Helicobacter Forums

Hello everyone. I am not quite done being diagnosed (still have to go get an endoscopy of my stomach and esophagus), but tentatively, my family doctor thinks of have an h pylori infection.

Background...severe heartburn sufferer for several years, but only at night, and it always comes on at least 2 hours after I eat. I thought it was when I ate bread, oatmeal, and a couple of other things, because if I ate a paleo type diet, poof, no heartburn.

Anyway, all fall I was taking Zantac almost several nights a week. Then over the week of Christmas I was very lethargic, appetite came and went, had some abdomen pain in the upper left, and low grade on and off fever. Went to doc, and he diagnosed me with pancreatitis...lipase level was through the roof, liver tests were a little high, and CT scan showed that my pancreas was inflamed. It all resolved on its own around New Years.

Felt great the first two weeks of January, in fact, I had heartburn only once or twice. But since mid-January, I have had 3 episodes of severe indigestion in the middle of the night, with exhaustion the next day (couldn't even go to work). Then two more episodes which were even worse. Two weekends ago, ate a 6" chicken cheese steak sub and some chips around 7 pm, woke up around 2 am with severe nausea, threw up twice, then developed severe heartburn. Spent the next day in bed, and had heartburn all the way until 4 pm. Then on Superbowl Sunday, I ate 5 baked parmesan garlic chicken wings, 3 stuffed potato skins, and two bourbon and ginger ales in the afternoon. Developed heartburn a couple of hours later, then the nausea came on again, and I ended up throwing up 3 times at 7:30 and went to bed. Woke up Monday with no ill effects, and was ravenous.

Doctor has been kept in the loop the whole time, so he had me come in for blood work...pancreas ok, liver function back to normal, but he also did three h pylori tests.

H Pylori IGG ABS: 3.6, normal is 0-.8
H Pylori IGA ABS: 24.9, normal is 0-8.9
H Pylori IGM ABS: <9.0, normal is <9.0 (so this one is normal)

Right now I am in the process of getting a referral to get scoped . My doctor didn't just want to treat me with antibiotics and antacids, he wants to have things looked at just to see what they find out, especially for my esophagus.

One other note, if I eat chicken, rice, eggs, ezekiel bread, and the like, I don't even get heartburn now, but anything that's slightly junk in nature, or harder to digest is seeming to be the culprit of these attacks.

I am curious what you guys think? Is what I am going through typical of h pylori infections? It seems like I'd be having stomach pain a lot, and have heartburn, no matter what I ate. From what I am reading, h pylori symptoms are usually worse than what I am experiencing.

Thanks for reading. This board is a great resource.

According to your Blood test, you are H. pylori positive. If you had not taken antibiotics for at least a year, then the blood test result can be used as a diagnosis that you are infected with H. pylori. Nevertheless, it's very easy to get a breath test nowadays. That will determine your current infection status. There is no need of endoscopy unless your doctor think you have an ulcer or worse. BUT... even if you have the ulcer, the treatment is still the same, triple therapy.

Anyway, your doctor should know your disease better than anyone else. So, i would listen to what he said.