Recently I had to make an appointment to see my doctor because I had a symptom that I just could not ignore any longer. It started out as occasional and then got so all consuming I had to do something. This symptom was extreme, deep, deep hunger, literally starvation after I ate and most severely at night when all I wanted to do was go to sleep! Because I "realized" that it's not normal to feel like I would need to eat an entire Thanksgiving dinner to quell the hunger pain I felt shortly after eating dinner I decided it was time to get checked out. The fact that I was having to eat in the evening and before bed was just slaying me, I don't want to or feel like eating after I have dinner, maybe a snack but not continual shoving food down. Of course I looked up my symptom online and saw that it could be an ulcer and because I've had an ulcer before, about 10 years ago I thought I needed to go in.
Common ulcer symptoms include:- A burning, aching pain—or a pain that feels like hunger—between the navel and the breastbone. The pain sometimes extends to the back.
- Belly pain that can last from a few minutes to a few hours and usually goes away for a while after taking an antacid or acid reducer.
- Weeks of pain that comes and goes and may alternate with pain-free periods.
- Loss of appetite and weight loss.
- Bloating or nausea after eating.
Less common but more serious symptoms of ulcers include:- Vomiting after meals.
- Vomiting blood and/or material that looks like coffee grounds.
- Black stools that look like tar, or stools that contain dark red blood.
Symptoms of ulcers in the upper small intestine (duodenal ulcers) and in the stomach (gastric ulcers) are similar, except for when pain occurs.- Pain from a duodenal ulcer may occur several hours after eating (when the stomach is empty) and may improve after eating. Pain also may wake you frequently in the middle of the night.
- Pain from a gastric ulcer may occur shortly after eating (when food is still in the stomach).
The day before I went in I bought some Prilosec. While I'm not big on medications I had tried literally everything including yoga, juicing, and other homeopathic treatments like oil of Oregano. My doctor gave me an H. Pylori blood test and said to take the Prilosec once a day for 2 weeks. And after a week my hunger pain was completely gone (YAY!) and when I called in for the test results they were negative! Yippee, because the treatment for H. Pylori includes taking a triple coctail of antibiotics and my stomach hurt just thinking of that.
So my point is that if you're having really out of the norm symptoms you should get checked out. A lot of people like me who've had CFS are so used to dealing with severe symptoms that there is nothing you can do about that they (and I) don't report them. I did this a couple of years ago when I was so miserable and in the end found out I'd had a sinus infection for at least two years. Ok my head was exploding but I was so used to burying my symptoms that I never mentioned it. And during that time I saw my GP many times reporting that I felt OK. So even if you feel there is "no point" in mentioning your symptoms you really need to get check out for anything out of the norm.
Below is the text from the illustration above fromMicroscopy: The most characteristic symptom of a peptic ulcer is pain, typically in the mid-upper region of the abdomen. This pain often takes the form of an aching, burning, or gnawing feeling and tends to vary in its intensity depending on the digestive state. Gastric ulcers generally cause the greatest pain soon after a meal is consumed, whereas duodenal ulcers are generally considered to be most painful between meals, when the stomach is empty.
Peptic Ulcer at 20x Magnification An ulcer is a lesion of the skin or mucus membrane that forms an open sore as inflamed tissue undergoes necrosis and is subsequently sloughed. The most familiar form of ulcer is the peptic ulcer, which affects approximately 10 to 15 percent of the worldwide human population. Peptic ulcers may be found anywhere within the gastrointestinal tract, but occur predominantly in the mucosa of the stomach or the duodenum, which comprises the upper portion of the small intestine. The incidence of the two main types of peptic ulcer varies significantly according to gender, region, and age.
Recently I had to make an appointment to see my doctor because I had a symptom that I just could not ignore any longer. It started out as occasional and then got so all consuming I had to do something. This symptom was extreme, deep, deep hunger, literally starvation after I ate and most severely at night when all I wanted to do was go to sleep! Because I "realized" that it's not normal to feel like I would need to eat an entire Thanksgiving dinner to quell the hunger pain I felt shortly after eating dinner I decided it was time to get checked out. The fact that I was having to eat in the evening and before bed was just slaying me, I don't want to or feel like eating after I have dinner, maybe a snack but not continual shoving food down. Of course I looked up my symptom online and saw that it could be an ulcer and because I've had an ulcer before, about 10 years ago I thought I needed to go in.
Common ulcer symptoms include:
- A burning, aching pain—or a pain that feels like hunger—between the navel and the breastbone. The pain sometimes extends to the back.
- Belly pain that can last from a few minutes to a few hours and usually goes away for a while after taking an antacid or acid reducer.
- Weeks of pain that comes and goes and may alternate with pain-free periods.
- Loss of appetite and weight loss.
- Bloating or nausea after eating.
Less common but more serious symptoms of ulcers include:- Vomiting after meals.
- Vomiting blood and/or material that looks like coffee grounds.
- Black stools that look like tar, or stools that contain dark red blood.
Symptoms of ulcers in the upper small intestine (duodenal ulcers) and in the stomach (gastric ulcers) are similar, except for when pain occurs.- Pain from a duodenal ulcer may occur several hours after eating (when the stomach is empty) and may improve after eating. Pain also may wake you frequently in the middle of the night.
- Pain from a gastric ulcer may occur shortly after eating (when food is still in the stomach).
The day before I went in I bought some Prilosec. While I'm not big on medications I had tried literally everything including yoga, juicing, and other homeopathic treatments like oil of Oregano. My doctor gave me an H. Pylori blood test and said to take the Prilosec once a day for 2 weeks. And after a week my hunger pain was completely gone (YAY!) and when I called in for the test results they were negative! Yippee, because the treatment for H. Pylori includes taking a triple coctail of antibiotics and my stomach hurt just thinking of that.So my point is that if you're having really out of the norm symptoms you should get checked out. A lot of people like me who've had CFS are so used to dealing with severe symptoms that there is nothing you can do about that they (and I) don't report them. I did this a couple of years ago when I was so miserable and in the end found out I'd had a sinus infection for at least two years. Ok my head was exploding but I was so used to burying my symptoms that I never mentioned it. And during that time I saw my GP many times reporting that I felt OK. So even if you feel there is "no point" in mentioning your symptoms you really need to get check out for anything out of the norm.
Below is the text from the illustration above fromMicroscopy:
The most characteristic symptom of a peptic ulcer is pain, typically in the mid-upper region of the abdomen. This pain often takes the form of an aching, burning, or gnawing feeling and tends to vary in its intensity depending on the digestive state. Gastric ulcers generally cause the greatest pain soon after a meal is consumed, whereas duodenal ulcers are generally considered to be most painful between meals, when the stomach is empty.
Peptic Ulcer at 20x Magnification
An ulcer is a lesion of the skin or mucus membrane that forms an open sore as inflamed tissue undergoes necrosis and is subsequently sloughed. The most familiar form of ulcer is the peptic ulcer, which affects approximately 10 to 15 percent of the worldwide human population. Peptic ulcers may be found anywhere within the gastrointestinal tract, but occur predominantly in the mucosa of the stomach or the duodenum, which comprises the upper portion of the small intestine. The incidence of the two main types of peptic ulcer varies significantly according to gender, region, and age.