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Help! Really scared now!

Posted , 6 users are following.

stella19032
stella19032

Hi there, I had an endoscopy on Feb 10th which found oesophagitis and gastritis. About a week after the endoscopy I got really ill, stomach tenderness, nausea and feeling full. This subsided and I was left with a pain literally just below my ribs (about 2 inches to the left of the breastbone if you follow the diagonal of your ribcage.)

I am on 40mg Nexium per day but this hasn't really helped the pain. It even hurts to touch my rib at that point. Also I feel hot drinks as a burning sensation in my lower stomach. I have a repeat endoscopy scheduled for April 25th and I'm really scared I have gastric cancer and that it will be / has been missed. I can't stop the ppis as I have Barretts and I've read that they can mask cancers in the stomach. When I had the first endoscopy I was on nothing.

Has anyone else had pain that hasn't been helped by ppis? I'm trying to make myself feel better I guess, or does anyone know if an endoscopy is valid if you are taking ppis? Fingers crossed for help. I'm not sleeping sad

0 likes, 7 replies

7 Replies

  • andrew13025
    andrew13025

    Posted

    Hi.

    I have no medical knowledge but PPI (Omeprazole) made my chest and back pain worse. Left part of chest

    was sore to touch....weird.

    I then had an endoscopy after 4 weeks on Omeprazole and apparently still valid.

    I had terrible anxiety so know just how you feel. G.P.s seem to have very little understanding of the various less common symptoms which increases anxiety. It is normal to fear the worst but this is the least likely explanation so try to keep positive and busy to keep your mind from straying into negative territory.

    Best of luck.

    Andy

  • derek76
    derek76

    Posted

    My wife was told not to take PPI's in the four weeks prior to her first endoscopy as it can mask cancer symptoms. Next time at a different hospital no such warning.

    I would phone the consultants secretary and ask your question.

  • christina61007
    christina61007

    Posted

    I'm no doctor but in my opinion most gastrointestinal problems are caused by a gluten intolerance or celiac disease. I have known many people who eliminated gluten from their diet and all there problems went away. Research celiac disease. It causes many health problems! I was suffering with many physical and mental issues before I went gluten free.
    • stella19032
      stella19032 christina61007

      Posted

      Hi and thanks for the replies. I've called the endoscopy unit, the consultant and seen my GP and the common consensus is that the reason for discontinuing ppis before endoscopy is that it can alter the CLO test for H Pylori. All have said that it's nonsense that ppis can mask cancer. They can mask symptoms ( before endoscopy ) but what is there is what is there. I'm holding onto this thought. Plus, I truly believe that if cancer could be hidden by ppi use then the hospital would insist on stopping them before endoscopy otherwise it would be dangerous. 

      My GP has said that he is more sure that I don't have stomach cancer than he is sure that he doesn't as in the past 2 months I have had an endoscopy, ( no ppis at all for that one), a CT scan and an abdo ultrasound. For my own peace of mind I am going to try and stop the tablets a week before, although the info for people with Barretts Oesophagus is not to discontinue them. Again, this is normal and if they hid cancer this would be dangerous, so I hold onto that fact. 

      Ive got a consultant who has 5,000 ogds under his belt doing the procedure so I'm going to tell him to have a really really good look in my stomach. 

      I will also ask him the ppi question, and hopefully this will help others who are worried if they are still taking them when they have an ogd.

      christina, I think he's checking for eonosophillic oesophagitis which is prompted by allergies to food, so you could have something there.

      thanks again everyone smile 

    • Stev12780
      Stev12780 stella19032

      Posted

      I'd love to get an update once you get your results.

      hope everything goes well.

    • stella19032
      stella19032 Stev12780

      Posted

      Hi there. Had both a gastroscopy and an endoscopy today and preliminary results are as follows:

      stomach appears normal ( god knows what this pain is, then) . I'm assuming that that means the gastritis has gone too. Oesophagus appeared normal so I'm assuming the same applies to the oesophagitis. I know they've taken biopsies but I'm not sure where they've been taken from. I know the doc had requested quite a few from the oesophagus, plus I know they did a clo test for h pylori ( negative). As I write this I'm experiencing terrible stomach pain so I'm hoping this is just an after effect of the procedure.

      as for the sigmoidoscopy, they found diverticulitis, and have taken some routine biopsies ( not sure why) so now I just have to wait for the results. Only 3 weeks to go then :-/ 

    • derek76
      derek76 stella19032

      Posted

      They were certainly very thorough. I was first told that I had slight pocketing (diverticulitis) in 1980. By 1994 it was severe pocketing and by 2000 it was widespread pocketing and even more by last November. I have obviously been fortunate in as far as although I have passed bllod evey few years nothing else has been found and the pockets have never become infected. So when I sometimes get stomach pain it may or may not be from that.

      I hope that you are just as lucky.

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