Diagnosed today and stumped!

First off, this forum and site seem like a great place to learn and share experiences and I look forward to hanging out here!

My story:

about 5 weeks ago, I woke up with major bloating, pressure and tightness in my abdomen. Went to my GP and he put me on 40 mg of Prilosec in the AM and Zantac 150 in the PM. He had me follow-up in 2 weeks where I told him I had some new symptoms like side pain that radiates to back at times along with gnawing pain around my belly button. Still bloated and burping, even with a VERY bland diet. No soda, no coffee, nothing fried or processed, no citrus or acidic foods, etc.

He sends me for a CT of abdomen and pelvis and to a gastro for an endoscopy and colonoscopy. CT results were unremarkable, which was a relief.

My EGD and colonoscopy were today and my gastro said I had GERD and that my stomach appears normal. This is where I'm stumped. I was convinced from all of my neurotic, excessive Googling that I had gastritis or an ulcer. I figured H-Plyori was the culprit and some antibiotics and continued PPI use would help me heal.

I've long suspected I had acid reflux as anything fatty or acidic had me poppin' Rolaids. 5 weeks of a PPI and Zantac and haven't had heartburn ONCE. What's getting me is the stomach tightness, side pain, occasional gnawing ache in my lower abdomen. Are these symptoms of GERD?

Has anyone had similar symptoms and found that it took time for the meds to work and alleviate the pain? It's been 5 weeks and I'm depressed.

Sorry for the somewhat disjointed post and how I jumped around a bit. I guess I'm relieved I know what it is now but thrown a curve in where it goes from here.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

Hi tomzoo, sorry to hear of your troubles, it does sound like there is something going on. I would note that just because they didn't see anything like gastritis in your stomach doesn't mean that's not the problem, some people have sensitive stomachs and get problems even without much appearing physically wrong.

Your problems don't sound to me like GERD, my unqualified opinion having suffered with similar is it is either a problem with your stomach, duodenum or gall bladder. In fact what you have sounds very similar to what I have had going on for the last 2 years. Hopefully I can give some useful advice on how I've improved my symptoms.

If it is gastritis or something along those lines, then although 5 weeks feels like you've been suffering a long time, I'm afraid to say that it isn't that long in terms of gastritis and it can take months to recover from it. Firstly I would look at getting some supplements to help. I take DGL, Slippery Elm and PepzinGI (on top of PPIs & Zantac) and they are very helpful. In terms of diet, I guess you follow the obvious things like no fatty foods, no caffeine etc but I would also recommend a low fibre diet, I found this much more important than even fat content because the stomach works very hard trying to digest fibre. So things like raw veg & oats are out, stick to rice, potatoes, white meat and small amounts of well cooked veg.

Another thing I found very helpful was sitting upright throughout the whole day i.e. never lie down or even sit slouched except to sleep. Still not sure why this helped, perhaps helped digestion, but I certainly noticed improvement very quickly.

Has your doctor said anything about a HIDA scan? That will test gallbladder function and for problems that arent physically apparent on CT scans and ultrasounds. Your symptoms could be caused by that if its not stomach related.