Endoscopy on hold - anything else to try?

[victorioussponges]

Hi all,

I've had pain in my upper abdomen since last October. I tried a fairly low dose of a PPI for a month (seemed to help a bit - on some days the pain went from constant to only part of the day) and had a negative H pylori result.

As a next step I was referred for an endoscopy a while back. I haven't heard anything from the hospital (left a telephone message last month but nothing yet) but from speaking to a Dr friend it looks like endoscopies are generally being put on hold for the foreseeable future while hospitals deal with the coronavirus.

No criticism of that but I'm wondering if I have any options in the meantime. One of the aims of the endoscopy was to rule out anything serious...but if I'm looking at a postponement until Autumn or so then it'll be about a year since symptoms started. Meanwhile, the doctor has said to just keep taking paracetamol for the pain but of course there's none to be found at the moment!

I will try to speak to my doctor again, but I'd be interested if anyone has any suggestions. If it's going to be a long wait is there any point in trying a higher dose PPI and/or for longer? I just feel a bit powerless at the mo and in the back of my mind worried whatever it is will get worse. Thank you!

is there any chance you could have constipation, it can s9metimes go on at a low level for months and cause pain. The other th8ng you could try is to keep a detailed food diary and see if you can find any link between what you eat and the amount of pain. Really try and track down all sources of wheat dairy and soya in what you eat so you can get a good picture of those big ones. Then lastly, there are a load of different treatments for stomach acid, maybe google them and see if you can get any otc, or consider calling the doctor for a trial prescription.

Go back to the GP or ring them to ask. I am on 20mg of omeprazole daily, but if I get a back spell GP tells me to double the dose for 2 weeks. That usually sorts it.

*bad spell

Would also suggest a decent dose of PPI as a temporary measure.

Thanks all! I was only on 15mg and for a month, so I think going back on/upping it could definitely be a starting point. Will see if the doctor is on board.

For those of you who have had similar pain - did you get a diagnosis? In the back of my mind I'm still worried we haven't ruled out anything serious, but I guess there's not a lot that can be done about that for now.