H. pylori - anyone?

[Lucyand2]

I've had niggling pains in my left side, just under my rib cage, since november. At the beginning of jan the pains suddenly got much worse and spread up to my breastbone and under both ribs. The doc put me on omeprazole and buscopan followed by a course of antibiotics. The pain started to go after the antibiotics and after 2 weeks I felt normal again.
After a very stressful week the pains have returned, on my left side again and radiating through to my back. A succession of docs have been unable to find anything wrong with me despite blood tests and an ultrasound. The latest doc thinks I have H.pylori and I'm waiting to find out the results this week.
I'm also suffering from phlegm and swollen glands in my neck which could be related to my stomach.
This illness feels like it is going on forever and I'm getting really worried now. I just want a test to come back that shows me something is wrong as I'm drifting along in pain. It isn't severe enough to need hospitalisation but it is wearing me down. Can anyone help me with this? My doctors are crap and my imagination is running away with me in the absence of a diagnosis.
Thanks,
Lucy

You have to keep communicating with the doctors. Medical diagnosis is very often a process of elimination... especially when it's the kind, such as you're experiencing, with relatively non-specific symptoms. They'll be working through a checklist of the most obvious causes of your symptoms and, as those are eliminated, going on to less common causes.

When you talk to your doctors ask how this process is going and what their plans are. e.g. "If it's H Pylori, what happens next?" "If the tests don't show positive for H Pylori what are the other possibles we look for?" I can't tell from your post but have you been referred to a specialist?

In the meantime, keep a very close eye on your symptoms. Be alert if anything you do (you mention the latest episode was triggered by stress) or if something you eat/drink makes it better or worse. People with inflamed gallbladders quickly notice that their symptoms are made worse when they eat rich foods, for example. The more information you can feed back to the professionals the better the chance of a diagnosis. Good luck

hi, sorry you are suffering, it sounds miserable. I had h pylori and it took quite a while to get a diagnosis, blood tests and ultrasound had shown nothing, and I kept being discharged from hospital. Eventually my mum (a nurse) pushed for them to do an endoscopy (camera down throat) and they found the h pylori and within a few days I was basically back to normal thanks to the antibiotics. So I'm surprised they haven't done an endoscopy if they suspect h pylori.

I agree with chil that you need to push a bit, and also really think about your symptoms. With hindsight I had given the doctors very specific symptoms and they should have probably figured it faster ,but they just kept looking for appendicitis/ gynaecologicl problems because of my age, it wwas very frustrating.

good luck you will get there in the end

I'm at the doctors every week at the moment since the pain returned, I've had to change which doctor as I see as my regular doc either didn't turn up or a locum appeared in his place. I am really fed up of explaining the same thing over and over again to different docs!
The scan showed no problems with my gall bladder or liver so they're clear. I haven't been referred to a specialist as yet but I suppose the more things they work through the closer I get to finding what's wrong. The doc did say that often they don't find out what is wrong, I really hope I don't have to put up with this forever

I had this last year, and similar to other posters, although I kept going to the docs and saying "I think it's h.pylori" the GP kept saying it wasn't. I had scans for gallbladder trouble and all sorts.

The mad thing is, in most cases, it's something so easy to eradicate if it is h.pylori. I eventually paid for a private blood test, slapped the results down on the doc's table and had my week's course of antibiotics. The first course didn't work, and I was still +ive with the breath test last August so had another dose of antibs.
I think I'm clear now, I occasionally get a gastric gurgle or two, but nothing like before.

Go and insist on a blood test- some docs don't like to rely on the blood test because the antibodies will stay from a previous H.pylori infection, but at least it's a starting point for you.

Also, when I still had it after the first dose of antibiotics, my GP said, we'll try another round and if that doesn't work, we'll just manage it, apparently the feeling these days with it is not to keep bombarding it with antibiotics unless the symptoms are so uncomfortable that you can't live with it.

Alypaly suggested to me (and others) also to try Gastroctote tablets (or liquid) instead of omeprazole as they don't mess around with your natural stomach acids as much as the omeprazole type pills. I was still on omeprazole until December (doc said to take them for a further 3 mths to sort out the acid once and for all) but went cold turkey at Christmas (fnar) and just had the gastrocote every now and then, and now I just need one every couple of weeks. Peppermint oil capsules every so often are good too.

Hope you get some joy, it's a fecking pain to live with and yet something which can easily be sorted.