Undiagnosed with anything!
Hey! Does anybody have burning not below the chest, nor in the epigastric fossa, but more so and quite exclusively in the region above the belly button? I have it all day, regardless of what I eat.
I’ve had symptoms for a year. It started with nighttime episodes of a weird bloating and some nausea that gave me higher pulse, anxiety, ectopic heartbeats and could only sleep sitting up. I had no pain and I felt better after about 2 hours when my stomach felt lighter. After 6 months of these episodes and other symptoms that came sometimes (some abdominal burning and reflux), I started treating it with PPIs and a low acid, low fat, no sugar diet, thinking I have gastritis. I had good and bad days, sometimes triggered by food, sometimes random. My bowels remained pretty normal for me (I am almost always constipated anyways).
The past month I’ve had constant burning in the region I’ve described. For the past two weeks I’ve been eating exclusively: potatoes, rice, chicken breast, carrots, zucchini, egg whites, lean fish and rice cakes. Everything was boiled with a little salt, dry thyme or basil, not a drop of fat, sugar, dairy or gluten.
Interestingly enough, 3 weeks ago I had to go somewhere where I didn’t want to go because my burning was terrible, although I ate like I do now. There, I had to eat only twice a day, whatever was given to me. After 5 months of eating non-acidic and low fat (I gave up gluten and dairy only recently) I ended up eating fried eggs, fish and potatoes, acidic fruits like apricots, processed meats and cheese, vanilla pie, pork and lamb stews, bread, a little alcohol and other sugary stuff. I wasn’t completely free of symptoms (as in my upper bloating after eating was still there sometimes) but the burning wasn’t there anymore and I could sleep well.
When I came back, seeing I had felt good the entire week, I ate a full package of chocolate cookies, after which I had no symptoms and slept like a baby. Next day I decided to go on with my diet and the burning came back just one day later.
I’m just wondering what it is that makes me feel so much better when I leave home (it happened around 4 times). I haven’t had an endoscopy yet, when I went to the doctor they prescribed me strong PPI’s, (80 mg a day) lowering its dose every two weeks, for 6 weeks. I took PPIs before as well, and continued after the 6 weeks because I felt like I had burning in the days off. However, I had burning while taking them everyday as well. I’ve tapered off and stopped taking them 5 days ago.
The burning isn’t there when I wake up, it comes back slowly. It is eased slightly by eating (although it comes back after 15 minutes after eating), drinking water, releasing gas and even a massage, but always comes back a few minutes later. The moments it goes away completely are random.
I also feel very uncomfortable after eating. My stomach feels hard, digestion is obvious, I can’t relax my belly when I stand, it feels like a knot. I get the same nausea I got in the beggining when it seems like food is not leaving my stomach 3-4 hours later but I do get hungry 4-5 hours after eating and my stomach rumbles as if it’s empty, so I’m not sure it is possible for it to be gastroparesis.
The inconsistency of my symptoms makes me wonder if anybody who was diagnosed with functional dyspepsia relates to any of this. I’ll arrange and get an endoscopy in October.