Helicobacter Forums

I took my second H.Pylori antibiotic treatment for 2 weeks in March 2012 and a recent breath test confirmed that it was gone (i went off of all PPIs and other acid reducers for one month prior to breath test). I noticed I have been able to eat a bit better but not completely back to normal yet. I thought i was getting better until a couple of days ago i drank a little bit of coconut water and since then i have been in much pain, it does not feel like heart burn, its a scratchy feeling and i am also nauseated, and i have no appetite. Before this new pain started i did not have heart burn and i'm still not getting it, but i'm getting this gnawing feeling in my stomach and i dont know if the nausea is coming from the food inside. when i eat the food irritates my stomach. Its confusing because i'm feeling this pain and i was getting better for a while. Now i want to see my GI again... can it be inflamation? a ulcer? I saw a doctor at the walk in clinic today and he told me to go back on dexilant (PPI) so i did but there no difference and i dont think its going to help because i'm not geting any heartburn. I told the dr that whenever i try to push my stomach under my ribs to feel the pain and thats where i find it... but the dr didnt do that so he didnt locate the pain. Before this i was taking zantac 150mg whenver i felt i needed it which was maybe once or twice a week.

Also, back in february i had an endoscopy and there was no ulcer just a bit of irritation and H.pylori (which was treated in march).

I just wondering if this is normal pain appearing out of nowhere with no heartburn for people who recently eradicated hpylori? if not, what do you suggest it can be? Do you know if there is anything that i can take to sooth my stomach or should PPIs or zantac help me with that?

this is an update from the post "Blood test positive after breath test was negative".

perhaps you had a bad coconut drink? if your endoscopy shows no ulcer in February and your recent UBT showed negative, then I think your stomach should be clean. Nevertheless, your stomach probably need more time to recover from the damage done by H. pylori.

PPI neutralise your stomach and then all other bacteria can start growing. Some people suggest gluten free food to help during the recovery. Although there is no scientific evidence to support this, I guess it is no harm trying. The good news is, your H. pylori is gone. Now is just waiting for the recovery.

Thanks for the reply, I am feeling better today. Lately i have been testing myself to see if i can eat normal like before i had Hpylori so i dont know if i pushed my stomach too much. What you said makes sense, I probably am clean and i just need to take it slow. I am wondering though if you can say what you meant by "PPI neutralise your stomach and then all other bacteria can start growing."? thank you.

PPI is an acid reducing drug. it suppress the stomach from producing acid. It is essential for H. pylori treatment because A) it reduces the H. pylori load; B) antibiotics perform better in neutral pH; and most importantly C) prevent acid from attacking the ulcer.

Anyway, people who takes PPI will have a neutral pH stomach. In normal case, your stomach is acidic and no other bacteria can survive. But when your stomach is neutral, all sort of bacteria starts growing in your stomach. No one knows what will be growing there, but I think it's a "chance" game. If you are lucky, it's dominated by harmless bacteria, then nothing wrong. However, if it is dominated by harmful bacteria, your'll probably get stomach upset or unpredictable symptoms. It is why, probiotic after antibiotic treatment MAY be helpful. again, there is no scientific evidence to support this. However, it is logical not to have probiotic during antibiotic treatment as they'll just die from the heavy antibiotics.