ulcer, gerd, gastritis?

Digestive health
1

Hi guys smile

I'm struggling with stomach / digestive problems and would love some opinions.

Last xmas i had sharp pains in center of my chest, sternum. Nothing seemed to cure it, they came and went for 10 days, sometimes lasted 10 mins, sometimes an hour. Pain was a crushing pain. i had a lot of indigestion at the same time, bloated, normal unwell feeling really.

I was fine for ages and then started to suffer indigestion loads, normal indigestion, and a slight burning in my stomach. Often if i wake up feeling really tired i know i'm going to have a terrible day and along with indigestion i'll feel slightly dizzy / uneasy. reading up on things i though it may be pylori and gave myself the triple therapy against pylori, i read it should be min of a week so that's what i did.

Just before the summer i had the sharp chest pain again, doc put me on pantoprazole which did seem to help but evey week i have a day or two feeling terrible with diziness, fatigue, indigestion, stomach pain when empty (specially in the morning).

I'm in spain and have been put on list to see specialist but it could take 5 months to see him.

Does it sound like an ulcer? doc thinks it may be spasms? i can understand that for the pain but for the rest?

thanks

Leo

2

What you need is a gastroscopy, maybe you can get one done privately

patient.info/health/dyspepsia-indigestion/gastroscopy-endoscopy

3

Thanks, that's exactly what i started to track down, ringing a couple of clinics to find prices, it would be worth the cost to find out.

I've been reading further, pylori reduces the stomachs protection which allows acid to cause ulcers, if i had low defences due to pylori could it also be the cuase of indigestion etc? meaning that it could be that i don't necessarily have an ulcer but maybe low defenses?

cheers

4

You were probably right when you thought you had a touch of helicobacter pylori causing problems in there (although it can take 2 or 3 courses of triple therapy to be truly rid of it), here's the Patient leaflet on Helicobacter Pylori & Stomach Pain.

patient.info/health/Helicobacter-Pylori-and-Stomach-Pain , it'll explain a lot of what you are going through. As I say, the best way of getting to the bottom of it is to have the gastroscopy, also this'll help put any other worries you may have to bed

5

Many thanks