Just started H. Pylori Treatment...

[tornado82]

Thanks for the information, It is very insightful.

The doctor I actually see finally called me this morning to straighten out my regime situation. She had been out of the office the last couple days. She has decided to alter my regime entirely now 3 days in, and to swap Metronidazole for Clarithromycin. This is what she did in case anyone is following my case:

-Regime extended from 5 days to a full 14 days.
-Continue taking Amoxicillen as originally perscribed: 1g twice a day. (2x 500mg pills in the morning, 2x 500mg pills in the evening. 2g total per day)
-Stop taking Metronidazole starting today, and replace it with Clarithromycin in the regime. Dosage has remained the same however: 500mg twice a day. (1x 500mg pill in the morning, 1x 500mg pill in the evening. 1g total per day.)
- I take my Regime at 8:00am in the morning before breakfast and at 8:00pm in the evening which is usually right after my dinner. I wanted to space the dosing exactly 12 hours apart feeling it would likely be most effective (hopefully I am right ont his?)
- PPI I am using is standard name brand Prilosec OTC 20mg, twice a day (40mg total per day). I take it before breakfast and before dinner.

My regime started on Monday of this week, so up to this point I had taken the Metronidazole 1g monday, 1g tuesday, and 500mg this morning before my doctor called to change my regime. So essentially what I will have now is 2.5 days of a Metronidazole regime and 11.5 days of Clarithromycin regime for a total 14 day regime.

My only concern I guess with all this is that I will have exposed my h. pylori to both Clarithromycin and Metronidazole, which means it could now gain a resistance to both if my treatment fails. Is this something I should be concerned about? I wish I had a 2nd opinion on this regime swap from an actual doctor. I simply wish if we were going to do this new regime we had started it from the beginning rather than switch to it 3 days into treatment. I feel like my doctors office has likely not had much experience with H. Pylori, but they have always been a good practice otherwise. I'm scared however that if treatment fails, I may have made a 2nd line treatment more difficult by using both of these antibiotics in the 1st line treatment. I guess all I can do is follow the regime now and cross my fingers.

I found some kefir and drank about 8 ounces last night. It caused me to have massive gas problems and stomach rumbling and rolling. I want to continue using the kefir but I'm going to have to take it in small amounts it seems if it is going to do that to my stomach. It kept waking me up for a couple hours with rumbling gasy stomach. I had drank it about 2 hours before bed.

[newhpyloridiag]

helico_expert, in your clinic, what's the prescription for clarithromycin? 500mg, twice a day or thrice a day?

[newhpyloridiag]

Thanks for the information, It is very insightful.

The doctor I actually see finally called me this morning to straighten out my regime situation. She had been out of the office the last couple days. She has decided to alter my regime entirely now 3 days in, and to swap Metronidazole for Clarithromycin. This is what she did in case anyone is following my case:

-Regime extended from 5 days to a full 14 days.
-Continue taking Amoxicillen as originally perscribed: 1g twice a day. (2x 500mg pills in the morning, 2x 500mg pills in the evening. 2g total per day)
-Stop taking Metronidazole starting today, and replace it with Clarithromycin in the regime. Dosage has remained the same however: 500mg twice a day. (1x 500mg pill in the morning, 1x 500mg pill in the evening. 1g total per day.)
- I take my Regime at 8:00am in the morning before breakfast and at 8:00pm in the evening which is usually right after my dinner. I wanted to space the dosing exactly 12 hours apart feeling it would likely be most effective (hopefully I am right ont his?)
- PPI I am using is standard name brand Prilosec OTC 20mg, twice a day (40mg total per day). I take it before breakfast and before dinner.

My regime started on Monday of this week, so up to this point I had taken the Metronidazole 1g monday, 1g tuesday, and 500mg this morning before my doctor called to change my regime. So essentially what I will have now is 2.5 days of a Metronidazole regime and 11.5 days of Clarithromycin regime for a total 14 day regime.

My only concern I guess with all this is that I will have exposed my h. pylori to both Clarithromycin and Metronidazole, which means it could now gain a resistance to both if my treatment fails. Is this something I should be concerned about? I wish I had a 2nd opinion on this regime swap from an actual doctor. I simply wish if we were going to do this new regime we had started it from the beginning rather than switch to it 3 days into treatment. I feel like my doctors office has likely not had much experience with H. Pylori, but they have always been a good practice otherwise. I'm scared however that if treatment fails, I may have made a 2nd line treatment more difficult by using both of these antibiotics in the 1st line treatment. I guess all I can do is follow the regime now and cross my fingers.

I found some kefir and drank about 8 ounces last night. It caused me to have massive gas problems and stomach rumbling and rolling. I want to continue using the kefir but I'm going to have to take it in small amounts it seems if it is going to do that to my stomach. It kept waking me up for a couple hours with rumbling gasy stomach. I had drank it about 2 hours before bed.

My treatment was similar to your new one but for 10 days. Also, I was asked to take the antibiotics after food (breakfast and dinner). PPI was 30 minutes before breakfast and dinner.
Yes, you now exposed both Clarithromycin and Metronidazole and if the treatment fails, you can try pylera ( it is much more effective).
I had some bloating and discomfort with kiefer and yes I did the 8 ounces too and that was my first time too. Cut it to may be 4 ounces.

[tornado82]

newhpyloridiag how did this regime work for you? Did you manage to kill the bacteria after the 10 day treatment?

Im starting to get hit now with the side effects harder. Yesterday and now today they are ramping up. Im noticing a lot of stomach discomfort. Bloating, gasy and overall discomfort. The discomfort is all through my gut, and may actually be stronger in the area of my intestines than my actual stomach. These antibiotics just rape the gut. I am a small guy with a wiry frame. 5'8" but only 120 lbs, so this may make my side effects stronger than if I were a bigger person maybe. I haven't had any pure diarrhea yet, but its getting very close. My biggest concern is that with all the discomfort my appetite is starting to fall off and I don't feel like eating very much. Struggling to eat anything for breakfast this morning. I dont have a very strong appetite though in the first place, so it doesnt take much to kinda put me off eating. Time to power through this treatment and hope it works.

My doctor said yesterday she wants to wait like 3 months to test me for eradication. she wants me to stay on prilosec, the PPI, for another month or two after I finish the regime. So, I likely wont know for months if this is successful unless I can convince her to test me sooner. Im not crazy about staying on the PPI for months because I have never had any acid reflux problems until this infection, and Im certain it is the cause.

[newhpyloridiag]

newhpyloridiag how did this regime work for you? Did you manage to kill the bacteria after the 10 day treatment?

Im starting to get hit now with the side effects harder. Yesterday and now today they are ramping up. Im noticing a lot of stomach discomfort. Bloating, gasy and overall discomfort. The discomfort is all through my gut, and may actually be stronger in the area of my intestines than my actual stomach. These antibiotics just rape the gut. I am a small guy with a wiry frame. 5'8" but only 120 lbs, so this may make my side effects stronger than if I were a bigger person maybe. I haven't had any pure diarrhea yet, but its getting very close. My biggest concern is that with all the discomfort my appetite is starting to fall off and I don't feel like eating very much. Struggling to eat anything for breakfast this morning. I dont have a very strong appetite though in the first place, so it doesnt take much to kinda put me off eating. Time to power through this treatment and hope it works.

My doctor said yesterday she wants to wait like 3 months to test me for eradication. she wants me to stay on prilosec, the PPI, for another month or two after I finish the regime. So, I likely wont know for months if this is successful unless I can convince her to test me sooner. Im not crazy about staying on the PPI for months because I have never had any acid reflux problems until this infection, and Im certain it is the cause.

I just completed it 3 and half days back. Actually I suffered for like 16 days prior to the treatment with those symptoms. But the day I started the treatment, I felt better and some of my appetite is back. Out of the 10 days, atleast 6 days, I was totally fine, the other days, I had some discomfort, but I made a point to eat more fruits and home cooked food and also 5 small meals a day. The only side effects I had was diarrhea (not watery, just loose stools, multiple times a day).

Since, you didn't have a great appetite even before this infection, so don't worry too much about it. Try to eat something you like, instead of just eating healthy. May be Kiefer is causing your bloated feeling, because I stopped it after 2 days, and I felt little better.

Get tested after 6 weeks, that's good enough waiting period. Regarding the PPI, try to go down to 1 a day after the treatment and see if you can handle, I am still taking 2. You can gradually go to 1 a day and then probably stop it.

[tornado82]

The first 2 days of treatment I felt great. Didnt even notice the medicine, but starting day 3 (yesterday) it began to come on fast with the side effects, and today has been pretty miserable. Day 4 is complete, and Im about to turn in for the night. I notice that if I stay active on my feet the side effects seem to not be as bad. If I sit down or lay down to watch tv or something it seems to get a little worse. Ive had nonstop discomfort all day today though...A feeling of trapped gas in the stomach, very bloated, tight, and my gut rolling and bubbling almost constantly. I had none of these symptoms at all before treatment, and actually thought H. Pylori test would come back negative. My issue was chest pain and reflux that came out of no where one day and never would go away.

I imagine day 5-14 is going to be pretty miserable much like today, if not get a little worse. Im trying to still drink a little kefir, even if its just 3 or 4 ounces per day. Im also eating Danon Activia pro biotic yogurt everyday still. The massive bloating is making my stomach feel full and pudgy, so its hard to eat. Ive been just sorta forcing food down, or snacking on little cookies here and there to keep my calorie intake up. If I dont keep my calorie intake up I lose weight fast. Im a small guy as mentioned before and have a fast metabolism. Thankfully I have the next 4 days off work, so I can kinda take it easy at home. Thanks for all your information and input its bee very helpful to me. I will continue to watch the thread here and update it as I progress in case it may help someone else one day. Ill also be sure to post any more questions that arise.

[Helico_expert]

Post by newhpyloridiag » Thu Jul 03, 2014 12:52 pm

helico_expert, in your clinic, what's the prescription for clarithromycin?

we prescribe Clarithromycin 2 x 250 mg tablets 2 times daily for 10 days


great discussion here.

[newhpyloridiag]

The first 2 days of treatment I felt great. Didnt even notice the medicine, but starting day 3 (yesterday) it began to come on fast with the side effects, and today has been pretty miserable. Day 4 is complete, and Im about to turn in for the night. I notice that if I stay active on my feet the side effects seem to not be as bad. If I sit down or lay down to watch tv or something it seems to get a little worse. Ive had nonstop discomfort all day today though...A feeling of trapped gas in the stomach, very bloated, tight, and my gut rolling and bubbling almost constantly. I had none of these symptoms at all before treatment, and actually thought H. Pylori test would come back negative. My issue was chest pain and reflux that came out of no where one day and never would go away.

I imagine day 5-14 is going to be pretty miserable much like today, if not get a little worse. Im trying to still drink a little kefir, even if its just 3 or 4 ounces per day. Im also eating Danon Activia pro biotic yogurt everyday still. The massive bloating is making my stomach feel full and pudgy, so its hard to eat. Ive been just sorta forcing food down, or snacking on little cookies here and there to keep my calorie intake up. If I dont keep my calorie intake up I lose weight fast. Im a small guy as mentioned before and have a fast metabolism. Thankfully I have the next 4 days off work, so I can kinda take it easy at home. Thanks for all your information and input its bee very helpful to me. I will continue to watch the thread here and update it as I progress in case it may help someone else one day. Ill also be sure to post any more questions that arise.

Try to do some walking, that will ease your stomach a bit. (Helped me)
Try Gas-x to get some relief from gas and bloat. (Helped me)
Try not to think too much about the situation, that way your muscles will relax. (Helped me)
You don't have to do 14 days. 10 days is good enough, so try to push it at-least until 10 days.
I am 33 and even I lose weight very fast, I lost like 10 pounds and it freaked me out. But in the last 2 weeks, I gained 2 pounds so don't worry too much.
Try to eat at-least some foods that you like, not just healthy.

[tornado82]

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July yesterday. Im into day 6 now, and surprisingly the side effects were very mild yesterday. I had almost no stomach discomfort all day yesterday. Im not sure why some days i seem to get hit hard with side effects and some days I dont. So far today seems about like yesterday, only some very mild discomfort in the stomach. The better I feel the more and better I can eat, so thats been a good thing. Im trying to stay positive, though I find this whole condition sitting on my mind a lot. Knowing there is a good 20-30% chance that this treatment will fail to kill all of the H. Pylori is what seems to bother me. Ive also read stories of people who go 2 rounds of treatment and still wasnt able to get it all out, and have had to simply live with and manage it. The increased risk of gastric cancer though is what is scary. I know the odds are in my favor to kill it, but a ~70% cure rate with triple therapy to me isn't enough. Knowing that Ill have to wait many weeks to a couple months to actually find out if its gone sucks too. Trying to stay positive about it though.

One thing Ive been wondering about is that Ive read H. Pylori can be transferred by saliva. This has made me think a lot, for obvious reasons. What if my g/f gave it to me? You cant exactly swear off of ever kissing your g/f. Im also curious how long H. Pylori can survive outside of the body; say, on a tooth brush or something. Has anyone seen any testing or research in this area? The saliva transfer potential is something Id like to better understand, but cant find a lot of information out there, only mentions that it "could be transmitted from person to person via saliva" I want to make sure that if I kill this thing, I never get it again, at least if I can help it.

Tomorrow will be the halfway point for me, and I plan to stick out the full 14 days no matter what it takes. Eradication results are a tad bit higher with 14 days vs. 10 days in some of the tests ive seen, and I want every extra % chance I can get to kill this thing.

[Helico_expert]

H. pylori survive poorly outside human body. at least in the laboratory, we always require a fresh sample to culture H. pylori. the longer the biopsy stay in room temperature, the harder it is to culture H. pylori. In addition, H. pylori is sensitive to many things, eg. salt, onion, garlic, chilli, pepper, etc etc. It is also sensitive to oxygen. So.. transmitting H. pylori via food and contaminated water is extremely rare. Only continuous long term close contact between two individual will establish such transmission.

as mentioned in your other post, just get everyone who lives under one roof to get a breath test. that will clear all the fear of H. pylori transmission.

Finally, to most people, there is always a cure for H. pylori. In our clinic, we only see patients who failed multiple standard triple therapy. and among these multi drug resistant H. pylori, we still manage to get a cure rate of 95%. The 5% that fail are mainly due to compliance, and not the actual resistance. So, just stay positive. Try not to think of it too much.