Having a horrible time really scared

[Honeyskye]

I have been having problems with indigestion and possibly reflux since before xmas. Several drs trips and ive been diagnosed with gastritis and reflux but not had any tests. The pain is usually upper right side in the stomach area but mainly in the chest area and goes to my back. I'm due an abdominal scan on the 20th. I've been on laprozole since the beginning of jan and the pain comes and goes but I'd been finding recently that it's lessened and some days it's not even there and when it is it's milder.

However, I've had a terrible weekend. I could feel my anxiety and stress rising over the past couple of weeks and I don't know if it's related but, things have got bad again. Since saturday morning I've had what feels like heartburn. I've got this burning sensation in my chest behind my sternum and my throat feels full of crap. My throat isn't burning, chest my chest. My chest also feels tight and a bit painful and it makes my upper back ache. I also get these sharp stabby pains in the right side of my chest and these are the pains I've had since xmas that got better. I'm belching a lot too.

I am utterly terrified that with these pains I'm going to end up in hospital in a packed a&e on a trolley in a corridor for hours because of the coronavirus and the added pressures on the NHS. The anxiety this is causing is dreadful.

I'm scared to eat because my chest feels so uncomfortable. I took gaviscon advance yesterday and don't think it helped.

I'm frightened this is some sort of cancer like esophagus or pancreatic because of my symptoms. I feel very scared today. Please can someone help? Can indigestion last this long and feel so uncomfortable?

[unicorndusy]

I have been having problems with indigestion and possibly reflux since before xmas. Several drs trips and ive been diagnosed with gastritis and reflux but not had any tests. The pain is usually upper right side in the stomach area but mainly in the chest area and goes to my back. I'm due an abdominal scan on the 20th. I've been on laprozole since the beginning of jan and the pain comes and goes but I'd been finding recently that it's lessened and some days it's not even there and when it is it's milder.

However, I've had a terrible weekend. I could feel my anxiety and stress rising over the past couple of weeks and I don't know if it's related but, things have got bad again. Since saturday morning I've had what feels like heartburn. I've got this burning sensation in my chest behind my sternum and my throat feels full of crap. My throat isn't burning, chest my chest. My chest also feels tight and a bit painful and it makes my upper back ache. I also get these sharp stabby pains in the right side of my chest and these are the pains I've had since xmas that got better. I'm belching a lot too.

I am utterly terrified that with these pains I'm going to end up in hospital in a packed a&e on a trolley in a corridor for hours because of the coronavirus and the added pressures on the NHS. The anxiety this is causing is dreadful.

I'm scared to eat because my chest feels so uncomfortable. I took gaviscon advance yesterday and don't think it helped.

I'm frightened this is some sort of cancer like esophagus or pancreatic because of my symptoms. I feel very scared today. Please can someone help? Can indigestion last this long and feel so uncomfortable?

Hi there!

The past few months have been the same for me, constant discomfort in my stomach and back along with frequent illness (colds and viral tonsillitis). The reason why is purely because of stress. Because when I'm not stressed, all these symptoms magically disappear! This morning I got up late for work and all my tummy problems kicked off and yeah...wasn't pleasant at all!

Anxiety really can make us feel so poorly and hopeless, but there is always hope and we will one day, feel completely symptom free! Have you got any hobbies or activities you really enjoy?

[MaWi69]

HoneySkye I was diagnosed with GERD (reflux) about 20 years ago and had managed to keep it in check with Omeprazol and occasional gaviscon, about a year or so ago I had a ton of new symptoms - lump in throat, waking up with sick in my mouth (sorry!), a cough, a feeling that I’ve always got mucus that I can’t shift (sorry again!), and more recently a feeling of breathlessness. I saw the specialist again, same upper endoscopy check - nothing.
Specialist (private ENT appt) said they could see nothing, but there was a bit of an inflamed patch... which apparently presents as LPR (I’m not going to begin to pronounce it, but it’s known as silent reflux). It has similar Symptoms to GERD but the difference being there are lifestyle changes you need to make to get it under control. The medication is the same so you’re ok there, but try doing this lot:
- Prop your bed head up a few inches or buy a foam wedge to sleep on (more pillows can work but only if your shoulders are propped).
- Avoid fatty, fizzy, caffeinated or acidic foods and drinks
- Gargle with salt and bicarb or soda in the morning (only if you get the throat symptoms wont do much other wise)
- take gaviscon after every meal and before bed
- don’t eat or drink alcohol 3 hours before bed, and try and make dinner you big meal of the day
- avoid chocolate
- Avoid alcohol, especially fizzy ones and white wine
Last one sucks most! But I’d got a bit of a thing for white wine a year or so ago, when I was diagnosed I cut everything out but red wine.
All of that together for a few weeks and I was in a decent place- see if that helps at all? Nothing here will harm you (although gaviscon has a lot of sodium in it so watch that one if you need a low sodium diet).

It sucks frankly, but I’ve managed to get the symptoms down from terrifying to bearable. The breathless thing is a new one though so I’m getting the anxiety bit, apparently it is a normal symptom of LPR tho so I’m going to cut back on all booze gradually and see if I can’t sort it that way. I’ve no wish to go to the docs - especially as some of my well established symptoms look like C19 so I don’t want to to worry the health people either.

Sorry that’s so long!