Just started H. Pylori Treatment...

[tornado82]

that's very informative, thanks for the information. In your practice, if someone fails on the triple therapy that Im doing (clarithomycine, Amoxicillin, Omeprozole) what do you generally go to next to achieve a 95% cure rate? Ive seen mention of a one pill solution that is supposed to be effective, but its very expensive, and I dont know if insurance would cover it or not. I think I read it is several hundred dollars for a 10 day treatment, and even it isnt 100%. Your patients are in great hands with H. Pylori treatment though, given you are an expert on this bacteria. My g/f doesn't currently have health insurance or a regular doctor, so getting tests run on her would cost us out of pocket. Will keep it in mind though for future if we can get her tested. Until then I plan to be a little careful just to be safe.

Little side effects again today, but the annoying chest pain that had went away a week or so ago was back. Im baffled by this chest pain. Its mild, but discomforting, and it is just behind my sternum where I would imagine my LES is located, or right in that area of my esophagus. Ive not had any heart burn or reflux that Ive noticed, and im careful not to lay down after eating and such. I even elevated my bed 2 weeks ago when this started. Aside from the annoying chest pain the medicine has seemingly stopped causing side effects for me aside from the metallic taste in the mouth that happens every time for a few hours after I take my dose.

[Helico_expert]

We thought of doing the one pill thing. Basically, it's combining all the pills to one to improve compliance. However, you are right about the cost. It's currently not cost efficient to get a professional trained pharmacist to combine the drugs to improve the cure rate among the 5% of our patients.

in regards to the chest pain, you'll have to wait and see. Most importantly is the followup breath test to check its eradication.

[Jessetaylor]

Hey guys,

New user here. For the past 3-4 months I have had typical H pylori symptoms. 2 weeks ago I finally Got a breath test and tested positive for H Pylori via a breath test and was put on Amoxicillin(2x500mg morning and night), Clarimythicin(250mg morning and night), and Nexium(40mg morning and night). Today is the last day of a 10 day treatment.

I didn't really have any side effects from the medicine except it made me tired and I would get the gnawing feeling of nausea and my stomach feeling empty. Once I ate, this went away immediately.

Now, I haven't really noticed any symptom relief at all. I still feel the same as before the medicine, and that's my main question. I will be calling my G.I. Dr. on Wednesday which will give me 3 days of no meds before i speak with her.

Should I expect to feel better by now? Does it take a few days off meds for my stomach to heal?

My stools are still the same yellowish, tan color, loose, and looks like un digested food. I'm still very gassy, though slightly less bloated, slight nausea (improved since meds and any nausea now I think is due to meds), and just general stomach growling and discomfort. Not much has not changed since the medicine.

PS. Can I take Pepto Bismol to aid in raining hell on this bacteria? Haha, and if so, when and how much should I take?

Thoughts?

[tornado82]

Youve been very helpful Helico_expert, and youve answered a lot of my questions. Ive about ran out of questions but I did have one more. Regarding compliance. This isnt something I will have a problem with as Im very motivated, obviously, to see this thing cured. What Im wondering about though is the optimal times to take each dosage? I have been sticking tightly to every 12 hours, with very little variation. Around 9am I take my first dose after breakfast. Then I take the evening dose at 9pm a little after dinner. I go to bed late, usually around 12 or 12:30 am, so I eat dinner a tad later than most may. However, my thinking was that keeping the amount of time between dosages equal would be most optimal. I could take it at like 9am and 6pm with an earlier dinner however, but then you have a 15 hour gap before next dose, so during the day the antibiotics will be higher in the body due to the shorter time gap between doses, but during the night the levels would drop off more. This is just my thinking however. Is it all that important to keep it on such a tight schedule or is it ok to loosen up a bit and just make sure its done once in the morning and once in the evening? My thinking is that you want the antibiotics to be actively in the blood, and at as high a level as possible throughout the entire duration of treatment, but I could just be over thinking it as well.

[tornado82]

Hey guys,

New user here. I tested positive for H Pylori via a breath test and was put on Amoxicillin(2x500mg morning and night), Clarimythicin(250mg morning and night), and Nexium(40mg morning and night). Today is the last day of a 10 day treatment.

I didn't really have any side effects from the medicine except it made me tired and I would get the gnawing feeling of nausea and my stomach feeling empty. Once I ate, this went away immediately.

Now, I haven't really noticed any symptom relief at all. I still feel the same as before the medicine, and that's my main question. I will be calling my G.I. Dr. on Wednesday which will give me 3 days of no meds before i speak with her.

Should I expect to feel better by now? Does it take a few days off meds for my stomach to heal?

My stools are still the same yellowish, tan color, loose, and looks like un digested food. I'm still very gassy, though slightly less bloated, slight nausea (improved since meds and any nausea now I think is due to meds), and just general stomach growling and discomfort. Not much has not changed since the medicine.

Thoughts?

If you had some inflammation or an ulcer in the stomach due to h. pylori that will take a while to heal. You generally stay on the PPI (the nexium) for a little while after the antibiotics are done. The Nexium will help keep stomach acid down, and help to promote healing of any sores or inflamation in the stomach. Stomach acid irritates these sores and prevents them from healing. You should also know of course that the antibiotics you just took have essentially ravaged your gut, killing off millions of beneficial bacteria. Its an unfortunate side effect of anti biotics, they kill the bad things, but they also wreak havoc on the good things in your gut. This can take weeks or months to normalize, and get your stomach and digestive tract back in proper shape. The beneficial bacteria need to repopulate your gut and recover. You can help this process by taking probiotics. Probiotic Yogurt, Kefir(much better than yogurt), or even some pro biotic pills perhaps. I would speak to your doctor before taking a probiotic pill, but the kefir and yogurt are safe and beneficial. Kefir in particular contains ~12 different types of beneficial bacteria or so (some brands may have more or less). You want to drink 8 ounces of it twice a day if possible, but mixing it into your diet at this time I think would be very helpful to your stomach and digestive tract.

[Jessetaylor]

Thanks for the quick reply tornado. I have been taking 50billion 10 strain probiotic pills the whole time as well, even before treatment.

And can I take pepto bismol to aid in the eradication/ healing? If so, when and how much?

[newhpyloridiag]

Youve been very helpful Helico_expert, and youve answered a lot of my questions. Ive about ran out of questions but I did have one more. Regarding compliance. This isnt something I will have a problem with as Im very motivated, obviously, to see this thing cured. What Im wondering about though is the optimal times to take each dosage? I have been sticking tightly to every 12 hours, with very little variation. Around 9am I take my first dose after breakfast. Then I take the evening dose at 9pm a little after dinner. I go to bed late, usually around 12 or 12:30 am, so I eat dinner a tad later than most may. However, my thinking was that keeping the amount of time between dosages equal would be most optimal. I could take it at like 9am and 6pm with an earlier dinner however, but then you have a 15 hour gap before next dose, so during the day the antibiotics will be higher in the body due to the shorter time gap between doses, but during the night the levels would drop off more. This is just my thinking however. Is it all that important to keep it on such a tight schedule or is it ok to loosen up a bit and just make sure its done once in the morning and once in the evening? My thinking is that you want the antibiotics to be actively in the blood, and at as high a level as possible throughout the entire duration of treatment, but I could just be over thinking it as well.

Your doses should ideally be equally spaced throughout the day and taken at the same times each day. This helps to maintain a constant level of medication in your bloodstream. 9 AM and 9 PM is good.

[newhpyloridiag]

Hey guys,

New user here. For the past 3-4 months I have had typical H pylori symptoms. 2 weeks ago I finally Got a breath test and tested positive for H Pylori via a breath test and was put on Amoxicillin(2x500mg morning and night), Clarimythicin(250mg morning and night), and Nexium(40mg morning and night). Today is the last day of a 10 day treatment.

I didn't really have any side effects from the medicine except it made me tired and I would get the gnawing feeling of nausea and my stomach feeling empty. Once I ate, this went away immediately.

Now, I haven't really noticed any symptom relief at all. I still feel the same as before the medicine, and that's my main question. I will be calling my G.I. Dr. on Wednesday which will give me 3 days of no meds before i speak with her.

Should I expect to feel better by now? Does it take a few days off meds for my stomach to heal?

My stools are still the same yellowish, tan color, loose, and looks like un digested food. I'm still very gassy, though slightly less bloated, slight nausea (improved since meds and any nausea now I think is due to meds), and just general stomach growling and discomfort. Not much has not changed since the medicine.

PS. Can I take Pepto Bismol to aid in raining hell on this bacteria? Haha, and if so, when and how much should I take?

Thoughts?

Did you get a EGD scope to rule out inflammation and ulcers? Like Tornado said, if there is an ulcer, it will take few months for it to heal.

It may take a week or two for your stool to get back to normal. Mine got little better after a week.

Usually the dosage is Amoxicillin(2x500mg morning and night), Clarimythicin(500mg morning and night) . Don't know why your doc gave 250mg instead of 500mg.

Give it some time may be a week or 10 days because at this stage your GI doc will do nothing about it. He/She will ask you to take the breath test atleast 30 days after the treatment to check if the H-Pylori is gone. Only then, he can prescribe you different meds, if not treated. Don't forget to stop using nexium atleast 1 week before the breath test.

Meanwhile for gas, try to walk a bit, use gas-x, avoid gassy foods.

[Helico_expert]

Your doses should ideally be equally spaced throughout the day and taken at the same times each day. This helps to maintain a constant level of medication in your bloodstream. 9 AM and 9 PM is good.

I agree. However, it is not easy to measure the antibiotic concentration in the blood. Everyone has different metabolic rate. Nevertheless, some scientists are currently investigating the human genetic make up that metabolise the antibiotic faster. They believe that is one factor contributing to antibiotic resistance.

[tornado82]

Interesting, well im keeping my doses pretty equally spaced. I may shift up to an hour here or there, but never more than that. I have to eat before I take the first dose, and I dont eat breakfast until around 9am shortly after I get to work. I dont like eating dinner that late though, so I may take the evening pill around 8pm. My chest pain has returned the last 2 days to great frustration on my part. This is the original problem that sent me to the Dr. in the first place. My chest pain had been gone for a good week and I thought whatever it was had passed on, but its back now, out of the blue. No idea what is causing it. If it is due to acid reflux Im not feeling any heartburn or reflux. Ive been careful not to ever lay down 3 hours after eating. This is now over 3 weeks Ive had these wierd problems that came out of no where. I could eat anything and lay down or do whatever I wanted prior to this and never had any symtpoms of anything. One day I was fine, then the next I had chest pain, and so began this saga. Ive read and read and researched until Im tired of it at this point. Im afraid my next stop will be a GI doctor for an endoscope which I really wanted to avoid. If the chest pain doesnt go away though, its the only way Im going to find out whats actually going on. Im beginning to wonder if H. Pylori has played a roll in any of this at all. I had no stomach problems before being found positive by blood test. I wonder if it is the root cause of the chest pain, but I have no way of knowing. It all comes and goes as it pleases it seems. I notice If I lean forward and put my head in my arms at a table or something the chest pain goes away. Im not sure why this is the case. That could suggest a heart condition Ive researched but I really dont feel this is heart related.

Im going to just power on through the H. Pylori treatment and then see how my body reacts when I'm done with the treatment. Its all starting to take a mental tole at this point. I find it hard to just relax and not think about it. I'm feeling increasingly melancholy most of the day. Part of my mind wants to ponder that this could be something serious, like esophagus cancer. Yet I know that isn't likely. Having a constant low level chest pain though seems to cause a natural reaction of anxiety. The pain is not severe at all, its somewhat mild, but its a nonstop discomfort 24/7 when its here, and seemingly persists whether I eat or not, leaving me to believe its not acid reflux, but perhaps inflammation or worse in the esophagus. The sensation is similar to what you feel when you accidently swallow a piece of hard candy or something, and it kinda lodges in your esophagus, causing a feeling of pressure.

Today is tuesday and I will finish the antibiotics on sunday, and I cant wait to be done with it. Praying it works, and I dont end up in the 30% of those who fail. Hopefully my post's can help someone in the future who may have similar issues and happen across here. Really glad I found this site and decided to post. The replies have been very helpful and appreciated from everyone. I think it is great that you respond to posts here helico_expert. I assume you are a Dr. (are you the Dr. Marshall that is mentioned at the top of the page?) and you must be very busy, but taking the time to respond to peoples discussions here is greatly appreciated.