Helicobacter Forums

Hi,

In short I have a long history of symptoms that match those of H. Pylori. My main symptom which I've had since I was three years old after I had visited Malaysia in 1982 is a persistent cough and hoarse voice. I also vomited a lot as a child, burped a lot and

Subsequently I was taken to the doctor many times through Primary school and I spent a lot of time at home away from classes. I really wanted to be an active child and was pretty active like my father who plays squash at 80 years old but I always got a horrible feeling after running half a kilometre. So a 3.6km run every morning that I did for many years was always gruelling with chest pain and difficult breathing and coughing.

When I visited the doctor he would always prescribe me antibiotics (same doctor over and over again giving me amoxicillin) and I would be back and forward to the doctor. I would say I had dozens of prescriptions for amoxicillin through my childhood possibly even running to the one hundred mark.

I would vomit or dry reach at the smell of meat.


Then my cough got worse, reflux was bad (But I didn't know I had it - a bit of regurgitation heartburn only happened during excercise and I thought it was lung related. I was given a raft of Asthma drugs despite having great lungs and absolutely no Asthma.

At this time During my early 20s I attended the Brunswick Community Health centre which all the Brunswick crowd love and I was given short shrift by the doctor there who used to give awesome service to my neighbours across the road and more mature couple with two young girls. For me I would turn up complain and he would just look at me like another whinger coming in with no problems, prescribe me asthma drungs and send me on my way.

I quite the Asthma drugs at about age 26 after emptying the PBS. Seretide Flixotide Becatide and mountains of Ventolin - you name it Asthma related I was on it at one point. Fast forward to four years ago I got on the waiting list for a nissen fundoplication a modern keyhole version developed ironically partly by my brother a cardio thoracic surgeon. After the surgey I was on some cocktail of drugs (I'm planning on seeing if I can get this history) and low and behold I had very little symptoms post the surgery. I was over the moon but about 2 months later it started happening again and I was back. I was dashed - I now had pains from the surgery (a side effect of the surgery which I still have today - including a weird effect with a striking pain in my right shoulder when I eat too much). as a result of trying to get this fixed.

Next I went for a sleep study at the Austin and met a Dr Mark Lavacombe and he was great - he was supposed to be analysing my poor sleep which no doubt was from years of acid agitating me and other immunological responses to what I believe to be H Pylori. In his general consult he asked me how do I feel overall. I said actually I have this horrible cough - so bad that the kids at school picked on me, people acted like I had a disease, tried to tell me to go home and get better etc - the boss would do that at one of my earlier jobs but then he'd be in too minds about it as I'd never be at work. anyway I told him this story and he put me on Omeprazole 20mg and told me to come back in a month and report. I came back and said I was 90% better. After that he said lets try something stronger and he put me on pantoprazole - again I came back and this time said I was 95% better He said amazing so he referred me to a Gastro. Well the gastro was pretty useless - he did a scope for barret's disease and then I went and saw him again and he said nothing to see here lets finish up. (A guy at a private practice in the vicinity of St Vincents hospital Melbourne)

So next about 6 months ago a very good friend a more senior older Neurologist was listening to me hack away at his house when I was there for dinner and he said what on earth is that and he knew I had the Nissen Fundoplication etc. He said my wife had H. Pylori and had something similar - the gave her a cocktail of antibiotics I should look it up. Anyway I didn't follow that up at the time.

fast forward Just a few weeks ago (this is the brief version) I got sick in Vietnam where I've been residing for a while and had doxicillin and I noticed that I felt great. 100mg morning and night. So then I thought bacteria. Being Vietnam and being a westerner they believe that foreigners all have their doctors on the phone telling them what they need so I can just bowl up at a Nha Thuoc (pharmacy) and ask for whatever I want.

Then Dr Matt of the university of I've been screwed over by some useless doctors for too long decided to take action including some family members who are in the field who failed to help me despite my predicament.
Next I got researching and read many papers in journals etc and decided on a course of action. so 5 days ago I started on 1000mg Amoxicillin, 500 Clarithromycin, 500mg Metronadazole, along with doubling my pantoprazole 40mg to twice per day

So it's day 5 and how do I feel AMAZING

1. No phlegm in the morning that I have to hok up and spit out
2. No congested nose in the morning.
3. no coughing bouts getting up and going to the toilet at night.
4. much better sleep.
5. no coughing during the day. 3 or 4 epsisodes lasting one or two coughs. Whereas normally I cough hundreds and hundreds of times during a day
6. Anxious - I never thought I was overly anxious but now I'm not.
7. Stomach better and worse - I can feel just a little bit of the antibiotics feeling I think but I'm missing all the other feelings.
8. As with other times I've been on antibiotics my poo changed to hard from soft long poos (not full diarreah but just mushy long stools) to more constipation like full formed poos that I hardly ever get (ie the ones everyone else has as far as I know).
9. Irritability and calmness - I hope so but haven't really tested this - need to get into a stressful situation and see if I handle it better than previously. (that will happen when it happens -I don't want to create one unnecessarily)

I now think a few relatives have the problem, my sister is on omeprazole or some other proton pump inhibitor and a couple of close friends along the way I possibly gave it to - one will investigate shortly if this works out after two months wait to see results

at this stage super promising and stoked about the preliminary very early stage indicators.

i am glad that the treatment work for you. However, it is important to follow up with breath test one month after treatment.

I was thinking of doing Breath and then stool.

I was also thinking if they turn out negative then I should organise a scope both ends. Who can you recommend in Melbourne? I really want to see people who will actually find any remnants of it not someone hopeless.

Is that overdoing it?.. I mean I had a Nissen fundoplication to try and get over this so a scope is a walk in the park.

I'm also thinking of something more radical and running a second treatment (of course it maybe totally unnecessary but I will never know) straight after I finish this. I've had such a bad run and I've had the best 6 days of life

The regime I'm thinking (I need to check I can get all these in Vietnam).

1. Pantoprazole 40mg BID (Would a switch to lansoprazole 30mg or esomeprazole 40mg be a better option with any likely additional benefit?)
2. Bismuth subsalicylate 525 mg QID 4x per day 4 hours apart seems reasonable - I have limited knowledge about this and assume it's relatively safe - but will keep checking.
3.Metronidazole 250 mg QID Just before the Bismuth
4.Tetracycline 500 mg QID

OR alternatively to avoid the potential that what's in my stomach has resistance to metronidazole

1. Pantoprazole 40 mg BID
2. Amoxicillin 1 g BID
3. levofloxacin 500 mg QD
4. tinidazole 500 mg BID for 5 days

I'd be keen on a recommendation of which one would be better to do after I finish this and the reason why.

I may also be limited to one option or the other depending on what is stocked in pharmacies in Vietnam. Do any of those above ingredients have known significant side effects. On the current course I'm doing very well, just a slightly yucky drug taste in my mouth and maybe a little tired this morning - after a run along the beach including a 1 minute all out sprint that I hadn't been able to perform since I was a teenager I was pretty tired and slept when returning home. (I also drank half a coconut and half an avocado smoothie which I probably should have avoided as I'd be potentially feeding any remnant bacteria and potentially helping them along.

I will get this done before returning to Aus in May then after 30 days I can look at some testing in AU - again would like a recommendation for scope in Melbourne.

Unfortunately we do not recommend any doctors. and, i think it's too early to assume that your treatment failed. Let's do according to the book. Wait for a month and do a breath OR stool test to confirm your HP eradication.

There is no need to do both. In Australia, the UBT is accurate enough.

Ok I've passed day 7 so I've dropped the metronidazole and clarithromycin

So 5 days now of 1000mg BID (twice a day) of Amoxicillin with food to go.

I'd say I'm feeling pretty good

Really worried now about resistance and whether I should go on another course straight afterwards.

If I had the H. Pyroli since I was a child what's the likelihood of resistance -that means my colony started around 1981 or 1982

Is it likely new strains could have joined in and those ones could be resistant or because I am possibly a very old case my strains would not have resistance.

This is what I'm trying to understand and keen for any opinions/ views on that.

Thanks again,aa

the chance of resistance depends on the number of time you have taken the same antibiotics.

H. pylori cannot become resistant to amoxicillin or any similar antibioitics belong to Penicillin family.
However, it's funny that Amoxicillin alone cannot eradicate H. pylori. You need two antibiotics to kill off all H. pylori. So you can always take Amoxicillin and one or two other antibiotics.

Anyway, you have finished one course of treatment. Let's wait a month and follow up with a breath test. All the best to your treatment.

This is a really write up. Would you mind adding your experience as a progress report on WeCured? https://wecured.com/condition/h-pylori- ... /community

I've already added mine there. Check "PositiveFox"'.

OK an update.

After 30 days off Anti-biotics and PPI I had a breath test and it turned up negative. Hopefully this was long enough?

I'm a little bit worried with the 90% accuracy statistic and the fact I didn't wait the full 30 so maybe in a month or two I'll go for a stool test as well.

At the moment I have almost eliminated the (what I suspect to be) laryngitis reflux. ie I am no longer taking Pantoprazole which I was basically dependent on before. So the heavy dose antibiotics has definitely achieved something there.

My final issue of not feeling healthy is terrible bloating and very large violent farting episodes. I am hoping this will calm down.

I am taking bioceuticals ultrabiotic 60 This followed an initial run with the ultrabiotic 500 which was a 7 day course.

I'm also eating kimchi / sauerkraut and have had some keffer yoghurt but need to get more.

Any idea if people who have very bad bloating / flatulence get over this after a few months. I'm now about 4-5 weeks since I got off the anti-biotics and the flatulence is at its peak and is uncomfortable.

First of all, congratulation in getting rid of H. pylori. I believe your breath test is accurate enough. It doesnt have to be exact 30 days. As long as it's more than 14 days, is good enough for breath test. It was recommended 30 days by some doctors just to be sure.

bloading and a bit of reflux is a common "side effect" after getting rid of H. pylori. We believe that it is because your stomach has been under stress for too long and is adjusting itself to a germ free state again.

It's good idea to try some probiotics and perhaps, mint tea to calm the symptoms. if you are experiencing heart burn or reflux, you can take ranitidine to control it.

I've been on the probiotics. It's just bad farting episodes, no really noticing serious reflux anymore (I had it really bad (silent reflux) before the 14 day antibiotics but now don't have it anymore.

I'm hoping this flatulence will calm down. I haven't tried the Mint tea so that will be next to try.

Thanks