u/Sad-Fern

Hey everyone I thought I’d come on and share my success story in hopes of helping or giving hope to those who may be in the trenches right now. You can see on my page how often I was on this subreddit throughout and all my anxiety stricken posts. I just want you to know that there (for most everyone) is light at the end of the tunnel. I know some people still struggle after, and to you all, I’m so sorry you’re still having issues from this damn bacteria. Wishing you healing 🤍

I got my negative results back this past Thursday (07/23/26).

My illness started the beginning of May with about the same symptoms as some others here: nonstop vomiting, reflux, constipation and diarrhea, fatigue, heart palpitations, elevated heart rate, shortness of breath, severe anxiety (almost to the point of paranoia) and panic attacks. I went to the ER 2 times, once because the non stop vomiting and once because of pain/tightness in my chest and shortness of breath. Nothing was done for me other than IV fluids. I made an appointment with my primary care but had to wait almost 2 weeks. He tells me I don’t need to be seen by GI because all of my symptoms just point towards constipation, and that was the same reason I didn’t need to see cardiology either. This upset me so much because I have never been so constipated that I’m vomiting and having heart palpitations. Plus heart disease runs in my family. They had me do blood work to check my cholesterol and offered laxatives, that was it.
Fast forward another week and I go into urgent care because I’m still not keeping anything down, I’m losing weight (total of 35lbs/~16kg in just 3 weeks), I’m dehydrated, and I just KNOW there’s something not right with my stomach. I’ve never had so many GI problems in my life. I’m 29 F for reference. The urgent care provider I saw was so amazing to me. She was so kind and she’s the only person who even brought up H Pylori. Like many of you, I had never heard of this bacteria before that moment. She saw that my bloodwork was fine and said everything else was basically ruled out and that I needed to do a stool test and we would wait for the results, if that wasn’t what was going on she would put in a referral for GI. Lo and behold, it was good ol H Pylori.
She prescribed me Pylera (which is a compounded drug of bismuth subcitrate potassium, metronidazole, and tetracycline hydrochloride) plus Omeprazole as well as Zofran as needed. I had to take 3 capsules of Pylera 4x a day. I did 6am, 12pm, 6pm, 12am. I had to take omeprazole 2x a day and I was also prescribed Zyrtec 4 tablets a day and I’m not going to lie, it was miserable. I found Florastor through this subreddit and I really think it made such a difference in my day to day with these meds. I still take it now.
These medications made me feel like I was going crazy. I didn’t think they were helping. I felt like I was just being poisoned. My anxiety was through the roof. I could hardly eat, I wasn’t sleeping and I just felt like a shell of myself. I felt useless, I was feeling really low. I wanted to badly to just give up but I told myself every single time “I NEVER want to have to do this again” and that kept me on track. I was eating oatmeal with honey, chicken and rice, crackers, and apple sauce and so so much water and pedialyte.

When I finished the medications I still felt the same. It took about 2 weeks for me to get rid of the metallic taste in my mouth. It took me close to 4 weeks to get past the brain fog. I’m 6.5 weeks post antibiotics and the fatigue, anxiety, heart palpitations, shortness of breath and reflux have stuck around. I’ve seen cardiology and everything is “normal” which is irritating to say the least. I have an echo scheduled for the end of the month and I hope they have some answers for me. But now I’m able to eat more things, I still get nauseous when my stomach is empty, I still have some disruptions in my bathroom habits but they are getting better.
All this to say, I made it through this and I believe you will too. It took a lot of will power, leaning on my support system, and a LOT of tears but I did it. This has by far been the worst medical thing I have ever dealt with and I truly couldn’t have done it without the help of my support system and this subreddit.
I have been eating a lot of Greek yogurt, kefir, and anti inflammatory foods to help rebuild my gut. I know that will take some time but I feel like I’m on the right track

Warning though, staying on this subreddit through treatment gave me so much anxiety some days. It’s better for your mental health and well being to stay off the subreddit and don’t google every little symptom because it’s going to make it that much harder.

Wishing you all healing and peace from this awful awful bacteria.

Sorry this is so long. I’m sure I’m forgetting things still, if you have any questions feel free to ask. I’ll answer them to the best of my ability.

I (29F) have had anxiety and depression basically all my life, I also have medical anxiety from being ignored and brushed off by medical professionals.

To start off, I have been on Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro, and Effexor for both depression and anxiety in the past (obviously at different times). The most recent being Effexor and I ended up having to quit it because after my psychiatrist upped my dose I started having heart palpitations so I weened off and it was pretty miserable, I’ll be honest. That was 2 years ago. I initially got on the Effexor because I got into a car accident and it made me so anxious about driving to the point where I would get dizzy and shut down at the thought. I still don’t like driving but I will do it.

Over the last 2 years I’ve been okay mentally, there are ups and downs, nothing unmanageable, but in the last 3 months my anxiety has sky rocketed. 3 months ago I got so insanely sick that I went to the ER several times and talked to my doctor several times and no one was listening. Finally got a doctor to listen and I got diagnosed with H Pylori, a bacteria in the stomach. I successfully eradicated it and I’m on a journey to heal my stomach flora now. I know gut health affects mental health and I’m trying to remind myself that. But that also caused weird feelings in my chest so I’m seeing a cardiologist. My daughter (5) is starting school for the first time too and it just all seems like so much all at once and I can’t seem to keep myself calm. I am seeking therapy, waiting on responses from a couple of therapists to see who is going to work the best and takes my insurance.

All of this to say, I guess I just need someone to tell me that I’m not going to be a ball of anxiety for the rest of my life. That I’m not going to almost pass out from my heart racing and panic attacks every time I have to go to the doctor or leave my house or talk to anyone or have any kind of weird feeling in my chest. I just want to be able to live with out being so fearful of every thing in this world

A 55mph tornado touched down 20 minute from our house and my husband was going to let me sleep through the warning even though he knows how much anxiety I have around tornados. I get physically ill when there is a tornado watch for our area and I will stay up all night watching the radar if there’s even a 1% chance of it heading our direction. Yeah maybe that seems outrageous to some people and it might be but I can’t help it. We have a child and two cats in the house, one cat who will climb inside furniture when the tornado sirens go off and I’m the only one who can catch her. I’m just so angry and so hurt that my right to make a decision for myself and our child was taken away from me. He didn’t even get anything ready. Didn’t get the cat carriers out, didn’t grab our important documents, nothing. I feel so sick to my stomach thinking about the what ifs. What if it changed course and headed right for us? I wouldn’t have had enough time to get our kid, the cats, our important documents and both of us in our “safe place”. Idk I’m just at a loss

Hey guys. I’m 3 weeks off of antibiotics and PPIs. I had yellow stool from the Omeprazole and that went away but now it’s back?? I have taken Rolaids (antacid tablets) a handful of times and I’m taking Florastor. The stool its self is not quite diarrhea since it’s formed but it’s crumbly or airy looking? It sinks, not floats and smells bad. Should I wait to out since I do my retest for Pylori in about 2 weeks? Is this SIBO? Can they test for SIBO at the same time as they test for the Pylori? Is this from the Florastor?

*edit. Retest. Not retreat

Hey everyone! I hope you are all having a good day and you see your favorite bird 😁
Anyway, I’m newer to birding and I just wanted to see if anyone could explain why people who have bird feeders seem to hate squirrels so much. Is it how much of the seeds they eat? Is it due to birds not coming as often if squirrels are around? Is it due to something worse?

I’m sorry if this is a more known thing and I’m just ignorant to it.

I’m officially 2 weeks post Pylera and I feel like I’m going crazy. My head has been SOOO itchy. Like I feel like I’m ripping my scalp apart. It itches so bad it’s literally ruining my day. My face has been itchy too and I have so much dry skin flaking off.

Anyone else who went through this, how long did it last? Did you do anything specific to get the itching to stop?

I put on face lotion and that has stopped the flaky skin but I’m still so itchy! I’ve tried head and shoulders shampoo and my head still feels so bad

I just finished treatment 11 or so days ago, when I stand my heart rate spikes to 130-145 and if it’s after I eat it’s 150-160. Did anyone else experience this? If so how long did it last? I have an appointment for cardiology next month and I am bringing it up but I just want to know if this is potentially something I’m going to deal with for the rest of my life

I have been actively recovering for about eight years at this point, having relapses here and there. Recently, I have been dealing with and treating H pylori for about a month and a half now. This bacteria has ruined my gut health and my appetite. I’m not allowed to eat so many things while my gut flora heals and while my ulcer heals. Eating minimally, losing weight and not even being hungry enough to eat a full meal is really messing with my head. I’m trying so hard to eat healthy foods and make sure I’m not starving my body of necessary nutrients. I’m just struggling so bad. My brain keeps going to places I don’t want it to. I was doing so well and then this hit me out of no where and I don’t know how to get out of this loop in my head. I’m sorry if this post doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I’m just struggling and need to get this out somewhere.
Has anyone else gone through something like this? How did you get through it?

I finishes my antibiotics 9 days ago and for the past 2 days I’ve had pencil thin stools and there seems to be quite a bit of clear mucous when I wipe. I don’t think it’s due to ovulation, since I’m not noticing it when I just urinate. Is this something I need to be worried about? I have an appointment with my doctor on Tuesday but I’m just anxious

I’m 6 days post treatment and I was doing so well! I started to feel like normal again and so I tempered fate and had ranch dressing with my potatoes last night with dinner. All day I’ve been shaky, lightheaded, nauseous, anxious, elevated heart rate and slightly elevated BP 🙁 someone please tell me this isn’t going to last forever 😩 I love sauces so much.

Hello, as the title says I have questions for people who quit their treatment plan whether doctor ordered or not.

Disclaimer: I do not intend on quitting my treatment, I’m just curious I guess.

- What treatment did you start?

- How long did you last out of the days you were prescribed?

- What made you or your doctor decide to end the treatment?

- Did you test again at the 6-8 week mark?

- Did you get rid of the bacteria?

As the title states, I’ve been eating toast when taking my super late and super early doses (12am/6am). Did I fuck up my treatment??? I’m starting day 5 of 14. My bread has calcium in it and from my google searches, even 30-50mg of calcium is enough to impact absorption??? Has anyone else taken this medication with white bread and came back negative when you retested??? I’m so worried that I messed up and will have to experience this all over again. 😩

Hello, I tested positive for H. Pylori. I’ve seen recommendations to get your teeth cleaned and I plan on making an appointment, hoping for this week.
My question is, do I tell my dentist that I tested positive? Will that change the way they do my cleaning? I will be on my antibiotics by then if that helps
TIA