What will happen to me?

[Helico_expert]

I think if you had symptoms before, you should get it treated. How many treatments have you tried? I wouldnt give up with one or two trials. Perhaps you want to seek second opinion.

Nevertheless, your doctor is right that you have to live normally without stressing too much.

[Dushtek]

Hi!

I had the triple therapy in May, that's it. I've only had it once. So you really think I should try once more. My GP says it's up to me. If I want, I can have a quadruple therapy that lasts 14 days.. I'm not sure what to do..

[Helico_expert]

i think you should at least try one more time. Which triple therapy you have tried and which quadruple therapy is your doctor going to give you?

[erichild]

Update: Okay, I went to the gastro doctor on the 11-17. I am feeling better. It still have acid re-flux problems but the severity is less. At the moment I am taking prevacid. I thought the doctor would suggest I just stay the course for a month, or perhaps just take a non-evasive breath test or a stool test; however, he insisted that I get an endoscopy. Then it got weird. He told be that when you have h.pylori you don't have heartburn (I did!). Also, I am at heavy risk for Barrett's. When they went to schedule me for the test they wanted $1160 the day I show up for the test and insurance will "probably" will take care of the rest. They would not tell me the actual cost of the test. What's the point of insurance? They seemed very focused on giving me the test. It's money in their pocket. I have thought it over and I am going to wait another month to see if this prevacid works better. I will cancel that doctor's appointment. I don't trust that office.

[Helico_expert]

ya, cases like this, you probably want to seek second opinion.

in regards to H. pylori reduce heartburn, it's an "observation". Because in early days, after the discovery of the treatment, doctors noticed that some patients acquired heartburn or reflux after H. pylori eradication. So, they published a few papers saying that H. pylori must have suppressed the heartburn and reflux symptom during the infection. I think the truth is, nobody knows what gives the patient the heartburn and reflux after treatment. We have observed this before, but it's more like 50:50 in getting heartburn and reflux after treatment.

[Dushtek]

Dear Helico Expert! My first therapy consisted of Metronidazol, Lanzoprazol and Claritromycin for 7 days. My gp recommends repeating it, only replacing Metronidazol with Amoxicillin.

What do you recommend?

[Helico_expert]

I am not a medical doctor. So I cannot give you any advise in terms of what you should be taking. However, I would like you to discuss the possibility of switching Clarithromycin to Amoxicillin instead. It's just that I think it's easier for H. pylori gain resistance to Clarithromycin than Metronidazole. All it takes is one single mutation in the 23s gene, and it is resistant to Clarithromycin.

anyway, I trust your doctor know the epidemiology better than me in your area. After all, H. pylori is different from strain to strain. The resistance pattern will be different to what i understand.