacted to it. I don't think the PPIs do us any good either. Ive never been able to come off them since I had my gallbladder out. The digestive problems started with an ulcer though. Then the gallbladder out and I stopped taking the PPI and got gastritis and acid reflux after that. Its so awful Im so stressed up now over the pain.

Have you tried thin Cream of Wheat (farina) cereal? I have pretty good luck with it and it seems easy to digest.

I eat cream of wheat or even grits i make a soup out of grits i always goes down well ,i make german pancakes ( eggs ,flour, skimmilk ,pinch of salt ) and then cut em in stripes put em in broth and on good days, i put a lil honey on em and roll em up :) .......but really have to say i started having a lot of pain, i never had before i started the Dexilant. It seems like is not doing its job anymore like it did before, im getting the burning up my chest again a lot. Im thinkin about callin the gastro to see if i can stop it or switch or just work with the Gi cocktail. I did try it last night and it is strong!!! It had my throat numb for bout 10 min ....but my discomfort in my chest area went away .... The last 3 days i been having a burning back and my sides feel the same way not all day just in between feels like sunburn, i cant really tell if its the inside or the outside this gastritis/ gerd thing is a pest .....

Poorlygirl,

I have bile reflux disease, which normally is caused by gallbladder or gastric bypass surgery. Those surgeries injure the pyloric valve and cause it to not close well. Then bile floods into the stomach and eats away at the lining. Then you have gastritis.

No PPI's work for me because the bile keeps flooding back into my stomach and keeping the gastritis going. It isn't acid that is cauing my gastritis so the PPI's do NOTHING.
The only thing that works are the coating meds like Carafate or the mucilaginous herbs- liek slippery elm and aloe. With the herbs, you can take them all day long as long as they aren't taken 1 hour before or after your other meds. You need to keep the sore spots coated to stop the pain.

I don't love the taste of slippery elm but I drink a tea made with it every day. I buy it by the lb at our4corners online.
Please research bile reflux disease at the mayo clinic's website. They have excellent info on it and I fear you have that since you had gallbladder surgery.

Thanks Silkakc I know about bile reflux and when I had an endoscopy biopsies were took. The gastro said that it looked like bile reflux but the biopsies didn't show it. I was on Carafate but it wasn't doing much so it was changed to Gaviscon. That doesn't do much either. Im suposed to take it 4 times a day but don't always,maybe thats my problem but I hate the stuff. Its a nightmare as I don't know what is causing the gastritis. The gastro said that he didn't think all my pain was coming from that. Yet it feels inflamed and acid meds don't help. The latest is that I have had a stool test for H pylori and Ive not got results back yet. Also Ive got to have the awful ph test to see if acid is coming up. I have a hiatus hernia. Ive not got on with Slippery elm as Ive been having reflux. I need to get this under control somehow. I think its to do with having the gallbladder out. How are you coping? How long have you had this? Does it go away? Some say it won't.

Hi dagmar68 I hope your pain goes soon too. Its hard to eat anything with the pain. Mine isnt settling down now and has been bad since Thursday. Ive took some coconut and some Aloe vera so I will see. Im hoping to stick to the soy milk but nothings helping. Does your pain come and go then? Some of your pain coulod be from the reflux too. I don't know what cream of wheat is. In the Uk I have Ready brek a lot or cornflakes. Sometimes I have Rice crispies. Im not eating a lot again due to pain. Somedays its been better and so I can eat more but now its bad again I don't know. I hope that coktail works for you.

oh yeah my pain comes and goes...i have 5 bad days and then i have 5 good days sometimes 6 but u can bet that then it comes right back .... and its not always the same it feel different from time to time .Sometimes i hope it just wont come back but :(.....cream of wheat is like baby cereal u just wisk it in some hot water or milk ......even on good days, i try to be very careful with what i eat and then i think sometimes it comes back anyway so why not eat whatever .....your anxiety pills not workin for u at all?

Thanks. Ive got bad anxiety about this. I have just read some stuff on heartburn and hiatus hernias. It looks like there isnt a lot we can do except try to deal with it with diet,whether its gastritis or another stomach problem. Maybe we have the triggers which make things worse then it flares up. The thing is they say what to avoid but theres not much left to eat after they are taken away. Its horrible that it keeps coming back for several days. Im getting that now but its most days just worse pain on some. I used to be ok having some coffee but I haven't really had any this week and its still flared up. Are you having more tests for your stomach? I hope all this will go soon. My husband and me wanted to go away for a couple of days break. Now I may not be up to it.

For anxiety you may want to check out the "Heal Your Anxiety Workbook" by Arden. It doesn't heal gastritis, but may help with different kinds of anxiety where meds alone aren't doing the trick.

Poorlygirl- Just wanted to add, if you haven't checked it, do look up the GERD diet online. Actually I comprised my diet of healing foods and tips for treatment- as the key in gastritis and heartburn is to reduce acid. It may help. Hopefully though you all begin to feel better soon.

Thanks ravenfish. Im finding it hard to stick to a diet. Some days I just find it hard to eat anything as the pains bad. Im not sleeping very well because of pain. I hope too that it won't get worse but it does. Anyway Ive started taking Aloe vera as people say its very good for the stomach,anti-inflammatory and stops reflux. Well only a few days but the pain hasn't eased. No reflux though. Its suposed to be good for other things too. So I will see. I picked up some more PPIs today and I feel they don't do anything. The doctor thinks they may upset the stomach in some people. I can't come off them though as acid come up when I tried. Im still wondering about the Helicobactor bug Ive no results yet. I had Campylobacter since my stomach problem,that can cause gastritis so Im wondering now if its bacteria related. On Wikipedia it talks about Helicobactor Pylori and makes scary reading. Its not always picked up in biopsies so you have to have a stool or breath test. I will see. How are you dagmar68?