March 2008 - Killing H. Pylori

During the six weeks of waiting I continued taking the Protonix every day. All remained the same; no acid reflux, occasional lumping in the throat, stomach pains mostly had disappeared. But at least a couple of times, I had some chest pains after the evening meal. That greatly concerned me.

It was finally the day of my long awaited appointment with the gastroenterologist. We chatted about what had been happening with my stomach for the last couple of months and the H. Pylori results.

She said that I would need to be put on two different antibiotics at the same time along with taking two doses of Protonix a day in order to eradicate the H. Pylori. I mentioned to her that I was quite concerned about taking the Protonix for any extended amount of time because of the calcium absorption problem and she poo-pooed my concern. She told me, not in these exact words but her point was clear, that my concerns were unfounded and that there would still be enough acid in my stomach to absorb the calcium as acid levels fluctuated throughout the day. She also said that I would need to remain on Protonix probably for the rest of my life. What?! Yikes! I didn’t like the sound of any of that at all. Not to mention I was quite concerned about being on such high doses of antibiotics due to the awful antibiotic induced colitis I experienced in 2003. I’ll blog about that experience and what valuable things I learned from it some other time.

I went home with my prescriptions and began taking the 2,000 mg. prescribed daily (bear in mind I only weighed around 100 lbs.) and taking a dose of Protonix in morning and evening. It was a gross process at first. I had intestinal issues and one of the antibiotics constantly made my mouth taste terrible. I continuously felt the fumes (best way to describe it) of the antibiotic and the dying bacteria coming up my throat for the first few days. It was intense. One night, I became really frightened. I even debated whether to go to emergency room because it almost felt like I was having a heart attack. It was after the dinner meal, and I felt like a huge lump was in my chest which made my chest hurt and feel pressed on. I figured it was my dinner not staying in my stomach and traveling up my esophagus. Just as I was about to really panic, the pain ebbed and settled down.

I finished all my medicines after ten days and went back to taking the Protonix only once a day. I also decided to try using it only every other day and that seemed to be okay too.

Now I waited until my follow up appointment with gastroenterologist that was scheduled for April…