Just started H. Pylori Treatment...

[Helico_scientist]

Helico_scientist,

Went to the ER on Saturday afternoon. The Doctor checked my ears and said they are fine. He just looked with some device for few seconds. They ordered a CT scan of head without contrast and it came back normal. They did other routine blood work and all of it is normal. I have an appointment with Neurologist this Thursday.

What kind of ear infections?

I don't have any hearing problems or ear related discomfort. My symptom is just lightheadedness.

Don't worry about ear infection then. It was just an option. Looks like you are in good hands

[tornado82]

Are you sure its not just allergies? Or, as I mentioned in the other post possible mold in the house? Have you ruled out something airborne? This is one of the first things I would look to when having persistent lightheadedness. You could try taking something like Zyrtec and see if it remedies the issue if you rule out everything else. Zyrtec as you may know is an allergy medicine that I know a lot of people use. Id look for mold in the house too just as a precaution. Ive heard a lot of stories of people having weird ongoing symptoms like dizziness or shortness of breath etc when their medical tests all look normal. Come to find out they had a big mold problem in their walls or attic space. Its something to consider, and you can do a lot of checking yourself. My job relvolves a lot around the real estate and housing market so I hear stories like this a lot. Anything from mold to rat or even bat infestations in a house can cause all sorts of medical issues, and it comes down to the air you're breathing.

Im still sitting on the fence about stopping my PPI. I still feel a slight sensation in my chest throughout the day even though the pain and everything is all gone. I cant quite put my finger on it. My concern with dropping the ppi would be if I had a little ulcer or sore in the esophagus that is still healing. I may take the PPI another week or two, not sure yet. I wont be taking it long term though.

I ended up getting Culturelle brand pro biotics after doing some reading. Ill see how it goes.

[newhpyloridiag]

Allergies ---- I don't have a cough or cold or running nose or breathing problems or any rashes on the skin. Don't know what are the other symptoms for allergies. Coming back to the mold, we are living in an apartment and it is new (built 2005 something) and our carpet was replaced/paint was replaced like 1 and half years ago and we try to keep everything clean and neat. We change the air filters every 6 months. I checked to see for any black mold spots but couldn't find any. We don't have any pets too.

Zyrtec - I will take for couple of days to see if things change.

HPylori -- I just gave them a stool sample as follow up test. The lab said they test them in batches. I don't know what that means, may be twice a day, once a day, a batch of 10 stool samples, don't know. May be it will be resulted by Friday.

Dizziness -- Still have it and I this is worrying me a bit now.

I have a decayed tooth, don't know if it may be causing it. Wan't to go to the Dentist but my Platelet count was only 100k (standard range 140k to 450k), so I wanted to go next month.

Its exactly 2 months now, that I have been suffering from all this issues and don't know when I will be back to Normal.


You should get of the PPI. It won't bother you, even if it did, may be a day or two. Just try and see. I was on PPI for 46 days and I was able to get off without much issues.

[tornado82]

its wierd hearing you mention the issues with being lightheaded and dizzy because as I mentioned I had a very similar issue like 3 years ago. It persisted for what I seem to remember was 2 months or so. I remember researching and reading and trying to find a solution but never was able to put my finger on it. During that same period I began closing on my first house and then moved in. My issue resolved finally right around the time I moved in. I remember even at work I couldn't look up at the ceiling or Id get instantly nauseous and feel the room start to spin a little. It worried me as well, but it went away on its own and then never returned. There are certain vitamin or mineral deficiencies that could cause you to feel lightheaded but you seem to indicate all your blood work is normal, including vitamin levels. I assume your glucose levels are all good as well, in addition to a stable blood oxygen level? If you live with someone else I guess they arent having any similar issues eh? If you are friendly with any of your neighbors in your apartment you may ask them if they have noticed any mold or had any symptoms you are having.

It could be just something with your inner ear that has your balance mechanism a little off. Anything from an infection to inflammation in a nerve. I would try not to worry so much about it. I use to have issues with dizziness and stuff a lot as a teenager, and Im all but certain it was due to my anxiety disorder which was really bad in my teens. There are a lot of things that can cause dizziness and most of them are not serious or life threatening issues. If all your tests are coming back ok, then I would look for things that wouldnt show up in those tests, which is why I suggested allergens or mold. You have no other symptoms with the lightheadedness? No shortness of breath, elevated heart rate, chills, pale skin, etc etc? I dunno man just trying to brainstorm for ya Keep us posted

[newhpyloridiag]

Thank you Tornado for brainstorming.

No other symptoms, just lightheadedness. It is little ok from this afternoon. My oxygen levels always showed 100% when I visited the hospital. I had this issue like few years back and it disappeared and it would show up every now and then and disappear, but last 4 days, it just stayed there. My wife doesn't have any symptoms and she is the only one living with me here. Checked with the neighbors and they didn't see any mold.

I haven't gotten a MRI yet. I will request the neurologist to order a MRI to see if everything is alright. and any other blood test suggestions??

Electrolytes in blood, the numbers are normal. The numbers for magnesium, b12, folic acid are normal ranges. Blood glucose is normal. Blood pressure is normal. I don't feel shortness of breath or racing heart. Like you said may be some nerve in the ear/eye or something related to the digestive track (don't know exactly how to diagnose
). If there more yeast in the digestive track, I read somewhere it can cause lightheadedness. I guess going forward, if we see any symptoms, which disappear, I guess we have to do some research to dig in to it.

Hope you are off the PPI and hope your chest is not troubling you much. Like I said earlier, your scope procedure will be fun. You wouldn't even know what happened.

[tornado82]

Yea I didnt take my PPI this morning. Some of the sensations I feel in my chest almost feel like they are in the muscles or bone in the sternum and not the esophogus, but its hard to tell. Im finding it hard to really explain it anymore. It feels similar to like a pulled muscle that has mostly mended but you can still feel a little discomfort from it when you move or contort your body in certain ways. I keep thinking it will heal on up and go away completely but this little minor discomfort is sticking around. Occasionally I do have burping and sometimes wet burps, so I may have a little reflux occuring here and there. Some days I feel like my throat is dry and a little sore. Its all fairly mild though, and somewhat inconsistent so I dont know what is going on. Ill just bide my time until the endoscopy and hopefully that will give me some answers.

[newhpyloridiag]

That is good. I guess today is your second day. How are you feeling? Regarding the chest pain, I am thinking may be a muscle inflammation, nothing more. Little acid reflux is totally normal. it can be due to the food, the timings you eat, etc.

I visited the neurologist and she did some movement tests for like 25 minutes with eyes/legs/hand/neck/head/etc with some pinging devices. She said everything is normal. To be on the safe side and for me to get some peace of mind, she ordered MRI&MRA of Brain and MRA of Neck. I schedule the imaging for Saturday 16th. She said no medications that she can prescribe are going to help. She said she usually see this in elderly people but sometimes in younger people too. She tried to explore in the depression angle, but I made myself loud and clear, like how I didn't have the need to see a Doc in last 5 years. She gave a referral to the audiology specialist.

Pylori results are not in yet.

[tornado82]

3rd day today without taking the PPI, and I actually think I feel better not taking it. I dont seem to have as much indegestion feelings and the burping has subsided. I certainly haven't had any negatives to dropping it. Feeling pretty good last 3 days, probably as good as ive felt in 6 weeks. I am taking the culturelle everyday and a multi vitamin and thats it as far as pills. Hope this continues. We will see...

[newhpyloridiag]

Good progress. This clearly means your stomach is clean/normal, without any ulcers. Even I felt better after stopping the PPI. But the same day I started Probiotic pill, so I thought that was due to Probiotics. Looks like if there is no ulcer level damage, then there is no need to take PPI for more than few weeks. Just the anti-biotics are good enough to kill the HPylori. Still waiting on the results. It was resulted on 6th and my Doc hasn't released the results yet. The result will be automatically released after 4 days. So Monday, I will have the results.

[newhpyloridiag]

Stool Test is Negative.

Component Standard Range Your Value Flag
Helicobacter Pylori Ag Negative Negative

Note: Antimicrobials, proton pump inhibitors and bismuth preparations are known to suppress H.pylori, and ingestion of these up to two weeks prior to testing may produce false-negative results. A positive result after ingesting these compounds should be considered a true positive.