I was diagnosed with ulcers at the age of 10, well before Warren's work. For 11 years I dealt with constant pain and people telling me I just needed to learn how to relax. At the age of 21, at my next twice-yearly doctor appointment, my doctor asked me if I had heard about this news. I had, and I was willing to try it out as an experimental treatment. Eight weeks later I was cured. No pain. No after effects. Robin Warren impacted my life in a very real way.
I was also diagnosed with a duodenal ulcer when I was 10. In my case, it was the late 1980's and the H. pylori cause of ulcers wasn't accepted or widely known.
I spent a week in bed in excruciating pain, throwing up blood regularly. The doctor visited a couple of times, I'm not sure what he told my mother, but it was a week before he agreed I should go to hospital.
At that stage I was severely anemic and had peritonitis. I ended up in surgery to have a third of my stomach and some of my small intestine removed. A couple of weeks in intensive care and another few weeks in the children's ward before I was strong enough to go home.
When I left, I was told that I shouldn't eat acidic or spicy foods, and that I had an ulcer because of stress. I was 10, and I can tell you, while we didn't have a whole lot, I was far from being stressed.
Nearly 40 years later that surgery still impacts on my life. I still have some digestion issues, but knowing that Warren's & Marshall's work has prevented others from repeating my experiences has been some comfort.
Good on your doctor for trying something experimental which had such a great outcome.
Counterpoint: I was diagnosed with a duodenal ulcer at 12. It was from stress.
My dad has a large amount of scar tissue in his stomach from repeated ulcers. They magically went away when the doc lit a cigarette and told him they were gonna remove part of his stomach if it happened again. Never had an ulcer after that. Instead he would break out in hives when his stress level rose.
How is that a counterpoint? You're just presenting a rare case, like Zollinger-Ellison, or some genetic or physiologic Vagal over-stimulation.
80%+ of ulcers are caused by H. Pylori infection. Next largest group is misuse of NSAIDS (also the most common causes for pediatric ulcers).
Why would a doctor not first test and treat the common things, rather than do an invasive procedure?
