Can H.P contaminate food by saliva and then survive in a refrigerator?
Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 10:38 am
Hello. I ask here because I don't know who to go for this. I won't see my doctor until a few weeks have passed and this is killing me (figuratively speaking, but it's past 4 AM and I genuinely haven't been able to sleep thinking about it). Here's the long story, though it can be skipped up to the tl;Dr:
I was diagnosed with H.P the 9th of September with a stool test. Got a endoscopy ten days later, the 19th of September, to see the extent of the possible damage and get biopsies. This was because several of my relatives, both in my mother and in my father's families, have been affected by digestive/breast cancer. This includes my father, who is nowadays fighting gastric cancer. The doctor considered needed that I got an endoscopy once the stool test came back positive for H.P and I complained of great pain, acid, and bad digestion in general. After the endoscopy, my parents I went with were informed while I was still sedated of the meds I had to take for the next two weeks, told to make an appointment in two months, and that was it. Not much else, really. I would have asked myself a few things, but alas... I was asleep. I didn't know something like that would happen. But what's done it's done, I guess.
And so, I've followed the treatment up until the 1th of October, that consisted of amoxicillin, clarithromycin, and metronidazole, plus a PPI (omeprazole) and probiotics for two weeks (these latter ones that I'm still taking). I'm now waiting for the two weeks window so I can get tested again, and learn if I got rid of the bacteria or not.
Honestly, these weeks have been the absolute worst I've ever been physically speaking, specially during treatment (it was lighter both before and after). Diarrhea, headache, stomachache, chest pain, back pain, throat pain, bone pain, heartburns/reflux (just like, a ton of acid-related stuff), metallic taste, lack of apetite, being unable to hold something inside my body that weren't tiny bits of things like potatoes/rice, insomnia (and really messed up nightmares if I managed to sleep), palpitations, nausea, vomiting, cold sweat, fever, bloating, candidiasis, dizziness, absolute exhaustion up to the point of being barely able to move from the bed... A lot of things, really. I've even had hallucinations, I kept hearing and seeing things that weren't there while in bed, which made me fear I was going insane. So I'm really crossing fingers waiting for it to end here.
And the thing is, I still am not sure how this kind of thing gets transmited. I keep reading and I keep finding contradicting information. In the first place, I am someone who has almost never ate out in his life, and no one else in the household was infected (we all took the tools test just in case). It's very odd because we all eat basically the same things, too. I have no idea from where I got this hellish bacteria. Which leads me to the next question, and what is making me write this at 4 AM.
There was (is) this ice cream in a cup I began eating shortly before taking the treatment (so when I was already infected) that I left in the refrigerator at -18ºC (like 0ºF? I don't understand Farenheit, I'm not american, English isn't even my native language) and I tried eating earlier in the afternoon. I've been feeling a bit better some days after treatment, even able to have more nutritional meals (albeit still light and portioned) so I took a spoon just like I've been doing with other foods I was unable to put in my stomach during the treatment and for some time before it, to evaluate the reaction. Sometimes I'm lucky, others not really. It was only when I had already gulped down that sugar-sized spoon of icecream when I remembered. I had looked it up before in the printed etiquette to know if it was still edible, but I just didn't notice that one detail.
Did I mess up this whole thing? Have I re-infected myself now? Will I have to go under treatment again? Should I throw into the trash this icecream and anything I might have been eating/touching before treatment?
Thank you for reading and (I hope) answering.
tl;Dr I'm not sure how do you get H.P and no one gave me any instructions either. Was eating some icecream before beginning the treatment (lasting two weeks) when I was already infected. Left it in the refrigerator at -18ºC/0ºF for more than two weeks due to worsening synthomps and later the treatment making my entire digestive system a mess. Took a spoon of said icecream today in the afternoon, few days after ending the treatment, when I'm not with antibiotics anymore. Did I mess up and re-infected myself?
I was diagnosed with H.P the 9th of September with a stool test. Got a endoscopy ten days later, the 19th of September, to see the extent of the possible damage and get biopsies. This was because several of my relatives, both in my mother and in my father's families, have been affected by digestive/breast cancer. This includes my father, who is nowadays fighting gastric cancer. The doctor considered needed that I got an endoscopy once the stool test came back positive for H.P and I complained of great pain, acid, and bad digestion in general. After the endoscopy, my parents I went with were informed while I was still sedated of the meds I had to take for the next two weeks, told to make an appointment in two months, and that was it. Not much else, really. I would have asked myself a few things, but alas... I was asleep. I didn't know something like that would happen. But what's done it's done, I guess.
And so, I've followed the treatment up until the 1th of October, that consisted of amoxicillin, clarithromycin, and metronidazole, plus a PPI (omeprazole) and probiotics for two weeks (these latter ones that I'm still taking). I'm now waiting for the two weeks window so I can get tested again, and learn if I got rid of the bacteria or not.
Honestly, these weeks have been the absolute worst I've ever been physically speaking, specially during treatment (it was lighter both before and after). Diarrhea, headache, stomachache, chest pain, back pain, throat pain, bone pain, heartburns/reflux (just like, a ton of acid-related stuff), metallic taste, lack of apetite, being unable to hold something inside my body that weren't tiny bits of things like potatoes/rice, insomnia (and really messed up nightmares if I managed to sleep), palpitations, nausea, vomiting, cold sweat, fever, bloating, candidiasis, dizziness, absolute exhaustion up to the point of being barely able to move from the bed... A lot of things, really. I've even had hallucinations, I kept hearing and seeing things that weren't there while in bed, which made me fear I was going insane. So I'm really crossing fingers waiting for it to end here.
And the thing is, I still am not sure how this kind of thing gets transmited. I keep reading and I keep finding contradicting information. In the first place, I am someone who has almost never ate out in his life, and no one else in the household was infected (we all took the tools test just in case). It's very odd because we all eat basically the same things, too. I have no idea from where I got this hellish bacteria. Which leads me to the next question, and what is making me write this at 4 AM.
There was (is) this ice cream in a cup I began eating shortly before taking the treatment (so when I was already infected) that I left in the refrigerator at -18ºC (like 0ºF? I don't understand Farenheit, I'm not american, English isn't even my native language) and I tried eating earlier in the afternoon. I've been feeling a bit better some days after treatment, even able to have more nutritional meals (albeit still light and portioned) so I took a spoon just like I've been doing with other foods I was unable to put in my stomach during the treatment and for some time before it, to evaluate the reaction. Sometimes I'm lucky, others not really. It was only when I had already gulped down that sugar-sized spoon of icecream when I remembered. I had looked it up before in the printed etiquette to know if it was still edible, but I just didn't notice that one detail.
Did I mess up this whole thing? Have I re-infected myself now? Will I have to go under treatment again? Should I throw into the trash this icecream and anything I might have been eating/touching before treatment?
Thank you for reading and (I hope) answering.
tl;Dr I'm not sure how do you get H.P and no one gave me any instructions either. Was eating some icecream before beginning the treatment (lasting two weeks) when I was already infected. Left it in the refrigerator at -18ºC/0ºF for more than two weeks due to worsening synthomps and later the treatment making my entire digestive system a mess. Took a spoon of said icecream today in the afternoon, few days after ending the treatment, when I'm not with antibiotics anymore. Did I mess up and re-infected myself?