Tested positive for H.Pylori bacterial infection in stomach.
About to start (difficult) treatment of high powered antibiotics and Prilosec (which I didn't tolerate very well in August) to get rid of it.
What is H.Pylori? Read this:
https://www.allinthelighting.com/h-p...f-you-have-it/
Cliffs: Many people have it (perhaps more than half the US population), and it can sit in you for decades with no symptoms. However, it is advised to treat it if it appears you might be having symptoms associated with it. In my case, the LPR and mild abdominal pain, both of which started within a close time frame, are both associated with H.pylori.
Treating it is controversial, though. You also might be removing some beneficial aspects of H.pylori, and the high powered antibiotics are also known to cause their own set of problems in some people. There is also some believe that H.pylori helps PREVENT esophageal cancer. On the plus side, this could potentially solve some of my issues, and even if it doesn't, I'm definitely lowering my chance of future stomach cancer and stomach ulcers by getting rid of it.
Anyway, the treatment lasts two weeks. Gotta take TWO high dose antibiotics AND Prilosec, TWICE a day.
Probably gonna feel awful, appetite will probably be suppressed (Prilosec did that to me last time), and hopefully nothing else will happen.
Long two weeks coming up. Will probably start tomorrow or Wednesday.
Possible I may have to do this all over again if H.pylori is resistant to it. If I caught it fairly recently, it will be easier to get rid of. I will retest for it in 6 weeks.
I suspected H.pylori as a possible cause because of both the abdominal pain I've experienced AND the fact that my LPR showed up very abruptly, as opposed to gradually came on, and for none of the usual abrupt causes (surgery, illness, etc). So I suspected perhaps it was an infection of some kind that made this happen.