I don’t like to talk about illness and stuff, always feels like pointless moaning to me. This may be a hangover from a Yorkshire upbringing, I dunno. I don’t go in for macho bullshit elsewhere in life so fuck knows why I embrace it where health is concerned.

Anyway. My stomach (or gut, or something) seems to be a bit fucked. Which worries me, as my Mum has chron’s.

Just over a year ago I woke up in the middle of the night with incredibly bad stomach pains. Never felt pain like it (and I’ve had dysentery …) It faded by the morning. A few nights later it happened again. Third time, I went to see a doctor.

The doc didn’t really make any attempt to diagnose, he just put me straight on a daily dose of omeprazole – protein pump inhibitors.

I’ve been on those for a year and mostly it works. But every now and then it doesn’t, and I get woken around two or three in the morning by hideous stomach pain, which takes until seven or eight am to fade. Maybe once a month or so.

Recently it got more frequent, and the attacks started to last longer. So I got a call with a GP and she changed me over to a different protein pump inhibitor – lansoprazole. I was warned to expect a rough two or three day changeover period.

I’m about 10 days in now and it’s getting worse. I’ve had five nights of pain just this week, and the stomach pain spreads to my back, just below the shoulderblades. Today it’s hit me in the middle of the day instead. This is new. This is a first. And it really fucking hurts. Throwing up is not usually a part of this, but this evening I’ve hurled twice.

So I’m gonna call a doctor again tomorrow and ask what’s going on with my stupid body.

Like I said, I don’t really like talking about health stuff, but ranting is satisfying so I thought I’d give it a shot for once.

Also, ouch.

Now clearly I'm no doctor, but it does sound to me that someone should actually be checking your body out to find out what's going on in there, rather than just giving you pills for a very long period of time that haven't exactly cured the problem.

Yeah, that’s what I’d like to happen, but I’m not into pressuring NHS staff who are already trying to help.

The locum GP who changed my medication suggested that a test might be the next step if these tablets didn’t help.

poprock wrote:

Yeah, that’s what I’d like to happen, but I’m not into pressuring NHS staff who are already trying to help. The locum GP who changed my medication suggested that a test might be the next step if these tablets didn’t help.

I'd say as a bare minimum you need an H. Pylori test if they haven't done that already - though to be honest I'd seriously consider an endoscopy (camera to have a look at your stomach) given that your symptoms are no longer controlled with omeprazole.

There are various other things I'd consider depending on more of the story (a blood test, or a stool test for instance).

Endoscopies can be a little difficult to access at present because of Covid restrictions, but they definitely should be investigating further.  (Let me know if they don't...)

Sorry to hear that poppo, get better.

Sorry pop, that sound awful:( Glad they did the tests for you, get better soon. I'd be freaking the fuck out so don't apologise for talking about it.

I've been feeling weirdly shit for a few months, am expecting it's allergies to something being inside all day (maybe the cat? dust?) and after finally talking to GP they put me on a steroid nose spray and said it might take over 2 weeks to clear. Post nasal drip, leading to a sore throat I have to clear every few seconds. Have lost my voice a couple of times now.

2 weeks up tomorrow and I don't feel much better really, maybe I should call back by Friday... It's not the end of the world but I do notice it in the back of my throat all day and sometimes it feels a little difficult to breath (maybe because I'm trying to breath through my nose).

poprock wrote:

I’ve had bloods, ECG and a chest X-ray and nothing has been found.

I probably should have explained a bit more there. The good news was that a hell of a lot of nasty possibilities were quickly ruled out. I’ve no infections of any sort. My heart’s okay. My kidneys, liver and pancreas are fine. Etc etc. The A&E staff were super-efficient.

But this abdominal/stomach pain that usually clears up in under three hours stuck around for more than 12 hours instead and fucking crippled me. Not a pleasant experience. Once it faded away I just went to sleep and missed an entire workday.

nick_md wrote:

Was gonna say, in the States they can bill you for it right? So makes sense to up-sell that sweet segmented back check.

I guess that’s why vets are happy to do it over here, too. All goes into that itemised billing.

I tell you what though, it must be lovely to know exactly what you’re allergic to and need to avoid, instead of roughly guessing based on experience.

poprock wrote:

tin_robot wrote:

I'd say as a bare minimum you need an H. Pylori test if they haven't done that already - though to be honest I'd seriously consider an endoscopy (camera to have a look at your stomach) given that your symptoms are no longer controlled with omeprazole.  There are various other things I'd consider depending on more of the story (a blood test, or a stool test for instance). Endoscopies can be a little difficult to access at present because of Covid restrictions, but they definitely should be investigating further.  (Let me know if they don't...)

Thought I should give you an update Tin, after you were kind enough to weigh in. My GP (well, a temp GP at my local practice) has given me some targeted painkillers (Buscopan) and booked me for an ultrasound scan. She’s 90% convinced I have gall stones or another gallbladder problem. Decided to avoid an H. Pylori test because that would require taking me off lansoprazole for six weeks, and she considered that it’s significantly more likely to be gallbladder problems anyway. She actually doubled my daily dose of lansoprazole instead. If she’s wrong, and the ultrasound is all clear, then we try an H. Pylori test next.

Sounds like a fair plan - I was thinking from the description that it was more stomach related, but gallstones make a degree of sense - especially if the pain's intermittent (and I appreciate it was already severe).  US should certainly help answer the gallstone question.  If I were you I'd follow a diet on the assumption you have gallstones for now at least.  (Basically, avoid fat like the plague.)  Avoiding triggers often renders the stones asymptomatic.

Doubling the PPI sounds like she's at least hedging her bets a little that your stomach could be the culprit, so definitely right to revisit if things don't settle.  (I hasten to add, hedging her bets whilst finding out the facts is a perfectly reasonable approach - if she'd doubled and done nothing else I'd have worried...)

Hopefully it all settles with diet +/- buscopan.  Feel free to give me a nudge if I can help.

While eating i find my breathing is weird, feels like its hard to breathe in. After eating i have this sensation of mucus being in my throat that doesnt go away if i spit or swallow. Both are irritating. From googling the closest thing i can find is reflux, specifically Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR). It's been going on for about 6 months. (I had covid real bad in March, i had long covid pretty bad for like 4 months afterwards) this is the only thing that lingers. It would be great if it was just long covid and also gradually went away but it's been a bloody long time now. I'm doing a lot better than a lot of people on the Facebook long covid group but still, its annoying. I'm using PPI's and gaviscon and all that jazz, maybe it helps.. a bit. Doctors don't seem overly concerned because i'm not dying in a ditch.

That sounds similar to what SG had a while ago. I think he controlled it a lot by eating earlier in the evening and watching his diet a bit.

I’m doing alright, thanks. I reckon (only a reckon, not a diagnosis from anyone) that my nasty episode was a gall stone travelling from one place to another. Since that pain slowly faded away I’ve had nothing else. I’ve cut my meds down to just one lansoprazole capsule every morning.

Thanks, i'm mostly eating between 10am and 6pm which is a big change for me, i used to eat 9am to 10pm.

I've noticed it doesnt happen as much when im eating with other people, maybe i eat slower?

If there was particular foods i could avoid i'd be happy to but i cant work out what, I can eat the same thing on two different days and get different results.

Found it, looks good, thank you

Stress?

Have you been keeping up with your exercise routine? You normally do a fair amount don't you?