Sunmountain's Log

[sunmountain]

Hi Giraffe, Thanks again for the link to Haidut's post. I hadn't read that particular one, though I'd read some others on Pepcid. I learn something new from each of his posts. What I'm trying to understand right now is the mechanism by which famotidine affects blood sugar. I understand it reduces stomach acid; how does lowering acid help to regulate blood sugar. I looked up briefly on the internet, but couldn't find a simple, mechanical explanation that I could understand.

I hope your gut is better, as well as the kidney pains.

Hi Peata, it's great to hear from you! I realize I'm having some of the same symptoms you've been through. The first question is why did you get gastritis again after you were on Pepcid? And why choose carafate and PPI, when the Pepcid had worked for you?

You say you were on Pepcid for a long time. Did you experience any low acid issues? How was your protein metabolism while on Pepcid?

I think I understand about not having food too close to bedtime. From some internet reading on gastritis, they say not to lie down after eating, presumably so it doesn't go back up. Also to raise the head while lying down.

I'm sorry to hear about the nausea. I'm not having that.

I returned home last night after a visit away and ate dinner late, probably around 8pm. Woke up around 1am with acid symptoms. Eventually ate some Jackson's potato chips and then slept. I had taken Pepcid earlier in the evening yesterday, and only one dose the whole day. I wonder if it was the late dinner, or my fresh strained OJ with baking soda which I drink a lot all day including before bed, that might have caused the symptoms.

I'm not sure what to do about the OJ. The gastritis websites say not to have it due to acidity, so I've started putting in soda. I feel the fresh OJ is critical to my ability to handle more thyroid. I'm also not sure of the effect of so much soda in addition to the pepcid.

I also coughed last night when I woke up, and had a bit sore throat this morning upon waking, and again a little coughing today. I understand from gastritis websites this could be acid entering the esophagus, which does not have a mucous lining. The endoscopy results said my esophagus and duodenum were fine. I'm worried about the acid entering the esophagus and not sure what else to do other than: up the Pepcid to 2 x day again, keep putting soda in OJ, eat earlier in the evening, anything else?

Does the OJ cause acidity even with the soda?

The GI prescribed carafate 4x daily. I decided to go with Pepcid due to aluminum in the carafate and because Pepcid helps with blood sugar. I don't know if the two have equivalent results; I know the mechanism of action is different; pepcid blocks acid while carafate neutralizes it. Is there any other coating type thing that can be taken alongside pepcid?

Coffee -- Peata, I had just gotten back to drinking coffee, but all the gastritis websites say to lay off caffeine because it opens the spincter muscle (I think?) which can cause acid reflux. I'd like to go back on it, but not sure.

My food situation is tough right now. I've been working hard on low fodmaps and finally had it working most of the time except while traveling. Now the gastritis websites target the few things I can have on the low fodmaps: OJ, coffee, aspirin. I've cut out coffee and aspirin, but can't cut out OJ or I'll be in trouble with thyroid. Due to fatty liver, I'm not sure if I should switch to a lot of sucrose or not.

 

[Giraffe]

Hi Sunmountain, I entered "histamine" and "stomach acid" in a search engine, and this was the first hit:
Histamine-producing cells in the stomach and their role in the regulation of acid secretion..

I can't claim that I understand more than 20% of it, but I grasp that less stomach acid is the result of famotidine's histamine lowering effect.

Also see here.

I do a lot of detox massage. This helps with the pains.

 

[Blossom]

A wedge pillow can help keep your head elevated at night. Here's an example: http://www.amazon.com/Removable-Microfi ... dge+pillow
I think you can find them cheaper than that one though.

 

[sunmountain]

Thanks, Giraffe. I did know that Pepcid blocks histamine. I'm just wondering how it all relates to blood sugar regulation.

BTW, I think the GI's biopsy for H. Pylori will come positive. I think that's what is behind the gastritis.

Of course, that also means that lowering stomach acid will make the H. Pylori flourish? Thrive? Make babies and multiply and burrow deeper into the stomach lining and make more holes in it?

Maybe I need to look into uridine, which also Haidut mentioned for glycogen storage.

 

[tara]

Are you eating much honey? Doesn't seem conclusively effective for eradicating heliobacter pylori, but may have some useful ameliorating effect? Manuka and some other kinds may have slightly more effect. I think honey is low FODMAPS?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3074916/

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/458834_5

 

[sunmountain]

Thanks, Blossom! I'm about to order one for $40 using amazon prime. Hopefully it will help.

Tara, you must have read my mind. I was also thinking of honey. Clover honey is low fodmaps. I will make non caffeine tea like rooibos and put the honey in it.

I'm afraid I might still deveop problems tolerating thyroid at current dosage without OJ. There's something in fresh OJ, maybe its the form of the sugar combined with whatever else, that works beautifully for me to provide fuel for thyroid. We shall see.

Today felt very acidy at work due to drinking two bottles of OJ with soda. So I will have to stop OJ for now, which is very hard to think about. Did take one pepcid after breakfast, and one just now. I ate dinner around 7pm which is the earliest, given I get home around 6 and cook.

Last night I took one cascara, and it was good. Two solid BM's today. Will take again tonight.

Went today for a 15-20 min walk. 45 min is too tiring at this time.

Also started taking 30 drops goldenseal 3x daily today. Jennifer's remedy. She says it helped her for H. Pylori. Do two weeks, then off two, then cycle.

The GI's office said it will take 3 weeks for the biopsy results. They said he took a ton of biopsies.

 

[sunmountain]

Hope no contra between pepcid and goldenseal and cascara.

 

[sunmountain]

Awake again tonight due to acid reflux. Going to get carafate in the morning.

 

[Giraffe]

I get an energy kick from freshly squeezed orange juice. Not even the best commercial OJ can compete with it. I do not need more than the juice of 1/2 - 1 orange at a time.

 

[sunmountain]

Yea, fresh OJ and bottled OJ are completely different things.

Had a crappy night with coughing. Woke up this morning with the realization that GERD started after endoscopy. Never had GERD before.

Yea, the EGD revealed the stomach ulcers and erosion, but was not having GERD prior to EGD.

I looked up "acid reflux after endoscopy" and there's not much implicating EGD other than one or two patient testimonials.

Can endoscopy damage the sphincter? If so, is it permanent?

 

[charlie]

Could possibly be from the anesthesia.

 

[sunmountain]

Thanks, Charlie. I noticed the nurses kept asking how I was doing, and they called me yesterday asking the same.

Could you explain how the anesthesia might cause GERD several days later? I didn't seem to have it in the couple of days immediately following the EGD.

thanks

 

[Blossom]

What anesthetic did you receive sunmountain?

 

[Peata]

post 98868
Hi Peata, it's great to hear from you! I realize I'm having some of the same symptoms you've been through. The first question is why did you get gastritis again after you were on Pepcid? And why choose carafate and PPI, when the Pepcid had worked for you?

You say you were on Pepcid for a long time. Did you experience any low acid issues? How was your protein metabolism while on Pepcid?

I think I understand about not having food too close to bedtime. From some internet reading on gastritis, they say not to lie down after eating, presumably so it doesn't go back up. Also to raise the head while lying down.

I'm sorry to hear about the nausea. I'm not having that.

I returned home last night after a visit away and ate dinner late, probably around 8pm. Woke up around 1am with acid symptoms. Eventually ate some Jackson's potato chips and then slept. I had taken Pepcid earlier in the evening yesterday, and only one dose the whole day. I wonder if it was the late dinner, or my fresh strained OJ with baking soda which I drink a lot all day including before bed, that might have caused the symptoms.

I'm not sure what to do about the OJ. The gastritis websites say not to have it due to acidity, so I've started putting in soda. I feel the fresh OJ is critical to my ability to handle more thyroid. I'm also not sure of the effect of so much soda in addition to the pepcid.

I also coughed last night when I woke up, and had a bit sore throat this morning upon waking, and again a little coughing today. I understand from gastritis websites this could be acid entering the esophagus, which does not have a mucous lining. The endoscopy results said my esophagus and duodenum were fine. I'm worried about the acid entering the esophagus and not sure what else to do other than: up the Pepcid to 2 x day again, keep putting soda in OJ, eat earlier in the evening, anything else?

Does the OJ cause acidity even with the soda?

The GI prescribed carafate 4x daily. I decided to go with Pepcid due to aluminum in the carafate and because Pepcid helps with blood sugar. I don't know if the two have equivalent results; I know the mechanism of action is different; pepcid blocks acid while carafate neutralizes it. Is there any other coating type thing that can be taken alongside pepcid?

Coffee -- Peata, I had just gotten back to drinking coffee, but all the gastritis websites say to lay off caffeine because it opens the spincter muscle (I think?) which can cause acid reflux. I'd like to go back on it, but not sure.

My food situation is tough right now. I've been working hard on low fodmaps and finally had it working most of the time except while traveling. Now the gastritis websites target the few things I can have on the low fodmaps: OJ, coffee, aspirin. I've cut out coffee and aspirin, but can't cut out OJ or I'll be in trouble with thyroid. Due to fatty liver, I'm not sure if I should switch to a lot of sucrose or not.

For me, what I thought were low blood sugar problems at night was really due to GI problems, I think. Eating before bed, then my body processing the food while I was trying to sleep, and then I'd wake up between 1 - 3 with either anxiety, often gasping for air. It's similar to the feeling I get when something has irritated my throat, stomach, making it hard to get air. So now I wonder if it was stomach acid. Interesting as I look back, that if I slept my my head elevated I didn't have a problem - didn't wake up gasping, heart pounding, etc. So again, the acid. Back then, I didn't think it could be stomach/acid related, just kept thinking it was blood sugar dropping.

I have only had it happen once since I adjusted my meal time around bed. I never even worry about it happening anymore. So it's worth looking into that it might be stomach/esophagus, etc related more than blood sugar.

As far as my Pepcid use, my stomach wasn't giving me too much trouble while I was on it, but it wasn't feeling great all the time either. Protein metabolism is something I didn't pay attention to. But then I had a big flare up in August after spending day with a friend, and in the evening eating and having a glass of wine. It sent me into a spiral of those awful symptoms I've described before, it lasted more than a week. Plus my stomach was just raw and burning. Pepcid just wasn't going to cut it. I went to doctor. I listened to him about not eating too close to bed. I used Carafate and Omeprazole and watched what I ate and drank. It helped a lot.

Carafate coats the stomach, especially the raw spots. I took it 2 x day, but occasionally more if needed. I know it contains aluminum, but desperate times.... I didn't even have to take the whole bottle before I felt relief. But I would take it again if I got that bad again.

As far as coffee, once my stomach healed, I haven't had a problem as long as I have food in my stomach. I use milk and sugar in it.

I think my stomach problems are around more than I realize though. I've had them pretty much my whole life to one degree or another. That's why I think the dramamine is doing me good. Yesterday after eating some cheese and grapes, I noticed my stomach was slightly burning. Even though the grapes were sweet, they were a little tart too, and this is what I felt was irritating. I started getting some bad symptoms that don't seem GI related (the ones that were a mystery to me until lately) and so I took half a Dramamine. And within half hour, I was fine. So I think it does more for me than just treat nausea symptom. It seems to treat more of them as well. Not pushing Dramamine, just saying what is helping me.

When my stomach was going through the worst time last month, I ate whatever appealed. Sometimes it was instant mashed potatoes or other bland stuff. Do you have glycine? Those have helped buffer my stomach.

Hope you get relief soon.

 

[sunmountain]

Propofol, I think I heard the nurses say. It was sedation, not anesthesia. The short-acting stuff.

 

[Blossom]

post 98995 Propofol, I think I heard the nurses say. It was sedation, not anesthesia. The short-acting stuff.

Yes, that is commonly used in procedural sedation. I would guess by now it should be out of your system. I wonder if the stress of the procedure, learning you have ulcers and waiting for the biopsy results could be stressing you out and resulting in the gerd symptoms? Hopefully it clears up soon. It sounds like you are doing all you can at this point to help your situation.

 

[sunmountain]

Hi Peata,

Yes, I think I'm also now recognizing that what I thought was blood sugar problems might have been stomach acid issues. Good to know that moving dinner earlier and elevating head helped you so much.

I did eat dinner earlier yesterday at 7 and didn't sleep till midnight, though I did lay down elevated on a bunch of pillows until I slept, and I slept with about 2 pillows. So perhaps a proper elevation with the acid pillow that will arrive tomorrow will help.

Thanks for sharing your Pepcid experience; it's very helpful. What's confusing in my case is that I had such a positive response to it starting the day after the endoscopy for a couple of days. It was just as Haidut described. But then since two days the reflux started, and Pepcid isn't working for reflux so far. I am still going to continue Pepcid for now, given it is still helping sleep minus the coughing.

Also I drank a lot fresh OJ yesterday, albeit with baking soda. I'm sure that aggravated things. I'm going off the OJ for now and will try clover honey for the carbs.

I'll try the Carafate today and for a few days. Damn the aluminum. I wish there was a way to chelate it or something. I do intensely dislike the thought of having to drink aluminum.

Good to know you can get back on the coffee. How did you know when your stomach healed?

Glad the dramamine is working for you. I have been taking glycine with tea or coffee, but I read a post I think by Haidut that glycine and taurine raise stomach acid. But I don't know if it's a lot or just a little, so that the benefits outweigh the costs. So I'm a bit unsure about the glycine right now.

A piece of good news is that my doc (mother goddess, yeah!) has called in an increase in prescription WP Thyroid which I want to try. She had originally called in like a quarter grain, and I emailed her saying I was already on cynoplus equivalient of 3/4 grain, and that I wanted to try 1/2 grain twice a day. She just called it in!

 

[sunmountain]

Thanks Blossom, that sounds very hopeful. I do hope it's just stress. I did travel via train to visit family 3 hours away the very next day after the EGD, and while there ate a lot of starch (just realized how much my traditional diet is starch based). Also two 45-min walks. Then returned Monday. So could be stress from all that too.

 

[Blossom]

post 99001 y doc (mother goddess, yeah!) has called in an increase in prescription WP Thyroid which I want to try.

YAY!!!

 

[charlie]

I would lean towards it being stress related too. I also tried to pick up walking recently, it would knock my metabolism back so I had to drop it and just stick with my relaxing strolls.