u/Xnth

I’ve been feeling ear muffling in both ears for a good 4-5 years now and wanted to look into it further. At random, my ears get muffled and I feel a light pulsing on them that lasts for a max 5-10 seconds. I can hear my own voice echo in my head when it happens and I can’t hear outside noises very well. Kind of like when you’re in a car that’s changing in elevation. The pulsing that comes with it feels like a heartbeat, but it’s not in sync with mine. I cannot forcibly trigger it to happen on command, but I notice it comes when I bend down or turn my neck, but not every time. Or when I’m laying flat on the floor, but not in bed. I do not feel it when I stand up, or when I stand up quickly. I can feel congestion in my nose/ throat when it happens, too.
After checking my symptoms, I’m wondering if its eusthician tube related, neck/posture related, or allergies? After a few years, it’s now bothersome because it happens multiple times every day and I can’t tell what it is. My PCP wasn’t taking me seriously, so I changed doctors and got a referral to get it checked. I’m about to see an audiologist next week and an ENT. Curious if others have felt this? Especially the 5-10 sec muffling that feels like an elevation change in your ears? That’s the thing that annoys me the most.

Hello! I finished my treatment on 6/18, so I’m about 3 weeks post-treatment. My appetite is fine and bowel movements are starting to look more normal than before. However, I’m getting frustrated by the constant dizziness I feel since I finished treatment. It’s gotten a little better every week, but I’ve been given some really cool career opportunities recently and it sucks that I can’t jump on these because of my eyes / head. It kinda feels like my eyes are constantly moving or trying to adjust. I no longer feel like I’m on a boat like I used to, though. I can work on my computer and stuff, but as soon as I start walking around or tilting my head, my eyes feel like they lag a little or seem floaty. My neck feels tense (but not stiff- range of motion is normal) probably from the stress of the dizziness. Makes me sleepy, too.

I’m taking garden of life raw probiotic w/ 100billion CFU, multivitamin, and a 45mg gentle iron pill. I drink plenty of water + electrolytes, and my diet is still clean w/ no dairy except for Greek yogurt in smoothies. Introduced kefir and non-spicy kimchi with no stomach problems. Florastor was pretty prominent during treatment, but I take it less regularly now. No spicy or greasy foods yet.

Blood pressure looks normal (110/61), and heart rate seems fine unless I’m about to have a bowel movement or I need to eat or burp, then it runs up towards 100, lol.

Weirdest thing that happened to me was my very first aura migraine on 7/4 that wiped my vision in both eyes for 15 minutes. My doctor didn’t seem worried about it though.

I dunno, any tips? Besides sleeping at an elevated angle and not turning my head?

31F.
I’m 3 days out from post treatment. My last day of full pills was Thursday, 6/18. I’m very happy to be off all the pills. I’ve been having pretty easy meals this far- mostly banana +berry+ plain yogurt smoothies, pb on toast, and for savory I do roasted potatoes and carrots with a small portion of protein. My stomach feels fine right now. My symptoms before treatment were lots of burping, nausea, dry heaving, and anxiety. I only have minimal burping after meals now. The anxiety has dropped by a lot!

My bowel movements are 2x every morning right now. Kind of solid with a mix of soft stool, still dark from the medication probably.

The worst thing is probably the head pulses and the dizziness. When I’m walking, my vision feels like I’m on a boat. I have head rushes that kind of feel like something tightens around my whole scalp and then releases. Makes me feel a little weirded out, but it’s probably the die off/ malnutrition from the last two weeks. Anyone have tips on that? I’m keeping well hydrated and taking multi-vitamin gummies since post treatment.

As for my tips to those of you still fighting through treatment, here’s a few things:

1. Buy ginger chews or a low-sugar candy to keep in your mouth for that metallic pill taste in your mouth.

2. Take florastor at least once a day!!! I’m sure it helped my stomach kickstart its new life post-antibiotics.

3. I got anti-nausea wrist bands from Amazon on my last 4 days of therapy and I think they worked really well. Recommend if you’re desperate for nausea relief.

4. Eat SOMETHING with every antibiotic pill and at least 8oz of water. It helps the nausea. Keep sipping water during rest and electrolytes- even if you don’t have diarrhea. Your body is working overtime.

5. If you got zofran or promethazine prescribed, be aware of when you take it. I would take zofran when I would start getting nauseous at 5pm. So it wouldn’t kick in until 8pm for me and it would give me a little anxiety from the muscle relaxation properties that I wasn’t aware would happen. Try it at home when you don’t have work or have to drive, just so you know how it affects your body. Or take it in the morning before your nausea so you can sleep all day. Your call!

6. The metronidazole was awful. I used a very thin piece of Annie’s Organic Fruit Tape to cover the entirety of it so I could swallow it in peace. I was gagging on the pill on day 2 because the pill was dissolving immediately in my mouth, so covering it in the thin piece of fruit tape was amazing. I couldn’t taste it at all.

7. Flavored ice pops would help my nausea when it was intense. Try to get fruit based ones or even the pedialyte version.

8. Take time off work if you’re able to. This isn’t easy. I’m thankful to work from home, but even I couldn’t really get work done during the two weeks. Do yourself a favor and take time off with a doctors note if you can.

If you’re in the middle of your treatment, I know it feels terrible and scary, but you’re stronger than this dumb bacteria!!!! There was plenty of times I thought I was dying and contemplated going to the ER. It’s just your body fighting off the overgrowth. If I can do it, so can you!

I’m feeling super weak. Yesterday I tried showering and I felt like I could collapse or my legs would give out immediately and had shortness of breath. I shivered in bed for a bit and then I was able to relax after 2 hours and go to sleep, but today I woke up dreading that feeling again. :( Also have the weird sensation of my chest feeling warm under my skin. I know it’s the pills, but it feels terrible. I don’t want to leave my bed now.

Previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/HPylori/s/s6glMpDJ0f

Hi everyone,

Been lurking on this sub and feel like I need to post something so I can come back post treatment and be somewhat helpful!

31f. On the 1st of May, I had a crazy strong stomach cramp that woke me up from my sleep. It was so painful, I spent a day and a half on the floor because my cold laminate floors felt more comfortable than sitting or laying down in bed. By the noon on the 2nd day, the cramps and constant diarrhea was so bad; I couldn’t take it anymore and called my Kaiser help line. They were able to reach my doctor, and she told me it sounded like a stomach virus / norovirus that was going around. My nephew was dealing with something similar the week before and I was within proximity to him, so I chalked it up to that. I stuck to the brat diet and some liquid pepto to help with my symptoms. After three weeks, the diarrhea and cramps were gone, but I was constantly dry-heaving everyday and I had no clue why. I was still eating bland foods and kept hydrated with pedialyte and coconut water. I also had panic attacks that I could trace to my stomach- as if I was about to present something at work and had butterflies. It would quickly turn into panic and palpitations, mostly because I had no clue what was going on and sometimes I’d feel it while driving. I knew something was wrong, so I called the Kaiser help line again and was connected with a random doctor at my local hospital. He heard my symptoms, and asked me to get some blood labs and a stool test that same day. A week later, the stool test for h.pylori came back positive.

Fast forward to today, I’m on day 6 of my quad treatment (pantoprazole, tetracycline, metronidazole, pepto). It’s been a fucking ride. Thanks to this sub, I grabbed some Florastor on my 2nd day and I’m sure I’d be struggling more if I hadn’t. I’ve noticed a heightened sensitivity to noise and it makes me nauseous right now. I just wanna lay down and watch TV at a level 2 volume, lol.

Yesterday, day 5 was the worst. I was crazy nauseous from day 3-5. I’m still nauseous today, but I think today might be better. I heard it gets better by day 7 🤞 I found that frozen blueberries help when I’m extra nauseated. I feel very lucky to work from home during this whole mess.

Sleep has been pretty good except for last night. I went to bed at 10:30pm and woke up at 1:30am with the need to belch a few times and I could hear my stomach working hard on something. I stayed up til 4:30 until I was able to close my eyes and get a little rest. Since 6:40am, I’ve been up and constantly having “healthier” not-soft stools for the first time since this all happened. Not sure if the constant need to go every hour is normal, but that’s where I’m at. Pills are getting tougher and tougher to swallow. I’m ready for day 14.

EDIT: Forgot to mention blood results came back great. They didn’t test for ferritin, but I’ve been struggling with low iron without anemia and thought it was the cause of my smaller anxiety attacks since 2019. Makes me think I’ve had h.pylori for a while now and why my supplements barely push my levels up.