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Abdominal Pains, GERD, The Cure, part 2!!
It all started going wrong with the first wrong diagnosis" Heartburn and abdominal pain", i was given acid blockers without even testing my stomach acid levels, my acid levels were too low, not too high, this causes "delayed gastric emptying" and this condition allows food to back flow up into the esophagus, after years of suffering from this condition, damage is done to the esophageal sphincter and it weakens and the condition gets noticeably worse, the doctors prescribe acid blockers purely to stop the stomach acids damaging and burning the esophagus, but what actually is happening is the condition is getting worse, "gastric emptying" is getting worse allowing more back flow,but we feel a bit better because it is not hurting as much when it does back flow into the esophagus, so we feel that we need them from then on and so your ready for bringing on the next stage of the illness.
What we need to realise is our Ph in the stomach ideally should be Ph2, very acidic, this is a perfect Ph level for breaking down the food, the Ph in your esophagus ideally should be 7 neutral, so just because you get acid burning your esophagus does not mean you should neutralize the acid, it only means you need to sort out the back flow issue. Imagine your acid level in your stomach was Ph4, this would still be acidic enough to damage the esophagus, but yet it is too alkaline to digest food properly, poor digestion causes "delayed gastric emptying" which as we know causes reflux, so with most people the problem is not too much acid but not enough, so if you increased your acid levels, the food would get digested properly and the reflux would not occur. Most of the other stomach ache symptoms most people describe is coming from not digesting food properly and "delayed gastric emptying". Acid blockers make this problem worse over time and so reflux becomes more frequent although not as painful, this causes the valves between the stomach and small intestines to get even more lax due to high pressure destruction and dilation, so here you are well on your way to fundoplication surgery.
Please do not think this covers all cases, a lot of people have severe "lower esophageal impedence" and do require this surgery, but i just want to point out that a lot of cases may be cured without surgery.
So i am now in a place where i am not digesting food properly, causing bloating, and nutrient deficiencies, and stomach gurgling scenes like something out of the film "Alien". Stomach acid is crucial for good health and should not be getting blocked or neutralized.
So the next step was "domperidone" an antagonist, to speed up gastric emptying, causing strong contractions throughout the esophagus, stomach and intestines, these really do work, but as with all western medicines, it has side effects, the powerful contractions can cause pains long term, in the esophagus and intestines, as my symptoms described above, the food is getting pushed through the system faster before acid has had a chance to break it down properly, the malnutrition problem gets worse when linked to acid blockers you end up with no energy and feeling unwell in general, you then start getting stressed about feeling so unwell all the time, and your health continues to spiral down.
So next the doctors try me on a muscle relaxant"antispasmodic" to reverse the side effects of the "domperidone", this causes the valves between the esophaugus, stomach and small intestines top relax also, which allows more reflux and backflow of stomach contents, now the stomach is not emptying properly again and backflow becomes worse, because the sphincter is now hardly working at all, even off the shelf drugs like "Buscopan" are well known to cause lax function of the stomach valves, so now we get "bile" also joining the party back flowing into the stomach, "delayed gastric emptying" mixed with "bile" causes a gaseous build up, the stomach wall is aggrevated and reflux becomes worse than ever, but now you have "bile" attacking you esophagus and the pain really starts, think about it, if acid blockers only give partial relief, then the pain can not be caused by acid, the acid has been neutralized, so what is aggrevating the esophagus? "BILE", a big first give away that your pain is "bile " related is exactly that" Acid blockers will only provide partial relief" other symptoms are as follows " pale stools", "high white blood cell count", "severe esophageal pains without heartburn", "burning sensation in the upper abdomen with muscle weakness and inflammation", "attacks mainly at night", "attacks brought on by fatty foods", "pain upper abdomen spreading to shoulders" but remember that esophageal spasms/pains brought on by reflux even when acid is neutralized, must eliminate acid as the cause!
So armed with all my research i demanded a PH test, and guess what, I did not have high acid levels in my esophagus but high alkaline levels, so they put doctors admitted it looks like "bile reflux" not "acid reflux", that's nice isn't it after 5 years of being on the wrong medication, 5 years of medication actually making the problem worse, i had research this myself and fought all the way otherwise i could still be getting batted back and forth with wrong medications.
Now remember back to when i spent 3 days in hospital with no medication and no food, and i felt great after, i was not eating, the bile was not being produced, the stomach was back to normal function after 3 days off the medication, funny that the cure was staring at me all along, stop all medication to get gastric emptying and acid levels back to normal and do not eat foods which promote the production of stomach bile and "fundoplication was not required", i now have the option of "bile diversion surgery" where the bile gets dumped further down the small intestines, to stop it entering the stomach, if you do not fight to find the underlying cause only "YOU" will suffer long term, "Esophageal cancer" "Stomach Cancer" is where it is ultimately heading with not much quality of life leading up.
I just hope that upon reading this, it may help some long term sufferers like myself and you can get diagnosed properly before its too late.
I have opted to not take the route of surgery for now, i am controlling my stomach bile by healthy eating, i am controlling reflux by eating small amounts regular and sleeping elevated, I am not taking any medication and gastric emptying has improved ten fold, my stomach valves are getting stronger and i am going to build on that, think about it, Q:How can bile get into your esophagus if your stomach is emptying properly? A: it can't!!
Remember where it all starts, maybe you used to over eat, maybe you just need to stop smoking, it can be a little problem that starts this whole thing, don't jump on the medication band wagon, i went to the doctors with a stomach discomfort and heartburn and ended up with a serious illness and in hospital several times, i was terrified at the thought of coming off acid blockers, i thought i would be in agony after 12 hours, the 1st day was very uncomfortable, but i did not get the "upper abdominal pain" i just ate dry toast every two hours and took sips of water in between, i could literally feel my stomach starting to digest food properly again, so there was no reflux, after sleeping elevated the next day, my stomach and body felt on the road to recovery this is just 24 hours and my body had almost returned to normal like somebody had turned the clock back 5 years.
Why are these cases increasing in number every year, 126million cases of GERD.
Acid blockers and indigestion remedies are the best selling drugs in the world, you really need to start reading about how the stomach acid works and what causes GERD before reaching for Acid blockers or Acid neutralizers ever again and doctors need to stop "putting a lid" on conditions with these medications. Good luck!
What we need to realise is our Ph in the stomach ideally should be Ph2, very acidic, this is a perfect Ph level for breaking down the food, the Ph in your esophagus ideally should be 7 neutral, so just because you get acid burning your esophagus does not mean you should neutralize the acid, it only means you need to sort out the back flow issue. Imagine your acid level in your stomach was Ph4, this would still be acidic enough to damage the esophagus, but yet it is too alkaline to digest food properly, poor digestion causes "delayed gastric emptying" which as we know causes reflux, so with most people the problem is not too much acid but not enough, so if you increased your acid levels, the food would get digested properly and the reflux would not occur. Most of the other stomach ache symptoms most people describe is coming from not digesting food properly and "delayed gastric emptying". Acid blockers make this problem worse over time and so reflux becomes more frequent although not as painful, this causes the valves between the stomach and small intestines to get even more lax due to high pressure destruction and dilation, so here you are well on your way to fundoplication surgery.
Please do not think this covers all cases, a lot of people have severe "lower esophageal impedence" and do require this surgery, but i just want to point out that a lot of cases may be cured without surgery.
So i am now in a place where i am not digesting food properly, causing bloating, and nutrient deficiencies, and stomach gurgling scenes like something out of the film "Alien". Stomach acid is crucial for good health and should not be getting blocked or neutralized.
So the next step was "domperidone" an antagonist, to speed up gastric emptying, causing strong contractions throughout the esophagus, stomach and intestines, these really do work, but as with all western medicines, it has side effects, the powerful contractions can cause pains long term, in the esophagus and intestines, as my symptoms described above, the food is getting pushed through the system faster before acid has had a chance to break it down properly, the malnutrition problem gets worse when linked to acid blockers you end up with no energy and feeling unwell in general, you then start getting stressed about feeling so unwell all the time, and your health continues to spiral down.
So next the doctors try me on a muscle relaxant"antispasmodic" to reverse the side effects of the "domperidone", this causes the valves between the esophaugus, stomach and small intestines top relax also, which allows more reflux and backflow of stomach contents, now the stomach is not emptying properly again and backflow becomes worse, because the sphincter is now hardly working at all, even off the shelf drugs like "Buscopan" are well known to cause lax function of the stomach valves, so now we get "bile" also joining the party back flowing into the stomach, "delayed gastric emptying" mixed with "bile" causes a gaseous build up, the stomach wall is aggrevated and reflux becomes worse than ever, but now you have "bile" attacking you esophagus and the pain really starts, think about it, if acid blockers only give partial relief, then the pain can not be caused by acid, the acid has been neutralized, so what is aggrevating the esophagus? "BILE", a big first give away that your pain is "bile " related is exactly that" Acid blockers will only provide partial relief" other symptoms are as follows " pale stools", "high white blood cell count", "severe esophageal pains without heartburn", "burning sensation in the upper abdomen with muscle weakness and inflammation", "attacks mainly at night", "attacks brought on by fatty foods", "pain upper abdomen spreading to shoulders" but remember that esophageal spasms/pains brought on by reflux even when acid is neutralized, must eliminate acid as the cause!
So armed with all my research i demanded a PH test, and guess what, I did not have high acid levels in my esophagus but high alkaline levels, so they put doctors admitted it looks like "bile reflux" not "acid reflux", that's nice isn't it after 5 years of being on the wrong medication, 5 years of medication actually making the problem worse, i had research this myself and fought all the way otherwise i could still be getting batted back and forth with wrong medications.
Now remember back to when i spent 3 days in hospital with no medication and no food, and i felt great after, i was not eating, the bile was not being produced, the stomach was back to normal function after 3 days off the medication, funny that the cure was staring at me all along, stop all medication to get gastric emptying and acid levels back to normal and do not eat foods which promote the production of stomach bile and "fundoplication was not required", i now have the option of "bile diversion surgery" where the bile gets dumped further down the small intestines, to stop it entering the stomach, if you do not fight to find the underlying cause only "YOU" will suffer long term, "Esophageal cancer" "Stomach Cancer" is where it is ultimately heading with not much quality of life leading up.
I just hope that upon reading this, it may help some long term sufferers like myself and you can get diagnosed properly before its too late.
I have opted to not take the route of surgery for now, i am controlling my stomach bile by healthy eating, i am controlling reflux by eating small amounts regular and sleeping elevated, I am not taking any medication and gastric emptying has improved ten fold, my stomach valves are getting stronger and i am going to build on that, think about it, Q:How can bile get into your esophagus if your stomach is emptying properly? A: it can't!!
Remember where it all starts, maybe you used to over eat, maybe you just need to stop smoking, it can be a little problem that starts this whole thing, don't jump on the medication band wagon, i went to the doctors with a stomach discomfort and heartburn and ended up with a serious illness and in hospital several times, i was terrified at the thought of coming off acid blockers, i thought i would be in agony after 12 hours, the 1st day was very uncomfortable, but i did not get the "upper abdominal pain" i just ate dry toast every two hours and took sips of water in between, i could literally feel my stomach starting to digest food properly again, so there was no reflux, after sleeping elevated the next day, my stomach and body felt on the road to recovery this is just 24 hours and my body had almost returned to normal like somebody had turned the clock back 5 years.
Why are these cases increasing in number every year, 126million cases of GERD.
Acid blockers and indigestion remedies are the best selling drugs in the world, you really need to start reading about how the stomach acid works and what causes GERD before reaching for Acid blockers or Acid neutralizers ever again and doctors need to stop "putting a lid" on conditions with these medications. Good luck!
My 15 month old daughter has been on Prevacid for her GERD since 3 weeks of age. She has never slept a night without crying out in pain. No doc has ever done a ph test or any internal scans. She is now on carafate; which I've researched online and found that it is used to treat ulcers!!!! WTH! Then I found out through my own research that long term use of NSAIDS can cause ulcers..........it was so nice to hear your personal story; doctors and medical articles have a way of getting you to not trust your instincts.
My daughter wakes up at night every hour or so crying out in pain. Some nights are better than others. Generally speaking, she's bloated, constipated, gassy and I can hear liquid sloshing around in her tummy during the day and when she cries at night, her breath really wreaks. I read your post and I thought, God, am I causing her more harm than good? It appears so. It is so difficult on me because she can't communicate her pain issues. But I'm going to start on a new path~I'm so tired of having symptoms compound on top of each other.
What do you suggest I ask the GI doctor next week?
Any input would be greatly appreciated! :)
Anxious Mom.
My daughter wakes up at night every hour or so crying out in pain. Some nights are better than others. Generally speaking, she's bloated, constipated, gassy and I can hear liquid sloshing around in her tummy during the day and when she cries at night, her breath really wreaks. I read your post and I thought, God, am I causing her more harm than good? It appears so. It is so difficult on me because she can't communicate her pain issues. But I'm going to start on a new path~I'm so tired of having symptoms compound on top of each other.
What do you suggest I ask the GI doctor next week?
Any input would be greatly appreciated! :)
Anxious Mom.
That is really interesting, i have never heard of that before, what exactly is it and what does it do?
I personally am not in a situation to try anything new, due to the fact that i am feeling well and do not want to chance disrupting anything, but it may well be a miracle cure or even if it helps people on here to get their health spiralling back up then that is a biggy.
I would really like to hear more about it, one thing i have found is that ill people are 100%genuine, nobody ever comes on here to mix it up, seen as though it has helped you a lot, i am taking it as gospel that it really works.
I really wnat to find out more, I found very little information on the internet except it has been proven to cure bad breath, and is really good for people who have a chlorophyl deficiency, and has been proven to improve general health and well being, and is herbal, it does sound good and sounds like it should be taken as part of a healthy diet.
I am truly intrigued, for anybody who has stomach problems it may well be worth a try, i say this because the digestive system is so complicated,and i truly believe our digestive systems have still not fully evolved from when we were veggies, maybe this Chlorophyl deficiency could be the route cause of many peoples digestive problems, i.e. not enough green leafy salad in the diet.
I personally am not in a situation to try anything new, due to the fact that i am feeling well and do not want to chance disrupting anything, but it may well be a miracle cure or even if it helps people on here to get their health spiralling back up then that is a biggy.
I would really like to hear more about it, one thing i have found is that ill people are 100%genuine, nobody ever comes on here to mix it up, seen as though it has helped you a lot, i am taking it as gospel that it really works.
I really wnat to find out more, I found very little information on the internet except it has been proven to cure bad breath, and is really good for people who have a chlorophyl deficiency, and has been proven to improve general health and well being, and is herbal, it does sound good and sounds like it should be taken as part of a healthy diet.
I am truly intrigued, for anybody who has stomach problems it may well be worth a try, i say this because the digestive system is so complicated,and i truly believe our digestive systems have still not fully evolved from when we were veggies, maybe this Chlorophyl deficiency could be the route cause of many peoples digestive problems, i.e. not enough green leafy salad in the diet.
Just wanted to add, regarding decreasing bile production, basically stay away from fatty foods in general, eat healthily and keep reading up on what to avoid.
Try to keep your stomach as empty as possible but without causing malnutrition, small ammounts regular, same goes for drinking , plently of water but sip regular, this is so you do not over dilute your stomach acids in order to keep stomach emptying fast.
I know it sounds like a contradiction but with the plenty of excercise you also need plenty of rest, as rest periods help the body heal.
Try to keep your stomach as empty as possible but without causing malnutrition, small ammounts regular, same goes for drinking , plently of water but sip regular, this is so you do not over dilute your stomach acids in order to keep stomach emptying fast.
I know it sounds like a contradiction but with the plenty of excercise you also need plenty of rest, as rest periods help the body heal.
The burning sensation that is left over is Gastritis, the stomach and esophagus are very slow to heal and take up to 8 weeks to heal fully, this is of course as long as the stomach is emptying properly and you sleep on your elevated and on your right to stop bile entering the stomach otherwise the viscous cycle continues.
Eating bran flakes, granary bread, whole grain foods helps cure the gastritis, eating things like and apple, or drinking cranberry juice can have a soothing effect.
H2H have much less side effects than PPI, but feeling that you need the H2H i believe is due to hiatal hernia, i confused these aches and pains of gastitis and haital hernia with a stomach acid problem for a long time.
Try weaning yourself off Zantac slowly, and just take an alka seltzer on a bad day if the acids start to reflux into your esophagus.
Also please get checked again for sludge in the gall bladder, i was getting pains in my back and right shoulder due to severe esophageal cramps, food would get stuck, if you are not suffering from this, then the pain under your right rib going into your right shoulder could be caused by gall stones and it can easily be missed, as it only shows up as a white mist.
Do you get fatigued all the time, feel like your body is fighting an infection? Have blood tests shown up a high white blood cell count?
Gall bladder sludge is considered more dangerous than large gall stones, please get it checked and double checked.
Dont eat white bread, pasta, meats, fatty foods, dairy products.
You can help your stiomach repair by getting some betaine, dervied from beets, which helps re- coat the stomach lining, whilst you have gastritis do not drink coffee or alcohol or smoke, but you are best off looking up gastritis on the search engine as there are lots of good advice for what foods to eat and what to avoid.
Generally get plenty of excercise and eaty healthily, i have a test for you to help diagnosis, but you must not take zantac whilts trying this, go and get some whey protein powder and make some drinks make sure you take digestive enzymes at the same time including lactase. It will sooth your stomach and help repair it like you would not believe, but if you do have gall bladder sludge it will bring on a mild discomfort in your right upper abdomen leading to the right shoulder, if this happens then inist to the doctors that you have gall bladder sludge and get another ultrasound, my sister suffered with gall bladder sludge for years and they missed it on 2 seprarate ultrasounds, until she eventually went private and they spotted it right away, if you try this with a protein drink, have some buscopan ready in case of a severe gall bladder attack, anad again if buscopan relieves the pain this tells you it is definately a gall bladder problem, also during the attack push under your right rib cage if it feels painfull to touch or even feels hard, again this tells you it is inflammation of the gall bladder.
In the meantime stick to foods that are easy to digest as there will be less chance of suffering from reflux, keep your acidity levels high so that food gets digested quickly, even though this comes at the price of discomfort due to gastritis i.s. stomach acids aggrevating the stomach wall, the only way to break the cycle is to put up with the gastritis until it starts to heal, but as mentioned there are many methods you can read about to reduce this discomfort and help the stomach wall heal quicker.
keep me updated and i am here to try and help you where ever possible, i really truly believe due to the itchy sensation upper right abdomen you have gall bladder sludge, i hope this is so, because a simple operation to remove the gall bladder completely will cure all your ailments.
This may be the underlying cause but no doubt the long term use of PPI have been making the condition worse and causing additional problems with bile backflow and reflux due to poor digestion, hence why it started to affect your esophagus. The digestive system is very complicated and 1 problem can lead to a syndrome of ailments, which is why doctors find it so difficult to find the root cause.
Eating bran flakes, granary bread, whole grain foods helps cure the gastritis, eating things like and apple, or drinking cranberry juice can have a soothing effect.
H2H have much less side effects than PPI, but feeling that you need the H2H i believe is due to hiatal hernia, i confused these aches and pains of gastitis and haital hernia with a stomach acid problem for a long time.
Try weaning yourself off Zantac slowly, and just take an alka seltzer on a bad day if the acids start to reflux into your esophagus.
Also please get checked again for sludge in the gall bladder, i was getting pains in my back and right shoulder due to severe esophageal cramps, food would get stuck, if you are not suffering from this, then the pain under your right rib going into your right shoulder could be caused by gall stones and it can easily be missed, as it only shows up as a white mist.
Do you get fatigued all the time, feel like your body is fighting an infection? Have blood tests shown up a high white blood cell count?
Gall bladder sludge is considered more dangerous than large gall stones, please get it checked and double checked.
Dont eat white bread, pasta, meats, fatty foods, dairy products.
You can help your stiomach repair by getting some betaine, dervied from beets, which helps re- coat the stomach lining, whilst you have gastritis do not drink coffee or alcohol or smoke, but you are best off looking up gastritis on the search engine as there are lots of good advice for what foods to eat and what to avoid.
Generally get plenty of excercise and eaty healthily, i have a test for you to help diagnosis, but you must not take zantac whilts trying this, go and get some whey protein powder and make some drinks make sure you take digestive enzymes at the same time including lactase. It will sooth your stomach and help repair it like you would not believe, but if you do have gall bladder sludge it will bring on a mild discomfort in your right upper abdomen leading to the right shoulder, if this happens then inist to the doctors that you have gall bladder sludge and get another ultrasound, my sister suffered with gall bladder sludge for years and they missed it on 2 seprarate ultrasounds, until she eventually went private and they spotted it right away, if you try this with a protein drink, have some buscopan ready in case of a severe gall bladder attack, anad again if buscopan relieves the pain this tells you it is definately a gall bladder problem, also during the attack push under your right rib cage if it feels painfull to touch or even feels hard, again this tells you it is inflammation of the gall bladder.
In the meantime stick to foods that are easy to digest as there will be less chance of suffering from reflux, keep your acidity levels high so that food gets digested quickly, even though this comes at the price of discomfort due to gastritis i.s. stomach acids aggrevating the stomach wall, the only way to break the cycle is to put up with the gastritis until it starts to heal, but as mentioned there are many methods you can read about to reduce this discomfort and help the stomach wall heal quicker.
keep me updated and i am here to try and help you where ever possible, i really truly believe due to the itchy sensation upper right abdomen you have gall bladder sludge, i hope this is so, because a simple operation to remove the gall bladder completely will cure all your ailments.
This may be the underlying cause but no doubt the long term use of PPI have been making the condition worse and causing additional problems with bile backflow and reflux due to poor digestion, hence why it started to affect your esophagus. The digestive system is very complicated and 1 problem can lead to a syndrome of ailments, which is why doctors find it so difficult to find the root cause.
Also forgot to ask.....
Is there a list of foods somewhere that I can get which shows the foods that help to decrease bile production? Like maybe eating more proteins or less of a certain type of fruit or vegetable etc etc ?
As you can tell. I am desperately seeking ANY and ALL answers and I am seriously ecstatic that I found your post. I can imagine EXACTLY how happy you must have been when you had your EUREKA moment and found out the true, real cause of your suffering. I feel the same way now and I REALLLLLLLLY hope that this is exactly my problem and that I now will be able to solve it finally. You can't imagine how happy I am right now! I hope I don't get let down and that my issue is something else.
Is there a list of foods somewhere that I can get which shows the foods that help to decrease bile production? Like maybe eating more proteins or less of a certain type of fruit or vegetable etc etc ?
As you can tell. I am desperately seeking ANY and ALL answers and I am seriously ecstatic that I found your post. I can imagine EXACTLY how happy you must have been when you had your EUREKA moment and found out the true, real cause of your suffering. I feel the same way now and I REALLLLLLLLY hope that this is exactly my problem and that I now will be able to solve it finally. You can't imagine how happy I am right now! I hope I don't get let down and that my issue is something else.
I think you might be a godsend for me Sickboy1 !!!
I believe I am truly Sickboy2 with your identical condition...Read on....
I suspected a long long time ago that I had problems with bile salts backing up into my stomach from my intestines and causing a severe, weird itchy burning sensation in my right upper abdominal area. It would spread through to my back and shoulder blades when it got really bad as well. Recently it started reaching my esophagus causing heartburn type symptoms and I also started to notice my voice getting hoarser and hoarser everyday. I kept on telling the doctors and the gastroenterologist and they kept ignoring me and pushing on brand after brand of PPI's when I kept on telling them this one isn't working or that new one is causing me other side effects etc etc.. I had no idea what to do to treat myself and like you I became an internet hound searching for answers for MONTHS. I finally came across your posting yesterday and I think you MIGHT have save me!!! Let's not be too overconfident yet but I will report my findings daily based on your suggestions.
I think I have been suffering like hell with exactly what you have been experiencing. I have successfully weaned myself off the PPI's completely and that was a huge, painful task. Yes, most of my symptoms from being on PPI's have disappeared but I am still on Zantac at the moment which is an H2 receptor antagonist like Tagamet. I am almost at the point of getting myself off that as well at the moment. Now here is my question to you. What are the short term things you did to relieve the painful burning sensation in the stomach when the bile washed up from the intestine to the stomach? I think I read somewhere that you said to eat 1 or 2 slices of toast. I had terrible burning today and I tried that and I think it WORKED !!!!! I will continue to try eating 1 or 2 slices of toast immediately whenever the burning sensation starts and see if that is a temporary solution until I can get my stomach and digestion and emptying back in order. I am actually thinking of completely fasting from food every other day for one week to see if that brings any relief due to reduce bile output. By doing the fasting only every other day I should be able to still get enough nutrition in me to not affect me too badly in that one week test period. If my burning sensation syptoms go away or decrease on those fasting days then I think I would have proven the theory of the bile being the problem and not acid.
So, what other tips do you have for me for the short term control of the burning other than eating the toast? What are the exact types of digestive enzymes that you are taking to help you? ANything else at all you can think of to share with me to get me short term relief while I work on the longer term solution and my testing?
I believe I am truly Sickboy2 with your identical condition...Read on....
I suspected a long long time ago that I had problems with bile salts backing up into my stomach from my intestines and causing a severe, weird itchy burning sensation in my right upper abdominal area. It would spread through to my back and shoulder blades when it got really bad as well. Recently it started reaching my esophagus causing heartburn type symptoms and I also started to notice my voice getting hoarser and hoarser everyday. I kept on telling the doctors and the gastroenterologist and they kept ignoring me and pushing on brand after brand of PPI's when I kept on telling them this one isn't working or that new one is causing me other side effects etc etc.. I had no idea what to do to treat myself and like you I became an internet hound searching for answers for MONTHS. I finally came across your posting yesterday and I think you MIGHT have save me!!! Let's not be too overconfident yet but I will report my findings daily based on your suggestions.
I think I have been suffering like hell with exactly what you have been experiencing. I have successfully weaned myself off the PPI's completely and that was a huge, painful task. Yes, most of my symptoms from being on PPI's have disappeared but I am still on Zantac at the moment which is an H2 receptor antagonist like Tagamet. I am almost at the point of getting myself off that as well at the moment. Now here is my question to you. What are the short term things you did to relieve the painful burning sensation in the stomach when the bile washed up from the intestine to the stomach? I think I read somewhere that you said to eat 1 or 2 slices of toast. I had terrible burning today and I tried that and I think it WORKED !!!!! I will continue to try eating 1 or 2 slices of toast immediately whenever the burning sensation starts and see if that is a temporary solution until I can get my stomach and digestion and emptying back in order. I am actually thinking of completely fasting from food every other day for one week to see if that brings any relief due to reduce bile output. By doing the fasting only every other day I should be able to still get enough nutrition in me to not affect me too badly in that one week test period. If my burning sensation syptoms go away or decrease on those fasting days then I think I would have proven the theory of the bile being the problem and not acid.
So, what other tips do you have for me for the short term control of the burning other than eating the toast? What are the exact types of digestive enzymes that you are taking to help you? ANything else at all you can think of to share with me to get me short term relief while I work on the longer term solution and my testing?
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