Endoscopy

[jkmunchkin]

I wasn't sure where to post this, since it's not really celiac related.

I think I may have H Pylori (again. I had it a few years ago); and I know they will want to do an endoscopy to confirm if I have it.

The only problem is, I had an endoscopy done in December to see how my small intestine is healing from the celiac. Is it ok to have another endoscopy 10 months later? I know they suggest not doing them to often.

[dlp252]

I had 3 scopes done last year. Two of them were only a week apart, and the third was 3 months after the second one. I don't think there is any time limit on how often...while it's a fairly safe procedure, the only issues would be the issues that you'd have on any procedure whether you have one or many...sedation, risks of injury, etc. I'm pretty sensitive to the sedation, but even that wasn't a problem having them so close together.

[happygirl]

I've unfortunately had one endo, one colonoscopy, and one joint endo/colonoscopy within a 6 month time frame, so as long as it is medically necessarily (which it sounds like it is), I would think it is ok.

Good luck, Jillian, and I hope they definitively figure out the problem.

[~alex~]

I had a second endoscopy about three months after I was diagnosed with an endoscopy/biopsy. Everything went fine and it probably went smoother than the first endoscopy.

It is probably wise to limit the endoscopies since there are some risks to them but if you doctor thinks the benefits outweigh the risks, than it is probably okay to go ahead with it. I'm not sure, but I don't think already having an endoscopy makes a subsequent one more dangerous. Maybe just the more endoscopies you have, the more likely you are to experience the small probability risks.

I hope you get better quickly from the H. Pylori.

[jkmunchkin]

Thanks guys!

I'm not positive it's H Pylori again, because the pain isn't as bad as last time. But last time I also was in constant pain from the undiagnosed celiac, so I think that made it worse.

Now my other concern is the last time I took the medication for it, I had an allergic reaction 1 week in (you're supposed to take it for 2 weeks), but I have to assume there is more than 1 treatment available if it is infact H Pylori.

I left a message for my doctor so we'll see what the outcome is.

Thanks again.

[dlp252]

Yeah, I had to take the Prevpac and was afraid of reaction, and while I was doing a bit of research I did see that there were some other things that they could prescribe, but that this was the most effective...sorry I don't remember what it was now. I'll check to see if I kept any links. Fortunately for me I was okay with it.

[dlp252]

Well, it looks like I didn't keep much specific about treatments, but did see this from one of the links I kept:

How is H. pylori treated?

H. pylori is difficult to eradicate from the stomach because it is capable of developing resistance to commonly used antibiotics. Therefore, two or more antibiotics usually are given together with a PPI and/or bismuth containing compounds to eradicate the bacterium. (Bismuth and PPIs have anti-H. pylori effects.) Examples of combinations of medications that are effective are:

a PPI, amoxicillin (Amoxil) and clarithromycin (Biaxin)

a PPI, metronidazole (Flagyl), tetracycline and bismuth subsalicylate

These combinations of medications can be expected to cure 70%-90% of infections. However, studies have shown that resistance of H. pylori (failure of antibiotics to eradicate the bacteria) to clarithromycin is common among patients who have prior exposure to clarithromycin or other chemically similar macrolide antibiotics (such as erythromycin). Similarly, H. pylori resistance to metronidazole is common among patients who have had prior exposure to metronidazole. In these patients, doctors have to find other combinations of antibiotics to treat the H. pylori. Antibiotic resistance is another reason why antibiotics should be used carefully and judiciously for the right reasons, and indiscriminate use of antibiotics for improper reasons should be discouraged.

Some doctors may want to confirm eradication of H. pylori after treatment with a urea breath test or a stool antigen test, particularly if there have been serious complications of the infection such as perforation or bleeding in the stomach or duodenum. Endoscopic biopsies to determine eradication of the bacteria are not necessary, and blood tests are not good for determining eradication since it takes many months for the antibodies to H. pylori to decrease. The best tests for determining eradication are the breath and stool tests discussed previously. Patients who fail to eradicate H. pylori with treatment are retreated, often with a different combination of medications.

Here is the site where that came from:

Open Original Shared Link

[jkmunchkin]

Thanks so much Donna! Yeah that Prevpac is what I took the first time. The doctor thought I had an allergic reaction to the penicillin, even though I never was allergic to it before. He thinks it could have been the extremely high dose of it. Which makes sense. Then again this was also the GI that noted my small intestine looked "funny" but didn't take a biopsy on it despite my telling him that I am pretty much always sick, hence I went undiagnosed with the celiac for about another year and a half. (but I digress - lol). I now have a much smarter GI. Hehe!

I may be overreacting too, and it could just be a stomach bug. It doesn't necessarily feel like that is what it is, but you never know.

On a seperate note, Donna did you move?

[dlp252]

Grrrr on the clueless doctors, lol. Glad you've got a good one now.

Move? Not my home, but just moved at my office.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Is an endoscopy the only way to diagnose h. pylori? I thought there were other, less invasive ways to diagnose it.

[jkmunchkin]

Is an endoscopy the only way to diagnose h. pylori? I thought there were other, less invasive ways to diagnose it.

Well you can have a blood test done, but I think once you have H Pylori it always shows up in blood tests. Not positive about that but pretty sure.

I think they can also do a stool test, but the meds for it are pretty intense and so I think they generally like to do a scope to 100% confirm you have it.