Help with upper stomach bloating, shortness of breath - possible ulcer or alcohol related?

[Matt90619]

Hi there,

I have been having some issues for about a year with upper stomach bloating & chronic burping from deep in my stomach (feels like its right at the top of my stomach coming up through the esophagus) that has at times causes shortness of breath and the sensation at night that I need to sleep on my side to get a full breath. At times I've had to contort my body in order to burp and feel relief in my stomach. Just recently I started to feel to occassionally get a sharp pain in an area that feels like my pancreas or just above the stomach.

I am a 27 year old male in good physical shape. I work out about 5 times a week and have a healthy diet. However, I have been a fairly big drinker up until recently (usually drink 2-3 times a week, often very heavily on weekends). After looking into some of my syptoms I got very scared that that my issues could be liver related and leading to a serious condition so I have heavily cut down my drinking but my syptoms have remained failry steady. I feel heavy bloating in my stomach at all times and very very tight around my diaphraph (that part of my chest seems to start almost concave when I inhale). The bloating in the lower part of my stomach seems to be getting worse and its very tight even after barely eating and working out all week. At times it times it had taken a very long time for my food to make it down to my stomach (and it is NOT the feeling that the food is stuck in my esophogus but rather after that point that it sits there above the stomach and at times I've burped and had food come up 10- 30 minutes after eating a meal).

In addtion, the tightness in my stomach and chest has at times caused me to feel lightheaded and feel pressure in my head when trying to get a full breath. This also may or may not be related but up until recently I was having a major issue with a chronic nose bleed in one of my nostrils that could not be solved by an ear nose and throat specialist as of yet. I've noticed that I've tended to have bleeds even more when I am hacing issues in my abdomen and chest and pushing to get a deep breath. I can literally feel the blood pressure in my head and its caused nose bleeds multiple times!

My main worry is that I could have a very serious condition such as cirrohsis, etc from alcohol abuse, but I've been told I'm just being paranoid about that given my age and history. I also had an ulcer when I was a child that was treated and fixed with medication but I've read that this may also be a reason for my symtoms. I read that there can be many reasons for increased gas in the stomach, including the various causes of dyspepsia - such as ulcers, inflammation of the upper digestive tract, or GERD. Would it be possible to have an ulcer come back again or a new ulcer emerge? I had an ulcer when I was 7 years old that was treated and never had symtoms again until the past year!

What could these symptoms be and what kind of tests would be availalble to see what my issues are and what treatments might be available? Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Greg1990]

Hey, Matt.
Have you get better after all these years? Because I have almost the same symptons...

[patient915]

Welcome to the gastroenterology community!  First off, I doubt that this is anything serious that you need to be overly concerned about.  However, I do believe that you should see a doctor about this to get checked out.  I would recommend some basic blood tests and maybe more advanced testing if those come back negative.  The doctor could also try you on different medications to see if those helped your problems.  It is possible that a new ulcer has emerged, but this is not something to be overly concerned about.  Do you know if they ever figured out why you had the ulcer when you were 7?  Another thing you could try would be to eliminate 100% of all lactose from your diet for 2 weeks to see if this helps.