GASTRITIS SYMPTOMS

• The stomach lining can be examined with an endoscope, a thin probe with a tiny camera on the end that can be inserted into your stomach.
• You may have very severe gastritis when your stomach is viewed but have no symptoms.
• You may have severe gastritis symptoms but only minor changes in your stomach lining.
• Elderly people in particular have a much higher likelihood of developing painless stomach damage. They may have no symptoms at all (no nausea, no vomiting, no pain) until they are suddenly taken ill with internal bleeding.

In people who have gastritis symptoms, pain or discomfort in the upper abdomen is the most common.

• The pain is usually in the upper central portion of your abdomen (the "pit" of your stomach).
• You also can feel gastritis pain in the left upper portion of your abdomen and in your back. The pain seems to "go right straight through" a person as it travels from your belly to your back.
• People often use the terms burning, aching, gnawing, or sore to describe the pain. Usually, you feel a vague sense of discomfort, but the pain may be sharp, stabbing, or cutting.

Other symptoms of gastritis include the following:

• Belching: Belching usually either doesn't relieve the pain or relieves it only briefly.
• Nausea and vomiting: The vomit may be clear, green or yellow, blood-streaked, or completely bloody, depending on the severity of the stomach inflammation.
• Bloating
• Feeling of fullness or burning in the upper part of the belly

In more severe gastritis, you may have bleeding inside the stomach. Any of the following symptoms can be seen as well as those already mentioned.

• Pallor, sweating, and rapid (or "racing") heart beat.
• Feeling faint or short of breath
• Chest pain or severe stomach pain
• Vomiting large amounts of blood
• Bloody bowel movements or dark, sticky, very foul-smelling bowel movements

Any or all of these symptoms can occur suddenly. This is particularly true in persons older than 65 years.