Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

Hey, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Yesterday I saw my dentist for a pretty big abscess on my gum near my jaw. I have a broken tooth that needs to be removed under general anaesthetic and every now and then, I get an infection in it. Unfortunately, the NHS waiting list for dental work under sedation is ENORMOUSLY long. So I’ll be waiting for a while yet.

I’m allergic to a few antibiotics, so I’ve been told to take Penicillin for five days. Which is fine. I usually get a bit of diarrhoea with it, but I have IBS anyway so that’s normal. BUT. This time… I can’t get this burning sensation in my stomach to go away. I’ve tried taking it WITH food and WITHOUT food.. Doesn’t seem to matter. I have GERD, so I suppose it could be that, but it happens usually a little while after I take the stuff and can last for a few hours.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Any handy tips? It’s much appreciated.

Thank you all in advance.

#dental #DentalInfection #GERD #IBS #Antibiotic #Penicillin #Burningsensation #Advice

Hi, my name is Catfishcake. I'm here because I think I may have gastroparesis.
I’m 58, F, and was in pretty good health until the beginning of 2022. I’ve got 2 sons in their mid-20s; I had awful heartburn (GERD) through both pregnancies and it continued afterwards, but was well controlled with ranitidine and then omeprazole from 2019. Suddenly in January this year my reflux got a lot worse and I had nausea and vomiting. My Dr doubled my omeprazole but that didn’t help and I had a few miserable weeks until I was put on famotidine and referred to a gastroenterologist in March.
So far I’ve had a gastroscopy, a CT scan (abdomen and pelvis), an MRI scan, a H. Pylori test, blood tests - and these haven’t shown anything to explain my symptoms, which are:
Inability to eat very much - I am struggling to get in 1200 calories on a good day
Early satiety - I can’t remember the last time I had a normal-sized meal; my portions now are tiny
Inability to drink enough
No appetite for food
Permanent nausea, worse when I eat or drink
Feeling horribly bloated when I do eat or drink, and this lasts for several hours after eating/drinking - I can feel my stomach as a hard tense lump below the right side of my rib cage
Inability to sleep much as the nausea is worse when I lie down
Exercising is difficult with an over-full stomach (and it never feels empty) so I can’t go out walking at present
Awful constipation - I was comparing notes with my brother-in-law who is on high doses of opioids for cancer pain and I am bunged up even worse than he is.
Unintentional weight loss - which I guess isn’t surprising as I can eat so little. I’ve lost 21lb so far and it’s continuing.
I’m currently taking domperidone 10mg 3x a day - I’ve been on it for 4 weeks now. At first it seemed to be helping and I went out for some walks, and last week, when I started taking it last thing at night it helped with the sleeping. However, the last couple of nights have been bad again and I’ve only slept 3 or 4 hours.

I’m still waiting for a diagnosis; the best the gut Dr has managed so far is thinking I might have post-viral gut dysmotility. However, I haven’t had any viruses in the last few years.

If you’ve got this far, thanks for reading!
#MightyTogether #Gastroparesis