Stomach ulcer - can be thyroid related?

Hi Topolove

Bleeding in my stomach was discovered during my endoscopy to confirm Coeliac Disease. I was told if I didn’t take the PPI that it could develop into an ulcer. So I took the meds as instructed. I have to say that a lot of my digestive problems have eased since being diagnosed with Coeliac Disease, which is linked to Autoimmune Thyroiditis . During my first Coeliac Clinic visit I was told to keep a close eye on my thyroid levels. Little did I know what was in store.  My heartburn has all but gone, along with fatigue, leg pain, and my DH. Unless I’m glutened, then wham it’s back. Difficult too if thyroid levels aren’t right, because a lot of those signs are similar to my glutening signs . 

I wonder if they’ve checked you for Coeliac Disease, simple blood test to check for the antibodies , or during the endoscopy they take biopsies of your duodenum. Nothing to lose by getting it checked. Although you have to be eating gluten for at least 6 weeks  before any checks.

I do go on a bit about Coeliac Disease but it’s linked to so many other disorders now, not all digestive and research is finding new things all the time, so it’s important people are aware of it.

Anyway enough of being on my soap box, hope you find some answers,

take care of yourself 

Hi again Topolove

Forgot to say, they discovered autoimmune thyroiditis when they were investigating my thyroid cancer, as if having one autoimmune condition isn’t enough :) 

Hi Oban 17

thanks a lot for your reply! 

Sorry to hear that you had to go through this, hopefully avoiding gluten will allow you to feel better. 

I've been checked for the autoimmune celiac disease a few months ago, when they were trying to assess what I had, and the result was negative. 

I also had an autoimmune thyroiditis when I had the thyroid - I had Graves and had thyrotoxicosis, but my antybodies were fine the last time I checked. Don't know if it was the cancer to cause the autoimmune disease or viceversa, but now it shouldn't be a problem any more. But well, I know that when you have an autoimmune disease it's easier to have another one and a few of them are connected, so I'm really sorry that you're one of these cases. 

Heya Topolove, 

Sorry to hear about your ulcer, that def can't be much fun! 

There does seem to be quite a high instance of silent acid reflux in people who have had a TT. There's no official link, it's just something I've noticed being on this forum. So there's every possibility that stress, a well known cause of ulcers, coupled with silent acid reflux could have caused the ulcer. Also, because it's silent acid reflux, you often don't notice you have it as the symptoms are different to your standard reflux.

With your two PPIs, do you take them both in the morning? (I'm presuming you leave an hour between your thyroxine and them, as they're known to cause absorption issues) I was just wondering if it might be an idea to take one in the morning and one at night in case a build up of acid was what was causing the palpitations. I'm on a PPI, Lansoperazole, and I take one in the morning and one before bed because I've so much acid in my stomach!

Def a question worth asking when you see your consultant I think? 

Lass

Xx

Hi Lass! How are you? Hope you're doing fine :) 

Thanks for your answer, your comments are always so useful. So for the pills, I have to take both of them twice per day, so I'm taking them before lunch and in the evening - the GP didn't instruct me at all on this, when I asked he said that I can take them whenever, it doesn't make much difference. But I've read that they can interact with levothyroxine, so my routing now is to take levo as soon as I wake up, then I have breakfast 1 hour later (normally I just eat bread and jam, or something similar, that's it), and then I take omeprazole and raniditine before eating lunch. 

Next time I'll see the GI I'll ask them about this.

I don't have acid really, never felt that I had acidity, but had a lot of pain and feeling of having a stone in my stomach, plus a lot of other small things in the digestive system, but def not acidity :S so so so confusing! 

What I did even before seeing the GI (had to wait a long time), was to completely cut the small amount of alcolic drinks that I sometimes had, then cut coffee, all fizzy drinks (so I basically just drink filtered water), chocolate, any kind of chips, crisps, fried food and so on. And also lemon and similar, onion and garlic (I discovered by myself what kind of food was terrible for me, onion are a "Maybe" if they're cooked, garlic just kills me!). And with this, I started to feel a bit better already from the pain point of view.

Now what I noticed was that I had a lot of shortness of breath since I've started the PPIs in addition to the palpitations - tomorrow I'll go to the GP and see if they can help, maybe it's just that my doses are too high for me? I'me taking 40 of omeprazole and 300 of raniditine daily... we'll see. Or maybe there's another PPI that doesn't give me those side effects?

I think I'll also mention again my TT and previous autoimmune disease... hopefully they can suggest something to help healing the ulcer and try to avoid it coming back.

Thanks a lot for you support 

xxx

Heya, 

I'm not in a great place just now, but that's me. Lol

How did it go at the GP? Were they able to help you out with the palpitations and breathlessness? 

From what you were saying above, it sounds a little like they think you might have IBS? Do you think that's possible? If so, have you heard of the FODMAP diet? It's a mid term diet that strips back everything you eat to just things that don't irritate your stomach and gut. Then you slowly reintroduce foods one at a time to see if it causes you an issue or not. But you do it in a certain order that's been determined by doctors. Just with you talking about garlic and onions, it made me wonder. 

Also, with silent acid reflux, the silent part of the name is there because most people with it don't feel any sort of acidity. It's other symptoms that give it away, but almost never a feeling of excess acid. 

Lass

Xx