Monday, July 16, 2007

Belly redux

All is finally quiet on the belly front, literally. Those of the faint of heart non-bathroom rumor should skip the next sentence. The crescendo, literally, hit on July 4th. My arse had as many big bangs as the local fireworks. I counted, yes I counted, 38 blasts from my nether region in a space of four hours. The next day I started some medicine, Protonix, that inhibits gastric acid secretion. Since the first day on the med I have had NO stomach distention, bloating and gas issues. Hoo freakin' ray! My somewhat uninformed medical theorem on this is that my stomach is so laden with H Pylori, which was confirmed via biopsy, that it was working overtime to kill that bacteria. The downside is that H Pylori is the only bacteria that is unaffected by acid production. H Pylori bacteria thrive in that atmosphere and it literally digs deeper into the stomach lining. So as the H Pylori gets worse, the stomach produces more acid, then all that acid reacts very negatively with any foreign substance in the belly, aka food. Problem solved.
I will start a double course of antibiotics after MTB Nats to eradicate the H Pylori. Hopefully, all will be well by the beginning of August.
So for my faithful readers, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can finally eat pain free, imagine that.
Hopefully this turn of events will also bring some blood counts back into line. I have some high monocyte numbers, and have had them for six years. It will be neat to see if that is related to a chronic bacterial infection. That is one of the major reasons for high monocyte levels. If they are still high in September at my physical, then I will adress that issue as well as my very low Parathyroid levels. Damn, it is hard trying to get healthy.

No comments: