Helicobacter Forums

Like many of you, I have been dealing with hell for a while now - I'm female, and in my early 40s. This all started for me a little over two years ago, and my symptoms have gotten increasingly worse:

* constant nausea
* ridiculously bloated
* acid reflux that has zero help from PPIs, Tums, etc.
* constant belching
* weird bowel movements - I haven't had a solid BM in months. Usually it comes out pencil thin, flaky, or just disintegrates in the bowl.
* occasional vomiting
* constant burning pain in abdomen. It hurts if I don't eat. It hurts if I eat.
* really bad burning pain under right rib (much better after gallbladder removed, but not wholly gone)
* "scraped" feeling inside my intestines. I tell my husband it feels like I swallowed a pine cone that is moving through my insides.
* constant fatigue and tired feeling (may be due to me not eating much)
* weight loss; have lost 30 pounds and am now reaching the point where I can't afford to lose much more

My doctors have done all kinds of colonoscopies, endoscopies, and other fun stuff. I've been given PPIs, which did nothing. Finally, as a "Well, we dont' know what's wrong with you, but your gallbladder seems to be in bad shape" response, I had it removed a couple of months ago. I felt a lot better the first few weeks, and then it all went to hell again (my personal suspicion: the antibiotics they gave me during the surgery knocked whatever the heck I have down a few notches before it started growing again).

During one of the endoscopies about 4 months ago, they finally did a biopsy to check for H. pylori. Note: during that time, I had been on PPIs as well as a minor antiobiotic (Macrodantin) for something else. The test result was negative.

My questions:

1. Does this sound like H. pylori, based on the symptoms above?
2. I did some poking online, and it sounds like if you're on PPIs, it can give you a false negative. True?

Any help is greatly appreciated...

H. pylori causes all sort of gastric problem. So some of your symptoms do look like H. pylori. But you cannot tell for sure until you do a breath test.

it is true that PPI can lead to false negative breath test. It is best you switch to H2 blocker for at least 2 weeks. Then you can continue H2 blocker until the night before breath test. H2 blocker is fast acting, but stay in your body only for a short time. PPI on the other hand is slow acting, but stay in your body for longer time.

A lot of your symptoms sound like Candida. I was diagnosed with Candida and I’ve been dealing with it for a couple years, but the underlying problem is Hpylori. All the inflammation and leaky gut causes your gut to be open to a bunch of other issues. I’ve been dealing with it all naturally, and works pretty well for me, especially the Candida. But have to get rid of the H pylori or the Candida keeps coming back.

Bloating sounds like Sibo. I have found functional doctor is a lot more helpful.