Helicobacter Pylori

For the longest time, I have always had a bad stomach. I am nauseated easily and my stomach feels bloated even after a small meal. It’s not caused by eating too much, because even after I put my fork down, my abdomen bloats up shortly later. Uncomfortable and debilitating, sometimes it takes hours to subside. The social embarrassment takes much longer.

I blame a few of my panic attacks on bloatedness. A bloated stomach leads to reduced lung capacity with leads to hyperventilation and thus panic attack. Another gastrointestinal related issue was that my stools were black, has the consistency of toothpaste, and could never form any condensed shape. It happens so often recently, I thought of having it examined.

In March this year, taking advantage of a Groupon offer, I went for a regular blood test which this time included a H. Pylori test. The pin prick was more painful than usual, but instead of a clean bill of health, I tested positive for the H. Pylori. It’s something I’ve read about, but my test results was astonishingly multiples of the maximum limit for normal patients. My count for H. Pylori IGG was over 80u/ml while the max limit was 10u/ml. I do not really know what it means, except that I’m probably infected with Helicobacter Pylori bacteria.

The Confounded Bacteria

Helicobacter Pylori is apparently a kind of bacteria, spiral in shape, which lives in the stomach and upper intestine. It attaches itself to my stomach lining and thrives in acidic environment of the stomach which in the past doctors thought nothing could survive.

Symptoms of Helicobacter Pylori infection include:
• Abdominal pains due to peptic ulcers
• Weight loss
• Loss of appetite
• Bloating
• Burping
• Nausea
• Vomiting (vomit may be bloody or look like coffee grounds)
• Black, tarry stools

More Tests

The next test that the doctors recommended was a Urea Breath Test. It’s a pretty simple test, I’m given a pill to swallow, several minutes later, asked to breathe deeply and exhale into a silver balloon bag. A Urea Breath Test is based on the bacteria’s ability to convert urea to ammonia and carbon dioxide. As if it was fated, I was tested positive, by a far margin.

The alternative is an endoscopy, the procedure where they insert a tube with an attached camera and a robotic arm down your throat all the way to the stomach. There they can look for bleeding ulcers, cancerous tumors and maybe take some tissue sample for biopsy. Compared to a Urea Breath Test, the endoscopy was invasive. And luckily I was exempted mainly because I don’t have gastric pains, and because treatment can start with the positive result of the breath test.

Treatment

My two week treatment regiment include a medication called a proton pump inhibitor. This medicine decreases the production of stomach acid, which allows the tissues damaged by the infection to heal, assuming I have ulcers. The proton pump inhibitor is combined with a pair of antibiotics, just in case if the bacteria is immune to one of the antibiotics.

I suffered an awful side effect of the antibiotic one morning, where nausea claim the better half of the day forcing a sick day. After that regimen I continued taking just the proton pump inhibitor for another two weeks. The follow-up appointment was 2 months following that that. On the whole, I was feeling pretty much the same, except the conditions of my stools were improving although still blackish in colour. So I didn’t think I was completely cured, and ready for another positive H. Pylori test.

Cure 

To my complete but pleasant surprise, the Urea Breath Test conducted during my follow-up appointment yielded a zero count, which is positively negative. Over the next few weeks, my digestive tract felt healthier, very few instances of bloatedness and my stools returned to solid and healthy light brown hue. This led to my hypothesis, that I have been developing bleeding ulcers over the past few years, if I had an endoscopy done, it would have shown up.

I don’t know where I contracted the bacteria, but it must have been when I was in school. I suspect I’ve been living with it for decades. Damn you school canteen!

Although the chances are slim, Helicobacter Pylori induced ulcers may develop into stomach cancer. So I feel lucky to have caught it before anything sinister developed. So I urge any of you who have the symptoms of H. Pylori infection to get tested, at least the blood test. It may save your life.