Helicobacter Forums

For 6 weeks I had horrible stomach pains super tired and solid pale/clay colored stool or diharria. my doctor said I had an ulcer and drew some labs. Then called me back saying I have h pylori and gave me the triple therapy combo. But every where I have read I do not see anyone having pale colored stools as an h pylori symptom I'm sure I have h pylori but could there be something else wrong considering the pale stool?

I havent heard of either. Nevertheless, try the triple therapy. whatever bacteria that is giving the pale color, is likely to be killed by the triple therapy combo anyway.

Thanks helico_expert, hopefully whatever is causing my bathroom troubles is eradicated with the h pylori, honestly the only reason why I went to the Dr was because of the pale stool lol

Have you been eating Tum's or other chewable antacids? Or drinking things for the stomach pain like Maalox or Pepto Bismal? These things all will color the stool.

Since you have abdomen pains as well as diarrhea, better get some blood work done like LFT (Liver Function Test), etc , stool culture test and also an ultrasound of the abdomen. If there are other bacteria, the stool culture test will tell.

tornado82 wrote:Have you been eating Tum's or other chewable antacids? Or drinking things for the stomach pain like Maalox or Pepto Bismal? These things all will color the stool.

I just recently had a baby and I was living off tums because of the heartburn and I never had a change in the color of my stool, and as for the pesto, yes I did take some when my symptoms first started and yes my stool was blackish but the pepto didn't help with the pain so I stopped the pepto and my stools continued to be pale before and after the pepto

newhpyloridiag wrote:Since you have abdomen pains as well as diarrhea, better get some blood work done like LFT (Liver Function Test), etc , stool culture test and also an ultrasound of the abdomen. If there are other bacteria, the stool culture test will tell.

They did do blood work, and I'm pretty sure my doctor said that my liver was okay according to the blood work. But now that I'm a week into my triple therapy and my stools have gone from pale, to black. I'm not sure if I mentioned in my first post but they did request a stool sample when I first went to the doctor with my symptoms, and they said they found blood in my stool. I'm still having stomach pains, although not as frequent more like 3-4 times a week compared to almost every night prior to being diagnosed. So now I'm wondering if any of the meds from the triple therapy are making them black or if my ulcer is bleeding? I'm currently taking 2- 500mg amoxicillin twice a day, 1- 500 mg clarithromycin twice a day and 1- 30mg llansoprazole twice a day

A Black stool would definitely suggest blood. Especially if it is sort of tarry. This isnt good. It would suggest bleeding somewhere in the upper digestive tract from the esophagus to the small intestines. This is usually due to an ulcer. Usually you would feel the ulcer if it is in your stomach as pain/burning. It wont generally be a bad pain, but noticeable. I'm sure you are aware of this, but you don't want to take any NSAID's right now. NSAID's are Ibuprofen, Naproxen, Asprin etc. NSAID's are tough on the stomach and are known to cause ulcers. For pain, take Tylenol instead (acetaminophen)

A stool that is pale/clay colored is generally either caused by something you're taking that is causing the coloration such as pepto bismal and other anti-diarrheal medicines, or by a lack of bile in the stool. A lack of bile in the stool could be caused by a problem with the bile duct, such as an obstruction. Those are about the only two ways Ive ever seen that a stool could be pale in color. I think id worry more about the ulcer and bleeding now and try to stay off anti-diarrheal medicines and see if the color returns to normal after triple therapy.

I'm sure your doctor has covered this but you should probably stay on the llansoprazole after triple therapy is over, perhaps for a couple of months. PPI's are known to help ulcer's heal, both in the esophagus and stomach.

I took the same triple therapy as you are taking, except I used Oemeprozole instead of llansoprazole (Prilosec instead of Prevacid) and I eradicated H. Pylori and handled the treatment well. Thankfully however I never had any bleeding or ulcers.

Yes, that's what I'm worried about is that the ulcer could be bleeding. I'll have to call my doctor tomorrow to let him know about my newest symptom.

I will say one thing though being on the triple therapy I was all excited when I read the horror stories on a forum on this website because I thought I was going to drop some of this baby weight Haha but all the antibiotics give me is a bad taste in my mouth. Go figure!

Desiree2 wrote:Yes, that's what I'm worried about is that the ulcer could be bleeding. I'll have to call my doctor tomorrow to let him know about my newest symptom.

I will say one thing though being on the triple therapy I was all excited when I read the horror stories on a forum on this website because I thought I was going to drop some of this baby weight Haha but all the antibiotics give me is a bad taste in my mouth. Go figure!

Yes the metallic taste in the mouth is from the Clarithromycin. That is extremely common. I had this same taste in my mouth for the whole 2 weeks I was on it. I just kept sipping some juice to get it away.

You may really want to have an Endoscopy done by a good Gastroenterologist, and let them get in there and actually see whats going on.