Sorry about
the trouble here, but I've several GERD like symptoms, but I'm not sure if I should go for a checkup, or whether I am even likely to have GERD, or whether it's just gastritis. I've been bearing with these symptoms for about
2 years. I'm not exactly rich, you see, plus it might be hard to find doctors who specialise in this in Singapore.
Well, several symptoms I have that are related to GERD:
- Burning sensation in stomach and lower esophagus. My stomach feels like it's on fire, the pain gradually spreads to my chest area, and the cycle repeats itself again. It feels like my stomach juices are more acidic than a few years back. It flares up more sometimes when I eat, after the food enters my stomach.
- I burp quite a lot, especially after I lean down to take a nap on my desk. When I get up, I feel really bloated and I burp successively for quite some time. I also fart. /blushes
-My mouth is often dry, and it has this weird taste also, like a little sour and bitter.
- I feel nauseous when my stomach is not burning. So, it's either burning or nausea, I can take my pick. Also, because of that weird taste and my dry mouth, I tend to drink a lot of water. It feels like there's liquid up to my throat, and I really feel like vomiting. When I'm eating I feel like puking my food right back out sometimes.
-When I bend down, I feel like there's liquid flowing out of my stomach and into my esophagus. I'm not really sure if this one is only my imagination though.
- I get waken up at about
3a.m. or 4a.m. sometimes when the burning wakes me up. :/
- I get an itchy or painful throat easily, and it makes me cough.
- I have bad breath
- I read somewhere that sinius has something to do with GERD, but I've had sinius for quite a long time, anyway.
Other things that might be related to GERD:
- I have a weird appetite. Sometimes, I eat about
one quarter of what I usually eat, and I feel like throwing up. Then again, sometimes I can eat a lot, and just feel slightly bloated. My record was 2 steaks, 2 crabs, 4 crayfish, and a lot of cheese and sashimi. I did not gain any weight at all. Though my stomach was growling something horrible an hour after that...
- Even though I've just eaten, sometimes when I drink water, I can actually FEEL the water entering my stomach and sloshing around. When I drink cold water, the cold feeling spreads all over my stomach. And then, when I sit down too forcefully, it makes audible sloshes. I'm not sure if normal people also feel this though.
- My stomach growls a lot. It basically growls 24/7, and loudly. And sometimes, it's so quiet that it's worrying. This is one of my biggest problems, because audible stomach growls in empty rooms, expecially during an examination are not fun. At it's "peaceful" state, it's exactly like I swallowed a vibrating phone. Not much sounds, but my stomach gets really excited, and I can't sit still. Well, of course I didn't really swallow a phone...
- When I press down on the left side of my upper abdomen (My stomach), it gurgles. It also happens if I push my stomach in and out.
- I can feel large amounts of gas moving around in my stomach and upper intestines. Refer to previous handphone comment. :x
I did take some sort of weird chinese medicine that acts like an antacid, but it didn't help much, though the burning did subside a little bit.
Well, if anyone can tell me if this is GERD, I really, really thank you in advance.
By the way, I'm 14 years old, 158cm tall and 36kg heavy. I have not gained more than 2kg since 2 years ago, and my BMI is 14.4. For Singaporean standards, it's underweight, so it might actually be severely underweight using other standards. My parents do not think that this might be GERD, and they think it's just hunger pangs.
I have been diagnosed with mild gastritis in the past.
P.S.: I was studying and researching about
GERD before this, so if I really do have GERD, it'll be kind of ironic.