Hi everyone, I'm new here. I'll basically try and explain my problem without being too long winded. Im 17 now (14 when it started), and well yeah, I suppose like everyone whose suffering, just want to be better again! I'm not in school/college anymore because of it (currently doing what I can via distance learning) and struggle to get out the house much. I've lost a fair bit of weight aswell, gone from being a respectable 70kg, to 52kg (I'm a 5ft 10 male).
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Back story:
- late December 2011 - started to get mid abdominal pain, nausea, and often vomiting right after eating. Started off being only once every 2-3 days, to every day every time I ate.
Symptom wise felt similar to a stomach bug.
- January 2012 - as it progressed to being everyday for 1 week or so, I went to see my GP about. He diagnosed it as being tonsilitus, esophigitis, and gastritis. Tonsilitus was the only one he could 100% confirm, as he could see it, but the other 2 require a endoscopy to be certain.
I was prescribed 1 week cause of antibiotics for that (amoxycillin I think?)
- 2 weeks later - after finishing antibiotics, still wasn't feeling well, so went back, given Rantidine to take.
Tonsilitis was gone by this point
- around May 2012 - hadn't really felt much better. Vomiting had stopped, though still had stomach aches/nausea/loss of appetite (the typical upper GI symptoms) so was eventually given Omeprazole to take (40mg)
Diagnosis fluctuated being either gastrits/stomach ulcer
- had odd blood tests taken, and Barium swallow test done, in meantime, all seemed to be "satisfactory"
- November 2012 - Finally had an (oral) endoscopy done, though there was nothing to see. They couldn't see an ulcer, negative for everything in the biopsy.
At this point I'd been taking Omeprazole (40mg) for about 7 months, including when I went for the endoscopy, so this probably would have killed off any inflammation had it been there.
- a few weeks later - stopped taking Omeprazole, as it had been giving me side effects making me worse (was vomiting again, struggling to eat more than a few mouthfuls at a time).
So stopped taking it, and was as I was before (appetite was a little better, but still getting the upper GI symptoms, expect vomiting).
- autumn 2013 - had manonmetry & 2x 24hr impendance done. Manometry found slight swallowing weakness, impedance found acid reflux, but only in mornings (it was from around early morning while aswell, til around just after when I woke up), so acid reflux was ruled out as being at least the "whole problem".
-That's pretty much all the major things that have happened, and brings it up to now; I'm still ill, not had 1 day symptom free since.
-Doctors have always thought gastritis/stomach ulcer, but since that has been proven otherwise, the most recent time I saw my GP she said she "presumes its some form of IBS"
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What has actually been found:
-Acid reflux in mornings - taking ranitidine/PPIs I've found has helped with this. Problem is I get side effects from taking them, as mentioned above (normally occurs after about 1 month of taking them), and they don't really do much for my other symptoms, eg. difficulty eating, mid abdominal pain, indigestion, trapped burps sensation.
-High blood sugar - was found in a routine blood test, furthur testing showed it was "satisfactory" (not anything serious), so it was just put down as being "If you're not eating well, you may get weird fluctuations in blood sugar"
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Medications I've tried:
(all I've found either haven't worked, or caused side effects that outweighed the benefits)
PPIs - Omeprazole/Lansoprazole
Ranitidine
Antacids - Rennie/Gaviscon/Milk of magnesia/Peto Bismol/Maalox plus
Peppermint capsules
Paracetamol
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My symptoms:
-Its pretty much all upper GI, comes on pretty much straight after/during eating, last for a few hours, then starts to subside -
Nausea,
Indigestion,
Heartburn (mostly only in mornings, when first waking up)
burping,
stomach pain (mid abdomen, centre, in between or maybe just below my ribs)
"bloated like" feeling (it feels like a lot of pressure in my centre, mid abdomen, sometime extending up vertically to my throat)
Fullness in my stomach after eating only a small amount
Sensitive/churned up feeling in stomach (hard to explain, feels kinda like when you have a stomach bug. Or if you've just eaten then been on a rollercoaster)
If I leave a long gap between eating (eg. eat a meal at a later time than I usually would) - I get stomach pain & a burning sensation (again around mid abdomen), which is probably due to the acid building up
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Foods which I avoid - every food/drink I've eaten gives irritation, but some I've found more significant than others:
Caffeine (coffee/energy drinks etc) - worst of them all, real bad stomach ache after
Fruits - particular citrus fruits (bananas are the only fruit I've found be not as bad)
Milk - as a liquid form (haven't significantly noticed it in foods containing milk)
Chilled/cold liquids
Spicy food
So in terms of foods, its very similar to foods which cause irritation in gastritis
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So was wondering if anyone had any advice for me? Or has been through anything similar?
Doctors don't really know what to do, and when I've seen them they seem to treat me in a way that its incomprehensible that I'm not better & that they haven't found whats going on! Though from looking online I know that there is many people going through similar things to me, which is reassuring.
I read somewhere online that around to 1 in 14 people who had gastritis still have some form of symptoms, 6 months after having it, though haven't heard any personal stories from this?
Sorry, that was a real long winded post lol. Thanks in advance for any help.