Hi all.

        i've been sufferring from short bouts of upper quadrant epigastric
pain for a while

now (i.e. just below the sternum). Initially it was quite severe,
occurring almost exculsively

a few hours after eating a large meal for brief but intense moments.
There was no {*filter*} in the

stool, but the faeces was never properly formed (it looked 'fluffy')
and showed signs of

undigested cooking.net">food and white lumps. I also got haemmorroids and itchy
arsehole.

I went to the dodctors and he thought it could be an ulcer or
gastritis. He prescribed me a

week long course of HeliClear triple-therapy medication to kill any
H.pylori, which was to be

followed by 4 weeks of Zoton. The HeliClear temporarily helped, but a
few days after finishing

it and going on to the Zoton, the pain came back and the other symptoms
reappeared as well. My

doctor then changed my med to Protium, which helped a bit, but the pain
was still occuring. I

went back to my doc and he got me to get an gastroscope at the
hospital, which showed no signs

of ulcers or gastritis. Interestingly, 7 days before the gastroscope i
was informed i needed

to stop takking my PPI (Protium). Within a few days i felt MUCH better,
and the other symptoms

started to go as well.
After the gastroscope, the doc at the hospital suggested that i might
have an infection still

and prescribed another week long triple-therapy medication - HeliMet -
followed by another 3

weeks of Zoton. I am just finishing today, and my guts are just
starting to feel better, but i

have a feeling that as soon as i finish and go back onto the Zoton
alone its all going to come

back again.

Seeing as coming of the PPI's made me feel better, and i was getting
problems such as itchy

arsehole and undigested food, i though possibly the problem could be
that im not producing

enough HCL acid in my guts, as these are symptoms of lack of HCL.
Another reason why i think

it could be this is that eating spicy and acidic foods, and drinking
coffee, tea, and {*filter*}

doesnt seem to aggravate the problem, and sometimes makes it go away. I
asked the doc to test

for this, but he said its a longwinded and uncomfortable process where
a pH monitor has to be

placed in my guts for days, and he'd rather eliminate other causes
before hand.

Does anyone have any idea whats wrong with my guts?

Ps I've tried all kinds of 'natural' remedies such as antioxidants,
mastic gum, zinc-carnosine, and gamma oryzanol and they did {*filter*} all
to help.

Only a doctor who examines you is in a postion to diagnose your health
problem.

But there is a laboratory test that can tell you and your doctor if you
have an H. pylori infection or not.

This test is called 'H. pylori Stool Antigen' (HpSA).  The kit for this
test is made by Meridian Bioscience company.

If the test is positive, then your doctor is right that you still have
an H. pylori infection.  But if it is negative, then perhaps the cause
is stress or something else.

This test is fairly expensive to do.  And perhaps it is not available
in many medical laboratories.  Also this test can give false negative
results, if you give your stool specimen while you are taking anti H.
pylori medications.  You have to stop taking the medications for
several weeks before doing this test.

I'd like to add that one common reason why antibiotic treatments often
fail is because the patient stops taking his {*filter*} as soon as he starts
feeling better.  It takes time for the {*filter*} to kill all the bacteria.
And when the patient stops taking his {*filter*} too soon, then some
bacteria survive.  They multiply and cause the same problem again.

These bacteria that come back after inadequate drug treatment often
become drug resistant.  And such drug-resistant bacteria are then very
difficult to eliminate.

That's why you have to listen to your doctor and to your pharmacist and
keep taking the medications for as long as they have told you, even
when you feel better.

~ * ~

Hail, Thee ~ Divine Canine,
Bless Leonardo ~ !

Hail, Thee, Open The Gates of Morning Wood,
Bless Our Home New Found ~ !

~ * A fronte praecipitium
A tergo lupi * ~

A precipice in front, wolves behind,
Between a rock, a hard place.

~ * Ab imo pectore * ~

~ * Ex uno disce omnes * ~

Gloria ...
Amen, A Dog ~ !

~ * Open The Gates of Heaven ~
A Dog's Arrived * ~

Gloria ...
Amen, A Dog ~ !

~ * Lupus in fabula ~ The wolf in the tale,
Speak of the wolf, & he will come.

~ * Lux et veritas ~
Light and Truth ~ !

Gloria ...
Amen, Leonardo, Divine Canine,

A Dog ~ ! Heaven Shines Far
Brighter Today ~ !

From
The Book of Common Prayer

~ * ~
Blog, I'll warrant ye, or dog? Who knows. Pass the grog!
But if ye see me lost pup, please bring that scurvy dog home!
I got Leon a brand-new bone, with a chest full a' booty.
_________________
http://www.***.com/ {*filter*}iaz/DreamingofLeonardo

~ * Morning Prayer * ~
16 August 2005

Through the night your angels kept
Watch be-side us while we slept;
Now the dark- has passed away,
Thank you, God, for this- new day.

North and south and east and west
May your ho-ly Name be blessed;
Everywhere- beneath the sun,
As in heav'n, your will- be done.

Give us cooking.net">food that we may live;
Every thoughtlessness please forgive;
Keep all e-vil things away

 ~ W. Canton,
19thC

~ * ~

~ * ~

~ * Invitatory * ~

Lord, open our lips.

And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.
Glory to the Mother,
And to the Dog,
And to the Holy Spirit,

As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.
Amen.

~ ! Alleluia ! ~

The earth is the Lord's for She made it.
Come let us now adore Leonardo ~

For unto this day, a Divine Canine
Arrives at The Gates of Heaven, scratching, nibbling,
Whines, in The Key of C, says ~

"Let me in ~ !"

~ ! Alleluia ! ~

Open The Gates of Heaven ~
A Dog's Arrived * ~

~ * ~

"From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!"
~ Twittering

There is also a ureas breath test which is more accurate and cheaper. I
asked the doc about testing me properly for h.pylori before. The first
doc said my symptoms sounded like gastritis or ulcer, and stuck me on
HeliClear - the gastroscope showed it was neither. i asked the second
doc (at the hospital)to take a biopsy during the 'scope so it could lab
tested for h. pylori. Did he do this? Did he BOLLOCKS! He said he didnt
do it becuase there were no signs of gastritis or ulcer. My faith in
doctors to follow a logical approach to my problem is dwindling.

On both the HeliClear and HeliMet treatments i took them EXACTLLY as
instructed for the full duration, even though i had kidney and joint
pains, the squits, chronic wind, drowsiness, and all the other side
effects that come with this stuff, so u dont have to preach to me on
that issue.

Well, i want to get rid of this problem more than anyone else. However,
my experience tells me that the PPI's i keep getting prescribed
actually make the symptoms worse (shown when i stopped taking them 7
days before the scope and felt almost 100%). It seems to me that even
though i told the doctors this, they keep prescribing me the SAME
PPI's, even though there are others out there that may not cause
problems. Its as if they dont listen. I mean, how am i meant to know if
im getting better if the side effects are WORSE than the original
problem?!?

Nexium?

Actually, there is a test that is fairly painless and takes only a few
hours.  The test is called the Heidelberg capsule test and you swallow a
pill with a radio transmitter inside that tells what your pH is.  For a
few hours you challenge your stomach to produce acid in response to what
you drink in a scientifically designed manner that ends up telling you
if you are producing too little, too much, or just the right amount of
stomach acid.  Check it out on the internet, although you should be
aware that it is used mostly by doctors specializing in alternative
medicine.  Those that use it claim that over 90% of middle-aged people
who complain of heartburn, acid reflux, etc. have been shown to produce
too little stomach acid.

Ed Friedman

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
KingBaby said that he asked the doctor to biopsy his
stomach lining tissue for Helicobacter Pyloris ?
IMHO the best way to cure "Helicopter" is to take
SMZ (a sulfa drug) twice a day for 10 days or until
the bacteria in your stool or so dead that you have
a runny stool.
But even before that, you take the acid inhibitor de
jour (tagamaet, pepcid, famotidine, etc) to see if that
works.  After a week of prescribed acid blockers, if
you still have stomach pain BEFORE your meals, then
Helicobacter is a good suspect.  If you have stomach agony
during the meal or after the meal, then you just may have
stomach cancer.
David H
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Yes, i asked him to take a biopsy, but the bastard never did. so im
still no closer to knowing if i ever had a bacterial infection in the
first place.

 IMHO the best way to cure "Helicopter" is to take

Never heard of SMZ - will look into it. But im not taking ANY more
antibiotics until the doc runs tests to show that i have an infection.

The only time i get pain is about 45 mins after taking the prescribed
lanzaprazole, and a few hours after a meal.
I doubt i have stomach cancer, as the gastroscope will have picked up
visible indicators, such as tumors in my gut.

How do they get the transmitter out again? Do you {*filter*}it out? I will
ask my doc about this test, as i feel that it could be a LACK of HCL
that is causing the problems, which matches the symptoms i have prev.
mentioned.

I also heard that there is a breath test to investigate stomach
acidity. Anyone heard of this?

Don't need a biopsy. Back in the olden days, mine was dx'd by endoscopy,
but now they can do it with a breath test. The cure used to be
Flagyl+amoxicillin+bi{*filter*}h for 14 days, but I think they have a combo
drug now. The reason for the bi{*filter*}h in addition to an H2 receptor
agonist is that it kills the bacteria on the surface of the stomach
lining. This was quite a few years ago, so I may have remembered
something incorrectly - check with real doctors for actual advice!

--
"Did Father shoot him? I will eat Grandfather for dinner."
- Helen Keller, on learning of the death of her grandfather

Well, i finished my HeliMet antibiotics yesterday and have now moved
onto just having the Zoton, and whadayaknow, my gut pains are starting
to come back again! Exactly the same as what happened with the
HeliClear followed by Zoton ...