Helicobacter Forums

Hi all; here is my story:

I'm originally from Spain but I've been living in the United States since 2007. I'm male, 27, 5.6 ft high, and I weight 149 lbs. My grandmother died of gastric cancer at age 70. No one else in my family has had similar diseases.

Symptoms (in order of impact): burning pain in my stomach, mild nausea, reflux, burping, bloating. I've had these symptoms for 10 months.

September 2014: For years, I've experienced diarrhea, stress, and brief episodes of anxiety. Overall I'm healthy, physically and mentally. My GI doctor in Spain told me I had IBS after doing blood work and taking stool tests.

February 2015: I was given antibiotics for two STI's I got. These were ceftriaxone, azithromycin, and doxycycline. Eventually the STI's got away.

March 2015: I started developing mild nausea. I had blood work done (amylase checked out, no anemia, all good).

April 2015: My GI doctor in the U.S. diagnosed my with H. Pylori infection via stool test. He gave me triple therapy (amoxycillin, clarithromycin, and PPI).

June 2015: I retested for H. Pylori (stool test) and still came back positive.

July 2015: Another doctor in the U.S. (the first one was flaky) gave me quadruple therapy (tetracycline, metronidazole, bismuth, PPI).

August 2015: I retested for H. Pylori. It finally came back negative. However, symptoms still remained.

September 2015: While still taking PPIs, overall, it was a much better situation: I could finally eat anything I wanted, drink alcohol, etc. Eventually it became worse again.

October 2015: I retested for H. Pylori. It also came back negative—at this point I believe that I do not have it anymore.

October-December 2015: To this day, I need to be very careful with what I eat, otherwise my symptoms come back immediately. I follow a strict diet.

January 2016: I had to stop drinking alcohol completely, proceed with my strict diet. I'm now taking Zinc L-Carnosine because I've heard it helps.

Considering that my symptoms are still there (though they have not necessarily gotten worse since the beginning), what do I do?

first of all, i am glad that your H. pylori is gone. as for your bowel problem, have you consider speaking to a dietitian or immunologist to find out if you are allergic to certain food?

Thank you so much for your reply. I never thought of that. Do you think that the 'apparent' gastritis symptoms could be caused by a food allergy? Also: should I get an endoscopy done? I've never had one, but since this problem has been following me for almost a year, maybe I should?

If you are in any of the following, you should get endoscopy,
1. age above 50
2. in a high risk group of gastric cancer
3. has been in pain for many months or years
4. doesnt look fit and healthy
5. suspect of having ulcer

otherwise, if you can afford, why not get one done.

I think you should follow the diet recommended by your doctor. You can control the symptoms by taking some precautions.

Thank you so much everyone. I'm getting both a colonoscopy and an endoscopy tomorrow morning. My GI doctor said that he wants to completely discard any physiological reasons. He will also look into gluten intolerance. I'll keep you posted!

I just had my endoscopy and colonoscopy done today. No tumors, no ulcers, no polyps. They did find esophagitis, however. That may be the problem. They also took biopsies, so I'll keep you posted once I know the results.

No tumors, no ulcers, no polyps.

i think this is already very good news.

yes, please keep us posted.

I finally got the results from the biopsies. Everything is good: no tumors, no ulcers, no gastritis. I have a mild esophagitis and I was given omeprazole and dicyclomine for a month. I feel much better overall: also, I feel very relieved knowing that I don't have H. Pylori either. In any case, doing the colonoscopy/endoscopy was a great idea.

Wonderful news. we need more positive energy like this in this forum.


yea, i know. knowing that you are H. pylori free is important. hopefully your esophagitis will recover soon.