Gastritis and acid reflux, need help please- so confused.

Hi everyone

I made a post on this forum several months ago about having acid reflux. I have been going through hell for 10 months almost. To summaries

last June had sever asthma attack and was given a barrage of steroids, antibiotics and antihistamine tablets.
I ended up with a cough after my medication which the doctors though was asthma, which we all now realize was gastritis cased by the steroids. They did not know this at the time and kept pumping me with more steroids, which just mad everything worse.

around Christmas, not knowing any of this and being very down and depressed I took large amount of alcohol over 3 days - about half a vodka bottle. about 4-5 days later I developed pain in my stomach in a UPSIDE DOWN V shape and thought nothing of it and was still happily eating normal. My mum keeps saying it will get better, but it got worse, on the 20th of January I woke up in the morning to say by to my parents and everything was ok, by 10am that morning all hell broke loose as soon as I started to fell hungry, I started to cough up acid repeatedly and I got burnt by acid so badly and my asthma became hell on earth to control, i LITERALLY could not breath. I got by acid so badly, I could also not swallow and had a what felt like a ball in my osapheagus blocking it.

Went to the doctor emergency and he put me on zantac 300mg x 2 and Pantoprazole 40mg x 2. The next 5 days were horrible but after 5 days the medication started to work and the acid reflux was much much less.
on the 7th day I started to get really bad pain, like someone was sandpapering my insides constantly and everywhere, the pain would spreak in my back, kidneys and sometime legs. Went into emergency and doctors said he is not sure what is wrong and put me down for URGENT endoscopy. Anyhow the next 3 days I was baffled why I was in so much pain, coult not figure it out. Then I figured it out that the pantoprazole was causing me burning pain - I remember the nurse mention that pantoprazole coats the stomach with something to protect it, so naturally assumed it was that. Before this I was on a spinach and soya diet, then switched to chicken and spinach diet with rice, so it could not of been what I was eating. Then I cut the spinash and 70% of my pain just vanished whereas the week before while waiting for the pantoprazole to work I had no pain. This was so strange, anyhow the consequence of this was that for the next 12 weeks all I eat was chicken break boiled and rice boiled.

The pantoprazole I am now 100% sure is causing me some kind of stinging pain(explain why in a minute), anyhow over the next 10-12 weeks all I could do was eat chicken and rice and felt the pain that pantoprazole caused slowly subside as the gastritis started to heal away( I had what the doctors suspected a very large area of gastritis) - i unfortunately fell into a routine where I could only eat every 2 hours and not being able to sleep because of the pain pantoprazole was causing it, it was like as if my stomach had expanded and touching my rib cage and causing stinging pain. The downside of this was, I could not sit for longer than 5 minutes and not stand for longer than 15 minutes, all I do was lay down on my left side in bed and that was all I could do because it would cause bad pain anything other, facing the wall everyday and IT WAS HELL ON EARTH FOR 12 WEEKS. Just get up eat, cook food run back to bed and lay down to prevent pain. It was such a hard time for me that wrods cant explain what I went through, eating very 2 hours, sometimes I could eat 12-14 times in a row constantly. If i missed a meal, i would get bloated, burping and horrible stitch pain. Always Wish I was brave enough to have changed to omperazole but because of being so scared of acid reflux and my asthma I decided not to change and put up with the pain. The doctor assured me that regardless of the pain, I will still recover. So toughed it and what hard time

by the 12th week, most of the gastritis pain I had felt changed from stinging to a itching pain and then went away, except form the area right under my rib cage and that had reduced a lot. I was on my way to recovery. The doctor said 8 WEEKS FOR FULL Recovery but I decided to do another 8 because still had slight pain and planned to start reducing everything in week 16,

Doing the endoscopy was a challenge, had to time my sleep so I could diet for 6 hours before the procedure. Finally did the endoscopy and everything went smoothly. Well so I though, the consultant came back after endoscopy and told me everything is fine. Nothing wrong with you, NO GASTRITIS, NO CANCER NO HERNIA, NOTHING, NO HELICO BACTERIA. YUP NOTHING.

I was both happy and shocked, so that week I Kept everything normal and then next week, because of only chicken and rice diet I had lost about 20kg weight and suffering from lack of vitamins, specially folic acid deficiency. My mum decided to give me fruit juice, she made about quarter of a cup of spinach, celery, pear and lettuce. I drank it no problem and everything was fine, went to bed and woke up few hours later and she gave me some more and about 2 hours later and had a horrible burning, stinging pain under my rib cage and of course pantoprazole just seem to amplify it all. I was baffled, doctors said endoscopy was clear and I felt like my condition had gone back 12 weeks.

I was do disheartened at this point and become very depressed at this whole situation, I decided to change to omperazole because I could not put up with the burning pain anymore. Just fed up and wanted to try anything to make it stop, anything. I for one week took 20mg omperazole and 40mg pantoprazole together and then after 5-6 days droped the pantoprazole for 2 x 20mg omperazole. I tried at first to just stick with 20mg omperazole but after few hours I started to get burning pain in my sides and stitches as the 20mg started to wear off. It was only covering me for about 5 hours, then tried 2, one in the morning and evening but that helped a little but not much. Doctor said try 3 x 20mg. By this time I was starting to feel sick, like as if a stone was in my stomach and it was affecting my breathing a little. My lungs are clear but felt like heavy breathed like i could not breath. So tried the 3 x 20mg omperazole for 2 days and on the Sunday I could not breath and was regurgitating undigested foods, the omperazole had cut my stomach acid 100%, it was a horrible feeling. I went into accident emergency and then did nothing for me, just wrote a letter to my GP AND THAT was that. I decided to go back to pantoprazole and that Sunday I did not eat anything at all and I mean nothing. Normally If i missed a meal I would burp and feel pain a little but for the whole day felt nothing, about 11pm in the evening the effect of the omperazole wore off and I could start to breath well again.

while i was on the omperazole that horrible burning pain disappeared and so did the stomach cramps but i was getting another type of pain which was like sand paper my kidneys.

Well I went back to pantoprazole and have been there for 1 week now and back to that stinging pain but not as bad, it seems I have made some healing this week. I am so confused and depressed and scared to be honest. Never in my life have I been so scared about anything. I feel like i am being starved to death, another 3-4 months of chicken and rice, I will be dead most likely. I Tried today to take a little broccoli and i mean about a 1cm by 1cm piece and it upset my stomach so much.

I am not sure what to do anymore, confused. Should i stay with pantoprazole or change to lansoprazole. I really want to get off all this stupid medication but not sure how to or what to do. Scared to change to lansoprazole just encase i end up with some side effects worse than what I have had.

My specialist appointment is set up for urgent and that might take up to 4 weeks, I am currently a student at uni so cant afford to go private.

really worried I might not get better, I put up with 13 weeks of hell and counted the days down hoping I would recover and was looking so forward to stopping these nasty medication but now i feel like the clocks has reset and just not sure where to go. Am so depressed about this whole sometimes think of just jumping out the window lol

I was thinking of dropping it down to only 40mg pnatoprazole once a day and zantac 300mg once at night and after 4 days dropping the pantoprazole for another zantac. I know that zantac is not effective like pantoprazole but I just want to pretend I was born 50 years ago and PPI did not exist and just hope I get better somehow.

I was wondering if I have been on PPI for almost 14 weeks, how bad would the acid rebound be? I am scared to drown in acid and these ppi take about 5-7 days to work.

And how quick am I to notice the acid rebound?

the problem is that If i diet right now and have tried to extend my time to 3 hours I get bad burping and gas and pain in my stomach. Could this still be the gastritis?

Can ppi cause gastritis? because these medication seem to make me very bad if I eat anything that does not agree with my stomach and I was not ever like this during the first week of my sever gastritis, eating made me reflux bad but never the pain and reflux.

I just don't know where I am going to get the energy to see my through this ordeal. This is the hardest thing that has happens to me, its scaring the hell out of me. So scared of catching a cold and not being able to take antibiotics on this stomach and getting a lung infection. Usually when I get a cold it ends up in my lungs. Also scared I cant eat vegetables and die of vitamin deficiency.

Just confused and trying to figure out what has happened that I have gone from worse to getting better to worse again. Could those little fruit/vegetable juices of upset my stomach that much?

I am so sorry for the wall of text, maybe one day my ordeal can be of help to someone else and some of you can give me advice to help me out of this situation. Just so confused and nobody is helping me, My GP is terrible and he got me into all this situation my misdiagnosing me and giving me undue course of steroids.

Thank you all for taking the time to read, very sorry for so much text.

Sometimes I fell like crying but because i am male I don't, I wish I was female so I could :(

Post Edited (James_a) : 4/26/2014 5:14:30 PM (GMT-6)

I feel your pain, literally, Im going through the same hell at the moment and have been through it in the past. For me it has cleared up at times so all I can do is cling to that hope. Just because you are a man doesn't mean you can't cry, what I have been through has driven me to tears so many times I've lost count. Sometimes letting it out can make you feel better, it releases the tension and stress makes everything worse.

You could try e-someprazole or lansoprazole, which are other PPI's. Keep taking them if you're in pain. Also get yourself a bottle of gaviscon, it will give you immediate relief from the burning in the stomach.

No PPI will reduce stomach acid 100%, I know this for a fact because I still get burning on them which Gaviscon instantly soothes, so don't worry about that, just focus on feeling better.

You say your diet is just chicken and rice, maybe one of them is causing a problem. Have you tried switching to brown rice, or turkey maybe? Im starting to suspect what they use to bleach white food aggravates my stomach, I seem much better on brown rice. Also brown rice will give you some much needed fibre and hopefully make your lower abdomen feel better.

Also try taking pro-biotics, anti-biotics reak havoc on the digestive system, and will kill off almost all friendly bacteria (which digest food for you) within about 5 days, so you'll pretty much have none left and this can cause no end of problems.

I know how difficult this is, I hope you find some relief soon. One thing I find helps too is relaxation exercises, particularly autogenics. I think it must reduce acid production or something, because at times it can really work miracles. Best part is the only side effect is feeling better, calmer and more refreshed. Without autogenics I don't think I could have coped over the last 2 years - I hope you find it works wonders for you too.

Hi all

thank you so much for taking the time to write you replies and thank you for your kind words.
Unfortunately since I made this thread, i got so fed up decided to cut back the pantoprazole complete
and that was the biggest mistake I ever made. The acid reflux was just horrendous and the pain in my stomach has gotten so much worse under both rib cages, particularly on the left side when last week it was not as bad.

Also For the last 10 days, I have noticed that i am struggling to breath, my lungs are clear and I don't think I have any acid reflux well not much and not into the lungs and breathing normal but I feel like i cant breath well.

I am not srue what this could be, I am starting to think it might be a side effect of pantoprazole but not sure and the doctors are refusing to move me onto lansoprazole( but i managed to get a perscription from another doctor before they all decided its best to see the specialist to decide what further to do) even though i have 30mg tablets. I am really starting to panic bad and not sure what to do, the breathing difficulty is scary.

could this really be from the pantoprazole and if yes why now after 12-13 weeks of taking it continuous almost.

its very hard situation for me, because the GP are useless and refusing to help me.

The consultant that I talked to said i can move onto lansoprazole 30mg a day but I know this might not be enough to cover my for 24 hours. I tried 20mg omperazole few weeks ago but was getting bad burning pains in my stomach. The consultant gave me Amitriptyline and said you should not question the endoscopy results and it could all be in your hear basically. He said that it might be your stomach is experiencing pain like it has gastritis but it really does not so gave me a nerve suppressant, I have appointment with him in 3 weeks, this was just a phone conversation.

I am so down right now, not sure if i should change to lansoprazole myself at 30mg x 2 rather than the doctors recommendation of 30mg x 1.

I will go into emergency if I dont feel much better but they are useless there too.

I go from worse to worse :( :( :( :(

thanks all for your support.

I just read up on Amitriptyline, it seems to be an effective medication for people that experience symptoms without actual inflammation in the stomach so its good they've put you on it, I think i will ask to try it myself as I'm already on anti-depressents so I may as well use one that is good for stomach problems.

Don't think this is in your head, it is very real even if they see no physical signs of inflammation. Basically without seeing something wrong the doctors don't actually have a neat explanation for what is causing the pain, which means the most common therapy like PPIs isn't completely effective, but don't worry because then you can focus on the right type of treatment.

James - based on what you say about your test results, you do not need to be on PPIs.  The rib pain you were mentioning is caused by PPis.  I have the same thing.  Search the message boards sites.  You will see other people get this.  Although doctors are not familiar with this.  That is why they can't help you.  You are looping as so many others do that may only have a mild case of reflux and were placed on meds.  The meds cause problems and then doctors increase the meds and the patient never gets better.  You are having a reaction to the meds and your anxiety.  You need to wean yourself off the meds.  It is going to be painful, but you probably will not get better unless you do.

Good luck!