My story of H. Pylori treatment

[wsn12345]

I have been diagnosed with H.Pylori this Apr. My major symptom is that my stomach/abdomen feels heavily bloated and I felt my energy level was decreasing. I used to be much more energetic maybe 1 or 2 years ago. I also feel anxiety.

After H.Pylori was detected, I was immediately prescribed with the 2 weeks of prevpack followed by 30 days of Omeprazole. So far, I have almost finished most of the Omerprazole but I am not satisfied wtih the result. Here's what I observed during the course of the treatment (from Apr 2013):

Pros:
- From taking the 2-week prev-pack, my stomach/abdomen feels much less bloated. There's much less air/gas being produced, although it is not consistently good all the time. I would say more than 50% of the time it feels very good.
- Anxiety problem significantly relieved. (btw, I read that I should eat B-12 & D to relieve Anxiety since H.Pylori eat B-12?)

Cons:
- Depression from taking omeprazole. I sometimes even wonder why I'm living in a pointless life...
- I felt weak and fear to cold (even though the temperature is OK) and got fever during the period that I took the medicine. I also felt significant joint pain at least once during fever. Before taking the medicines, I believe I was quite healthy and exercise regularly.
- If I eat oily or chilly food (or even beef and fish), the abdomen still feels heavily bloated even now. (show pics I took) Inflammation of the stomach? Should take probiotic to recover the stomach?
- Very easy to get tired (with bad memory). Short of oxygen feeling. Not as energetic as before. I also have to mention that before taking the medicine, I felt that my energy level was decreasing since mid-2012, likely when H. Pylori started to have serious effect on me (energy is drained by H. Pylori??)

Some observations:
- I now have very regular stools every morning (half an hour after I go to work). Should I do stool test? Seems no blood, but I can't say for sure.
- If I exercise, even walking, the air will gradually flow out through burping and I feel less bloated.
- I I eat very plain food, it seems that the stomach will be less bloated. However, it still remains to be seen to what extent it helps.
- I don't have strong evidence, but I somehow feel even drinking water can cause my stomach to bloat.
- Sometimes feel sensitive sternum.

Next step:
- Check the existence of H. Pylori.
- Monitor the stomach (bloatness)?
- How long would it take to feel less bloated?

I'm quite desperate and I feel I'm living a very unhappy life right now...What can I do?

[Helico_expert]

I'll wait for other members to share their experience with you. Mean while, checking the existence of H. pylori in your stomach is the right thing to do. Perhaps you can request for a breath test instead of a stool test?

Second thought, omeprazole reduces the acid in your stomach. usually 30 days of omeprazole is for patients with ulcer. when ulcer forms, there is no protective layer against the acid, that's why you feel the pain. it takes about 30 days for the ulcer to heal when there is no acid. however, the ulcer will not heal with the presence of H. pylori. so it is critical to eradicate H. pylori for ulcer patients.

in addition, because stomach is acidic, it was once thought impossible for bacteria to grow there, until the discovery of H. pylori. To date, it is still the only known organism that can persistently survive in the acidic stomach. but the story quickly changed when you took omeprazole. your stomach is no longer acidic and any organism can grow.

So, I think your stomach problem could be
A. H. pylori not eradicated
B. Caused by other organism that is living in a non acidic stomach
C. All of above.

Solution to
A. can be easily checked by doing breath or stool test. if positive, take another set of antibiotics.
B. stopping Omeprazole should return the stomach acidic condition

PS: breath test can only be done with an acidic stomach. so do it after 2 weeks of stopping Omeprazole.

[wsn12345]

Thanks for the reply. I just visited my primary care doctor again today. Here's what she told me:

She said the standard treatment plan is to take 2 weeks of prevpack and then followed by 3 months of Omeprazole/Nexium. Since I almost finished taking the 30 days of Omeprazole now. That means I am only less than half way through the treatment now... Based on my reactions (e.g., depression and weakness), she suggested me to switch to Nexium. I asked her why do I have to take so these acid repressing medicines without knowing that I am have ulcers or not. She told me I need them because H. Pylori itself will cause a lot of acid. That's why I need to take Omeprazole/Nexium to suppress acid. I'm still not really sure why I need to take them for 3 months... BTW, there's a number on my chart -- 2.06 which indicates how badly H. Pylori has infected me, I believe. The normal range is [0, 0.8] as annotated near it.

For rechecking the existence of H. Pylori, she said I need to wait for a while to do so. She referred me to a gastroenterologist for further inspections and decide when I should recheck.I really want to get better soon. My current life quality is so bad I'm not even enjoying it any more. Hopefully switching to Nexium will alleviate the depression and the bloatness feeling. Or maybe that just takes time to heal?

[Helico_expert]

you probably need a second opinion on the omeprazole you are taking.

I dont think H. pylori make a lot of acid or any acid. H. pylori is specialised in neuralizing acid. that's their secret to survive in the acidic stomach.

I am not sure what the number 2.06 means. Nevertheless, the number of H. pylori in the stomach does not correlate with disease outcome. So you dont have to worry to much about how heavily infected you are with H. pylori. You just need to focus on A) you are infected. B) you not infected.

if A) get treatment

if B) find the alternative source of your problem.

[wsn12345]

Some update:

I visited a gastriologist and told him about my problems. He suggested that I stop taking Omerazole, which I already did for a few days. I have scheduled the endoscopy in two weeks from now. Meanwhile, I was taking probiotics and vitamin B12 which made me feel much better. My two main problems were: bloatness in stomach and overall weakness. The bloatness slowly went away after 2 weeks of stopping Omerazole (and taking probiotics and B12). The weakness situation is improved immediately after a few days of the change. However, I feel I'm still not at my best in terms of energy level. I will try to resume exercise (yes, I stopped exercising after the treatment cause I was too weak) and continue to take B12 to see if that helps.

[Helico_expert]

looks like you are seeing the right person now. let's wait till you have your endoscopy report.