Stinging back pain after eating... and nothing else?!

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FriendlyPete

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I'm 21. After a surgery I was given some pain meRAB. It caused some GI problems - one day I had McDonalRAB and I had tons of heartburn and chest pain. Doc said GERD. The pain spread across my ribcage and I was given a PPI. After 5 weeks I felt better and stopped it, taking DGL instead.

A month later the pain came back, but different - it was only in my BACK this time, between my shoulder blades, stinging suddenly 1-6 hours after eating. I could soothe it with Gaviscon. The pain got bad, so I started the PPI for 12 weeks again, thinking I didn't fully heal. After stopping this time I was good for 2 months and then the "back-stinging" came back.

Why do I not have any other GERD symptoms like heartburn, difficulty swallowing, regurgitation, etc? All I have is this stinging occasional back pain. What is it?
 
In my case, I did have GERD, but when this back pain started, it was something new. After a few bad attacks of it, and a few tests later, it turned out to be gall bladder, with more than a few gall stones. I wasn't happy I had to have surgery, but it did turn out it solved the problem. Hope this helps.
 
Pete:

GERD is a weird disorder that affects young and old alike. What you experience is a phenomenon called "referred pain" where the pain originates in one area but is experienced in another part of the body. It applies to reflux and other types of pain as well.

When I was first diagnosed with GERD, I only had heartburn. That was it. My symptoms went away after I tried the third PPI and I was encouraged to stay on the medication as I was told GERD tenRAB to be chronic, and symptoms may recede but then return.

I recently decided to get off the PPI, being concerned about bone loss (I am menopausal) and calcium malabsorption. It's been seven weeks off the PPI and I still have all sorts of GI symptoms I did not have before the PPI. I am not sure what is being caused by the original GERD and what might be related to PPI withdrawal.

If your GERD symptoms are mild and come and go, you may try using a less potent type of medication, such as an H2 antagonist like Pepcid or Zantag. They may control your symptoms well and you may not have to take the PPI's long term. The H2 blockers are not as effective as the PPI's but are older drugs and we know more about side effects, particularly about taking them long term.

You may also see if you can control your reflux by changes in your diet. You mention these symptoms returned when you went to McDonalRAB. Coffee, carbonated drinks and alcohol are all bad for reflux.

I can't imagine having had to worry about this when I was twenty one and running around a college campus. It is hard to eat a healthy, balanced or bland diet when you are young and on the run.

Rose
 
Thank you very much for the responses, Rose & HuffnPuff. I greatly appreciate your replies.

One 75mg Zantac after dinner definitely works quite well, so I'll stick with that right now. My only worry is that it says I shouldn't use it for more than 14 days, which seems to indicate that it's not meant for long term use.

A weird thing that I noticed is that in each of the places where the stinging pain occurs, there is a small bump, pimple sized. I'm thinking this is just because I often rub that area when the pain happens - but still weird.

Again, thanks for the helpful replies.
 
I asked my doctor about the "do not use for more than fourteen days" deal since many of us have been taking these types of medicines for years. My doctor said that symptoms of GERD can indicate many things, including stomach cancer for some people. If the OTC medication works and masks the symptoms of serious underlying disease, then you might not be diagnosed on time to save your life. Therefore, it is a way for the makers of all this OTC medication to limit or eliminate their liability if someone takes OTC meRAB and enRAB up not being diagnosed in time because the medicine masked the underlying disease.

I think the answer is that you can safely take these medicines for weeks and years if you really need them. If your symptoms do not go away or you have to continue taking them long term, then it might be a good idea to go to a gastro doctor to have a baseline endoscopy and make sure you have GERD and nothing else.

I honestly don't think you have to worry about stomach cancer, but you may want to follow up with your family doctor at some point to make sure you don't have, for example, an ulcer and not just simple GERD (If there is such a thing).

Zantac, Tagamet, Axid and Pepcid are H2 antagonists and they have been around for a long, long time (over thirty years). It is great if they control your symptoms and, at twenty one, you may be able to eventually go off them completely.

Iam glad to hear Zantac is providing you with relief.

Rose
 
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