<p>Hi. I’m a young woman who is due to start grad school in 3 weeks. About 5 weeks ago I went to the Meadowlands Fair and ate a greek chicken sandwich with dressing. Three days later I was nauseous and had a loose stomach. It lasted 2 days and went away, but came back 2 weeks later, then went away and came back about 2 weeks later and I have been nauseous on and off every day since.</p>
<p>I’ve had a full gastro workup (all Negative) CT scans, abdominal ultrasounds, and a negative endoscopy. I went to an infectious disease doctor who found H pylori and lyme disease and I’m on prevpak for 2 weeks and then doxycycline for another 4 weeks. </p>
<p>I’ve only taken the prevpak for the past 2 days and I do not feel better. My doctor is not even acting as though he is sure that the h pylori is what is causing my nauseau…I am so frustrated.</p>
<p>Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Any advice? Thanks!</p>
<p>You need to give it longer than two days. I think I have been tested for every digestive malady imaginable in the last two years, after getting sick one day and never really getting better. Be patient with the treatment, give it at least a solid week or two (preferably more), and then if things still aren’t working out you must be persistent. Do some research, switch doctors when you need to, and maybe find a medical forum instead of CC for these kinds of issues. That might be more useful for you.</p>
<p>I think they use that H Pylori thing when they really don’t know what it is. It’s been my experience that viruses like to invade and then hang out for quite awhile. As Ema said, give the treatment a chance–it may just be a nasty virus that will get better on its own with rest and time–and be diligent about seeking medical help if you don’t feel better in a couple of weeks.</p>
<p>It wouldn’t hurt to contact whatever local health department had jurisdiction over the fair and see if there were any reports of food poisoning. If it was widespread, rather than just your own particular sensitivity, there would have been an investigation and maybe identification of the cause.</p>
<p>When I studied abroad in Mexico, by the third week I was horribly sick and thereafter could eat any food from any food cart; when I returned to the States, I had stomach problems for about a year, bad enough that I had to quick some sports classes I was doing. No Dx, but I just had to be really really careful what I ate for a good year at least :(</p>
<p>Google CALDA - California Lyme Disease Association and go to their website. If you have Lyme, make SURE to take all your med’s and do not skimp or skip. You need to eat something with Doxy so you don’t get a baadddd stomache ache and make sure you don’t just throw a capsule down your gullet right before bed because you forgot to take it at supper time - that can exaccerbate belly ache and reflux. So take your med’s exactly as prescribed and check with the pharmacist to make sure you know exactly how to take them. Stay with it and let us know if the doxycyclene helps you when you get to it. Good luck! Lyme is not to be treated lightly!</p>
<p>There is a specific test for H. Pylori, and I’m assuming if the OP had a complete work up, then they drew blood for it and confirmed it.</p>
<p>I had H. Pylori many years ago, and once I was treated, it made all the difference in the world, but I’d say it took at least a week before I started to notice a difference. There was a very specific regimen of meds they use for it and I remember it being a kind of pain in the butt. It worked, though; you just need to give it more time.</p>
<p>Your symptoms are not due to H. pylori or Lyme disease.</p>
<p>Ask twice whether you really need a CT scan in the future - it’s worth about a 100 chest X-rays.</p>
<p>Antibiotics will cause your stools to become loose.</p>
<p>It is possible to develop altered motility after an infectious process - e.g. post-viral gastroparesis (delayed gastric emptying).</p>
<p>For the next 3 to 6 weeks - recommend lactose free, low fat diet avoiding fast foods and deep fried foods in particular. Lactose free because if you sustained an insult to the small intestine it may several weeks for it to recover. Fatty meals tend to stimulate fecal urgency or what some call an exaggerated gastrocolic reflex (the need to run to the bathroom shortly after eating).</p>
<p>Keep a record of what you are eating to see if there is a pattern. A courier just picked up a bottle of salad dressing from me to deliver to a company for evaluation after I reported that it made my family ill after eating it on more than one separate occasion.</p>