Previous question on h.pylori

[AURASAN]

Dr. Pho,

My wife was searching the internet and found the following post that I copied below.
You replied to the question  and I am trying to find out if "Jan" posted with a prognosis but I cannot find it on the web site.  
My wife has the exact same issues and I would to know if "Jan" replied or maybe if someone could e-mail her and see what happened?  

We went to the ER in November because of pain and they found a 15mm lesion on her liver and 3 kidney stone.  They Kidney turned out to be a mistake by the ER doctor and they never metioned the liver lesion.  We found out when we went to the Dr. for the Kidney stones.  This week she has felt lousy and complained of being cold.  We were in Las Vegas walking through a home show and notice that her finger nails were blue.  She has also noticed that her heart will start racing without any cause, sometimes it will wake her up.  She is really concerned that the h.pylori may have done some internal damage.  Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks, Rod

Question Title: Falling apart at 43
Forum: The Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases Forum
Topic: H. Pylori

Sixteen months ago, I started having back pain that felt like my body was being ripped open through my rib cage. The pain was all the way through my body, but I thought it was coming from my back. I went to an orthopedic, who prescribed anti-inflammatory medications and pain medications, but nothing helped. It got worse. I missed a lot of work, and became depressed over the entire situation. He finally gave me trigger point injections (21) in my back in March of this year, and said this would do the trick. It didn't. I tried a chiropractor, but he didn't help either ($2,000.00 later). I tried a different orthopedic, but he said that soft tissue injuries were hard to treat. In May of this year, I quit drinking coffee and I took Zyban to stop smoking cigarettes. I finally went to my primary care physician in June of this year and he ordered an upper gi,an ultrasound of my gall bladder and prescribed prevacid 30 mg and told me to start taking 2 a day. Results: duodenal ulcer, 1cm, acid reflux, and a blood test showed that I was positive for H-pylori, he sent me to a gastroenterologist.
The gastroenterologist gave me biaxim, flagil, and more prevacid (2 a day)and told me to take this for two weeks, after the two weeks he told me to continue to take prevacid 30mg 1 a day for 6 weeks and then to come and see him. Before the 6 weeks was up I ended up in the ER with severe abdominal pain. The GI cocktail and demerol did not help one little bit. They did a Cat Scan that showed I had a small cyst on my right ovary, and suggested that I go see an OB-GYN, and as for the abdominal pain it was from the ulcer and I should go see the Gasto Doc again. I went to see him and he told me to take prevacid for 6 more weeks and that he wasn't going to have me retested, breath or stool, for the h-pylori. I want to be retested for the bacteria, because I think I still have it. I've been taking prevacid for 3 months now, should I stop taking it. Since the pain started over a year ago and come to find out it was from an ulcer caused by h.pylori, and h.pylori has a relationship with the development of gastric cancer and gastri lymphoma, I am worried that I may develop the cancer, since I had the h.pylori for so long before it was found and treated. What do you think? I did go to the GYN who said the cyst was normal, but did a blood test to check for thyroid condition because of my abnormal periods and weight gain. TSH was low and the GYN told me to go to the PCP, I did and he did another blood test to confirm and to test T3 and T4. T3 and T4 was high, he has referred me to an Endocrinologist who I'll see on the 19th of October. I have hyperthyroidism symptoms, except I am gaining weight instead of losing it, and I am doing all I can to lose. I am on a diet and I exercise regularly, and I have not lost an ounce, I continue to gain. Why would this be? Do you think h.pylori has played a part in this thyroid problem? As information, I also suffer from migraines (since I was 8) and they have been really really bad the last few months. I did read an article that said some kind of a link has been found between h.pylori and migraines. What do you think? Also, in going to the neurologist for the migraines, he has ordered an overnite sleep study which I'll do this weekend at a local hospital. He thinks I have sleep apnea. I have all the symptoms! Help! I have never been to the doctor this much in my entire life. I am 43 years old. Where can I go and have an expert look at me and review all of these tests and see if there is a link?
_
Dear Jan,
Sixteen months is long time to be ill. I sense your frustration caused by your doctors each focusing on an single problem rather than taking a whole patient perspective. I read a quote once that went " If all you have is a hammer, everyhting looks like a nail" or if all you know is orthopedics, GI , OB/Gyne, everything is problem of that system.

During the last few years, research reports have associated H. pylori with many different conditions. What has not been shown, however, is that H. pylori infection causes these conditions. The only diseases caused by H. pylori are gastritis, ulcers and the MALT lymphoma. There is very strong evidence that gastric cancer is also caused by H. pylori. With regard to your abdominal pain, I doubt that you have gastric cancer or lymphoma but I do think that additionakl testing is needed. An upper endoscopy with biopsies is neccessary. You may also need an evaluation of your pancreas, despite already having had a CT scan, that I assume revealed a normal pancreas.

If you wish, we would be happy to see you in the Division of Gastroenterology at Henry Ford Health System. We would review your records and coordinate your care. You can make an appoinment with Dr. fogel one of our experts in the diagnosis of gastrointestinal Problems by calling [phone].

Best of luck.

HFHSM.D.-rf
*keywords: H. pylori
0.2

[AURASAN]

CalGal

I tried to find her post but it couldn't.  Thanks for your idea!

Rod

[CalGal]

Rod, this is not the forum Dr. Pho participates in. You'd have to be posting directly to him on the 'Ask A Doctor' section. However I'm not sure that it would be a good idea to use his 'fee-based' board to get an answer to your question. You may want to see if you can backtrack and send a message to 'Jan' yourself. If you can find her 'icon' and Jan is still connected/associated to the board, you may be able to get an answer yourself.