My H. Pylori saga

[Antelope01]

Hi Helico,
This is my first post after browsing various sites and forums to read about H. Pylori and see what everyone else might be experiencing with this dreadful bug.
For almost 2 years prior to visiting my GP about them, I was having on and off symptoms of indigestion, nausea, burping and bloating which I had put down to perimemopuse / hormones, since they seemed to go and come every few weeks or so and came on mainly during the night with hot flushes. As time went on, the nausea and burping became more frequent. I would wake up gulping with nausea and sweats, and frequented the toilet to pee. I was not having stomach pains, just felt like severe hunger pangs which felt better after I'd eaten.
Finally, last December I decided to see my GP. Had a battery of blood tests which were all normal (thank God), so I requested a test for H.P and lo and behold it came back positive. Was put on triple therapy - metronidazole, clarithromycin and lansoprazol for one week, stopped taking coffee/caffeine beverages, chocolate, citrus and acidic fruits like tomatoes etc, Then my nightmares began! The meds made me feel sick everyday during the time I was taking them. While the nausea and bloating had pretty much subsided, I developed different symptoms. I was and still burping and started having terrible acid reflux. I could have actually feel the stomach acid spewing up my aesophagus to my throat, which literally burnt my throat sore and caused hoarseness. Went back to my GP after a month, who said that the antibiotics are quite potent and was given another month of PPI, but GP said he was not going to request a retest. Took the month's worth of PPI to no avail, so another visit and GP who then switched to ranitidine and referred me to GI for an endoscopy. Took ranitidine for 3 weeks as prescribed, but not much better. Before knowing when my appointment would come up, I was just willing to try anything just to get some ease, so read up on the internet about mastic gum and decided to give that a try. Bought the capsules and took 500mg a day for a few weeks, but not much relief.
What is really worrying me is that I have lost quite a bit of weight after treatment, although I am eating normally and even more than I used to.
Also feel like I have either developed haemorrhoids or the acid has caused fissures, which causes pain and soreness when I go to the toilet, and blood tinged tissue when I wipe, or rather (it is what I think). All this has caused me to have anxiety and restless nights, where I would wake up with hot flashes and sweats, and sometimes palpitations. While I never had diarrhoea, my stools were not firm and they were like dark green. So I decided to take some probiotic supplements, which caused my stools to firm up, but harsh on my bottom and increased bowel movements, so decided to stop EVERYTHING until my endoscopy which is in a couple of weeks time.
I am so worried sick and miserable that all I do now is pray to God and hope that there is nothing sisister going on in my system, that this misery will soon be over, and that I will feel healthy and normal again.

I would appreciate any advice or to know if anyone else has had similar experiences, especially if they had weight loss and reflux after treatment. It would be somewhat reassuring, as you can imagine how worried I am about the effects of HP and what it can lead to.

[Helico_expert]

i want to assure you that your symptoms are common and not harmful.

H. pylori has the ability to suppress acid secretion. So when H. pylori is eradicated, the pressure is released and the acid secretion just go straight up. Hence the reflux.

Your doctor did the right thing by giving you PPI and ranitidine for a month and so. But he should have given you the follow up breath test to find out if your H. pylori is eradicated. Only when H. pylori is truly eradicated, then you have a chance of getting back to normal. Otherwise, you are just wasting time waiting for something that will never happen.

So, go for the endoscopy, ask for rapid urease test and histology. You'll know if you are still infected.

[Antelope01]

Hi Helico,

Thank you for your response and reassurance.

I must say that while my GP didn't repeat HP test, he did say that the test can be done on a biopsy sample taken during the endoscopy. So, guess that further treatment or not, will depend on findings of the endoscopy. Drs here in the U.K are usually reluctant to give too many antibiotics unless absolutely necessary.

My big worry is that I started losing weight after the treatment even though I am not being sick and am eating normally, apart from cutting out coffee/caffeine beverages, chocolate, hot spices and citrus fruit as advised by GP. Is this very unusual, or have you come across HP sufferers who had similar experiences?

Thanks for your patience and for this forum, as it creates a space where members/viewers can speak about our issues and share our experiences with each other, which is very reassuring and helpful.

A

[Helico_expert]

Usually after the HP eradication, patients have better appetite and gain weight. Of course, there are cases where it can be the opposite. As long as your BMI is still within the healthy range, there is nothing to worry about.

[tzj]

Symptoms often depend on the strain of H Pylori and the location of colonisation you have. Sometimes it can be atrophic, ie., less acid in the stomach due to the H.Pylori being corpus in nature. Or, it could be located in the atrum (bottom) of stomach causing duodenal ulcers.

Here's what I think has happened. You took the triple therapy and it did not cure your H.Pylori. If it was eradicated, you should feel better very quickly especially while being on PPIs. Are you sure the combination you were given is Metro/Clarith/Lanso? This is a very uncommon combination due to antibiotic resistances.

Assuming you were compliant and took all as instructed and on time, the probability of recovery is around 70-85% depending on literature for 10-14 day treatments. 7 day therapies often have sub 70% and sometimes even 50% success rates. If you do not feel better, then it is very likely the H Pylori has not been eradicated and your strain is resistant to Clarithromycin. H Pylori can have 100% resistance to Clarith and very high but not complete resistance to Metro. You should have been on Amoxicillin instead along with Clarith for a 7 day therapy.

The endoscopy will be telling, but it is overwhelmingly likely they will put you on triple therapy again. It is overwhelming unlikely you have adenocarnima or other more insidious problems such as intestinal metaplasis given what you've told us here. Let's hope for the best.

Insist to your GP how bad your symptoms are. It is very possible to test for H Pylori even when you're on PPIs in the UK or just finished therapy treatment. Plenty of patients come back positive. Yes it might be false negative, but it -cannot- be a false positive.

Keep us updated.