hi everyone, this is quite literally my first time ever posting anything or Reddit ever, but I’m kinda confused and just needed a sounding board.
basically the last 10 months I had been suffering on and off with gastritis flareups and had no idea what was going on at first. I thought it was just bad gas pains, since I’d had stomach issues pretty much my entire life (lactose intolerance, sensitivity, ibs like symptoms) but as a teenager it never got too bad where I recognized a significant pattern. For context, I’m 25 now, and when I turned 22 I went through heavy phases of binge drinking on and off, but I didn’t start feeling any real effects until July 2025. and for the bottom half of that year I was getting drunk with my friends (or by myself) pretty often and the week long breaks when I was sober is usually when a flare up would happen. Obviously, now I can recognize the pattern, but before when I was drinking heavily I never would’ve guessed it was gastritis. the flareups were absolutely miserable from november to january and I was in so much pain, plus given some of my symptoms me, my mom and my aunt (nurses) thought it was my gallbladder. when I went to the doctor in January, I did a sonogram and they saw that I had stones in my gallbladder, and assumed all my pain had come from that, so I was scheduled a surgery consult. The doctor (she was both very enlightening and also condescending as hell) told me that everything she heard me describe was more like gastritis/gerd and not my gallbladder at all.
so I did the bland ass diet, cut out alcohol, started PPIS, and the last month of my life has completely changed. I started wearily introducing foods back into my diet after 2 weeks and I feel completely fine. I take my PPI and I definitely eat more intentionally (I didn’t really eat bad before) but I can have literally everything without feeling any symptoms or being woken up in the middle of the night with crippling pain and throwing up bile just to get the tiniest bit of relief.
I guess my questions are, is it really over? I know there’s not really a direct answer, but it just feels like even though I definitely went through hell, I feel like it’s naive to think that this is my life now. Should I stay on the PPIs for a long time (I don’t plan on stopping til my prescription is done) or is this too short of a time for them to have truly changed anything? I did a lot of reading and research abt other people’s experiences, and I just wanted people’s opinions I guess. I’ve been sober abt 35 days, and I don’t plan on drinking until after 3 months (I read that’s abt how long it takes to “reverse” acute alcohol related gastritis).
Other questions/context:
-before this all started I was also taking a GLP1 for months (zepbound, I have PCOS)
-before this i was taking iron, triple magnesium complex, b12, iron and calcium— when can I continue?
-I still get like slight indigestion but it’s sooooo little compared to before that it’s not even a thought in my mind. also before when I had indigestion, I had a really hard time burping and everything would stay trapped, but I don’t have that problem now.
-the only things I haven’t truly ate have been tomatoes (I’ve had chicken tikka masala, nothing happened, but no spaghetti or fresh tomatoes or anything like that), no soda in a month, and no beef (I rarely ate it before anyway, I’m a ground turkey lover).
I’m scared as shit to post this for some reason so please don’t be mean LOLOLOL I have severe medical anxiety and OCD so I’m just constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.
thanks everyone who even bother with this!!!!! it means a lot