Helicobacter Forums

8 months ago I became bloated and constipated. I took pepto bismol for 3 days and my symptoms cleared. About 2 or 3 months later symptoms came back with gas. My roommate offered me his leftover Prilosec and it pretty much was curing my symptoms. I took it for approx 8 weeks. I stopped to see if what I assumed was gastritis healed. Pain and constipation came back but at only about 20% strength. I went to doc and I was switched to pantoprozale which failed after one week, gave me constipation and diarrhea with undigested food. I went back to Prilosec with marginal relief. Went back and tested me positive for H Pylori, now on day 5 of triple therapy.

I feel better after a BM or passing gas. For a long time I felt worse after eating, and after I stopped Prilosec and went back on it, it switched to me feeling better after I ate.

Has anyone else had h pylori with just the digestive issues? I have no nausea or heartburn and my abdominal pain is around my belly button area and not upper abs as many people complain of.

Forgot to mention I took NSAIDs every day for 4 month right before all this.

The side effect of NSAIDs is reducing the mucous layer. Hence, your gastric juice is digesting your own stomach, leading to stomach ulcer. Of course, NSAIDs dont reduce the mucous with one dose. One has to continue taking NSAIDs for a period to have such effect. Therefore, long term NSAIDs is not recommended.

Anyway, you should go book yourself a follow up breath test one month later to check if your treatment work.

What's the difference between the breath and stool test?

breath test, you swallow a pill, which contain radioactive urea. only H. pylori will break down the radioactive urea into radioactive carbon dioxide. When you breath out, we measure the level of radioactive carbon in your breath. If you have high level of radioactive carbon, it means you have H. pylori. If you have no H. pylori, the radioactive urea will not be broken down and the radioactive material will be excreted out via urine or other pathway.

stool test on the other hand, is using very specific antibodies to detect the H. pylori from stool. if you have H. pylori, the antibody will bind and give a positive result.

both tests are equally sensitive and specific.

I'm about 10 days into triple therapy and I feel 90% better except for loose stools but I'd much prefer that to constipation. Reading how triple therapy has failed so many really scared but but its working for me

i am glad that you are feeling a lot better.

by the way, the forum is biased to people with difficulties and lots of side effects. Normal people who got rid the bacteria with ease would not visit the forum. So, it's normal to observe more people having trouble and severe side effects here as they are trying to seek further advise.

Good to hear that your condition has improved.