severe abdominal pain and vomiting

[jon309]

for the past 3 weeks i have had severe stomach pains which progress to nausea and vomiting. my dad is a doctor and suggested zantac. i used that with brioschi for a couple days and it was not very helpful. he then said to use prilosec. i am on my 8th day and it helped for a few days but has stopped working. the severe stomach pain continues to evolve into vomiting. i am not eating foods that should trigger problems. my dad suspects an ulcer from h pylori, but the treatment has not helped. i am going to the doctor next week. what should i ask him to look for or check? any help is appreciated. thanks

[geminigirl1963]

You're more than welcome.  I hope some of my suggestions/ideas have been at least a little help.  Best of luck with the endoscopy and bloodwork tomorrow - don't be worried about the endoscopy - I've found it to be a very easy procedure - you're very well sedated during it and don't remember anything (at least I never have).  You may have a slight sore throat afterwards from the little camera thingie that they put down your throat, but a few popsicles later you should be fine.  You may also have some nausea afterward from the sedation they give you, but don't hesitate to ask the nurse/doctor for some medication to ease this if it happens.  If they happen to take any samples/biopsies while they're there, your stomach area may be a little sore from this - again, whenever they've done this during one of my endoscopies it hasn't been a big deal - very manageable discomfort from it.

When they do your bloodwork, I would suggest that you request they also do a h pylori test.  This is a type of bacteria that can/does cause ulcers - it's very common and relatively easy to treat with antibiotics and anti-acid type medications.

Please keep me/us informed as to how you're doing and what results you find out.

((HUGS)))
Robyn

[geminigirl1963]

Oh, by the way - my ulcer symptoms were worse when my stomach was empty, as opposed to after eating like yours seems to be.  Obviously symptoms can vary person by person, so take that with a grain of salt.  I just realized I had never answered your inquiry as to whether your symptoms sounded like an ulcer or not.

Again, best of luck and I'll keep looking for good results being posted!

[jon309]

endosocpy showed nothing, as did the ultrasound (according to the technician). waiting on results from bloodwork and biopsy of the stomach. if these dont show something i dont know what to do next

[geminigirl1963]

I'm glad, but sorry that the endoscopy didn't show anything - glad that they didn't find something horrible, but sorry that it also didn't show definitive as to what's going on.  I hope you have better luck with getting results from the bloodwork and biopsy.

If you don't get any definitive results from those, I, also, am not sure where you should go next.  I did have a thought of possibly a hiatal hernia, but I would have thought that would have been visible on the endoscopy (not sure though, so it might be worth a question to your doc).  A Hiatal hernia can definitely cause some of the symptoms you've been having, especially if it is what they call a sliding hiatal hernia.  The way they diagnosed mine was with an upper GI series where you have to drink the nasty tasting barium stuff and then get pictures taken of your digestive tract.  Then they had me drink an even more nasty tasting bubbly type drink and took more pictures, including some laying down on my back and then on my stomach.  they could definitely see the hiatal hernia and where the "medication" they had given me was coming back up into my esophagus.  Again, mine ws diagnosed quite a few years ago, so they may have other way to diagnose them now and endoscopy could be one of them - it might be something they automatically look for, but I don't know.

did you get a chance to try the over the counter Prevacid?  If so, did you get any relief from it?  It's not a "quick fix" like a tums or rolaid would be, so you'll have to give it some time to really see if it's going to help or not.

I hope you start feeling better soon and get some results from the testing.  Keep me posted.

[jon309]

the bloodwork came back normal, still waiting on the biopsy but it will likely be normal. my internal medicine guy believes it was stress gastritis based on the fact that it started during exam week and there hasnt been anything showing up from these tests. i am somehow starting to be able to hold foods now and the pain is less, so maybe that is actually what it is. its hard to believe it could cause pain and vomiting like that though  

[jon309]

i also havent tried prevacid, and stopped prilosec and zofran (antivomiting medicine) over the last 2 days. it is so far much better than it was this weekend where i couldnt stop vomiting and could barely walk