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Diagnosed with h pylori

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 8:36 pm
by Helico123
Hey, I am 38 years old female with no history of stomach pain before. my sudden vogue, dull abdominal pain has started since last November. I can't describe how my pain looks like, before eating I feel extreme hunger pain and after eating I have a dull pain like when someone eat more than his/her capacity plus too much pressure, stomach tightness, feeling full and hiccup. I visited my go and she thought that my symptoms match to gall bladder issues, I was asked to do an upper abdomen ultrasound which was all normal. After 4 months of consistent upper abdomen pain, I did a colonoscopy and endoscopy as my gp was suspicious about h pylori infection. To make story short, My biopsy result was numerous h pylori organisms, sever superficial chronic gastritis in both antral and gastric body+ mild atrophy+ Focal intestinal metaplasia.

My dad diagnosed with stomach issue and he had resection surgery 20 years ago and he is still alive, so considering the poor prognosis of stomach cancer, I am not sure if my dad really had cancer or maybe just dysplasia. I also have Hashimoto thyroiditis which I think there could be a correlation between gastritis and Hashimoto thyroiditis.

I still do not know how I get this infection and I am kind of person who is strictly careful about hygiene. I don't remember even one night in my life that I have gone to bed without brushing my teeth or not washing my hand before and after cooking.

I just finished my antibiotic course ( nexium package+ metronidazole for a week ) with full compliance and taking all medications on time even though I had the worst side effects one could expect but I tried to finish all my medications as prescribed. After completing my antibiotic medications which is standard treatment for h pylori eradication in Australia, I started taking somac (40 mg) twice a day and sucralfate (1gr) three times per day and I was told that I need to continue taking these two for 3 months and then I will repeat breath test to check if h pylori eradication was successful or not.

I Would be highly appreciated if you could answer my questions:

1) after finishing my antibiotic, the severity, the symptoms and the frequency of my pain got much worse than before, does it mean that the infection has not been cleared?

2) my gp asked my husband to do h pylori test to minimise the risk of re-infection, but he has not done yet, but I was extremely careful about sharing food and utensils and oral transition after my diagnosis, is there any chance that my treatment has failed during this time?

3) I read many articles, addressing intestinal metaplasia and atrophy are irreversible, something make me worry is that I read that even after successful eradication of bacteria, intestinal metaplasia continue to progress but with slower pace, considering my age and the fact that IM wouldn't stop progressing, is there a high risk of further damage until I get over 50? Do I need to do frequent endoscopy?

4) how long does it take to get intestinal metaplasia? Is it possible that gastritis develops to IM in just couple of months?

5) as I said my abdominal pain got much worse after finishing my antibiotics. I did not have much nausea before taking antibiotics but now even smell of food make me sick and nauseous, occasionally I get a sharp burning sensation too, what that really means? Do I need to see my gp earlier that the time he wants to see me?

6) at the day of my endoscopy procedure, my gastrologist told me that my stomach is quite normal, is it possible that someone has a quite normal looking stomach on endoscopy and then biopsy reveals different histology?

7) based on my biopsy result, how terrible my stomach condition is?

8) what focal IM means? Is is just a single spot that has that changes?

Thanks

Re: Diagnosed with h pylori

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 11:47 pm
by Helico_expert
Usually people get infected when you are young from your mother. Usually it's because of the way you are fed by your mother.

H. pylori is a very chronic infection. People carry the infection for decades without symptom. When you are young, your healing ability is strong, you are normally asymptomatic. However, when you reach 20-40, where you are stressed with work, you might not have good sleep and healthy diet, then your healing ability got weakened and the symptoms starts.

Metaplasia usually take a very long time to form. However, it depends on individual's repair mechanism. Some metaplasia is reversible and some are not. again, that is depending on the severity of the metaplasia.

1. The recovery is depending on the damage done. Most people feel good straight away. However, some people will continue to have symptoms for weeks, months or even years. Most importantly is to have H. pylori eradicated. Only when there is no H. pylori, your stomach can start healing.

2. It's a good idea to get everyone living under the same roof to get treatment. It's not easy for adult to transmit H. pylori as adults are usually aware of the personal hygiene. Nevertheless, oral hygiene is an important factor for stopping transmission. It seems like H. pylori only present in the mouth when the person doesnt brush their teeth in the morning when they wake up.

3. Depending on the severity, some metaplasia may not be reversible. You can ask your doctor what he thinks. Actually, the only way to tell is to get another endoscopy done in a year time.

4. Good question. I dont know if months is enough for metaplasia to form. I guess it is not that easy to get metaplasia. Lots of condition has to be fulfilled before metaplasia can happen.

5. It's up to you if you want to see your GP again. But normally the GP would ask you to try some PPI or ranitidine and see if that relief your symptoms. Since you are going to do a breath test in a month time, perhaps you can try to take some ranitidine. It will not affect your breath test result.

6. It's a good sign that your gastroenterologist says that your stomach is normal. At least he cannot see any abnormality that needs immediate treatment. Yes, it is possible that the histology will reveal more information.

7. Your report sounded ok. Not bad, not good either. Because you have a bit of atrophy and metaplasia, you need to watch out. Make sure H. pylori is eradicated. Perhaps another endoscopy in one year time is not a bad idea.

8. metaplasia can be patchy. some inexperienced gastroenterologist can miss it if he did not take the right biopsy. So it's good that your gastroenterologist picked one that is positive.

Re: Diagnosed with h pylori

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2019 4:46 am
by Helico123
Thanks a lot
I wonder if vitamin c supplement might be helpful in the healing of damage?
BTW, I will do breast test in 3 months but I know many people do a months after completing the antibiotics course

Thanks for all prompt answers

Re: Diagnosed with h pylori

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2019 8:41 am
by Helico_expert
good luck to your breath test. 3 months is fine. Do keep us posted.

Re: Diagnosed with h pylori

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2019 12:56 pm
by newpylori
My story is very similar as I posted earlier. I wish helico123 good luck in healing.

One related question: after similar IM diagnosis my doctor only asked me to do another scope in 3yrs. Is that too long or you think that advise is based on observed evidence? I am 53 male. No family history of GC. My HP is gone as per the scope after a round of antibiotics.

Is it not that having cured, we get immunity for life? Like some other infections? Or the antibiotics is one time only? I'm concerned because that might mean re testing often since I have IM?

Re: Diagnosed with h pylori

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2019 2:49 pm
by Helico_expert
If you are worried, you have all the rights to get a more frequently check up.

However, depending on the severity, and the gastric cancer rate in your region, the doctor may ask for a sooner or later follow up.

Also, since there is no treatment for metaplasia, the endoscopy examination is really just to see if tumors or other abnormalities happened. The tumor or cancer would normally take a while to grow as well.

Re: Diagnosed with h pylori

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2019 3:02 pm
by Helico123
I will update my treatment journey here later and thank you so much

Re: Diagnosed with h pylori

Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 4:45 pm
by Helico123
Hi, I am going to do breath test in 3 weeks to check if my first round of treatment was successful or not. I just stopped taking somac ( pantoprazole) and sucralfate today. I am just wondering if I need to stop taking probiotic drinks too? Can probiotic give false negative too?

Re: Diagnosed with h pylori

Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 8:24 pm
by Helico_expert
you can continue probiotics. probiotics will not interfere with breath test.

Re: Diagnosed with h pylori

Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 8:31 pm
by Helico123
Hi,
As I said earlier on this post, I stopped taking ppl medication and I am going to do a breath test next week to check if I am still h pylori positive or not. While I was taking medications, my symptoms did not disappear completely but I can say that there were days that I had very mild and a durable pain lasting just a few minutes after food. However, since stopping medication last weeks, I feel a weird chemical like odour and an extremely sour taste in the mouth. I feel nauseous and I have severe headache most of the day and my stomach pain gets worse, spreading to my back and side. It makes me really terrified whenever I think that I might need the second course of antibiotics treatment as I got the worst side effects one could expect at first attempt( severe diarrhea, nausea, headache, extremely bitter taste in my mouth.
I do wonder if these symptoms ( particularly sour taste and weird odour I feel in my mouth) indicate that I am still positive?