GERD, ulcer or something else?

Hey Paul,

Thanks very much. It comes and goes, that's why I am confused! I was ok for a few weeks. And I do still get hungry, I just fill up really quickly.

The burning has been insane in the past week which I find odd - I just started omeprazole!

My lifestyle to be fair was bad befor this. I was running about in work and for other people and forgetting to eat. I did that on the week I took the antibiotics as well, and had previously taken antibiotics the week before for another infection. It's been a rotten year.

I can eat and know folk in my personal life who have had a bout of this and have thrown up constantly. I don't have that and when I get the reflux I can control it now, it just caught me off guard the first night. I'm just freaking out because I've started filling up really quickly and food isn't very appealing. Then again, I've spent the past 3 months being a prisoner in my own allegedly young body and am so so stressed about it, I'm making it worse. I'm waking up in the middle of the night worried sick about this and can feel my stoamch churning. Even my doctor said I was very sensitive and am making this worse.

The nausea episode was half a panic attack, too. So I don't know if the extreme nerves and lack of eating I did 2 weeks ago has angerd an ulcer or my entire stomach. The burning is way better when I eat and worse like 3 hours after food or now into the middle of the night. It's so scary. I hope I get over this. It's making me want to change my whole life and outlook. I was such a worrier before about other people and where my life was going - now I want a  comfortable life where I can enjoy the wee things, like eating and sleeping! When you can do that comfortably you are truly rich. How are you, what brings you to patient forums? I've met some lovely folk here x

Hello again.

I came on here as I suffered for 2 years with chronic gastritis caused by h pylori infection. My diet and lifestyle wasn't too good either and since having gastritis my eating habits and lifestyle have changed drastically...but for the better really. I am now much healthier and feel good.

Doctors just tend to chuck ppi at you and tell you to away, they don't offer much advice around diet. I had to learn by trail and error and from speaking to other sufferers. Diet and healthy lifestyle is key to healing. Ppi's reduce acid so you can heal quicker, but good diet is ultimately what you need.

It does sound like you have given yourself gastritis (or ulcer) from stress and poor eating habits. Stress causes lots of acid production, you need to control it. So does caffeine, I avoid it completely, you don't need it !

You could with having an endoscopy for a firm diagnosis. You may be negative for h pylori and still have gastritis as it can be caused by other things like I've said.

Usual recovery time for gastritis is 3-6 months. And you should start a food and symptom diary to identify what upsets you. Once identified cut it out to see if you improve. The diet is strict il warn you. No alcohol, dairy, high fat foods, caffeine, acidic foods and drinks, spicy foods. Foods you eat should be easy to digest (not raw veg and too coarse). Be careful of fodmap foods as well as they cause gas which will irritate.

You will get there, just need to let the body heal.

Hey Paul,

It's great to hear you're doing better. Sounds like your diet will be really good for you! I need to get over the food aversion I've got and get back to eating. I actually ate a lot better before this happened and now tend to eat safety foods. I feel like my diet and lifestyle have regressed to when I was a little girl, eating such bland foods and spending a lot of time indoors because not eating sufficiently has made me very tired.

I am so so scared of the endoscopy but I know it would confirm a diagnosis. I almost went to A & E at the weekend to rule stuff out since I think it's at that stage.

My doctor is great but I agree, PPI drugs are not what you want to be on long term and I know it will be difficult coming off them. I just need to try them just now to see if they help.

How did you find out about your gastritis? Did you have similar symptoms to mine? i'm just baffled as to how a random night of vomiting and a week on antibiotics out the blue has led to this! So difficult with it being Christmas, I'm struggling watching other people eat. The weird thing is I am hungry a lot of the time, I just fill up easily and coupled with the anxiety (which I need to calm down), eating has gone from being my favourite thing to an utter nightmare.

Thank you for the advice - please give me some more, I feel quite lonely in this! And needy clearly, haha.

Forgot tos ay....is it normal to feel full quickly and have a loss of appreciation for food with this thing? i've only felt like this for the past 2 weeks and it's been a scary symptom. Before this flare up I wanted to eat, I just struggled with the aftermath. some days I didn't want to eat much but they would always be matched with me enjoying my food when I could have it. Thanks.

Hey,

A few things I want to mention to add to everything Paul said. 1st thing you want to do is, run some tests, to be rest assured that you don't have anything going on that is life threatening. (Endoscopy, stool tests, specific blood tests etc..). If everything is normal, then the next thing you wanna do is RELAX! Relax, because you're not dying. The pain can be disturbing, but you can heal if you stay calm and pay attention to your triggers. Deal with stress. Get a hold of it. It ruins lives! Exercise, even if you don't like to. It helps a lot. DO NOT take Antibiotics AT ALL, unless it's to treat a life threatening infection or bacteria. One thing everyone here have in common is, they took ANTIBIOTICS and here comes more problems. It kills bacteria and creates new issue. Begin taking PROBIOTICS, find really good ones. And eat healthy. Don't eat processed food. Pay attention to your diet to figure out what causes triggers for you. Eliminate them for a while until you get back to feeling normal again. Overall, try your best to deal with stress. It makes things worst.

Best of luck

Hey Eddy,

Thanks very much for your message. I've totally lost my mind over this. I hate going to hospital for tests - I wouldn't even give blood with my friends a few months ago in case they found something - so this stomach thing has been a nightmare. I have OCD as well with I'm getting CBT for but these symptoms are really severe and they are physical. They manifested really abruptly and have changed as time goes on. I've not been feeling as sick since I went on omeprazole and startd taking probiotics but my stomach feels uncomfortably full sometimes, like it's just not digesting food properly, and my throat feels clogged up at times as well when it's like that. It puts you off eating. I don't know if it's because I've been having smaller portions but I just feel completely devoid when i eat now. I don't get the pleasure or satisfaction, I just fill up really quickly. Is that a symptom of gastritis too? I must admit this flare up only started burning when my stomach was empty for a couple of days. I have quite bad insomnia now as well. Trying to combat that but it's hard, I wake up at 5 in the morning thinking I'm dying.

I think you're right and I need tests to get a bit of piece of mind, though if they don't find anything wrong then what the hell is going on? Not that I want them to find anything wrong either but I just feel a bit lost just now. Never fell this ill, physically or mentally, in my life.

I did notice loads of people took antibiotics which triggered their symptoms. I've been talking to a few folk who didn't have any of this until they took antibiotics. I'm trying to repair my gut, it just seems to be taking ages, and I am so so scared that I don't have as much of an appetite.

You need to bear in mind that ppi's are very strong. They cut out approx 80% of acid production. This may be why you feel full and like food isn't digesting. If you have an H pylori infection then ppi's can make it worse as the infection will spread quicker (it did for me). Only once I got rid of my infection did I feel

Able to tolerate ppi's.

Zantac is less strong but easier to tolerate.

If you do have h pylori then you will prob need to take antibiotics again (strong ones). You can cure it naturally but it takes longer, is more expensive and also not as reliable. Triple

Therapy is usually 80% effective if done properly.

If you haven't got h pylori then you won't need antibiotics. Just need to sort your diet out and reduce stress. And then allow time for your stomach to heal. This isn't a quick fix. It takes time.

Don't be afraid to run the necessary tests.

Tests reveal hidden food allergies, hidden bacteria etc.. which are often the issue.

Chances are, you're having terrible symptoms but no life threatening underlying cause. I have gone through every symptom you have mentioned. My case started back in 2011, and after going through 4/5 doctors in about 4 years or so, I started to realize that I was making things worst for myself by panicking and creating more stress on myself. Because my tests were normal. But matching my symptoms with my test results was unreal at that time. You have to realize that you're not dying, and start living again. I'm not big on taking meds. Doctors will tell you to take all kinds of acid meds just to relieve symptoms, but that doesn't deal with the underlying cause. I personally believe that lifestyle changes will be very helpful. But you must strictly follow it for a while before you notice improvements. Manage stress, exercise, eat healthy home cooked food, buy organic if you will. Then take probiotics, take necessary vitamins and good digestive enzymes to help you properly digest food for the mean time. Keep it up strictly for at least 5 months and you will be better.

Hey,

I don't know how you managed to go like that for 4 years. I can barely function just now, but I'm a fighter and don't want to give up either. It's hellish. I feel like my symptoms have got dramatically worse in the past 2 weeks which is why I'm so concerned now. They were coming and going but have been particularly bad in the past fortnight and my appetite abruptly left me. Even when I feel hungry I get full really quickly. Did you suffer from that?

I will try and eat more clean but eating food has become a huge issue for me. This is heartbreaking because I love food so much and before all this started had a great appetite. I have always had anxiety but nothing like this.

Yes I did, it's called early satiety. When it got too bad I would eat small portions many times throughout the day. I got better recently when I started taking a list of vitamins (separately; Not in multivitamin form) I take vitamin A, magnesium, prescription vitamin D, Zinc. And also probiotics. my appetite improved ever since I started to take them. I also take digestive enzymes with every meal. And also I monitor what I eat and eliminate whatever brings me unpleasant symptoms. I will strictly keep it up till I won't need to anymore. Lord knows when I'm hundred percent better I will NEVER take Antibiotics again. I'm so certain that all this was caused by antibiotics.

Hey Eddy. Aw man, that's a relief that someone else has experienced that since it's the latest symptom I'm worried about. I think food just comes with such anxiety as well now which doesn't help. I felt really sick this morning coupled with a tight throat and heartburn. It felt like I hadn't digested food properly in my stomach last night, and I ate well and healthy! I started eating bigger portions again so I don't know if it's that but when my anxiety doesn't keep me awake at night my stomach ends up doing it. Living in a nightmare just now, trying to weather the storm. I hope this is a part of my life I can put behind me soon!

That's interesting about the probiotics - they do help me as well. Acidophilus balanced my bowels at first when I stopped antibiotics. It's really only my stomach now, I don't (thankfully) have any lower bowel symptoms. I have magnesium in the house - I'll get on that as well!

I'm glad you're feeling a lot better than when you initially started in this mess. I have still to wait for the h pylori result but I will only take antibotics to shift that if that's what this period of my life turns out to be. If it's negative I will no doubt be concerned but will need to power on with a referral and like you, will have to literally be in dire straits before I would take antibiotics again. Terrifying how much my life has changed. I don't feel in charge of it anymore.

Hi, thanks for the support! I'm trying to keep going just now but it's tough. I think I would feel better if I knew for sure what was causing my acid reflux since I don't know if a decresing appetite is normal with those symptoms of the disease! But I am very stressed just now, and I wonder if that's affecting my appetite? I'm going round in circles just now, it's awful. I need things confirmed so I can look at ways of coping but I would love to know there would be an end limit to this.

Hey Paul,

your message makes me hopeful that I can get back to normal. I am also concerned that I felt a bit queasy and off at teh start of the year, though that was more lower bowel symptoms. They all cleared up - that's the only part of me that's working at the moment! Grateful for that!

I'm starting to feel a bit weak and tird but I can't eat properly and I can't sleep with all this going on, so I'm trying to attribute it to that and not me wasting away.

It's really encouraging that you made a good recovery. I do think I need to get things ruled out, but I don't know if I can live like this. I can't figure out if it's stress contributing hugely to this because I've been stressed with the varying symptoms for so long it's hard to tell. It feels like my body is shutting down. I've never felt as bad as this and it's terrifying.