another visit to the doctors

compor · Post by **compor** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 11:48 pm

After a long break I finally had the courage and will to visit doctors again.

First stop was ENT, a couple of doctors examined my nose, throat and tongue. I had a CT Scan as well.

nose: They said I have a deviated septum which blocks most of the passage in the right nostril and they recommended septoplasty. According to them this operation would improve my life quality, however they also said it probably won't help with my bb. I decided to have the surgery which should be in a few weeks after I get my blood test results.

tongue: ENT doctors said I should go see a dermatologist about the white areas in the back of my tongue, so I did. I just told the dermatologist that the ENT specialist had sent me, nothing else. She examined my tongue and said "it's not candida". I asked her a few questions about candida but in the end she prescribed me a gargle and sent me back.

gastro: After that I got examined by a gastroenterologist who asked for endoscopy with biopsy. I took care of that too. Endoscopy results showed that I had inflammation and erosion in the antrum region (the bottom region of the stomach). Waiting for biopsy results.

My B12 levels are still low. It should mean something too.

will write again when I get biopsy results

Music Lady · Post by **Music Lady** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:59 pm

Compor do you have any abdominal pain?

I do and was also told years ago I have excessive inflammation.

compor · Post by **compor** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:19 pm

Most of time I don't have any abdominal pain, just the feeling of burn on my throat.

HigherThoughts · Post by **HigherThoughts** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 11:04 pm

How do you guys find doctors that will even acknowledge your bad breath? I have seen 3 doctors. One of them gave the excuse of "I have a bad nose, can't smell anything." Another when I mentioned it didn't say anything about it. Then the one that really pissed me off was a gastronenteroligist I saw. He just started questioning me about it. Like saying how do you know you have bad breath? Did your family or friends tell you? What a ****ing prick. You are sitting there rubbing your nose and smelling this shit and yet you question me?

I find it so hard to trust people now that I don't even want to see doctors anymore. They take our money then ignore our symptom because its hard to cure. I think it is ridiculous we have to jump from doctor to doctor and go through like 20 different doctors to actually find someone who will take us seriously.

potty_mouth · Post by **potty_mouth** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 11:26 pm

@compor
Do you get a runny nose like "normal people" or do you find that all your snot goes down the back of your throat? I never get a runny nose but get loads of throat mucus, and was once advised to have my ostia opened up (the tiny openings in the sinuses that drain into the nose). This would help drain any mucus/infection in the sinuses which could not empty out the nose. I'm just saying that you may want to ask your ENT to do this during septoplasty if you have similar symptoms. At the time, I just went for the tonsillectomy but i wish I'd had the septoplasty and ostia opened too.

@higher thoughts
I have come to accept that my BB must be a lot worse at times than at others. So I try to avoid telling the doctor, and instead concentrate on other symptoms (possible BB causes) like acid reflux / GI issues and then just slightly exaggerate them so they do something about it. If I do ever tell them about the BB, I now try to hide it as a secondary annoying symptom, and make sure that I say that "I know that I get intermittent bad breath, and maybe you won't be able to detect any problem today". The more reasonable you seem, and less anxious, the more they seem to listen and not just label you as crazy.

compor · Post by **compor** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 12:36 am

@HigherThoughts
I was so sick of doctors lying to me about not smelling my bad breath while covering their noses, one time I went to see an ENT specialist without brushing my teeth, just to be sure that he can't deny it this time. I exhaled right through his face when he was really close to me. His face got weird and he ran to the other side of the room and then said he didn't smell anything bad. I left without saying a word.

@potty_mouth
I have lots of mucus in my throat, all the time. At the moment I am trying to find a doctor who has good reputation and experience with septoplasty operations.

potty_mouth · Post by **potty_mouth** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 3:56 am

but when you get the mucus in your throat do you get a snotty nose too? If you do, then you probably don't need to worry about your ostia at all.

compor · Post by **compor** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 11:31 pm

update:

Endoscopy results showed that I had Chronic Atrophic Gastritis with Intestinal Metaplasia. I checked the result of my previous endoscopy which I had 2 years ago to see that the diagnosis was exactly the same. H.pylori was negative that time, too.

This is from wikipedia:

Atrophic gastritis is a process of chronic inflammation of the stomach mucosa, leading to loss of gastric glandular cells and their eventual replacement by intestinal and fibrous tissues. As a result, the stomach's secretion of essential substances such as hydrochloric acid, pepsin, and intrinsic factor is impaired, leading to digestive problems, vitamin B12 deficiency, and megaloblastic anemia.

My B12 levels have always been low, at the moment it's still below the limits.

Intestinal metaplasia is the transformation of epithelium, usually of the stomach or the esophagus , to a type that bears some resemblance to the intestine as seen in Barrett's esophagus. Chronic infection caused by H. pylori infection in the stomach and GERD in the esophagus are seen as the primary instigators of metaplasia and subsequent adenocarcinoma formation.

I had H.pylori which was cured in 2010 with triple therapy.

It is considered to be a premalignant condition because it is associated with an increased risk of esophageal cancer (more specifically, adenocarcinoma) of about 0.5% per patient-year. If the cancer develops, it is very often deadly.

“IM in the stomach has a high cancer risk and is therefore defined as a precancerous condition”

From what I understand, here is what happened. I got infected by H.pylori about 10 years ago which caused gastritis (inflammation). Gastritis caused low B12 levels (which is still low by the way) and low acid secretion in the stomach which in turn made it harder to digest. As a results some food started rotting in some part of the digestive tract and caused bad breath.

I have read a lot about Intestinal Metaplasia. There are some studies stating that with the eradication of H. pylori and a combination of antioxidant agents, IM might be reversible. Anyway, this turned out to be more serious than I thought. Good part is, I have some condition that I need to take care of which in turn may or may not cure bad breath.

mike987 · Post by **mike987** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 12:39 am

I don't have evidence other than what I've been told is an ulcer scar, found in an endoscopy, but that sounds like something that could be what's going on with me.

Anyway, I've got another h.pylori test coming, in the form of an over the counter kit from the UK.

I need an endoscopy in the US with doctors I can really communicate with... guh.

time4change · Post by **time4change** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 11:23 pm

Compor, what was the gargle that the dermatologist prescribed to you and did it help with your tongues appearance?

Also I saw something about vitamin patches a few months back, for b12. You can get them online in quite a few places and they're not really expensive, could be worth a try?

Hope you find your cure

FedUp · Post by **FedUp** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 11:26 pm

I don't know why doctors seem hell bent on lying to us.

I remember I saw a doctor twice about 4 months ago.

The 2nd time she said my breath wasn't as bad as it was the last time Isaw her. (since the first time i'd extracted a lot of tonsil stones). The only doctor to acknowledge my breath.

I asked my ENT if he smelt anything, he said he had a cold but was quick to say he'd remove my tonsils and examine my sinuses with a ct scan lol

If I had the money and knowledge I'd love to open a Halitosis specialist clinic. Ii know how this affect people first hand.

HigherThoughts · Post by **HigherThoughts** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 12:57 am

@potty_mouth - I didn't even come off as anxious or anything. I just talked about it calmly, and when I went to the GI I mentioned it as another symptom along with digestive problems.

The ENT I saw even had a slight gag reflex when he needed to get really close to my mouth and check inside. I had to open my mouth and say ahh which forced all the breath right onto his face. He clearly reacted even though he gave me the bs about having a bad nose.

Also the big thing for me is a lot of my other symptoms are disappearing except for some slight digestive problems. But I have always had digestion problems even before this chronic bad breath. So what else would I tell the doctors if all my other symptoms are going away, but this bad breath still persists?

@ Fedup - Yea that would be awesome if we can open a real and honest clinic. All the bad breath clinics open right now are just focused on making money. They probably are dishonest and don't even care about trying to fix our problem.

compor · Post by **compor** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 2:54 am

re time4change
I don't remember the name of the gargle, gonna check when I get back home. I haven't started using it yet cause I am still dealing with stomach-related issues. Even though my last 2 biopsy results in the last 2 years has shown H. pylori (negative), my current doctor is not convinced. He believes H. pylori still exist and causing inflammation (gastritis), so he ordered more tests. I hope he is right. Then I might just do triple-drug-treatment to exterminate H. pylori, which in turn will eliminate B12 deficiency and cure gastritis in time.

I will keep you informed when the doctor prescribes me something. If he prescribes PPI again and avoids questions I will go see some other gastroenterologist with the test results I have.

compor · Post by **compor** » Thu Nov 15, 2012 12:44 am

update:

More tests confirmed that I was negative for H. pylori. Doctor prescribed amoxicillin (1000 mg), levofloxacin (750 mg), and lansoprazole.

He also ordered a test for anti parietal cell antibodies. If it turns out to be positive then I'm guessing it would mean autoimmune gastritis.

Mm123 · Post by **Mm123** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:33 pm

HigherThoughts wrote:How do you guys find doctors that will even acknowledge your bad breath? I have seen 3 doctors. One of them gave the excuse of "I have a bad nose, can't smell anything." Another when I mentioned it didn't say anything about it. Then the one that really pissed me off was a gastronenteroligist I saw. He just started questioning me about it. Like saying how do you know you have bad breath? Did your family or friends tell you? What a ****ing prick. You are sitting there rubbing your nose and smelling this shit and yet you question me?

I find it so hard to trust people now that I don't even want to see doctors anymore. They take our money then ignore our symptom because its hard to cure. I think it is ridiculous we have to jump from doctor to doctor and go through like 20 different doctors to actually find someone who will take us seriously.

I know exactly how it feelS!!! plUs i am in high school and i have no friends IMAGINE that. even my best fireind is trying hard to cope with this.. but she seems to run off to another girll when i am talking to her.. an i am crying deep down inside questioning myself 'why me?'

this bb is f**** ruining my life (our lives ).. i doubt if i will even get into to do medicine cause in the medical interview if this suff happned then i highly doubt i WILL GET IN!.. coz IT'S A GOD DAMN IMPORTANT THING IN MY LIFE WHERE MY FUTURE IS where i have to talk for 30 minutes and i dunno know how the interviewers will cope with this and there's more competition and i doubt they will choose me ''thinking i am shit with BAD breath who can't brush my teeth'' .. THIS MEANS MY LIFE IS RUINED MY CAREER PLANS (WITH THIS F**** SHIT I HAVE TO GO THROUGH EVERYDAY I CAN UNDERSTAND EACH OF YOUR'S PAIN AND SYMPATHISE IT.) I AM CRYING EVERYDAY COZ OF THIS SHIT!

okay sorry if that was too much.. OTT.

i was pouring my heart out. i bet u guys feel like this when no-one can understand your feelings..