Gastroenterolgist says I need an endoscopy - help!

[miggymoggy]

Been to the gasto today. Have pains in my upper abdomen under my ribs and have done for a couple of months. Also pains through to my back between shoulder blades. Am on Nexium but often can't eat and have lost weight.
Found out today I am only 6.5 stone, was 7.5 stone, now terrified I have cancer! I burst into tears with the gastro and she said much more likely to be an ulcer or gallstones but now I am terrified!
I know I'm losing weight as I'm not eating and have just had a sickness bug but isn't losing weight a sign of cancer??
Please help.
Camera in stomach is next Friday (private).

[miggymoggy]

Anyone, please??????

[miggymoggy]

is no one responding as they think I've got cancer?????

[Greenman50]

Hi

When i had an acid stomach i lost a stone very quickly , like you i couldn,t eat . I was due an edoscopy if things didn,t improve , they did improve but took over 3 months and i,m not perfect now . Everytime i ate i was in severve pain / burning it was awefull . They seem to do an endoscopy very quick these days , they said in four weeks from when my acid started but i refused and luckly in cleared it of sorts . Its probably inflamation or an ulcer , when they find out which they adjust your meds accordingly , thats the reason for the endoscopy , its no good takeing the meds for acid if its an ulcer as the treatment is different . Try not to worry , its a standard scope they want to do on everyone after a certain time scale , it doesn,t mean its cancer at all .

[Horse]

Firstly, calm down.

Responses take time to filter through.

An Endoscopy is nothing, as you will find out. Personally, I have had four, or is it five, I can't remember.

Normally, they find an ulcer, hiatus hernia, acid or inflammation or nothing.

The reason you have lost weight is more than likely that you are not eating as you should. Logical when you think about it.

I have had your symptoms for more than 18 months, had all the tests and nothing apart from too much acid causing inflammation of the stomach.

Don't forget that as an anxiety sufferer you symptoms are always magnified because we are always worrying about them.

[oldtime]

Hi, I've had one. This was at the start of my health anxiety about 5 years ago. I chose not to have sedation they numb the back of your throat, it is not as bad as it sounds and doesn't hurt.

It is unlikely to be cancer, I'm not an expert but from what I know cancer does not hurt much if at all until it is well advanced. If it was advanced enough to give you that much pain you would be very ill.

You must not jump to the worst conclusions, it is much more likely to be inflammation from a virus / infection, an ulcer or stones as the specialist has said. These are painful and would put you off eating.

Mine was just heartburn from excess stomach acid, and boy did it hurt!

[uk23]

I agree with Horse.

[miggymoggy]

Thanks for your messages. I really appreciate you all taking the time to reply. Just been sobbing. I'm just sooo scared of cancer since my mum died from lung cancer a year and a half ago. Since then, I've been falling apart! Still have absolutely no appetite though. x

[honeyp1e]

Am so glad I found this post THANK YOU I have been having the same troubles (burning raw feeling just below ribs which can travel down to my belly button/ no appetite/ bloatedness / nausea / tight squeezing in stomach & throat / burning between shoulder blades / lost just over 2stone am now just 6st / bad depression / anxiety gone sky high / dry flaky skin I cud go on.... Anyway my camera is not until 22nd march I don't wanna wait this long but gonna keep ringing everyday to c if any earlier appointments come through and hopefully I will get one sooner, I have been the doc's, ER may of times thinking I have stomach cancer or a burst ulcer etc.. And just get sent home with acid meds, anyway a lot of the doc's I have seen have all said it defo sounds like an ulcer and it can't b confirmed untill my camera is done (so scared of having this done) but in the mean time am just worried about me not eating an losing more weight but seen a dietician / doctor / counsellor etc who all have told me to keep to the safe foods I no don't agrovate my stomach and eat little and often even something small every 2-3 hours I have settled with bread, rice cakes, jam, ham, tuna just plain bland foods not to kick it off and the longer I go without foods the worse the pain gets..
I have been given Omeprazole 20mg, gavison, buscopam, motillium, these do help a bit but I have found that the more I panic & worry getting myself worked up about it the worse the pain goes :(

[Greenman50]

Hi Honeypie

Its funny you say the longer you go without food the more the pain gets .

My Dad had a stomach ulcer for years , he wouldn,t have a scope and used to feed his ulcer as he used to call it then the pain would go away in about 10 minutes . He suffered for years and years as there were no proper meds , he went on ppi,s when they first came out and it eventually healed .

Good luck guys you will be fine :yesyes:

[miggymoggy]

Thanks so much everyone and Honeyp1e, I have pm'd you x

[honeyp1e]

Hi Honeypie

Its funny you say the longer you go without food the more the pain gets .

My Dad had a stomach ulcer for years , he wouldn,t have a scope and used to feed his ulcer as he used to call it then the pain would go away in about 10 minutes . He suffered for years and years as there were no proper meds , he went on ppi,s when they first came out and it eventually healed .

Good luck guys you will be fine :yesyes:


I've now gotten to the point am so scared to eat just incase the pain does come am also emetophobic which is really taking over plus my anxiety bein so sky high :( but my boyfriends mum has a hernia in her stomach which is mostly all same symptoms and she always told me when its kicking off then feed it lol usually with porridge/ rice pudding something bland and it does usually settlr but when I leave it to long I start getting bad sickly nausea feeling with it then my emetophobic kicks off and I just can't eat so I have to cope with the feeling but if I don't force myself porridge forgetting my neg thinking then within 10mins or so the burning pains settle :)

[Horse]

In my experience, not eating will induce nausea and then we have a catch 22 situation.
Won't eat because we feel sick and in turn are scared of being sick if we do.
Therefore nausea and pain gets worse.
Eat little and often and I have discovered the nausea and most of the time the pain will ease.

[Greenman50]

Hi peeps

I got given some domperidone (spelling?) off the doctors along with the ant acids which stop nausea , i didn,t / don,t get nausea but they were prescribed to move food through my systym quicker (i think) anyway i ditched them as they did nothing , but they might work for you guys , sorry if you already know about them .

My spelling is terrible ..sorry .

[uk23]

I have been on domperidone for quite a while (couple of years i think), find they 90% effective.

[Greenman50]

Miggymoggy

Just read this on one of your posts ....

"I can totally relate to this. I have woken up with that same feeling of dread. My stomach is churning. I feel sick. Just want to put my head under the covers and stay in bed."

Just thought i would say i can relate to this , i used to wake up with this feeling of dread and sweating it was awefull , i used to wake up and my stomach wasn,t burning but within 30 seconds of wakeing up the churning and burning would start all over again and was in for another day :weep:
Perhaps your acid stomach is also anxiety related like mine was , thats why it takes ages to get better my Doctor said . Hope this helps .

[honeyp1e]

Hi peeps

I got given some domperidone (spelling?) off the doctors along with the ant acids which stop nausea , i didn,t / don,t get nausea but they were prescribed to move food through my systym quicker (i think) anyway i ditched them as they did nothing , but they might work for you guys , sorry if you already know about them .

My spelling is terrible ..sorry .


i got these but have not yet tries them alot of people have said they are great x
I have been constipated now for a good 4-5 days and my stomch is killing also my pain just below my ribs / bad acid all because am so bunged up and cant go the loo :(

[honeyp1e]

Miggymoggy

Just read this on one of your posts ....

"I can totally relate to this. I have woken up with that same feeling of dread. My stomach is churning. I feel sick. Just want to put my head under the covers and stay in bed."

Just thought i would say i can relate to this , i used to wake up with this feeling of dread and sweating it was awefull , i used to wake up and my stomach wasn,t burning but within 30 seconds of wakeing up the churning and burning would start all over again and was in for another day :weep:
Perhaps your acid stomach is also anxiety related like mine was , thats why it takes ages to get better my Doctor said . Hope this helps .


is this REALLY TRUE ?? I have never believed this and alot of people have told me that anxiety makes it worse i have been having a bad time with my anxiety and my acid/ burning raw pains have been bad to ?? and i never thought it really could be my anxiety

[honeyp1e]

In my experience, not eating will induce nausea and then we have a catch 22 situation.
Won't eat because we feel sick and in turn are scared of being sick if we do.
Therefore nausea and pain gets worse.
Eat little and often and I have discovered the nausea and most of the time the pain will ease.


i find if i go along time with out foods i start feeling sickly and as am emetophobic (fear of vomiting) its really hard for me to force myself to eat am struggling bad with this right now :( all negative thinking

[Greenman50]

is this REALLY TRUE ?? I have never believed this and alot of people have told me that anxiety makes it worse i have been having a bad time with my anxiety and my acid/ burning raw pains have been bad to ?? and i never thought it really could be my anxiety


Hi Honeypie

Two doctors i have seen both said the same .

Doctor no 1 ...(junior parner).....I explained i was worrying about all the health problems i had had , and he said the acid stomach , hyperacidity was his words would not respond to the meds if i was worrying all the time , he was the doc who prescribed me valium as i was so uptight in the appointment .

Doctor no 2 ...(a more mature lady doc) a say this as possibly more experience ??....she said anxiety can go straight to the stomach and instantly cause more acid to be produced .

I posted the other day about a panick i had , i started sweating and going hot and cold and then my stomach starting churning and burning within 10 minutes !

Its 100 % fact in my case , worry goes straight to my digestive systym and can cause constipation or diahrea and deffo my acid stomach plays up .

Hope you get well soon :bighug1:

[honeyp1e]

This is where i have always suffered n my stomach which results in my loss of appetite and bad weight loss as i can go days just not eating if am feeling so anxious then my mind just thinks about how bad my stomach is feeling or i get bad stomach spasms and it gets so intense i just cant think of anything else so i don't eat which now am down to 6st (and look basically like am on all kinds of drugs) i do try eating through this sometimes but just cant win..
I didn't realize how much anxiety can really affect the stomach now I've been trying to work out my burning in upper abdomen is it an ulcer etc and my burning and spasms due to IBS and anxiety there s really a lot to learn about it even by controlling your anxiety you will then start to control the stomach issues this is a think i will be talking to my counsellor / dietitian about as i really want to get a hold of it now my diet REALLY needs fixing as am always constipated which causes my stomach problems which then kicks off my anxiety its all one big circle ;-( but i try to take on to much stuff in one go so now am sitting here writing it all down n order of which to tackle first.....
I have been on a gluten free diet a few weeks now and that has helped with some of my stomach troubles as i heard about this off my doc so hopefully a while longer my stomach may start to ease and then my anxiety may ease as well x :)