How to deal with gastric symptoms after eating very spicy food?

Question

Hello doctor,

I have constipation with a stomach ache. I recently had a few meals of spicy food and I am facing the consequences for the last four to five days. The symptoms include constipation, narrowing of stools, pain in lower abdomen (especially the lower right portion towards groin), acidic irritation in the stomach, intermittent fatigue and tiredness. I have not seen any bleeding while defecating, no blood spots seen in the stool, stool color is brown, with no black specks. I am diagnosed with GERD with ulcers in the esophageal sphincter and hiatus hernia.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I am worried about the location of your pain. A right lower quadrant pain indicates appendicitis. Constipation can be well managed if there is no evidence of appendicitis. In case of appendicitis, we should be cautious to give any kind of laxatives. So before giving laxatives, we need to rule out appendicitis.

Investigations to be done:

Complete blood count.
Urine routine and microscopic examination.
Ultrasound abdomen.

If there is no evidence of appendicitis, then continue with the below-mentioned regimen:

Laxopeg (Polyethylene Glycol) two sachets once in a day.
If you have persistent hard stools despite two days of Laxopeg, then we need to do disimpaction with a higher dose of laxatives. In that case take Peglec (electrolytes powder) - one packet in two liters of water over three to four hours. After this, you will have temporary loose stools. It needs to be repeated if your bowel is not completely cleaned.
Take a normal diet.
Continue Nexpro (Esomeprazole).
In case of presence of fever, we need to think of enteric fever and start antibiotics.
If ultrasound suggests appendicitis, we may need to go ahead with surgery.

Review back with reports.