After a year of weird symptoms mostly gastro intestinal related such as acid reflux, stomach and intestinal cramping, gas, loose stool, mild nausea and weird rashes, I was diognosed w/ H. Pylori infection via a blood test. Ironically 3 years ago I had similar symptoms and had an endoscopy at which time the bacteria was not diognosed, however there was no blood or breath test done at that time. I was sent home w/ no answer as to my symptoms. After suffering for about 8 months I felt better for about a year or so and Dec 2001 I felt like I got hit by a Mack Truck and symptoms started again and continued up to present. In the iterim I had numerous tests including 3 HIV tests w/ no diognosis until I went to the Dr. begging for an answer and complaining about my daily bout w/ gastro problems and most importantly RASHES.The rashes combined to gstroproblems alerted him to H. Pylori again and lo and behold I have been infected for God knows how long.

I am now on my 5th day of the treatment process and hope it's the final chapter. I will say that after the second day of treatment I no longer have acid reflux (I'm sure that's attributed to the 60 mg. of Prevacid) I have to take along w/ the antibiotics and no gas, bloating, cramping etc. I do however have the usual side effects from massive dosages of antibiotic taking

Has anyone else out there had the same symptoms and diognosed w/ Pylori? If so what were the symptoms and the outcome of your treatment?

Thanks

what are the side effects?

The first couple of days I had very loose undigested food and a bitter taste. Now 5 days into treatment the side effects have waned. As you can imagine 6 pills of antibiotics a day is a pretty heavy load but worth it

If you are taking 6 antibiotics daily, then I would suggest taking Acidophilus caps or eating some live yogurt. Antibiotics will kill off all your good gut bacteria and could give you an upset stomach with diarrhea. Take the Acidophilus at different times to the antibiotics and on an empty stomach and this will help get you bacterial levels up again and prevent any side effects that you have.

Some people suggest that a natural way to get rid of H.Pylori is Mastic gum. Harry knows about this, but I don't as I have never had H.Pylori before. I think he has had success with this before.

Hope this helps?

Hi, What is the dose and type of antibiotic that you are on? Also, how long will you be on the antibiotic? Sounds like H Pilori is hard to get rid of!
groundhog

The medication I take twice daily is 30 mg (60 mg total) of Prevacid, 500 mg. Biaxin (1000 total) and 1000 mg of Trimox (2000 total.

Actually w/ this regiment H. Pylori is eradicated in 85 to 90% of the cases. If unsuccesful you have to try again.

Hope this helps

My H. pylori experience - for a couple of months, I had a feeling like I had a bubble in my chest. When I went to the doc, I found out the "bubble" was ulcers from H. pylori. I went on the prev pack (antibiotics + prevacid) and got very very ill. My stomach felt horrible and I couldn't stop vomiting. Under the advice of my doctor, I took all of the antibiotics. I continued to take prevacid for two more weeks. But after that I had pain in the middle of my chest and my throat burned. I could barely eat anything - I felt so much worse than when I had H. pylori! The result of treating the H. pylori was that I developed GERD. I went to a gastroenterologist and had an endoscopy. He confirmed I no longer had H. pylori, but my esophagus was very damaged. I had to take meds for over a year to get back to normal. Now I'm completely symptom free. My gastroenterologist said a natural way to help prevent getting H. pylori is to eat broccoli.

Luckily for me I'm handling the meds real well. Yes, it's true that by getting rid of H.Pylori your stomach will produce more acid thus possible GERD, but by your stomach producing more acid you will have the proper digestion. I myself had many symptoms from the "bubble in chest" feeling to gas, bloating, hives, rashes, loose bowel etc.... Already most of my digestive symptoms are gone and I'm sure that when I get off the medication and the Prevacid I'll get heartburn or GERD, but you have to ask yourself which is worse. Actually if you can tolerate Prevacid and drugs like it why not just take that once a day?

Remember studies have shown that H. Pylori can cause cancer in the stomach and is even implicated in heart disease. As in your case you had an ulcer. I'd rather have GERD which can easily be controlled than an ulcer which can bleed and kill you over night. My Grandfather died from a bleeding ulcer in 1 night well before H. Pylori was discovered. He simply thought he was just having a bad stomach night as usual but never woke up and bled to death.

My theory and this goes for many Dr's is that if H. Pylori is not causing symptoms it's best to leave it alone, but once it starts to cause symptoms it can kill and needs to be eradicated.

Oh, I definitely agree. I'm not saying I regretted having the H. pylori treated. I found out later from my gastroenterologist that the doctor that treated my H. pylori should have handled it differently. I wasn't taking a high enough dosage of Prevacid and I should have been switched to different antibiotics because of my reaction. I also should have continued taking Prevacid for a few months after antibiotic treatment because my stomach and esophagus were so irritated. Instead, the doc just referred me to a specialist. It took 2 months before I could get in for an appointment. During that time my doc told me to just use over the counter meds (which didn't work at all). If I would have been more persistent with my regular doctor in the beginning that something was wrong, I probably could have avoided months of pain.

I'm sorry about your bad past experience.

I take 60 mg. of Prevacid w/ my treatment which is 30 more mg than the usual daily dosage. I am now on my 11 th day of treatment and can't wait until it's over. Ironically my chronic irritable bowel symptoms are now gone. I'm actually having regular bowell movements w/ no flatulance. I also noticed that I have not had the usual daily rashes and hives, which occured mostly on my arms. I hate to speculate, but that's what (rashes and hives)prompted my Dr. to check for H.Pylori in the first place.

I guess I will take Prevacid for a couple of months after treatments since I suffer no ill effects from it and then will wean myself off of it and see what happens.

Good luck w/ your situation.

Geop, could you describe these rashes you were having in more detail please. Did they resemble Acne in any way? For example. Were they or the body exclusively or face too? Thanks