Re: Bad stomach pain and other symptoms
Forget the Zantac (Ranitidine) - it's no longer the 1970s/1980s, and we have PPIs! Ranitidine and it's sister/brother/friend whatever you want to call it, Cimetidine (and even rarer, famotidine) are nearly superfluous to requirements now. The latter, Cimetidine, interacts with everything so we hate seeing anyone on it (although that's very uncommon today.
IMHO Zantac is only of use in very difficult to control reflux (E.g. this patient is on the maximum effective ppi dose AND stomach "coater" (e.g. sucralfate) AND antacid (e.g. Peptac/Gaviscon) AND they can't lose weight/improve diet/stop smoking/stop drinking AND still has symptoms. Aside from that, they're a very old class of drug and simply don't "work" as well as the ppis.
Your symptoms would point to possible gastritis, which would necessitate testing for H. Pylori infection. There is a breath test, although there's a newer stool test which can be done. You should speak to your GP about this, because eradicating the h pylori should eradicate the reflux.
Epigastric pain can really only be caused by the stomach, pancreas (this is not the cause going by your symptoms) or sometimes the part of the bowel which goes from "one side to the other".
In your case I'm fairly certain you have a gastritis issue going on. You mention a UTI, so it could be secondary to the abx or unrelated and caused by h pylori.
If I were you, I'd go back to my GP and ask for an h plyori stool sample (supposedly more sensitive than the breath test) and ask for Esomeprazole. Esomeprazole is basically the "lego blocks" of Omeprazole, but they're assembled in a different (purportedly) more effective fashion.
Please keep us updated but I'm certain you have nothing to worry about based upon your post.
Last edited by RadioGaGa; 24-08-19 at 23:48.
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