severe stomach pain accompanied by excess acid/heartburn

Dr Zeuss · Newbie Joined: 05 Feb 2008 Posts: 1

Sorry for the long post - thought it would be best to give in-depth information...

Six months ago I was prescribed Ibuprofen for a hamstring injury. Shortly after this I developed a stomach pain. I stopped taking the Ibuprofen and a couple days later the pain was gone. About a week later it came back. After a while I went to the GP who thought it might be an ulcer and prescribed Omeprazole and the pain went for about 2 weeks and then came back so they upped my doseage. After trying a number of different drugs in association with the Omeprazole (Antepsin (Sulcrafate), Ranitidine, Pecid, Metoclopramide) - the pain was still there so they switched me to Lanzaprazole which worked for about 2 days and the pain came back. Again they upped the doesage but it didn't help. I was then admitted to hospital where they did 2 x Endoscopies (which came back clear but showed a bit of inflammation in my stomach lining), a CT Scan (clear), an Ultrasound (clear). Blood tests came back fine but showed a slight sign of infection on the day I was admitted but have been clear since. This was in October. I've been in extreme pain everyday since - pain killers don't seem to help. The only thing that takes the edge off it is 2 x paracetamol taken with 2 x Tramadol which needless to say is not ideal. I came off the Lanzaprozole in November as it wasn't helping. Since then I've had insane heartburn to the point where I'm taking 6-8 Gaviscon tablets a day, regardless of my diet. Even branflakes with skimmed milk gives me heartburn. I have noticed that triggers for the pain have been fruit juice, a banana and other fruit, coca-cola - in these instances the pain has come on within minutes and very severely (obviously i now avoid these and other acidy foods). Ordinarily the pain usually comes on within 15 minutes of eating but it can happen when I haven't eaten.

My Gastroenterologist thought it could by IBS (as I was constipated but I think this has been because I'm taking 6 Tramadol a day) I take Movicol to combat the constipation and he prescribed Spasmonal as he thought my pain was caused by stomach spasms. This didn't help. I've since had a Colonsocopy - again this came back clear (but apparently a previous stool sample has indicated an inflammed bowel but they couldn't find any sign of this). I've got a small bowel x-ray tomorrow but I don't think this will show anything. I've also had 3 H.Pylori test which have come back negative.

The pain is in my upper stomach between my ribs (from where the ribcage parts in the middle, down to about an inch and a half above my belly button and when it's there it's constant and intense (not spasming) and it feels really bruised - when it's really bad my breathing becomes laboured. I don't get pain anywhere else (like my back or my shoulder-blades). I'm a 26 year old female who doesn't smoke and barely drinks alcohol (I did stop all alcohol for 2 months but when the pain continued I decided it was best for me to try get on with my life). Sorry for the super-long post but I'm just so fed up with this pain - it is seriously affecting my life - the pain killers can cause me insomnia which is horrible but unless I take them I can't get through the day or through work). I can't help feeling that the heartburn and excess acid is associated - could it be bile or gall bladder related? If anyone has got any ideas, has experienced anything similar or can offer any advice I'd be extremely grateful.

Haven't had much luck posting on other forums - hopefully this will be different. Thanks in advance... Confused

PsyChris · Posted: 02/05/08 - 09:00 Post subject:

Unfortunately your case history is pretty complicated for forums.

At any point in your pain medication process did you have to be "constantly" on pain medication?

If you are cutting down on the pain medication you are going to notice an increase in pain. If you have been self-medicating to the point that you are constantly on opiates like Tramadol your body becomes used to that and greatly lowers your pain threshold. The problem now becomes that you can not keep increasing the dosages of the pain medication. The line has to be drawn somewhere.

You did seem to hit a keynote about drinking acid based foods and liquids. You should talk to your doctor and do some research about what foods are acidotic and what foods are not.

severe stomach pain accompanied by excess acid/heartburn

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