Helicobacter Forums

Hello all! I had planned on posting an update on my h. pylori journey sooner, and since I’ve hit a bump in the road I guess this is the right time. I won’t get into my entire backstory again, but I will sum up my progress from this year. After my blood tested positive for h. pylori, I was prescribed the triple therapy for 14 days as follows:

Metronidazole 250 mg 4x/day
Tetracycline 500 mg 4x/day
Pepto-Bismol suspension 17.2 ml 4x/day
Pantoprazole 40 mg 2x/day

This was back in May. I did fine on the drugs - the side effects weren’t terrible. In July I had a breath test done (after my treatment, I had stopped taking my PPI) and was negative for h. pylori. This was great news! I was feeling better and better as the months passed. Three days ago I felt gnawing hunger/pain late at night. December 25 the pain lasted almost all day. Except for the extreme anxiety I had before (because I had no idea what was wrong with me), my h. pylori symptoms are back. Gnawing pain below my rib cage that comes and goes all day. Normal hunger is gone. No idea how much/little to eat since I don’t feel “full”. I have never changed my eating habits because nothing made the pain feel better or worse. I will go through the circus that is modern medicine but in the meantime I am wondering: Is it possible I got re-infected with h. pylori? If not, then what else could this be?

I was just looking through this site again with the same issue. I did a natural treatment (Bio HPF and Oil of Oregano back in the summer).I waited a month and tested both blood and stool and both were negative. I was slowly getting better, had done food sensitivity testing and had eliminated inflammatory foods. I was just at the point of re-introducing foods and was feeling better and I did this test called the GI Map to make sure nothing else was wrong. At this point, it showed a strain of Hpylori that was HIGH and also did a sensitivity to antibiotics. I was not having any symptoms, so with a nutritionist, I started natural treatment again, but no oil of oregano. It is slowly getting worse, getting a tight esophagus and burning stomach. I wondered the same thing, did I re-infect or was it lowered to the point of not being detected on the tests?

Another question, I am going to do the antibiotics this time, I have clarithromycin which it tests as not resistant to. Do I need to take the acid blockers and triple therapy with this? I had a nurse practitioner not too knowledgeable at the GI doc.

I do know that if you are susceptible (this is my second experience with this, the first one 8 years ago, you can re-infect.

GI Map is not the recommended test to diagnose H. pylori infection. I think if your blood test and stool test are both negative, then you are most likely negative of H. pylori.

I dont think you should take any antibiotics without proper diagnosis.

I am symptomatic again.

I did a stool and a breath test in late August.

stool and blood test are very accurate.

It's not easy to get reinfected with H. pylori. if you think you might be reinfected, you can do a stool or breath test again.

Your symptoms may not be because of H. pylori. Hopefully it's incidental and will gradually fade away.

I’m in the same boat as well. I had an endoscopy in September with a biopsy and histology and the results came back negative & just 5 days ago on Dec 24th, I started feeling the constant stomach gurgling, slight stitches under my left and right ribs, fatigue and stomach pain. I was wondering how common is reinfection?

reinfection is very rare. unless people living with you has poor hygiene. eg. not brushing teeth and not washing hands after toilet.

if in doubt, you can always get a breath test done to double confirm your HP infection status.

Thanks Helico_expert, I will most likely get another breath test to reconfirm eradication. What’s interesting is the gnawing hunger worsens after I eat vs when I have an empty stomach. Thankfully this feeling is tolerable, unlike the way it was before. I also find it interesting others are going through the same thing. Hoping this is all just no big deal!

Hi Daisy When did your loss of appetite get better ?Because I was recently diagnosed with hp and my life turned upside down with all these symptoms but luckily they are improving little by little .