Does this sound like a stomach ulcer?

[CandleCat]

Hello, about 6 weeks ago I suddenly had pain in my upper middle abdomen, that radiated to the back and sides and built over a few hours. Eventually I was vomiting bile and this continued for 2 days. As I’d been taking NSAIDS fairly regularly over the past year my doctor recommend I start a PPI medication and for a week or so my symptoms had totally gone, but could have been a coincidence. I remained on PPI twice a day but the symptoms came back. It varies throughout the day as a pain in the middle upper abdomen and also feel it across the ribs, upper and middle back. It’s more to the right but on both throughout the day. It doesn’t seem to matter what I eat as I’ve been only eating an anti inflammatory vegan diet the last week and no different.

Does this sound like a gastric or duodenal ulcer? Or gallstones? Or a pancreas issue?

Just wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar. I’m at a loss as to what to do to help the pain at the moment.

Thanks

[Sunita77]

Hi, CandleCat,

The symptoms you're describing are very similar to when I had gallstones. Literally whatever I ate I would feel sick. My pain would start in my upper abdominal area , then radiate to my back and in particular to the right side of my shoulder blade area. My upper right area would throb (where the gallbladder was). I was always sick but it would help to alleviate the pain. I always had regular bouts of pain which included biliary colic episodes. It also affected my bowel, as I had days when I would be constipated and then have diahorrea. I do suffer from IBS and have had a bowel obstruction which resulted in a bowel resection in the past so having gallstones made it worse again.

I would go to your GP to get it investigated further as I was told by my consultant and surgeon that once you have problems with your gallbladder abd gallstones it doesn't get any better but worse as the gallbladder becomes diseased. I had my gallbladder removed in June of this year and at the follow up appointment the surgeon explained that my gallbladder was in a very bad state due to numerous infections which had formed adhesions around it. I had a drain after surgery which I wasn't expecting as I had an infection.

I hope you get it sorted soon.

[CandleCat in reply to Sunita77]

Hello thank you for your reply.How did you find out you had gallstones?

Was the pain all throughout the day or did it come on and then go away for a few weeks?

How did the surgery go has it helped?

I hope you are feeling better now !

[Sunita77 in reply to CandleCat]

Well I had my bowel obstruction and surgery to correct it in June 2018 and I started to get pain in November. I was then referred to a colorectal rectal surgeon as I had on going health conditions and the symptoms I was having were very similar to my previous symptoms of a bowel obstruction. The consultant referred me for an ultrasound and various other ones. The technician that did the ultrasound told me there are then that I had gallstones.

Then that was when my episodes of pain became regular, as they would come and go week by week. The bouts of pain started towards the evening and lasted through the night. It was like I had an elastic band wrapped tightly around my upper abdomen. The shoulder blade and back pain were awful. I sometimes woke up with throbbing pain where my gallbladder was. Surgery went well unfortunately I had to stay in for the night with me being high risk. The episodes of pain have gone but when I eat it causes severe diarrhoea. I have a rea ction to eggs spinach, tuna and scampi so far. I use to be fine with them pre surgery.

[CandleCat in reply to Sunita77]

It sounds like a complicated situation with all that going on Mine also gets worse in the evening and night, but today I’ve had it all afternoon. Very frustrating!

Did antacids like Gaviscon help you at all?

Glad you’re surgery went well. How strange that you now react to those foods, I didn’t realise that was possible after gallstone surgery. Do they know if you’ll be able to eat them again or is it not temporary?

Hope you keep healing.

[Sunita77 in reply to CandleCat]

I was prescribed lansparazole which really helped with the abdominal pain and acid reflux. Some people suffer from severe diahorrea due to BAM (Bile acid malabsorption). I've stopped eating them because soon as I eat them I need the toilet.

Thanks. I hope you manage to get your answers soon.