2 yrs and half & counting - breath test +ve stool - ve - 3 courses failed
Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 12:48 pm
Hi guys,
30 m Egyptian here living in Sydney, Australia, my symptoms started 3 years ago with bad heart burn which drove me to ER units couple of times in Egypt till I found from gastronlogist later on its due to acid reflux, got Nexium/Zantac and followed a good diet which fixed the issue for almost a year, but something wasn't feeling right, burning sensations and burping a lot when I break diet and I'm also a smoker and addicted to coffee so thought that's the reason, moved to Australia and went to many GPs and did dozen of blood work and ultra sounds all came back normal, so I've been advised it must be acid reflux and had a chronic cough which I thought it's because of Sinusis or acid reflux, I've been described nexium over and over again and was feeling good when taking it like no symptoms at all no cough, burning sensation or burping then later on I visited Egypt and decided to do a h pylori stop test cz I read online about it, it turns out positive so I did h pylori line test which showed I got 3 strains of it but not (Cag - Vac) strains, my specialist in Egypt advised me to manage it with diet and try to better my immune system in a watch and manage strategy rather than treating cz he thought it's not very dangerous due to these strains also because he believed my symptoms were coming mainly from bad life style (smoking, coffee) rather than h pylori itself and he said everyone got it these days without even realising and it could be treated only when you have symptoms..
Anyway went back to Sydney and to my gp who advised to start treating it and said treatment is simple so took first course:
1- amxolycin/clayerthomin/ppi for 7 days
Results: 2 months later breath test and still positive (4 thousand count)
GP offered
1- amxolycin/meta something(like flagyl) /ppi for 7 days
Results:4 months later still positive on breath test but with very low count relative to last one (300)
Went to specialist who said first two courses considered first line so he'd given me 2nd line treatment:
1-levoflaxicyn /amxolcyin/ppi 10 days and asked me to see me in few months
So taken them and after 3 months (did breath test and stool test)
1- breath test positive
2- stool test negative
Repeated the same tests twice and every time stool test come back negative and breath test positive
I have no serious symptoms at all since first round of treatment, sometimes due to lifestyle I get acid reflux but I controlled it completely by taking and being on probabtics (on and off) for almost a year, also sometimes very little discomfort/burning sensation that doesn't imped me I feel it but it goes away on its own with no medications.
I have been diagnosed with chronic sinusis and severe vitamin d deficiency/did many blood work and ct scan on nose area/x rays/ultra sounds and everything else looks good
My next plan to have endoscopy with biopsy which I'm afraid from and not sure if it's nessascry
My questions :
1- how come stool test always negative and breath test always positive
2- having mild symptoms could mean ulcers/inflammation
3- is there a way to find out what's going on in stomach without invasive procedure (I just want to exclude serious stuff but not worried about h pylori cz it could be there if breath test is more accurate like doctors says)
4- I'm not resistent to antibiotics generally, why my treatment fails? I always tend to follow strict guidelines while taking it including stopping coffee/smoking and taking probabtics/manuka honey u name it..
And also general advise what should I do? Should I be very worried? I'm having general anxiety disorder(recently) not sure if related to h pylori before I was having this weird discomfort around ribs/back (might be pylori related or just vitamin d deficiency)
Let me know your opinions/share ur experiences and give me more hopes
Also does anyone knows a specialist that is very good in Sydney focused on H Pylori??
all the best
30 m Egyptian here living in Sydney, Australia, my symptoms started 3 years ago with bad heart burn which drove me to ER units couple of times in Egypt till I found from gastronlogist later on its due to acid reflux, got Nexium/Zantac and followed a good diet which fixed the issue for almost a year, but something wasn't feeling right, burning sensations and burping a lot when I break diet and I'm also a smoker and addicted to coffee so thought that's the reason, moved to Australia and went to many GPs and did dozen of blood work and ultra sounds all came back normal, so I've been advised it must be acid reflux and had a chronic cough which I thought it's because of Sinusis or acid reflux, I've been described nexium over and over again and was feeling good when taking it like no symptoms at all no cough, burning sensation or burping then later on I visited Egypt and decided to do a h pylori stop test cz I read online about it, it turns out positive so I did h pylori line test which showed I got 3 strains of it but not (Cag - Vac) strains, my specialist in Egypt advised me to manage it with diet and try to better my immune system in a watch and manage strategy rather than treating cz he thought it's not very dangerous due to these strains also because he believed my symptoms were coming mainly from bad life style (smoking, coffee) rather than h pylori itself and he said everyone got it these days without even realising and it could be treated only when you have symptoms..
Anyway went back to Sydney and to my gp who advised to start treating it and said treatment is simple so took first course:
1- amxolycin/clayerthomin/ppi for 7 days
Results: 2 months later breath test and still positive (4 thousand count)
GP offered
1- amxolycin/meta something(like flagyl) /ppi for 7 days
Results:4 months later still positive on breath test but with very low count relative to last one (300)
Went to specialist who said first two courses considered first line so he'd given me 2nd line treatment:
1-levoflaxicyn /amxolcyin/ppi 10 days and asked me to see me in few months
So taken them and after 3 months (did breath test and stool test)
1- breath test positive
2- stool test negative
Repeated the same tests twice and every time stool test come back negative and breath test positive
I have no serious symptoms at all since first round of treatment, sometimes due to lifestyle I get acid reflux but I controlled it completely by taking and being on probabtics (on and off) for almost a year, also sometimes very little discomfort/burning sensation that doesn't imped me I feel it but it goes away on its own with no medications.
I have been diagnosed with chronic sinusis and severe vitamin d deficiency/did many blood work and ct scan on nose area/x rays/ultra sounds and everything else looks good
My next plan to have endoscopy with biopsy which I'm afraid from and not sure if it's nessascry
My questions :
1- how come stool test always negative and breath test always positive
2- having mild symptoms could mean ulcers/inflammation
3- is there a way to find out what's going on in stomach without invasive procedure (I just want to exclude serious stuff but not worried about h pylori cz it could be there if breath test is more accurate like doctors says)
4- I'm not resistent to antibiotics generally, why my treatment fails? I always tend to follow strict guidelines while taking it including stopping coffee/smoking and taking probabtics/manuka honey u name it..
And also general advise what should I do? Should I be very worried? I'm having general anxiety disorder(recently) not sure if related to h pylori before I was having this weird discomfort around ribs/back (might be pylori related or just vitamin d deficiency)
Let me know your opinions/share ur experiences and give me more hopes
Also does anyone knows a specialist that is very good in Sydney focused on H Pylori??
all the best