Burping, gas, and difficulty swallowing

[leealee]

Please Help:

For the past 2 weeks I have had an extreme amount of gas (external and internal) I am burping quite frequently. Everytime I take a sip of something I belch at least 3 times. I have felt like I wanted to throw up but have not and I have discomfort feeling (pain/burning) in my upper left abdomen. About four weeks ago I had 2 bowel movements which were all black but I thought that was due to the 64 ounces of grape juice I drank in two days because my bowel movements have been normal ever since.

I have been suffering from a cold (serious nasal discharge), sore throat and cough and had a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. The last two to four days I have had some trouble with swallowing, not all day just everynow and then and while I am sleeping I am sweating. I also have lost 4 pounds in the last month and am 29 years old. I am scared because the symptoms I am having resemble symptoms of stomach cancer and cancer of the esophagus, please help!

[Rose1016]

I am overweight and about two weeks ago I changed my eating habits.  800-1200 cals a day, 20grams of fat or less a day.  Tuesday I started walking.  Well today I did some warm up exersices, alot of squats and crunches.  I did that for an hour, and then I went walking for another hour.  I felt fine afterwards.  I got done and ate an apple.  Well its been five hours, and I have having severe, sharp upper stomach pains.  Note: This is the first time I have ever exersiced like that.  I am burping alot.  I have no medical insurance so any advice I can get would help.

[JamesDean]

I have had the same problems since around 2001.  I'm now 33 and had the problem off and on for those 6 years.  The symptoms can be as bad as piercing pain in the middle of my chedst w/ bloating feeling so bad I honestly feel like I need to pop or I will pass out to periods of sustained bloating, execssive saliva, and small squeezing feelings up and down my rib cage.  I have found the following things helped me:

When this all started I was about 250lbs and very stressed.  I had just gotten married, had a child, bought a house and started my own company.  I was drinking Mylanta, Gaviscon, Phazyme, whatever I could get my hands on after every meal.  It was horrible to the point where I said to my wife "im just not going to eat anymore"  I went for an endoscope and they couldn't get the thing down.  The dr said I had a small espohgaous which scared me and he suggested I come back every few months to have it expaneded.  As you could imagine i was mortified.  I went to another doctor and i told him, "look pal you gotta put me under and get htis thing down"  to his reply "we do hunderedss of these a week, i don't have to put you under, i'll get it down"  of course you know what comes next...he couldn't get it down.  so he wanted me to come back and put me under.  I passed.....

I kneow I didn't have a small esphogaus.  I knew when those guys where jamming this thing down my throat I was pulling it out and spaszming and they couldn't get it down.

So i literally got home and changed my lifestyle.  No bs, I ate club sandwiches and drank water for almost 6 months straight.  Nothing more.  I ate once a day, the club sandwich, drank as much water as I could down, and started playing tennis 3x a week.  In that time, I went back on Prozac and w/in 3-6 monnths I had lost 50lbs, didn't have much belching.  Now, this isn't to say this is the best solution.  Dare I say eating basically the same thing everyday got very boring.  However, the pain was too much to deal w/ and that was it.  

Just recently these issues have come back to me.  I put back on the 50lbs, I went off my prozac and I've been eating whatever I want.  You guessed it, I'm burping and in pain almost every day.  

So I'm going back to the old ways when it went away.  I'll eat one meal a day, something that i know agrees w/ me, I'm going back on meds and I'm going to excercise.  

Is it the perfect solution, probably not.  However, it did work for some time, at least a good 2 years.  

PS:  While in this pain mode I've found taking two gas x before or after (mainly after) you eat every meal tends to help.  don't wait for symptoms, just take them.  Also, i take the chewable tables, i have tried the phazyme caplets and it hurts to swallow when you have all that air, so the chewables seem to work.  at times when i have the piercing pain i'll take mylanta on top ofthe gas x, it tends to relieve a bit too.  Hot showers seem to help a bit as well, also doind some excertsing can move the gas all around.  I find i panic a lot when this happens as most of you do as well.  that tends to worsen the issue.  i try to calm down and re train myself to breath and swallow.  Slow your breathing down and I tend to spit in a cup or bottle as it allows me NOT to swallow any air at all.  

Foods i stay away from:  Chocolate, wheat, soy, cereal, milk products
Foods that work for me:  water, turkey, ham, crackers, popcorn (go figure), etc.

Hope this helps eveyrone a bit.  Would love to hear eveyrone elses commetns

[Kevin Pho, MD]

If there is concern about stomach cancer, an upper GI series or upper endoscopy should be performed.  

That being said, there are a variety of diseases that can lead to the symptoms you are describing.  Irritable bowel syndrome, GERD, an ulcer or inflammation of the upper digestive tract can all be suspected.  Black stools can be suggestive of an upper GI bleed - like an ulcer or inflammation.

At this time, I would suggest an upper endoscopy.  This test can be discussed with your personal physician, or in conjunction with a GI referral.

Followup with your personal physician is essential.

This answer is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice - the information presented is for patient education only. Please see your personal physician for further evaluation of your individual case.

Kevin, M.D.
kevinmd_

[wassupwassabi]

What kind of swallowing difficulty are you having?  Is food getting stuck in your chest or is it up in your throat?  Liquids, solids, both?

If you're worried it could be cancer, probably the best thing you could do is get an endoscopy (provided you have insurance, it's expensive w/o it), have the docs take a look around inside your esophagus/stomach to see if there's anything abnormal there.