Gastritis and Diverticuler

Gastritis means an inflammation of the lining of the stomach, that causes burning or sharp pain below the breast bone, accompanied with nausea, vomiting, belching, upper abdominal bloating, loss of appetite, feeling full after eating small amounts of food.
Changes of the stomach lining due to stomach inflammation can be seen by performing upper endoscopy.
Diverticulum is a small bulging sac pushing outward from the wall of a hollow organ in the body.
Diverticulum and plural diverticula are usually located at the wall of large intestine, but, they may be present in the upper part of small intestine (ex.congenital diverticulum known as Meckel's diverticulum) and at the wall of stomach, known as gastric diverticula.
Usually, doesn't cause symptoms, but when is symptomatic, the patient can feel vague pain under the breast bone, early satiety, and sometimes may bleed resulting in vomiting blood and blood in the stool.
The stomach diverticulum can be diagnosed by performing upper endoscopy, too.
A temporary, mild throat irritation sometimes occurs after the exam.
It is an expectable side effect from this procedure.

Best wishes!
Marija

Thank you very much for the information.I have one more question if you don't mind,I just picked up my blood test results and noticed a test CA19 9 the results *5 can you explain this for me and what does an * mean on a blood test.
Thank you very much,
Mary

I just talked to the Dr.and zi don't have to worry about CA19 9 so forget about that question.But he did say I have Diverticuli and Bacteria in my stomach.If you have time can you explain this to me.Or anyone can if you know.

Thanks so much,
Mary

You can get a lot of information online and on this site, but it's more important to get it directly from your doctor because it will be specifically for you. Write down all your questions for the doctor and have him answer them--that's part of his job. Ask him what the terms mean, how serious this is, what you should do, and what he plans to do either with medication or treatment. Also ask what things you should watch out for (pain, etc) and what you should do if that happens.

Remember that your doctor is supposed to be your partner in your health care. He may be a busy man, but this is your body and your health, so you need to insist that it be a priority. The more you know, the more you can participate in making decisions regarding your health.

Can you give me a website to search.I really appreciate your time.And yes I will talk to him.Well he did explain that he wants me to continue taking Prevacid for a month then use Benefiber in the morning.He also talked about antibiotics for the next step if the prevacid doesn't work.So he did talk to me but at the time I really didn't think of asking him about the disease because of all the info.I'm sure you understand what I'm talking about ALOT of info with one phone call.

Thanks again,
Mary

Hi, Mary!

CA 19-9 is a tumor marker ( a substance found in the blood, urine, or body tissues and when elevated is indicative for different cancer or other conditions) and it is elevated primarily in patients with carcinoma of the gastro-intestinal tract.
Since it isn't sensitive (can give false positive results), and not specific (can be elevated due to different types of cancers and other conditions), its value is important when there is a constant elevation and when other tests confirm the same condition.
Benign (not cancerous) conditions where this marker can be detected in increased levels, are pancreatitis, cirrhosis, gastric ulcer (stomach ulcer), cholecystitis (inflammation of gallbladder), biliary obstruction (bile duct obstruction with gall stones), benign pulmonary disease, chronic hepatitis C and smoking.
Bacteria in stomach is Helicobacter pylori, the major cause for disease of stomach and duodenum, like gastritis, stomach ulcer, duodenal ulcer and rarely a stomach cancer.
This bacteria causes the most widespread infection in the world and most of the people have it for decades.
There is a an effective treatment to eradicate this bacterium.

Have a nice and healthy day !
Marija