Stomach Issues

[worrywart115]

Hello, everyone. I posted here about a month ago in regards to my esophagus worries, which thankfully were all for nothing, as my Upper esophageal GI only picked up reflux and a sliding haitus hernia. However, I've been on a PPI for some non-specific GERD/IBS issues, mainly burping. It was originally given to me a month ago due to the barium from the Upper GI upsetting my stomach (which they diagnosed as gastritis). I've been able to eat much better and use the bathroom normally, but I've still had this burping for five months that refuses to go away. I met with my GI again this past Friday, who didn't really seem too concerned with my belching as my weight, eating, and bowel habits have been normal, and recommended that I keep with the PPI. I have a follow-up scheduled for January now.

So, I have a couple of questions for you kind people. Have you had any experience with PPIs taking a decent amount of time to work? I trust my GI, as he's done numerous tests on me, including multiple MRIs and an endoscopy last year, and I also just had a CT scan literally a week before this burping started. But still, some opinions wouldn't hurt for the anxiety. And more of a side question, but has anyone had anyone side effects with PPIs? It seems that my stomach has been rumbling a lot more lately, and I've been a bit more... gassy.

Sorry if this is long-winded, but thank you to everyone in advance :)

[poppy77]

Hi WW!

I have had very similar issues to you. After a period of dry throat and frequent burping in December leading to severe health anxiety (I was actually suffering from post natal health anxiety). In January, my throat was off and on sore, I lost my appetite completely and had trouble swallowing for about a week until the Dr put me on omeprazole and Sertraline. Things have got a lot better from then on. Omneprazole was OK but didn't work 100% with the reflux so I got put on Lanzaprazole. It worked well with the reflux but gave me bad diaharrea. I had a colonoscopy which came up clear and an endoscopy which was clear except for a small hiatus hernia. I recently went on Nexium which also did well with the reflux but also gave me diahorrea. I have just gone back on to omeprazole to see if it's better second time round as I can't live with constant diaharrea or taking immodium every few days.

So, I'm a bit lost with it at the moment - do I see if a completely different ppi works better or do I stick with the omeprazole even if it doesn't 100% get rid of symptoms? I really don't want to go down the surgery route and as my symptoms are not that severe (and hopefully won't get that way), I probably would not be advised to get it by the gastroenterologist. In fact the only reason I was given the endoscopy and colonoscopy was because I went privately, the Dr wasn't going to refer me on the NHS. At least I know about the hernia though.

[EKB]

I've had a few bouts of gastritis, and it's always been a bit of a long road to kick completely even with PPIs. Plus it took me a few tries of different PPIs before I found a good one. Pantoprozole magnesium I think it was? But it does get better. A few years ago I had gastritis coupled with some major anxiety and then some health anxiety on top of that. It took me some time to kick the gastritis and to then come around on the anxiety front. I found that I could eventually get off the PPIs when I changed my diet and avoided GI triggers. It did take some months though. Some light exercise like strolling after meals helped as well. My husband, however, has been on PPIs for a few years and manages his that way. And he's okay. I had one PPI that didn't agree with me... it didn't do anything crazy though. Just made my gastritis feel worse (so I felt worse, so the HA got worse...) - so I'm wondering if it wasn't so much a side effect as it was ineffective.

I recently had a bit of a fright with some right lower quadrant pain that sent me to emerg. That of course spiraled off a big wave of HA which then messes with my guts. Plus they put me on a higher dose of advil than I usually take (because it's a trigger for gastritis for me). HA makes all my muscles tense, including my abs which winds up making more pain. An unremarkable ultrasound later and I'm doing my best to skate around another episode. Looking back, I think it was really horrible pms and the accumulation of about 5 months of unrelenting stress from other things. But at the time I was sure I had appendicitis or a twisted ovary.

Anyway - belching. I don't know if this is what you're going through. But when I had my gastritis + HA, I had gas so bad that I couldn't catch my breath to talk until I burped. Then I realized I had been swallowing a lot because of nerves. So I made an effort to watch how much I was swallowing and the gas really improved. It seems like it would be too obvious, but I know I didn't even realize what I was doing until I really started paying attention. Oh, and I started doing it again this time too... and still had to catch myself even though I'd been through it before.

Good luck with your GI stuff. It's no fun so you have my sympathies.

[worrywart115]

I've had a few bouts of gastritis, and it's always been a bit of a long road to kick completely even with PPIs. Plus it took me a few tries of different PPIs before I found a good one. Pantoprozole magnesium I think it was? But it does get better. A few years ago I had gastritis coupled with some major anxiety and then some health anxiety on top of that. It took me some time to kick the gastritis and to then come around on the anxiety front. I found that I could eventually get off the PPIs when I changed my diet and avoided GI triggers. It did take some months though. Some light exercise like strolling after meals helped as well. My husband, however, has been on PPIs for a few years and manages his that way. And he's okay. I had one PPI that didn't agree with me... it didn't do anything crazy though. Just made my gastritis feel worse (so I felt worse, so the HA got worse...) - so I'm wondering if it wasn't so much a side effect as it was ineffective.

I recently had a bit of a fright with some right lower quadrant pain that sent me to emerg. That of course spiraled off a big wave of HA which then messes with my guts. Plus they put me on a higher dose of advil than I usually take (because it's a trigger for gastritis for me). HA makes all my muscles tense, including my abs which winds up making more pain. An unremarkable ultrasound later and I'm doing my best to skate around another episode. Looking back, I think it was really horrible pms and the accumulation of about 5 months of unrelenting stress from other things. But at the time I was sure I had appendicitis or a twisted ovary.

Anyway - belching. I don't know if this is what you're going through. But when I had my gastritis + HA, I had gas so bad that I couldn't catch my breath to talk until I burped. Then I realized I had been swallowing a lot because of nerves. So I made an effort to watch how much I was swallowing and the gas really improved. It seems like it would be too obvious, but I know I didn't even realize what I was doing until I really started paying attention. Oh, and I started doing it again this time too... and still had to catch myself even though I'd been through it before.

Good luck with your GI stuff. It's no fun so you have my sympathies.
It seems like PPIs just take a TON of time to work. I'm not sure why that is, but at least it's pretty normal. I've been trying a mix of PPI (protonix, I believe), changing my diet, and a bit of exercise. It's frustrating because you always want it to work right away and right now, but stomach issues just take multiple weeks and months to even begin to normalize.

It's interesting, because my GI also mentioned in July that he thinks my belching is caused by over swallowing and eating too fast. It seems a bit silly, but given that everything else I've gotten done over the past year as been clean, that could actually be the case. I think getting any further examination done would be overkill at this point. I don't think much would change in such a short amount of time, especially since I'm only 22.

Knowing that I'm not the only person that deals with these stupidly annoying symptoms eases the anxiety a lot, so thank you for sharing :)