Alcohol Risks of drinking with gastritis

[Mycophile]

Ok,

So I've been having stomach aches daily for a couple months, but they are rarely severe, they just cause me a lot of problems in the bathroom and unusual aches throughout different parts of my stomach and diaharea...problems I wish would go away...but they aren't life threatening.

I already knew that it was caused by drinking a lot of alcohol, taking Alieve the day after for head aches which is bad on the stomach, and being the retarded caffeine addict I am, drinking about 4-6 cups of coffee a day.

I saw my doctor and got a blood test.

He said my liver enzymes are just one point above the normal range...which to a doctor means "abnormal" but which to a drinker I think probably means "just slightly bad, I'm not going to die so there's nothing to worry about" LOL.

His nurse was the one who told me the numbers on the phone, she sounded unconcerned and said "if you just stop drinking for a while the numbers will go down, they are higher than they should be but they are not that high, certainly in no way life threatening or indicative of liver disease".

So that to me means "I don't actually have liver problems...I just drink too much".

But my doctor said he thought I had gastritis, especially from taking Alieve the day after drinking and prescribed my Prilosec and told me to see a endocrinologist/stomach specialist.

My doctor told me not to drink for a few weeks while on the Prilosec, and I've been on it for 12 days and only drank twice....one night I had one glass of wine and felt fine the next day...the other time I had two glasses and felt pretty bad the next day so I haven't drank since and will not be drinking or taking Alieve till I finish my prilosec prescription in 2 1/2 weeks.

The "weird stomach pains" that I'd never had prior to about 2 months ago have now gone away on the prilosec...but I still get daily diaherrea and nausea every morning...which I've been getting on and off for YEARS because of the ridiculous amount of coffee I drink.

I think it is time to switch to tea...or half and half...to reduce stomach issues.


Long story short: I saw the endocrinologist and he told me not to drink for a month and to drink less coffee but didn't think it was worth taking an endocscopy, he just said "you are poisoning your body so stop and it will get better".

However....my yearly 2 week vacation is coming up....coincidentally....in two weeks around the time I finish up my prilosec prescritpion....and every year on my vacation I drink a lot and smoke a lot of weed...and of course I want to do it again this year.

I was honest with my primary doctor that I thought I'd do this and he said (knowing my addictive personality) "well, if you don't drink on the prilosec for a few weeks the stomach aches will probably go away but that doesn't mean they won't come back if you start drinking again aftewards, which you probably will...."



My question is: AFTER I have finished my prilosec prescription in two weeks, and not Drank AT ALL or taken ANY alieve during this period and maybe cut down on my coffee...if my stomach is feeling somewhat better but not perfect.....what are the dangers of getting shitfaced drunk maybe...say....5 or 6 times over a 2 week period and occassionally taking 2 alieves to deal with the headache....then abruptly stopping the alcohol altogether afterwards for a few months and getting on a strict diet?

This is my plan...and we are all addicts so we know the deal: I am obviously trying to get away with whatever I can.

My idea is obviously to: 1) make the stomach problems a little better by listening to my doctor for 2 more weeks then.....2) NOT listening to him for 2 weeks hoping that I can get away with 4-6 nights of heavy drinking, then 3) stopping altogether just in time to "have my cake...and eat it too" and prevent any long term serious stomach damage.

I figure that the endocronolgist would have asked for an endoscopy if he suspected SERIOUS issues, my blood work only shows slightly elevated liver enzymes but my liver isn't the issue:


If I go through with this plan....do you guys think it's likely I could cause myself SERIOUS long lasting intestinal problems, like really bad bleeding ulcers, stomach bleeding...or even worse shit??

What if I try to listen to my body and plan on having a few nights on and off throughout my vacation where I get drunk.....but then stop if I am experiencing really serious stomach pains??

Would the damage already be done?

There was in fact, one time about 3 years ago when I went on a worse drinking binging than I plan on going on this time, and it led to one day where i had REALLY severe burning stomach pains all day which only went away after drinking lots of milk and water for about 3 hours...but eventually they totally went away...but if I HADN'T done that...I can only imagine what would have happend...I was told to do that by a nurse...

I don't want to have to be completely sober for my only 2 week vacation that I get yearly....then just have to go back to work without getting to have had any fucking fun at all...but I'm not going to permanently destroy my stomach, intestines and other organs so that I can have 5 or 6 nights of drinking.

Any replies would be appreciated.

 

[Benwise]

Your stomach will probably hurt again. There's probably more going on than the endocrinologist cared to discover and just dont bother taking alieve or aleive or whatever.. just smoke weed during your hangover or don't drink if you can't handle it.

I say this because I drink 4-7 times a week with friends just to get hammered and have fun and I wake up to two cups of coffee, and 2-3 energy drinks throughout the day and dont have stomach pains. There's probably something funky going on with your stomach /GI

 

[Mycophile]

Your stomach will probably hurt again. There's probably more going on than the endocrinologist cared to discover and just dont bother taking alieve or aleive or whatever.. just smoke weed during your hangover or don't drink if you can't handle it.

I say this because I drink 4-7 times a week with friends just to get hammered and have fun and I wake up to two cups of coffee, and 2-3 energy drinks throughout the day and dont have stomach pains. There's probably something funky going on with your stomach /GI

Why do you say that there's more going on than Gastritis?

That's what both the endocrinologist and primary doctor think that it probably is and it is probably what most would consider "something funky going on with my stomach and GI".

If that's NOT what it is, whatever it is didn't show up on a blood test.

Just because you drink as much or more alcohol and coffee than me and HAVEN'T had this happen doesn't mean much, because everything like this is a case by case basis, and you probably do not have Gastritis either since you don't have stomach pains.

I also probably have IBS that I have never been treated for by the way.

This all actually started several months ago when I was prescirbed daily Alieve to make inflammation go down after a knee surgery and it irritated my stomach.

But these unusual stomach pains BEYOND the diarrhea i've been getting for years ARE MOSTLY responding to the Prilosec and I'm only 12 days in to a 30 day cycle so it may help solve the issue.

I could not take Alieve and instead take Tylenol or smoke weed for headaches yeah.

And the assumption that my stomach will probably hurt again is obviously a good one lol.

But the question is can I get away with 5 or 6 nights of drinking AFTER using up the prilosec without doing PERMANENT damage to my GI??

This GI doctor is also known to be very good, he has helped family members of mine who have had stomach issues and comes highly recommended as a specialist.

 

[Mycophile]

Another question: If you are tearing up your stomach lining with alcohol and drugs, as I clearly am...can it fully heal or can it get to a point that is beyond repair?

 

[Cliffy78]

I have chronic pancreatitis from drinking and all those symptoms u mentioned are also indicative of pancreatitis. Not saying this is what u have but the symptoms are the same. It doesn't show up on blood tests sometimes. One day your enzymes could be normal the next your amalyse and lipase could be 500x what they should be. Just be very careful when tempting fate. Your body is trying to tell you something when you have pain, I didn't listen and I'll be paying for the rest of my life. Don't want to see u do the same. Take care and be safe...

 

[Mycophile]

I have chronic pancreatitis from drinking and all those symptoms u mentioned are also indicative of pancreatitis. Not saying this is what u have but the symptoms are the same. It doesn't show up on blood tests sometimes. One day your enzymes could be normal the next your amalyse and lipase could be 500x what they should be. Just be very careful when tempting fate. Your body is trying to tell you something when you have pain, I didn't listen and I'll be paying for the rest of my life. Don't want to see u do the same. Take care and be safe...

Shit this really worries me.

Of course, the thing is that I know for a fact that a lot of my stomach problems are also caused by excessive coffee consumption because of how acidic it is and how it causes diaherra, as well as using Alieve, so unless those also cause pancreatitis that probably isn't what I have but I don't know.

I mean, I would think if my doctors were concerned enough they'd have done an endoscopy, and they didn't.

So is your pancreatitis something that will NEVER go away as long as you live?

Are you NEVER able to drink alcohol now?

Is your life going to be significantly shortened?

If the answer to any of those is true, especially the last one, then I am really sorry and I'd be pretty scared of it myself....but that being said, both doctors didn't mention that, both thought it was gastritis so I'm guessing it probably is.

How much and how often did you drink before you got pancreatitis and how bad did your stomach pain get before you got it??

 

[Mycophile]

^^^^

I just looked it up and pancreatitis also causes "losing weight without trying" and that doesn't happen to me, does it happen to you?

Also, it says "upper abdominal pain often radiating to the back"...does that happen to you?

Mine is more all around in different areas at different times, but a little more lower than upper I'd say, at least today.

And do you feel worse after eating?

Cause I don't and that's a symptom of acute pancrititis, though not the chronic form.

 

[Cliffy78]

Acute and chronic are 2 different animals. You don't always have symptoms and different symptoms come and go for most people. I'm in a support group for people with pancreatitis and everyone see to experience it differently.
I'm an extreme case and I have most symptoms all of the time but I drank more than most people in a shorter amount of time. I also abused MDMA more than anyone I've ever heard of and that really damaged my organs as well so it's impossible to judge using me as a reference.
Some people are 5'3 200lbs with pancreatitis, others like me are 5'7 105lbs, cause for some it's more advanced and there's more pain after eating.
I only brought it up cause u had early symptoms, most don't have all the symptoms and never think to get theme selves tested, even getting blood tests really don't tell u the whole story sometimes.
It's always a possibility when your abusing alcohol and u had symptoms, that the only reason I brought it up.
I had never heard of pancreatitis until one morning I was frozen in pain. I rationalized my drinking much like you do in your post.
All I'm saying is you just never know so be very careful. Some diseases don't show on blood tests and your in at high risk for it...

 

[Mycophile]

^^^^

Thanks, and really I am very sorry to hear your story and hope you get better if that's possible.

However, at the same I'm not sure that I'm "at high risk for it" simply because I drink.

I might not drink as much as you did, and I've never taken MDMA.

You didn't really tell me how much you drank so I don't know how to compare us either.

However, I doubt I have what you are talking about since I took a blood test and saw two doctors.

I know you say that it doesn't always show up on blood tests, but with someone who's a hypochondriac like me you basically just gave me a reason to freak out lol...when in fact almost every single time I freak about something like this it ends up not being a big deal.

If my doctors told me not to worry, which they did, then I think I shouldn't.

However, I know I should listen to them and not drink for a while...and that's going to be very hard for me.

It wouldn't be hard if I didn't have a 2 week vacation coming up...otherwise it would actually only be kind of annoying...but because I was planning on really having fun and drinking and smoking weed...that will make it difficult.

I don't know what I'm going to do yet....but I DO know that there's no sense in freaking out...which is what I do when I'm told about things like this.

It's not your fault though, you didn't know I was a basket case worry-wart LOL.

 

[weekend addiction]

Use other drugs for a while. I can't recommend what drugs to use but go to erowid.org and start reading. There are all kinds of wonderful drugs out there besides booze. I have a sensitive stomach and if it wasn't for other drugs I would probably have some serious health issues.

 

[Tpchan85]

Well I know a fair bit about this having given myself esophagitis with alcohol, smoking and oral ethylphenidate use (who knew swallowing a caustic chemical could cause inflammation). There is something you can try that GPs don't mention if you have 2 weeks to spare and are determined - a gastritis diet. Most GPs will give you a PPI like prilosec and send you away without telling you diet has the most bearing on gastritis. Basically in the next 2 weeks eat a bland alkaline diet (google gastritis diet to find what works), continue to take the prilosec and maybe some supplements like DGL licorice and most definitely avoid alcohol, apparently cabbage juice works wonders (you have to be really, really determined to drink that stuff though). You should be able to get rid of or reduce your gastritis to a point where you can drink again.

If the pain isn't gone or at least reduced by that then it may not be gastritis so I would suggest you absolutely don't drink until you have a better idea.

 

[Mycophile]

Well I know a fair bit about this having given myself esophagitis with alcohol, smoking and oral ethylphenidate use (who knew swallowing a caustic chemical could cause inflammation). There is something you can try that GPs don't mention if you have 2 weeks to spare and are determined - a gastritis diet. Most GPs will give you a PPI like prilosec and send you away without telling you diet has the most bearing on gastritis. Basically in the next 2 weeks eat a bland alkaline diet (google gastritis diet to find what works), continue to take the prilosec and maybe some supplements like DGL licorice and most definitely avoid alcohol, apparently cabbage juice works wonders (you have to be really, really determined to drink that stuff though). You should be able to get rid of or reduce your gastritis to a point where you can drink again.

If the pain isn't gone or at least reduced by that then it may not be gastritis so I would suggest you absolutely don't drink until you have a better idea.

Ok, I might try this, but what if I eat normally and the aches are gone in two weeks from the Prilosec anyway?

Can I drink a few nights then?

I actually haven't had a lot of the same aches that I was getting before I was on the prilosec, though I am still having certain issues.

And assuming that it IS gastritis what's the worst thing that could happen if I got drunk a few times?

 

[Tpchan85]

Ok, I might try this, but what if I eat normally and the aches are gone in two weeks from the Prilosec anyway?

Can I drink a few nights then?

I actually haven't had a lot of the same aches that I was getting before I was on the prilosec, though I am still having certain issues.

And assuming that it IS gastritis what's the worst thing that could happen if I got drunk a few times?

You can try but if the aches come back then stop. Drinking with gastritis will likely do nothing but there's a chance you could develop an ulcer and then you'd be in 10 times the pain.

 

[Mycophile]

You can try but if the aches come back then stop. Drinking with gastritis will likely do nothing but there's a chance you could develop an ulcer and then you'd be in 10 times the pain.

Ok, so I looked up "gastritis diet" like you suggested and there seems to be two trains of thought:

1 is a MUCH more strict diet that I simply don't want to do and I doubt I should need to do it, where the first 3 days you eat nothing but liquid fruit in a blender or fruit juices, then you like progress to whole fruits for a few days, then I think fruit and vegetables and grains for a few days and finally meat.

I don't see the reason to go that far.

But another gastritis diet simply suggested using common sense and avoiding acidic, heavy and spicy food.

This would be easy for me and is what I am going to try, and already today it seems to be helping.

Like, I drink WAY too much coffee, usually a minimum of 4 cups a day which irritates my stomach.

So today I had 2 cups of tea to replace 2 of the cups of coffee, and another 2 cups of coffee, and stuck to bland food, Yogurt, fruit, turkey breast without any additives and no fiber pills or vitamins like I normally take which can be hard on my stomach....and so far I feel like 5 times better than I did yesterday so it seems to be working.

Do you think if I just stick to this kind of diet with the Prilosec for another 2 weeks and avoid alcohol, Alieve and over consumption of coffee like suggested that I could make the Gastritis go away if that's and then maybe be able to drink alcohol in a couple weeks, or do you really think I have to go the whole "nothing but fruit juice for days" route?

I don't want to do that and don't see why it should be necessary for my stomach to heal if avoid heavy, spicy and acidic foods.

 

[Tpchan85]

I followed the diet here http://www.patient.co.uk/forums/discuss/how-i-cured-my-gastritis-185914 only a little less strict than his. My inflammation was mild so after about 4 days the pain went away. Basically I would eat porridge for breakfast, soup and bread for lunch and rice + chicken + vegetables without any sauce for dinner. Lots of bananas and melons in between. It's very boring and hard to get enough calories but definitely worth a try. If I were you I would stick to it for the full 2 weeks and then just enjoy your holiday. I avoided caffeine altogether, even tea I could sense was giving me trouble.

 

[Mycophile]

I followed the diet here http://www.patient.co.uk/forums/discuss/how-i-cured-my-gastritis-185914 only a little less strict than his. My inflammation was mild so after about 4 days the pain went away. Basically I would eat porridge for breakfast, soup and bread for lunch and rice + chicken + vegetables without any sauce for dinner. Lots of bananas and melons in between. It's very boring and hard to get enough calories but definitely worth a try. If I were you I would stick to it for the full 2 weeks and then just enjoy your holiday. I avoided caffeine altogether, even tea I could sense was giving me trouble.

Ok, but one thing I DON'T understand is the recommendation not to drink milk because it increases acid.

For me, milk has been HELPING more than anything else to help with my discomfort and once when I had a fairly serious stomach problem which might have been something else (not sure what it was but my stomach burned VERY BAD and it was also from too much drinking and eating crappy food) a nurse told me to drink lots of milk and water all day and that ALONE got rid of the issue so milk CAN'T be THAT bad.

So far, whenever my stomach is uncomfortable I drink some milk and it soothes it in mere minutes so I kind of doubt I am only treating a symptom but will somehow make myself worse by drinking milk in the long term.

I was told by a nurse that milk can help with certain types of stomach discomfort because it lines the stomach, and so does Yogurt.

Plus I always thought Milk was a BASE and NOT an acid?

Both these have helped me so why should I avoid them??

Also, I can't do without SOME form of caffeine cause I am too addicted.

I switched to half tea and half coffee today instead of my usual freaking 4 cups of coffee...and felt MUCH better for it.

The tea was only VERY mildly irritating at most, and a little milk to chase it, like I said, COMPLETELY solved that problem.

I've stuck to a mild diet all day (Yogurt, almonds, bluberries and strawberries w/ tea for breakfest, plain turkey breast for lunch, fish and canned peas for dinner...and milk throughout the day, and feel MUCH better for it.

Seems like other than the milk and tea I am following that diet basically doesn't it??

 

[liftedgift]

You might find pure caffeine powder to help you. I bought 400 grams of caffeine for VERY cheap, that's the equivalent of 2,500 cups of coffee.

I still drink coffee occasionally as I like the taste sometimes. But the powder feels "cleaner" than regular caffeinated drinks for me for some reason and gives no discomfort. It does taste a little bitter but I barely use any water as its just a few very small scoops you need in a glass.

 

[T. Calderone]

Cliffy makes a few good points. You have been suffering for a long time, and I am surprised that you have not been referred to a gastroenterologist yet. I'm over 50 and have had problems with stomach and diarrhea for more than twenty years. I've had two endoscopies and colonoscopies since then, and they just showed GIRD and IBS. I drank on and off but not excessively. One thing I noticed was while taking Prilosec the diarrhea got worse.

I'm an alcoholic and recently spent a couple bad years drinking every day, not just binging. Now my liver's cirrhotic, have hepatitis c from drug use and scrambling to get treatment for this. You might think by reading my liver enzyme results, I should be a walking dead woman. If you are hell bent on getting high during your vacation, can you just drink light beer, have a glass of water in between and smoke weed? I can't suggest what's the best high (only you know that)

One thing that I believe helped my liver enzymes stay lower was taking milk thistle before I drank. What I would do if your symptoms don't improve is get another opinion. I noticed the loose bowels completely stopped when I quit drinking. You didn't mention your age or how long you've been binge drinking. Whatever you decide to do, moderation is my best suggestion.

 

[tunesey]

I had a blood vessel poking into my stomach that burst I was puking blood everywhere I thought I was a gonna. I went to my doctor cos every time I eat a mouth full of food it hurt I was only 30 and a big drinker. I ended up in the ICU very poorly and put into an induced coma for 3 weeks on top of that I contracted MRSA. Well I pulled through and when you are in a coma you still dream so I did not know what was real or not. I had 3 operations had to have a tube in my throat to breath as I kept trying to pull the breathing tube out of my mouth. I discharged myself once I was out of danger cos I could not eat hospital food.