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My son's experience

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 3:01 pm
by Worriedmom
Hi all,
I want to share my story. I am a dentist in the California, USA. My son first started complaining of pain in the tummy suddenly one night when he was 4 and a half years old. He woke up from sleep in the middle of the night saying his tummy hurt and then he vomited. I thought he had caught a stomach flu since we had been out with friends a few nights ago, but tummy aches all the time, vomiting every night (only at mid night) and gagging all day especially in the morning didn't go away. After 2 months, I asked the pediatrician to have stool and blood tests done. Stool was negative for ova and parasites and Negative for H pylori. Blood test was below the range considered positive for H pylori, but it was not zero. After this, I met with a pediatric gastroenterologist who said I should just wait a few more months because it was probably gas or constipation, but if I wanted her to, she could do an endoscope under general anesthesia. Following her recommendation I started him on Pepcid, which he took for a month. Pepcid made him stop vomiting every night, but he still had tummy aches all day and a couple times every night he would wake up with tummy aches. I read as much as I could about H pylori, and did not want my son to have general anesthesia, so I decided on my own to give him metronidazole, amoxicillin, Prevacid for 2 weeks. During treatment he still complained of tummy aches and nausea and gagged a lot, but the day after I stopped giving all the meds, he stopped saying anything of pain, never gagged or vomited for 2 years.
Then suddenly one night he vomited and said he had a tummy ache, just like 2 years before. This lasted two weeks before I realized that we had spent time with the same people before he started having symptoms as when he had gotten sick 2 years ago. I gave him the same meds and he got better just like last time. I began to fear meeting them again, but they came over a month after he had recovered from this episode, and two days after we met them, I got a call from school saying my son had a tummy ache and a 99.5 degree fever. I was very upset and didn't want to give him metronidazole again so soon, so started giving him Mastic Gum, Monolaurin, raw honey, and probiotics. These seemed to help and vomiting stopped, gagging was a lot less, but tummy aches all the time were there, but less in intensity. After 4 months, I decided to give him the metronidazole, amoxicillin, Prevacid for 2 weeks and he got better again, gained weight, and appetite. He has been well and off all meds for one year.
After he had gotten sick for the third time, I spoke to the family I suspect passes stomach infection on to my son. The oldest is 94 and she has a history of hospitalization for bleeding stomach. Since she became bed ridden and began wearing diapers 2 years ago, her caregivers say her stool has always been black and unformed. Her daughter, granddaughter, and great grand daughter live with her and complain of indigestion and take proton pump inhibitors and antacids. No doctor has ever wanted to test them for H pylori, so I suggested they stop taking all meds and get tested. They did and all their tests are negative: stool and breath. Recently, the 94 year old was again hospitalized for stomach bleed and given protonix in the hospital. The bleeding has stopped, but the doctor who did the Endoscope was unable to find a source for the bleed. After already starting her on protonix in the hospital, the doctor took a biopsy and announced it is negative for H pylori. Still no doctor has recommended antibiotics for anyone in this family.
I am interested in learning if there are any tests for other bacterias in the stomach. I also want to tell everyone that I spoke to 5 gastroenterologists about what my son went through and all of them say they would have recommended Pepcid for an unlimited time and do not believe bacteria caused any symptoms and that he just had gas or constipation. When I ask why he had no symptoms for the first 4 years of his life and then two years after antibiotics they say the same thing. One GI doctor who has a degree from Stanford said there is no such thing as h pylori. One GI doctor said it was food allergies and lactose intolerance. I say, he has no problem at all as long as there is no bug living in his stomach.
Thank you for reading,
Sarosh

Re: My son's experience

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 4:09 pm
by Helico_expert
Thanks for sharing your story. The only known bacteria that is associated with stomach disease is H. pylori. There are ways to find out what other organism is living in the stomach. But they are expensive and complicated. The results will be very hard to interpret. especially when it is an unknown organism. Sometimes, a wrong normal flora in the intestine causes IBS and antibiotics sort of reset the flora.

Re: My son's experience

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 7:46 pm
by sara736
I think what your doctor meant was scarring (via very bad ulcer). Since you are still very young, there should be no problem in your recovery. Unless you have inherited some stomach genetic disease from your parents.