Waking from sleep with upper abdominal pain for hours at a time

[Jeromekjerome]

Does anyone have experience of this? Any advice very welcome.

I wake from sleep with a slight discomfort, it builds and builds until I have to stand up very straight just to get a tiny bit of relief. Crouching and slow shuffling around also helps very slightly but sitting or lying down is excruciating.

It is very central breastbone based, spreads between shoulder blades, then all the way from collar bone to pelvic area and can last for 3-4 hours.

Paracetamol will allow me to get back to sleep but it wears off fairly quickly and I wake up again.

The gaviscon double action can’t help me.

This happens after exercise and only since I had to take PPIs for 3 weeks to get rid of a bad cough.

The only other time I’ve had a PPI is 3 years ago as part of H.pylori eradication along with 2 strong antibiotics.

——

(I’m female age 46) My condition:

H.pylori eradicated with antibiotics 2020 Followed by:

diagnosed with dysbiosis

IBS D/C

General gut discomfort

Fatigue

Bloating

Hunger cramps, constant hunger

liver cysts showed on CT scan but nothing else, ultra sound showed nothing

Chronic irritated ear canals, very itchy

Sleep apnea & snoring

Post nasal drip plus runny nose

Morning hacking cough

Itchy, watery eyes

Clothing causes pain if too tight around abdomen

Foods I have to avoid: dairy, soy, gluten, onion, garlic, tomato, potato, alcohol, coffee, tea, seed oils, sugar, carbonated drinks. Recently cut out eggs and mayo too.

Nothing of any use from NHS gastroenterologist or various other appointments throughout the years.

Following my CT scan I had a delayed allergic reaction to the contrast dye and was covered in painful rash from top to bottom- given steroids and antihistamine for 2 weeks- to my surprise EVERYTHING else went away too, all the symptoms listed above. Unfortunately I know that long term prednisone use is not possible. It was nice to feel normal for a few weeks till it all returned.

[grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr]

Hi - I have had success with raising the whole bed. Here's a link to more information:

opa.org.uk/how-to-relieve-a....

[Jeromekjerome in reply to grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr]

Thanks, yes, I’ve started a pillow prop situation that does seem to help.

[ParkSchool5 in reply to Jeromekjerome]

Hi, I use a Bat Wing pillow I bought from Amazon for around £15, it is softer and more comfortable than a wedge pillow and supports me sitting slightly propped up, better than trying pillows in different positions that move around. I bought two, one for home and one for holidays, nights away etc. I put a normal pillow behind it just for a bit more support. Might be worth a try.

[Jeromekjerome in reply to ParkSchool5]

Thanks.

[Rovelli]

That's a lot of things that you can't eat. What do you eat, and are you on any medicines. It's amazing that you haven't had any diagnosis or help.

[Jeromekjerome in reply to Rovelli]

Right??!! I eat rice, fish, chicken, spinach, small amounts of berries, banana, rice cakes, butternut squash, shellfish, lettuce, cucumber, carrots, parsnip, cerariac, oats and porridge, ginger tea, 1 date now and then, I just cut out eggs and mayo to avoid linoleic acid.

No medicine other than the bettervits probiotics just made an appointment with a new gastroenterologist for next Tuesday, I’ll see what he suggests.

[Rovelli in reply to Jeromekjerome]

It seems like you have what I have only worse. I think we have the laryngophageal version of gastro-oesophagal reflux disease.

[Jeromekjerome in reply to Rovelli]

That’s interesting, thanks, I looked it up. I wondered if the acid effects are getting to my teeth enamel, ears, sinuses etc

[Rovelli in reply to Jeromekjerome]

Hello, Sorry if I'm being intrusive; I've been wondering how you got on with the gastroenterolgist. Sometimes I'm good and sometimes as bad as ever.

[Jeromekjerome in reply to Rovelli]

UPDATE: it's taken me this long to get the gastroscopy! Just did it this afternoon -they found my lower esophagus sphincter was 'lax', not tight as it should be, letting acid up into my esophagus.

[Rovelli in reply to Jeromekjerome]

Thank you so much for letting me know. I bought an iqoro device. No improvement yet after 2 months.

The restrictive diet helps a lot.

[Jeromekjerome in reply to Rovelli]

Ahh sorry to hear no improvement yet. It sounded like such a promising device when I was reading up on it.

I'm just this minute ordering some slippery elm powder on the advice of people on here.

[ParkSchool5]

Hi, you could try just an anti-histamine (Cetirizine) an hour before bed, as this has helped you in the past. I have GERD and reflux so have to sleep propped up, but I have found these help for a good night's sleep and you can buy them over the counter.

[Jeromekjerome in reply to ParkSchool5]

Yes, this is what I thought, my GP prescribed 2 different types to try, unfortunately I just got the general side effects, no relief. I really thought it would work but it must have been the steroids that helped.

[BlueElla]

Hi! I also recently discovered that antihistamines relieve my abdomen pain at nights (with no remedy from traditional PPIs or other GERD-related medicines). Note that my pain isn’t as widespread as you described, it’s centralized and maybe a little to the left below my rib cage (right where my stomach sits). It also feels like it’s more deep than spreading, if that makes sense.

I’ve spoken to two gastroenterologists and they aren’t sure why the antihistamine helps. The hypothesis is that maybe there’s some kind of heightened nerve sensitivity along my GI tract. My next steps will be to follow up with an allergist. I know you mentioned that your relief may be due to the steroid, but I think there may be something there worth exploring with an allergist.

I’m definitely interested to hear if others in the forum have gotten abdominal / seemingly GERD-related relief from antihistamines or steroids and the symptoms they were dealing with prior to taking the medication.

[BlueElla in reply to BlueElla]

I meant to add: what caught my attention about this post was your mention of being woken up at night for hours at a time with strong pain. I have the exact same issue! And it only happens at night. I tried an experiment where I went to sleep completely upright (sitting position) for a few nights and the pain still showed up. I literally did not get any relief until I tried the antihistamine.

[Jaby86]

Hi I wrote a post on how I am recovering from Gerd which may help I have linked it here healthunlocked.com/opa-gord...

[Jeromekjerome]

Interesting. I’m starting to wonder if the nighttime incidents were when I took indigestion tablets or gaviscon. It hasn’t happened since I cut them out. Could ‘low acid’ be the issue?

[dinahdough]

Definitely worth investigating low acid. After everything I've read about acid reflux (and I've read plenty!) I don't really understand how anyone can have too much acid unless they have a hiatus hernia and/or don't follow all the acid reflux advice such as raising the head of your bed, don't drink alcohol/caffeine, don't eat acid foods etc. Because if you do all that and still have a problem then it has to be worth investigating low acid. I didn't really understand how low acid could cause the same kinds of symptoms but someone suggested I look at videos on YouTube by Dr Berg. They explain it and are very interesting - worth a look.

[FarflameX]

This is why it's so difficult to get help, everybody seems a bit different. I only suffer at night, but strangely, propping myself up makes it worse and trying to sleep only on my left is terrible. I actually removed pillows (back to 1 like when I was a kid) and I allow myself to sleep on my left or right and it's much better, though I still wake up with chest pain every day (been to the doctor over and over, heart has been tested many times and it's fine).

I thought that low acid may be the problem too and I'm still half convinced that it is, because mine all started when I was taking loads of antacids for heartburn. Then again, maybe I was getting the problem and the antacids just slowed down the onset. I did find early on that Betaine HCL helped quite a lot (I think it's some kind of plant extract that helps your stomach to produce acid). I've come off it now because I'm fine in the day and nothing has ever really helped with the night-time pain, other than Gaviscon Advance which helps a bit. But then I'm bouncing between more acid and less acid so I'm trying to just leave it alone.