Since my endoscopy last Monday, I had some weird painful cramps in the stomach area just under the breasts. Plus some oesophageal pain so I put it down to the endoscopy, the inflammation and the fact I had been without omeprazole for ages due to the test. However, it started moving to the right and after a couple of days got quite severe and gripping. Two days later I was kept awake all night by the worst pain ever on the right side of my chest and through to the back, it took my breath away and I thought it was time to see my GP in the morning as I was certain it was lung/breathing related again.
She immediately sent me to the hospital as she suspected a heart attack. She informed me that women present differently with heart attacks then men and don't always show the classic signs and symptoms. Women can often have them on the right side I was told.
Panic time!!!
After x rays, blood tests, ecg's, gall bladder check, examinations etc, I was told it was all stomach related. Gastritis and oesophageal inflammation was the cause. Now I know this can cause some bad pain but crikey, in my right shoulder blade? I remain convinced it is lung related but for now we shall listen to the doctors and see what omeprazole and steroids can do.
Hope you are all well x
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Georgie-girl
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Sorry to hear that, it must have been a truly rubbish experience. It sounds as if they asked a lot of the sensible questions, though, such as checking for MI and gall bladder problems, (which is known for causing referred pain in the right shoulder). Let's hope it is just a temporary flare of your gastritis and, most of all, that it goes away very soon
Hoping these steroids hurry up and kick in. Aches and pains wise I feel great already but they are taking a bit longer to reach the parts other meds can't reach
Gastritis can give a person some very unexpected pains - like Barnclown I, unfortunately, know! I had pains across both shoulder blades and a huge pressure in the centre of my chest. Hope you improve!
I'm sorry to read your post. What an ordeal you have been through. How stressful being told it was potentially a heart attack! I can't help you as I've never had your specific symptoms but I hope it all gets sorted out soon and your symptoms ease. Good luck, best wishes and a gentle virtual hug. Wendy
Georgie I'm so sorry I somehow completely missed this post of yours. What a horrible experience. Unfortunately I can relate.
I do have GERD. gastritis and constipation. For years I blamed my confirmed gallstones for these issues and it did seem to abate when I eliminated wheat and dairy. Then the gastritis returned with a vengeance, I had a horrible experience with Azathioprine, and an endoscopy showing GERD. My gallstones were held responsible so I finally got my GB removed but have suffered even more with GERD and gastritis since then. Now it's really bad again - feels like a rat gnawing at the very top of my abdomen - as if food and drink won't pass beyond this point. I eat to calm the hungry rat but it doesn't work. I'm on Ranitidine x 2 daily but also now taking Lansoperazole when it gets too much. Don't like PPIs much but just now I don't think I've much choice.
Not convinced my gastroscope was done properly as the surgeon was very unprofessional and I was sedated against his wishes. Photos I was shown by the ward sister can't now be found.
I think I'm going to have to ask for another to be done in my new hospital. I keep putting it off but Ido know that this whole area of our anatomy/ digestive system is so complex. I think lungs and acid reflux and gastritis are all often very closely related because acid backs up meaning that mucous can't get up so it's forced go back down, eventually affecting lungs. Could be wrong about the mechanics but I think this is the main reason why people with Sjögren's and Scleroderma sometimes get lung involvement with these diseases and Vasculitis. .
I know it hasn't damaged my lungs yet from MRI last year but I think my oesophogus is a mess so it could start to be a problem soon.
I used to think gastritis, Gerd and constipation were all just embarrassing minor conditions but I've learned the hard way that they aren't - they are all serious problems that can impact greatly on our quality of life and more besides.
Me too TT. I thought these things were a nuisance that could be easily dealt with. Boy how wrong was I?
Doctors have blamed my one gallstone for anything and everything that happens between my throat and my backside for ages and at one point even pressured me into having my gall bladder removed but I refused. I have had one attack of gall bladder pain in 10years and it feels nothing like all these other symptoms so I wasn't going to have body parts removed willy nilly on a hunch to later find I still had the problems. Plus my stone is too big to get stuck so I'm leaving it alone. Slowly now though,doctors are beginning to realise it just might not be my gall bladder.
I know the gnawing rat feeling only too well and like you, my food seems to stick at this point. I'm told this is dismotility caused by the CTD. I'm waiting on a re referral back to my gastro doc as I got lost in follow up last year.
Stick with the PPI's if you can, I don't like them much either but as you say, we don't have a lot of choice.
Georgie stick to your guns re the one large gallstone! Mine was extremely large too. But because I had been so scarily ill and hospitalised twice for a week each time from Azathioprine and because GPs all blamed cholecystitis I felt I had to get the wretched thing out so future medics could see the wood for the trees and not invent and aggressively treat rubbish such as UTI sepsis and Cholecystitis.
Like you I knew, and scanner person confirmed, that my gallstone was going knowhere and my gallbladder wasn't inflamed. But I had already put off the op twice for same reason in 15 years (only one bad attack like you too) and third time I got it done - 2015.
Blinkin' big mistake! It was so large it got stuck and furthrmore my gallbladder was tucked up into my liver so liver got temporarily damaged in the process of detaching the GB. Then I got an abscess at base of the keyhole wound and no one spotted this (despite two visits to GP and A&E) until it had turned into to full blown sepsis - so back into hospital for a fourth week in six months!
And has it helped being minus my gallbladder and stone size of a cadburrys cream egg? No not one bit apart from when I finally do tell the doctors about the severity of gastritis and Gerd they won't be able to blame cholecystitis this time! Xx
Good grief, what a nightmare! What a shame that it didn't resolve all of your horrible symptoms and problems after all of that. Must be awful to go through all that and be no better.
You are very brave though. Any kind of surgery terrifies me, another reason I wasn't having GB out but you braved it like a pro.
It's such a shame that a lot of doctors seem to clutch at whatever darn straw they can to avoid investigating us complicated and untypical patients. If it doesn't fit within their little criteria, they dismiss it as the obvious.
At least they can't do this with you anymore. Haha I bet you'll still get them saying "it's probably your Gall bladder". I'd love to be a fly on the wall when you tell them you don't have one.
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