Gastritis that doesn't respond to meds

[Bluemincat]

Hoping for some reassurance here as I have health anxiety so please no scary stories!

I've had gastritis (stomach inflammation) on and off for 2 years. 18 months ago I had a CT scan and gastroscopy and it was all normal. The consultant said to avoid PPIs and just use Gaviscon Advance.

Symptoms have come and gone over the last 2 years. I struggle with stress and anxiety which I'm sure doesn't help.

But I've had a really bad flare for the past 4/5 weeks or so and nothing is helping. I'm doing all the usual things like sleeping propped up, small meals, no alcohol etc. I started taking esomeprozole over the counter which did seem to help a bit
Then saw the GP who prescribed me omeprazole. I've been taking it now for 3 weeks and symptoms are getting worse rather than better. Saw a different GP on Friday who said to go back to esomeprozole and feel maybe 5% better than I did on omeprazole but still have a lot of symptoms.

I have nausea on and off, bloating, feel like a brick in my stomach, on and off gnawing pain in the middle of my stomach under ribs (definitely central, not gallbladder area), and reflux (I drink water and can feel it coming back up my throat).

I've tried aloe Vera juice, digestive enzymes and strong probiotics. Bland diet. Seems to help a tiny bit but symptoms are still really bad.

I'm going to go back to my GP and ask for a referral to a gastro consultant and see if it's worth repeating the tests. One of the GPs I spoke to said stomach cancer is very unlikely, especially as I had clear scans 18 months ago, but I'm still worried it is something serious.

Just wondering if anyone has experienced similar as I am really trying not to fall into a doom and gloom health anxiety spiral?

I don’t have gastritis but I have reflux (GORD). Ppis made me worse too so I also just use gaviscon advance. There are specific diets like acid watcher and the gastritis diet, but they do take a while to work. The acid watcher diet concentrates on healing inflammation by not eating food above ph5 in the first phase, and also eating a wholefood diet. It’s complicated so you need to Google it
have you been tested for h pylori?

Yeah it is long enough to need to be checked again. It is probably just a stomach ulcer as those only take months to appear and months to heal.

As PP said have they tested ( or just treated you, as the test is known to not be hugely accurate) for hpylori?

Agree - treatment for h pylori seems appropriate. Can’t believe you were told to avoid ppi?
my experience was I got worse then better but needed 8 weeks of omeprazole. Also strict diet.
you need to consistently make any changes or take treatment for at least 6 weeks to see an impact

The consultant said to avoid PPIs as I had been taking them for about 8 weeks and still had symptoms so he said they clearly weren't helping.

I've done an h pylori test previously which was negative but not recently. Although I did have a week of amoxicillin just before my symptoms started this time which I believe is the treatment for h pylori anyway, so it seems unlikely.

I'm already eating a bland diet but will look up acid watcher as well.

It's just hard to believe that it's nothing serious when the symptoms are so bad and aren't improving at all. Just feeling very scared.

Do you mean that when you took omeprazole you felt worse before you felt better? That sounds encouraging.

I've just been out for a big family dinner and ate a tiny portion of plain gluten free pasta while they all enjoyed a three course meal with plenty of wine so feeling sorry for myself!

I had gastritis some years ago and it is horrid.

Mine did eventually resolve but, other than avoiding foods I knew aggravated it, I can't remember anything specific I did or didn't do.
I had lansoprazole orodispersible tablets which melt in the mouth as I found it hard to swallow tablets or capsules when the reflux was bad

Had gastritis and ulcer seen on a camera scope.
I was told to not take ibruprofen, alcohol and not eat 3 hrs before bed.
To also take omeprazole 20mg AM and 20 mg PM.

Rather than prescribing yourself a bland diet, have you seen a proper registered dietician? Not a nutritionist.

FODMAP exclusion diet may be worth doing, but please do it with the support of a proper dietician and not googling as much of the info online is grossly inaccurate. You need proper help to remove then reintroduce potential problematic foodstuffs.

So I've a combo of gallstones (ultrasound) & gastritis (gastroscopy) & IBS-d that seem to wind each other up.

On the gastritis front - I'm on omeprazole but don't think it's doing a damn thing. Gp had me try gaviscon after every meal & before bed. I was religious with it for a week & it definitely helped.

Other things that have helped before & again now -

Proper Greek yoghurt with raspberries, fresh mint & coriander & some dark brown sugar when I'm hungry is very safe food. Usually the zero fat fage one, it's surprisingly nice!

Big recommendation for Moju gut health, the pink one. If I'm strict on having it every day it 100% helps my stomach. I'm not otherwise a person who does trendy/fad health things but the ingredients for this drink really do have some good science behind them for gut health.

I sympathise, I spend a lot of time feeling like someone's fist is inside my ribs on the left & it hurts all the way round but largely in my back.

If it's a bad flare up then you might need longer than 3 weeks on the Omeprazole for symptoms to seriously reduce.

OK there been a development. I've just got home and found an h pylori test left over from another time I had symptoms. Just took it and it's positive! So I have a GP appointment tomorrow to get some antibiotics.

Kind of relieved that there is a solid reason why I've been feeling so awful but also a bit scared about how long I've had it and whether it has caused an ulcer/cancer. Also a bit confused that I had a weeks course of amoxicillin a month ago just before my symptoms started and that's one of the antibiotics uses to treat it.

Do you think that the GP will want me to have an endoscopy to check for an ulcer or just treat me with antibiotics?

Just reading this Op, and SNAP.
I've been on PPis since July for hideous gastritis and oesophagitis with no relief.
I was sent for endoscopy on 2 week wait because I was losing weight so fast (and am over 55,,,just !) so I know it's not cancer but...dear GOD it's miserable.
I feel like I have a tennis ball stuck ball in the middle of my chest, the gnawing pain on and off and for me the discomfort stretches into my neck on the left.

I have gone on a bland diet, given up alcohol, stopped eating my beloved mint imperials (bad for gastritis..who knew) etc etc and NOTHING is helping. I've been on Lansoprazole and famotidine for 8 weeks. I've just stopped the Lansoprazole as I actually think it made me feel worse.

I went back to the GP this week and he has referred me to Gastro. I had an H pylori breath test 7 weeks ago, and it was negative but I've just ordered the fecal test in case. I've also just ordered some probiotics. I'm not generally health anxious but I am SO miserable with it.

In a way it's comforting to read that other people have suffered the same, as it is a bit scary wondering if I will ever feel normal again!

Update on how you get on. I actually wish I DO have H pylori so it could be treated!

Cocodamol helps with the pain. I gave up drinking which helped. Red meat is a big trigger, especially later at night. Fasting from maybe 6pm could help, is it worse at night? I always got it about 3am. I still get it occasionally but not so often, also had all the tests and nothing found...it's highly unpleasant! Don't worry too much about it, it's really common.

I'm already feeling better after a week of antibiotics (although they made me feel bad enough in themselves - horrible!).

I also found that the omeprazole seemed to be making me feel much, much worse. I changed it to esomeprazole and pretty much instantly felt about 50% better so might be worth trying a different PPI?

I'm now on a further 3 weeks of esomeprazole and then if I'm still feeling bad the GP will refer me for a gastroscopy.

I've noticed I'm also getting a lot of ectopic heartbeats which the GP wasn't concerned about. Not sure if it's due to being run down from feeling so ill or just my usual stress/anxiety! I've had heart investigations before for POTS and the cardiologist was also dismissive of ectopics. They can be a bit scary though!

Also the GP said that there are a lot of false negatives with h pylori particularly if you have been taking PPIs so it's probably worth buying the stool tests you can do at home and doing it twice just to see. But you're meant to be off PPIs for 2 weeks first.

I had been on PPIs for a month before I got a positive test so seems that the test wasn't affected by me taking PPIs. Apparently you don't really get false positives, just false negatives.

I had gastritis last year. Pain, nausea and vomiting blood. Gastroscopy showed gastritis, oesophagitis and duodenitis plus hiatus hernia. 4 months of omeprazole and a self imposed bland diet cleared it. I ate nothing with flavour basically..
It was fine for a year but is back. I'm very reluctant to take ppis long term as I already have osteoporosis and multiple other conditions.
It's reassuring that others find it's manageable with just gaviscon (or similar cheaper options).

I know this is an old thread but @Bluemincat did this resolve in the end? I’m 6 weeks in and at my wits end I could’ve written this myself. Hope you’re doing okay xx

Hi, I felt better after the antibiotics so the GP told me to stop taking the esmeprazole and it all started up again. Long story but I ended up having a gastroscopy and colonoscopy (as had a positive FIT test as well) and they found it had erosive duodenitis. The gastro consultant didn't think this was a big deal and was a reaction to the prep but I'm not so sure. Anyway, I recovered fairly quickly and am now back to normal.

For me I think it was all caused by h pylori and then my GP should have left me on PPIs to give the inflammation a chance to heal. I took famotidine for a while which isn't a PPI but works in a similar way and got on well with that. About 2/3 months after the gastroscopy I was symptom free and stopped the fanotidine. I'm fine now and can eat and drink normally - even alcohol and acidic things.

I bought the h pylori test from Amazon so I would suggest that as a first step.