Burning stomach

[jillyb]

Have been having dreadful stomach issues. Awful burning in my stomach, nausea etc etc. Had rinitadine which did nothing. Now on omeprazole 2 x 20 but still no improvement, in fact worse today. Doctor says he thinks its due to stress, but I am stressed because of it not the other way round. It started after eating too many nuts. I am really concerned that because I suffer from anxiety he is missing something, as it's so easy to out it down to anxiety. Anyone out there on omeprazole who could tell me how long it might take to work? I am only getting about 2 hours sleep per night and today it won't settle at all. I am very worried and thoroughly miserable. My husband keeps saying forget about it, but how can you when your stomach is on fire and you feel sick? I am terrified of hospitals etc but I can't go on like this.

[almamatters]

Hi Jilly, I am a fellow sufferer of this condition, I think mine is half acid reflux, quarter digestive issues and a quarter anxiety. I was prescribed omeprazole for several months last year, 2 x 30mg daily and did not notice a great deal of difference. I was switched to Lanzoprazole and noticed a bit of improvement, I have to be honest and say that PPI's don't seem to do a great deal for me. I went to the doctors so many times with this last year and eventually was sent for a endoscopy which showed nothing except acid reflux.
My burning and pain is worse when I am stressed and anxious and my GP thinks that because I concentrate on my pain and issues I do make it a lot worse (it's hard to ignore it sometimes) , I woke up feeling very sick this morning with burning in chest and my stomach, is your food related Jilly? Have you been diagnosed with reflux or similar? xx

[jillyb]

Thanks for replying. I haven't had any tests, just seen the doctor. I am very stressed about it because I am scared. I know this doesn't help but I've never had anything like this. I could eat anything, now nothing. I hate this awful burning and the nausea.

[*Fallen Angel*]

Another fellow sufferer here. I have no gallbladder and sometimes find along with my refulx my stomach is burning a lot. Omeprazole is good and the dose you are on is a high one so it should start to work soon. However it works in a different way to ranitadine so you do have to persevere with it before it starts to work. How long have you been on it?

It's such a horrible feeling and hard to forget about but try if you can as focusing on it definitely makes it feel worse. I find a small drink of cold milk helped take the edge off the burning when it was really bad.

[almamatters]

Hi Jilly , I can relate to everything you are feeling and I also think it is natural to be anxious when you experience symptoms like this. I did not have tests for about 2 years, same as you GP thought nothing sinister was going on so just tried different meds. I remember having gaviscon liquid which did help. I currently have burning top of stomach area but I know it's because I drank a few glasses of fizzy pop yesterday. Like Fallen Angel mentioned a glass of milk can help, also yoghurt. My GP said some of my symptoms could be classed as 'nervous stomach' which causes burning and indigestion. I hope you are feeling better soon. xx

[jillyb]

Fallen Angel, I have been taking the omeprazole since Wednesday, then on Friday the doctor doubled the dose. What I can't understand is that on Wednesday night it felt a bit better, Thursday awful, Friday bit better, and then the acid pain and burning was really bad at 4pm yesterday afternoon and have had another awful night and it's not settled today. I was eating porridge at 5am and glugging gaviscon down. The rinitadine only helped the first night and then no good at all for the rest of the week. Dreading Christmas because I feel so bad and so scared.

[HoneyLove]

Jilly, it takes at least 2 weeks for omeprazole to kick in and usually about 2 months for it to really work very well. My gastro consultant told me this when chatting with me about it. She also said that it should be taken on an empty stomach, about 20 mins before eating, and taken around the same time every day.

So you need to give it a couple of weeks to feel its full effect.

In the meantime you can help yourself a bit by keeping an eye on your diet, don't eat too many foods that will increase acid in your stomach.

It sucks having a sensitive stomach, and stress makes it so much worse!

[jillyb]

Thank you everyone for replying. You don't know how much I appreciate it x

[anxietygal]

I had horrible acid reflux at the beginning of the year. It was so bad that if I leaned over more than 45 degrees I would start gagging on acid. It took over a week of two a day 40 my Nexium (normal dose is 20 to 40mg per day) until I felt any improvement. And, yes, this was all triggered by anxiety. Other things the can help: eat as bland of food as you can (for me
that meant nothing acidic, spicy or oddly anything sweet), take antacids on a regular schedule, chew gum as saliva helps with acid in your esophagus, drink and eat small amounts so you never get too full, but don't not eat as this won't help either.

Once my stomach started settling down I was able to relax some which helped my stomach which helped my anxiety more. It was a long process but acid reflux that bad can absolutely be caused by anxiety. I hope you start getting relief soon!