Badmovies.org Forum

Has anyone else ever had H. Pylori? It's a bacterial infection that gets in your stomach and invades its protective lining. Usually its not serious and is usually eradicated with an antibiotic regime.I'm having to take four different antibiotics twice a day plus nexium and tagament. I've been battling this for almost a year now and the doctors can't seem to figure out why it won't go away and why I keep having severe symptoms with it such as eye swelling, fever, chills and vomiting; not to mention I've lost about fifteen pounds in the last twenty days. About two weeks ago I started vomiting up blood so now they are sending me to a gastro-surgeon tomorrow. My Dr says that this bacteria can lead to Peptic Ulcers (which I'm already blessed with), Crohns and even stomach cancer when not effectively treated. Has anyone else had this happen or know of anyone with a similar experience? If so, what was it? I've tried looking online, but I just keep getting a bunch of mumbo-jumbo medical slang that might as well be written in martian.

No but I've read a couple of his books.  :wink:

No idea about H. Pylori, but I hope you get better soon, Sis.

Sorry to hear that. Were you recently diagnosed, or have you been taking antibiotics for a year and a half? If the latter is the case it is an unfortunate problem. Hopefully you don't have a particularly resistant strain of bacteria. An unfortunate side effect of blanket prescriptions of antibiotics is that bacteria have a tendency to mutate into forms that are resistant to the drugs.

I'm not trying to make you feel worse, just throwing out an idea. I'm not a medical professional.

What do you want to know? You seem to have a solid grasp of the basic idea. H. pylori weakens the stomach lining allowing the roiling pit of acid inside your stomach to attack the outer part, which the lining protects. Gastric acid (stomach acid) is very, very acidic. Essentially, you are digesting your stomach. Not a good thing. That damage will allow other opportunistic disorders to occur.

That's the basic idea outlined in this wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicobacter_pylori). The mumbo-jumbo basically outlines the actual mechanism the bacteria uses to replicate and attack the stomach lining, most of which you don't need to know.

I sincerely hope your doctors find a method of treatment that works for you. H. pylori can be wiped out, it just may take more work than usual in your case.

One small thing you can try. The article suggests that broccoli sprouts and green tea may help to inhibit the bacteria. I usually find these claims fairly dubious, but it can't hurt to try, especially considering both foods are good for you anyway and are quite tasty. (At least I think so.) Those two alone won't kill the bacteria, but it may help you feel better.

No, I was diagnosed last fall. They keep attempting to eradicate it; but the bacteria just keeps growing. I've read that it can spread to other parts of the body and start suppressing the immune system (actually I think most bacteria can do this). Anyways, they'll put me on the antibiotic regime for a while and then take me off for awhile, so i dont' become totally immune to them. Mostly I'm worried about what it can lead too.

I haven't tried brocolli; but they do have me on a poor excuse for a diet (however, come hell or high water, I will have a chili dog today) and I've had to cut out the sodas. I've tried the green tea, however the taste makes me gag, so i've just been drinking regular tea and some of the Arizona teas such as white tea with blueberry. Its probably not helping but it tastes great and I'm no longer lost without my companion bottle of Mt. Dew. My grandmother proposes that I try to eradicate it with Moonshine :smile:, but then again she's from WV and thinks Shine is the answer to most of what ails people. Did I mention her husband died from liver complications?....

I don't know much about the disease itself but I have seen it diagnosed in charts here and there.  (I work in a hospital)  Your best bet right now is the gatroenterologist who will probably want to do an EGD (tube down the throat) on you.  Its a pretty basic procedure and I'm sure they'll take biopsies.  Either way good luck to you. 

Unfortunately, not everyone who has H pylori (and is treated for it) has their symptoms improve.

Half of the world's population is thought to harbor it, but not everyone has symptoms.  People with ulcers definitely one does treat for H pylori, but for people with "nonulcer dyspepsia" it's not always helpful to do so.

If I took several rounds of H pylori treatment and didn't improve, I would seriously question if the H pylori is an innocent bystander.

Well, I went to the gastro-dr yesterday (he was a complete jerk btw, he had the audacity to ask me if i was worried since i was puking up blood and did i see it as a problem wtf?). Anyways, they made me swallow some dye and take an xray. They never said anything about how the xray looked; but they did schedule me for an EGD and a biopsy next week. so until then, i guess its just wait and see...