H Pylori. Advice Needed.

Hi Guys. I posted a seperate question with the dramatic title "My Stomach Hell" http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Gastroenterology/My-stomach-hell/show/983843 a couple of weeks ago outlining my recent Gastric problems. Well, I just got a call from the doctor's office saying my blood tested positive for H Pylori. I expect that when I go into the surgery tomorrow I will be prescribed a heavy course of antibiotics and told to go away.

Can anyone tell me what questions I should be asking the doctor regarding my illness, treatment, outcome etc?

My main concern is that a positive H Pylori result does not necessarily mean that my problems are related.

Don't a lot of healthy people carry this bacteria in their stomach?

Does a positive blood result only signify the presence of the virus or does it actually us whether the bacteria is active or not.

Thanks in advance.

p.s. I didn't ask but I'm assuming that my blood count and TSR(?) are normal. Would that ordinarily rule out more serious disorders?

[Fred9]

P.S
The problem is, even if I do have an active infection of H Pylori, I don't believe that is the cause of my symptoms. I have constipation alternating with diarrhea. I've never heard of diarrhea being associated with H pylori. Neither do I have nausea or vomitting, which seems to be a prominent H Pylori symptom.

[Matthew007]

well congrads you're going to get better..

now i'm not a total expert on this because I thought I had this a long time ago but far as I know, no h. ploryi is not supposed to be in your system at any time.  It's one rare virus that can live in the high acidic area of the stomach and eats away at the lining of the stomach.

I've heard treatment is usually the triple antibioitic therapy...usually patients will feel worse than better at first and it's SUPER important not to quit the drugs early so you don't help the virus build up a resistance to the bug.  Sometimes you have to repeat treatment.

On the symptoms..honestly they would expain it, having IBS-A (alternating) is pretty common from what i've heard..your system is having sort of a gastric distress so it's not sure what's wrong (even though it's being caused by an ulcer) your body doesn't know that so it's guarding itself..protecting in the best way it can by thinking there's an infection (there is) and it's doing it the best way it can by diarrhea...you're lucky you don't have nausea or pain yet so you caught it before it did some serious damage but what I would do is get treated, and ask the doctor if it's ok to go on fiber supplements to bring your system back to normal either during treatment or after.  Usually i'd do citrucel (non-gassy/allergenic) and start slow..it'll help get back to normal.  

I'm actually jealous.. least you got a positive test, and you'll get feeling better soon.  Normal blood tests do rule out normally cancer and other things..so I wouldn't stress too much.  If fiber fails and you test negative for h. ploryi after treatment and you're still having problems then maybe a colonoscopy or something else might be wrong but I doubt it.  Anyway, good luck on treatment...I hear it's a rough yucky week on those antibiotics.

[suela82]

Hi,
No healthy people do not carry the bacteria in their stomach. I have had my young sister diagnosed with that when she was 10 years, and they put her on antibiotics, she had it back and been 2 other times in a set of antibiotics, 3 types of medicines in the same time if i am not wrong in the age of 21 and 23. So you do not need surgery, just take the medicines as they were prescribed by the doctor.
Hope you feel better soon.
good luck

[Fred9]

Thanks guys.

Well, I'm on my last day of the triple treatment and I can't say I'm feeling much better. There's less stomach gurgling and abdominal burning but I'm putting that down to the antacid part of the treatment. I still get stomach pains soon after eating or a few hours after which eventually leads to several bouts of loose stool or watery diarrhea. I also have abdominal burning. I don't think these are typical symptoms of Pylori.

What happens after you've finished taking the treatment and you still have symptoms? Does it take a while before the gastric system settles down again or should I go straight in and tell the doc I'm not better?

[MarthaN]

I'm on my second round of the treatment for H.pylori. First time, the only symptom I still felt was the belching.. the burning was gone. Now the second time around I seem to feel worse. Started last night with a really severe stomach pain. I just don't know why this is happening to me, and to so many others.

[Fred9]

I'm sorry to hear that. I had stomach ache all night last night. Very little sleep.
How long ago was the first time you had it? Did they they test to see whether you were clear of it or not before starting the second course?

[jenny590]

hello, i have h-pylori and its no picnic, now i have other problems, make sure if your dr. gives you your prescriptions you take them and finish them don't skip any.  make sure your dr. continues with you for a follow up even after your prescriptions and you see you gastro dr. regularly every 4 to six mos.  this bacteria is very common and stay away from acidy foods for awhile.  i would get an acid free diet from your dr. even after your prescriptions and even if your feeling better.  it can spark up again, its very painful and can slow down your everyday life.  if you keep to a diet, you will be good.  also i read cranberry sauce is highly recommended for assisting in stomach discomfort.  jenny590  good luck!!!1

[Fred9]

I've since finished taking the anti-biotics and have been back to see the doc. He seems to think we've eradicated the H Pylori !! How he can make an emphatic statement like that I don't know. But he also said don't expect your stomach problems to go away just because the H Pylori is gone. I was still having symptoms and toward the end of the treatment my stomach ache was no better. But since I've stopped the anti-biotics the stomach seems to have settled down somewhat. Antibios always gave me diarrhea anyway!
So, the doc asked for a full description of my symptoms and said for now he was going to treat it as if it was IBS. I'm not going to take the IBS drugs for now and see if there's further improvement. If I'm not feeling better by the end of the month I'm going to go back and demand a breath test or similar.