Fear of Breath Test

[annekepanneke]

Hello every one!
I am so happy I found this forum! Thanks for all the information.

A bit about me. I am a 49 yr old Dutch Canadian mother of 4, I have a loving husband and 4 pets. And I have MS complicated by a tendency for UTI's, these have a worsening effect on the MS. I also have low iron levels, Vit D and B12 deficiency.
Since a month or so I have pretty severe hair loss and one of my teeth broke off. In other words "what on earth is going on with my body?".

A bit over 3 months ago I was admitted to the hospital with nausea, and dehydration, the docs there gave me meds but didn't really take any effort in following up. I was sent home with Pantolac and went to see my physician a few weeks later as I still had some stomach issues. He sent me for a breath test. However I was told I couldn't have any antibiotics within a month of the Breath Test. A few weeks later I already had a UTI again and so I had AB. This happened again a month later. I had to cancel the test twice because of this. Now this coming Monday it's finally going to happen but....

I am afraid of the drink I need to take. Silly I know, and I feel embarrassed about it. The thing is that I have always had trouble drinking and especially thicker fluids such as the horrible Barium Drink. I start throwing up right when it touches my throat. I ten times rather have a pill or an IV or whatever, I inject daily for my MS and do it without any problem but drinking....that's a whole different story.

I asked the lab if they do the capsule test or the one with the drink and they only have the test where you drink

Is there any one who can tell me a bit about the drink experience?

Thanks!!!

[tornado82]

I havent undergone the breath test yet, likely will after I finish H. Pylori treatment. Have you considered possibly doing an Endoscope instead? H. Pylori can be diagnosed that way as well, or even through a stool test, where you would bring a small sample of stool and it is tested. The stool and breath test are both very similar in their accuracy of detection from all my research. The endoscope is another option you could discuss with your doctor, which is where they sedate you and put a little tube down your throat with a camera on it. They can go in and take little biopsies from the stomach in order to test for H. Pylori. There is of course also the blood test for H. Pylori, but it is only useful in determining if you have been infected with the bacteria in the past, If the blood test came back negative then you would be pretty sure I think that H. Pylori isnt your problem. If the H. Pylori blood antigen test came back positive you could follow up with a stool or endoscopy to verify the diagnosis as an active infection. Endoscopy may be a good thing to have done, as the Doctor can get a look inside your esophogus and stomach and perhaps learn more about what is causing your problems, as well as testing for h. pylori. Endoscopy can also see if you have any ulcers or sores in the stomach that may be caused by an h. pylori infection or other things such as NSAID's.

The point is you have a few options to be tested for H. Pylori. If you feel that the barium liquid will be very difficult for you, then tell your doctor this and suggest one of the other test options. This is my 2 cents. I am not a Dr. of course. If you tell your dr of your concerns with the barium liquid im sure they would take it from there and set you up with a different option.

[annekepanneke]

They once tried to do an endoscopie, unfortunately even while under sedation I still fought the doc and they weren't able to get the tube in. Same thing happened when they had to intubate me when I was getting emergency surgery on my arm a couple of years ago. I know I am weird.

I asked the doc for other tests but he wasn't willing to switch

[tornado82]

I need to make a correction here regarding the Urea breath test. You mentioned in your post about having to swallow the barium liquid, and I didnt pick up on it until now. You do not take barium liquid for the breath test - that is for an Upper GI series. For the breath test you will only have to swallow a capsule containing urea made from an isotope of carbon. If H. Pylori is in the stomach, the urea will be turned into carbon dioxide which finds its way into your lungs, and then a sample of your breath is taken and the isotopic carbon is checked in the exhaled carbon dioxide. Its a painless test (ive not had one, but read extensively about it) You just swallow a pill, wait a little bit, then blow into a straw or something.

The barium liquid that you mention is used to perform an Upper GI series. You swallow that glass full of liquid and then xray images are taken of your chest and abdomen. The barium liquid causes your esophagus and other areas in the digestive tract to show up much better on an x ray, so your doctor can then see these areas in much greater detail to look for abnormalities.

I have not heard of a breath test in which you drink liquid, but perhaps Helico_expert can chime in with more specifics. I guess you could make it a liquid test, but I dont see why a doctor would do that over a simple capsule. Ive always heard of the breath test being very simple - one pill and then blow into a straw thing and then u go home.

[Helico_expert]

there is no liquid form breath test at the moment. the reason it is designed as pill, is because it has to be dissolved in the stomach instead of the mouth. Some of the mouth's bacteria may utilise the urea pill if it is in liquid form. In that case, you'll get false positive result.

Then again, I think you can do blood test to tell if you had been infected with H. pylori. Perhaps you can discuss with your doctor about combining H. pylori and UTI antibiotics and to cure both diseases in the same time.

[annekepanneke]

I am sorry for the confusion. I know I am not getting a barium liquid. I used it as an example from the past.

I asked the lab, when I booked the appt., for some information regarding the test, they told me I had to drink a liquid wait an hour or so and then blow into something.
I asked if they had capsules at one of the other city labs (I live in Calgary) but they don't have any alternatives. My doctor didn't want the blood or stool test, not sure why....

Today, 3 days before the test I need to stop with the Pantolac and 24 hours before I also have to stop the Ranitidine. Also 12 hour fasting, so I have to take it on an empty and thus painful stomach....

[Helico_expert]

you may refer to this guideline to take alternative acid blocker before urea breath test.

http://www.helico.com/sites/default/fil ... ne2013.pdf

[annekepanneke]

Thanks all of you for your support!!

Somehow, after weeks, I finally feel better. I added Gravol to my arsenal and whoohooooooo, I am feeling much better.
I can finally start enjoying the summer. One of the issues with MS is that the heat can add a whole bunch of symptoms such as....nausea. So who knows how one is adding to the other??? I don't. It's complicated but I am enjoying today as is

Happy Weekend, I will keep you posted and still hope for some info on the liquid, it seems to be the Calgarian way of doing it

[newhpyloridiag]

How did the breath test go? Hope it is Negative.