My "Gastritis" Healing Story

I was an obsessive follower of this sub from May 2021 until about October 2021. I always told myself that if I ever got better that I would come back and tell my success story... so here it is.

On April 27, 2021, I went to bed feeling completely fine. As I was trying to go to sleep, my stomach suddenly felt like it had ballooned up and that it was full of air, but I was unable to burp. I spent the next few hours trying to get into different positions to force the burp out, and I finally got to the point where I felt like I could go to sleep. The next morning, I woke up and still had that balloon feeling. That day, I could not eat more than a couple bites of food before I felt so full that I could not handle another bite. Over the next few days, I was also constipated and unable to poop at all. That weekend I went to an urgent care to get checked out. I explained my symptoms to the Dr and they took an X-ray. The Dr diagnosed me with gastritis and gave me a prescription for omeprazole and said to take it for 2 weeks. I got the medicine and immediately went searching for answers on Reddit. I read all the stories I could and people's recommendations on what to eat vs. what not to eat. I obsessed over this sub. Over the next week, I could only stomach about 700 calories a day.

My symptoms were what felt like a hard, overinflated stomach, excessive burping after eating or drinking anything (even water), nausea, stool issues, stomach pains mainly below my left rib cage, pain in the bottom of my sternum, heart palpitations, shortness of breath and I completely lost the sensation of hunger (my stomach also never growled). I stayed on a strict gluten free, lactose free, no spice, bland diet. Within a couple weeks, I went to my PCP who also said it sounded like gastritis and told me I could stay on omeprazole. She also recommended I seek out a gastroenterologist to follow up with. I eventually got an endoscopy in mid June. I had read about stopping PPI's before endoscopy, so I weened off of those prior to it.

My endoscopy results had shown erythema and erosion in the antrum compatible with erosive gastritis. Biopsies for H pylori and Celiac came back negative. Was told to take Pantoprazole for a month and I would be fine. I took one dose of pantoprazole and felt even worse.

Over the next few months, I tried just about everything. Zinc Carnosine, freshly juiced celery, probiotics, acupuncture, and eventually anti-depressants, as this whole ordeal made me spiral into extreme anxiety and depression. None of these things fixed my issues, but the anti-depressants did make me feel less anxious, which helped me to take my mind off my issues, and the acupuncture did seem to help for a bit (I was actually able to eat full meals for a few days after every session). I also did a SIBO test, which showed I had slight Hydrogen SIBO, but I didn't end up taking Rifaximin because it was just barely over the threshold. In a follow up with my gastro in October, I was diagnosed with functional dyspepsia (indigestion without cause). In November, I finally was able to accept that this might just be my normal now, so I tried my best to live as normal as possible. I started integrating foods back into my diet and went back to work.

Now, for what actually helped me... Chiropractic. I decided to go because after I was able to stop obsessing over every single sensation in my abdomen, I noticed I was also having some back pain. During my initial appointment with my Chiro, my Dr felt my back and told me that my upper middle back is extremely tight and he asked me if I have any stomach issues (I had not previously mentioned anything about my stomach). He also did a scan of my back tests for abnormalities in the temperature of your spine, which can indicate issues with different organs. My T5 - T6 vertebrae were showing moderate abnormalities. The T5 vertebrae affects your stomach, while T6 affects your pancreas. Over the next few weeks of going 3 times a week for adjustments, my symptoms began resolving. I started to "feel" my stomach again, I felt hungry for the first time in 9 months, I no longer had sensitivities to food, and I stopped burping excessively. My symptoms do sometimes come back, but I am able to feel the tightness in my back and after getting adjusted, I feel fine again.

I know that this might not help everyone, but for those who feel hopeless and feel like they have exhausted all options and still have no answers, I truly believe Chiropractic is worth a shot. It has done wonders for me and I hope and pray it helps you too. For those who are skeptic, I strongly suggest Googling "Vertebrae Subluxation Chart." The symptoms cause by misalignments in the spine can include, indigestion, nausea, and even gastritis.

tldr; chiropractic helped when nothing else did. getting adjustments and working on my posture has caused all my symptoms to disappear and I can now eat or drink anything I want again.

Edit: I can’t stress this enough. If you decide to try chiropractic, please do your research and find a good one! If they do not do a full evaluation, including an X-ray, before trying to adjust you, please find a different one. A good chiropractor can be life changing. A bad one can make you feel worse.