Treatment for H Pylori

[AMerchant]

Hi

I have been suffering from stomach acidity issues since June this year. GP had prescribed omeprazole 20mg daily.

Had a stool test done for bacteria in July which came back negative at the time.

Over 4 months symptoms have improved but not completely gone so asked for an endoscopy.

I had my endoscopy yesterday now they found H pylori (although the stool test in July for the same was negative). They have prescribed me the following for 7 days

Amoxicillin 500mg 2 tablets twice a day. So 2000 mg per day.

Clarithromycin 500mg 1 tablet twice a day. So 1000mg per day

Pantoprazole 40mg 1 tablet twice a day so 80mg per day.

Does it sound a lot of medication?

I had after 4 months finally managed to come off omeprazole 20mg and the acidity is mostly under control although I do get bad flare ups every 10 days or so. But now I have to increase PPI 4x the initial dosage for the eradication therapy.

Does anyone have experience of taking similar H pylori eradication therapy?

I am also not convinced that I have H pylori because the stool test in July was negative but the biopsy yesterday came back positive. Can this happen especially if symptoms have gradually improved?

[Crispy1955]

Hi, from what I understand you must not be on any medication for the acidicy when you have the test done as you will not get a correct result.

[AMerchant in reply to Crispy1955]

Yes. I understand that you need to stop acid reduction medication 2 weeks before testing for H pylori so detect it. But what i don't understand is why do we need to increase the dose of acid reduction medication along side antibiotics to kill the same bug. Surely they both contradic

[ifiweopfjwfjwef in reply to AMerchant]

PPI's (Omeprazole etc) role during h. pylori eradication is to concentrate the antibiotics by suppressing gastric juices. Here is a NCBI article on the subject which you can read for a detailed explanation: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

It's interesting your h. pylori stool test was negative but the biopsies were positive. I have all the pylori symptoms and I have been biopsied negative three times (by different gastroenterologists). Now I'm getting ready to do a stool test. I hope they find h. pylori because they're out of ideas of how to help me. I've been suffering with chronic gastritis, SIBO and a multitude horrible symptoms since early 2019.

I wish you good luck.

PS: The antibiotics they've planned for you sounds like one of the standard triple therapy protocols (two antibiotics + one PPI) for treating h. pylori.

[AMerchant in reply to ifiweopfjwfjwef]

Thanks. Very good article

[Dolphin111]

A biopsy is a more accurate result. Do take the course as its really beneficial. The dose of PPI is to protect your stomach when taking the large dose of antibiotics necessary to kill the bug

[ifiweopfjwfjwef in reply to Dolphin111]

Are you sure about this? I was told the opposite; that this bacteria can often go unnoticed through biopsies, and that the stool test and urea breath tests are the gold standards for helicobacter pylori detection.

I don't know how common (or if it even happens at all) with false positive test results of h. pylori.

[rakib13332]

I'm also getting endoscopy within few days.

How was your experience doing endoscopy?

Did you have sedation? Curious to know.

[AMerchant in reply to rakib13332]

Hi. My experience with the endoscopy was not as bad as I had imagined. The whole the procedure lasted less than 10mins

I did not take the sedation just the spray to numb my throat. Passing of the tube from the throat is the difficult part but if its numb then you will not feel it. Once it goes down you hardly feel it. He did biopsy for me so had to fill air in my stomach during endoscopy which felt a bit uncomfortable and felt bloated for a few hours after.

The gastro was very experience and did it all very gently

But on the whole experience was not bad.

Good luck with the endoscopy and hope it gives the correct diagnosis

[AMerchant]

Hi all

I have completed on Thursday the triple therapy 7 day course of 2 antibiotics and Pantoprazole 40mg twice a day.

There is not much improvement in the acidity so far.

I get this feeling that something is stuck in my throat and tightness in the chest. It comes and goes and gets better temporarily with Rennie or Gaviscon Advance

Just wanted to know from others who may have gone through this treatment and how soon did your symptoms resolved post eradication therapy

[Han56]

Biopsy results takes 2-3 weeks in Canada. How come you got them so fast. I got my endoscopy done today and now I have to wait for the results.