Leibschmerzen, Sodbrennen, Angst, dass es PC ist

Verdauungsgesundheit
1

Hi everyone! I started a similar discussion in the abdominal pain section because I simply don’t know where to turn to. I’m looking for experiences, not a diagnosis of course. Hoping someone can help me.

I’m a 37-year old female. In July I suddenly experienced what I call heartburn for the first time in my life: a 24/7 burning feeling in my chest and throat. I would wake up with a slight cough. I’ve never felt acid come up or tasted any. Just the feeling. It’s there all day no matter what I eat. Also didn’t feel better or worse after meals. I changed my diet, elevated my bed, nothing helped. Did the burp test, which I failed because I burped almost immediately. I was left with 24/7 burning, and burping frequently. Stools ok. Not long after this started I started getting this gnawing pain in my upper left abdomen. Around rib 8-10 I would say. It hurts, but it’s bearable. The pain is in my stomach and often radiates to the left side of my ribs and wraps around the back. And some ribs are tender to touch. Again, this feeling is always there. The dr tested me for h pylori, which came back negative. Then put me on pantoprazole 40mg twice a day. I demanded an endoscopy but she wanted to try the pills first. I have health anxiety, so decided to pay for private mri. I knew you can’t see into stomach etc but I was desperate. Anyway, mri only showed lots of tiny gallstones. But that’s weird as gallstones would mean ruq pain right? Also my discomfort is constant, don’t have any attacks.

Soon after the mri, the ppi started to work, or in any case I felt better. So after three weeks of feeling pain-free I tapered down to one ppi a day. Then to one every two days. I was ok for about 6 weeks. Then suddenly every symptoms returned. Went back to my GP, and she finally referred me. Next week I’m going for an endoscopy but I’m super worried. I’m sort of hoping it’s my stomach, because all things I read about luq pain with heartburn and burping frequently leads to pancreatic problems and that scares me to death. Especially pancreatic cancer, because the pain has never felt severe enough for me to suspect pancreatitis. I have two small children and I’m so worried.

2

My symptoms seem to be getting worse. The pain is now constant, especially in my back. I can get an appointment with GI specialist, but waiting lists are ridiculous. 8-12 weeks. I feel so stressed!

3

Hi Nicola, how are you doing ? I can sympathise with you as having a lot of problems and also get health anxiety. I suffer from acid reflux, which was controlled for a while with antacids then course of Lansoprazole. I have had 3 endoscopies which found patch of inflammation at base of eosophagus and start of small bowel, no h.pylori. The inflammation had cleared by the 3rd scope but i was found to have gall stones (they must have been hidden on the 2 previous scopes), i also have a sliding hiatus hernia (they sometimes are not visible on a scope if they have gone back down. Over the past year i have had attacks of pain in stomach that can go through to back and chest, stabbing pains in gall bladder area, nausea, burping, discomfort in stomach to left side and sitting down makes me feel like something on left side is being squashed. I too am very worried about pancreas after researching my pains which also go into my back and developing constipation. The gall bladder can cause problems with your pancreas and also cause acid reflux. Keep pushing for answers. I am on the waiting list for gall bladder removal but dont know how long the waiting list is due to changes because of covid.

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Hi! Sorry to hear about your troubles. I’m doing a bit better. The endoscopy came out clean. I also had an ultrasound which didn’t show anything. I started taking pantoprazole once a day again and I must say I’m almost symptom free. That has eased my anxiety a lot, because if it were something serious I can’t imagine a ppi helping. I have an appointment with a gi doctor on December 15th. I hope I can stop taking the pantoprazol, but not sure how and scared symptoms will come back. The stress certainly doesn’t help though, and since I’ve felt more relaxed the symptoms are also less severe.

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I replied below, thanks for asking!