Posted 3/1/2016 12:23 AM (GMT 0)
I'm 62 and been having an ongoing upper GI eating disorder for over a year now, after never having any stomach/eating issues for 60 years. I don't put too much stock in medical diagnoses, especially for chronic syndromes where the fancy-named diagnosis is just an idiopathic catch-all that provides no answers for relief or cure. But I recently read the phrase "functional dyspepsia" or "non-ulcer dyspepsia" and wondered if applied to me and offered any value. Here's my main symptoms, I'll be as brief as possible:
1. A feeling of early fullness and bloated pressure in upper GI, always when eating a regular or large-sized meal, but sometimes even when having just a few bites or a full glass of liquid.
2. Terrible anxiety that onsets soon after symptom 1. Often powerful enough to force me to take a benzo just to keep from crawling out of my skin for hours afterward.
3. Frequent daytime nausea and a dull pain dead center right below my ribs. Not prompted by eating, often both nausea & pain are there much of the day, even on an empty stomach.
4. Frequent spaceyness or dizziness or fatigue soon after meals.
All GI tests have been performed by 2 well-respected GI docs in L.A. area, including endoscopy, ultrasound, CT scan, HIDA scan, pancreatic & gallbladder tests, H-pylori breath tests, stool tests for parasites and fecal occult colon cancer screening. All came back negative, except for a "moderate" sllding hiatal hernia and a bit of esophageal erosion. One doc diagnosed GERD & IBS, but I rarely get heartburn, only if I eat too late and lay down quickly, and have no pain, diarrhea or constipation in my intestines. I have regular, well-colored, well-formed stools every morning. So GERD & IBS seem like the wrong call. I took that doc's Protonix for 8+ weeks, no benefit or change.
Eating really small amounts, very spaced apart, helps stave off the worst of the fullness-pressure-anxiety attacks, but after 60 years of enjoying 3 normal-size meals at normal times, it's hard for me to stop after just a few bites. I don't know if "functional dyspepsia" is the more accurate diagnosis for this. I don't know if calling it that offers me any more clear-cut remedies or courses of action to relieve it. The anxiety symptom seems uncommon in the descriptions on this forum, so I sometimes wonder if pre-existing anxiety is the pre-cursor and dyspepsia the fallout. But I've taken tranquilizers after onset, and watched my fullness and nausea problems continue even as the tranq nullifies my anxiety...and I'm rarely anxious unless I eat a meal.
P.S. We are very clean organic eaters, mostly grains & veggies, little-to-no processed foods, wheat gluten, sugars or crap. Symptoms onset regardless of whether I eat a high-fat meal or nothing but a bowl of quinoa & kale, so what I eat doesn't seem to be a factor.
Any advice or thoughts are greatly appreciated, thanks.