Belching, and now burning

[Robin_]

Hello all. I posted something similar in another sub forum about a month ago, but it was ultimately very long and had no responses, so I'll try to keep this as brief as I can.

Basically, I've had this excessive belching problem for about a year now. My GI has never been concerned about it, as I'm 23. However, some time in February, I've had this constant burning sensation in my back and slightly in my chest. I went to the ER, and they ran bloods and an EKG. All normal. I went back to my GI, who put me on 40mg of Protonix again (I had stopped in January after taking them for months because it didn't really do much for my belching, and was on Pepcid instead until the burning started). Unfortunately, the Protonix has done little to help. I'm supposed to go back to my GI in a couple of weeks, and I guess I'm just very anxious about it all. The sad thing is that I went through an extensive stomach saga in 2015 due to a weight issue, where I had numerous MRIs, an H. Pylori breath test, and an endoscopy. All that came up was mild gastritis and a slight sliding hernia in the endoscopy. I had an ultrasound last year and a barium swallow for my esophagus. All that showed up was the hernia and some reflux. Multiple doctors have felt my stomach and everything felt normal, and I'm incredibly thin so this helped quell my fears a bit.

I keep worrying that this is the beginning of something sinister. I just have no idea what could be wrong with me and why these pills aren't helping. A bad GERD episode? Esophagitis? Worsening gastritis? My mind just jumps to stomach cancer. At any rate, if anyone has any advice, or helpful words, or any past/present experience with something like this, I'd greatly appreciate it, because my stomach has been the cause of my anxiety for a while now :wacko:

[charliebear78]

I can understand your worries.
I had several problems with my stomach late last year and have undergone lots of tests.(I was having indigestion/constant burning near my belly button and back ache,plus burping and rumbling belly)
Nothing has been found so Docs are now saying IBS.
All other symptoms have gone apart from constant burping which I never suffered with before-I recently had a endoscopy so I know everything in my upper GI is ok.
However now I am worrying about Bowel Cancer...
Docs not bothered and have now put me on a months course of a PPI- I am not convinced but will take the course and go back to the Docs once finished.
It is hard to stop the fear and worry-this I know.
I suppose we do have to trust the Docs a bit more and perhaps think about what symptoms we DONT have not the ones we DO.
You have had a endoscopy and more recently a ultrasound so I would think if anything serious it would have been detected.
Discuss your fears when you see the GI doc and maybe they will do a more recent test?

[raggamuffin]

"I keep worrying"

^ There's the problem right there. The tests are coming back ok, so what's left? Not cancer or something "sinister" but the old saying "mind over matter"

If the mind is stressed the body will follow. Worrying day in day out about an aspect of your health or a symptom will provoke the symptom into recurring a lot more often, sometimes to the point of it happening constantly.

We can all accept that our mind controls our body. It allows us to do every movement that we make and talk and type etc. So why is it so difficult to accept that our mind can make our body ache and feel sensations that aren't pleasant?

Ed

[Robin_]

Thank you both so much for your replies. Honestly, raggamuffin, I think you might be right on the money there. It's weird how the mind works. In order for most of these doom scenarios to occur, they'd have to occur under the rarest and most ridiculous of circumstances. Suddenly getting something serious that takes years to develop in a fraction of that time, and somehow bypassed multiple doctors' notice and tests, sounds so silly when you actually type it out. Yet, for some reason, the silly stuff is what we all tend to focus on so much, rather than the dozens and dozens of benign, very common causes. While I am probably going to see my doctor in another month, I think I'm also going to try and take more proactive steps in actually helping myself out.