H Pylori

[NDN_RN 527]

Ust gojt my labs back. i have H Pylori! I never would have guessed. So 2 weeks of antibiotics and that's it. Luckily I cant finish my requirements until Sept 6 with my last Nutrition visit. Lets hope my Upper GI endoscopy goes well tomorrow.

[MamaOf8 13]

I'm glad it's just antibiotics and then you will be fine! Good luck to you!

[Webchickadee 716]

Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) infection is asymptomatic is a very high percentage of patient (75-80% show no signs at all!). So I'm not surprised you didn't know....

Have you had acute gastritis (inflammation of the stomach) in the past (or recently?), or a history of peptic ulcers? The H pylori bacterium can be the cause of either/both!

You mentioned that you were diagnosed with a blood test. What put your doc on that track? Stomach pain, nausea, vomiting? They usually use an antibody test when trying to diagnose via bloodwork. Sounds like he/she is wanting to confirm with a biopsy during your upcoming endoscopy. That's a good safe back-up to ensure they are correct! And it won't hurt to see what condition your stomach is in prior to surgery (I'm assuming you're pre-op.....sorry if I'm wrong!).

Sometimes, treatment consists of a combination therapy. They'll use a proton pump inhibitor (such as Omeprazole (Prilosec), together with an antibiotic Biaxin (clarithromycin) and often will double up the antibiotics and include Amoxil (amoxicillin) as well.

You will want to ensure you've had a long period of recovery after this treatment before your VSG. You want everything to be in tip-top shape before your put your poor stomach through any more distress!

And of course, the antibiotics will most likely leave you with some gastrointestinal side-effects and discomfort. I have used Bio-K Plus probiotic supplement on several occasions (including after my VSG) to repopulate my intestinal tract with healthy flora and get my digestive system back to normal. After my VSG, I wasn't sure if I could tolerate dairy products, so I use the Soy version of Bio-K Plus, just to be on the safe side. I was expecting it to taste horrible (it didn't smell great...), but surprisingly, it reminded me quite a bit of a pina colada!

Best of luck with your endscopy tomorrow. Let us know how things go!

[MinaT 669]

Many hospitals are now requiring this test to be done before any sort of stomach surgery.

I had to have the test before surgery and they wanted me to do the breath test (results take 2 weeks). This was just 2 days before I started the 14 day shake pre-op.

liquid in-liquid out during this phase usually and the antibiotics also can cause liquid out. Luckily they switched it to the blood test. You are lucky they did this testing before pre-op. Luckily I didn't have it, but if I did have it, my surgery would have had to have been postponed.

Good luck to you.

[NDN_RN 527]

Upper GI was ordered before the positive h pylori. I don't recall any recent illness, i may have had this for a long time. I am a nurse and know a lot about this. One thing that irked me, my drs office called in for a PrevPac instead of ordering each medication seperately and in generic form. This PrevPac was OVER 500 dollars and my insurance would only cover about half. I refused it and will demand that it be ordered seperately and generically. If it was ordered as amoxicillin, metronidazole and prevacid otc, it would cost me less than 50 bucks. That's nuts. i am pretty mad.

[NDN_RN 527]

Had my upper GI endoscopy today.. They found gastritis, probably from the H Pylori. The biopsy will be done by next Tuesday. I never would have known. Like that activia commercial, I just thought it was my normal!

[NDN_RN 527]

Mamaof8? 8 kids? I am a mama of 9 kids.