u/lacedprozac

hey so I was on xifaxan for 2 weeks and i felt the best ive ever did when on it. friday was my last day on them and now its wednesday, and since then i have been feeling like garbage.

i went back to my gastro and she told me i can go back on them for another two weeks but she also wants me to pair it with a probiotic.

now i do want to point out i dont have sibo, but i believe i do. i took a test for it but was only tested for hydrogen which came back negative. prior to these meds i had insane constipation where i would only go once a week or once every 2 weeks. yes i know thats insane.

now that im off the meds i just been having intense anxiety and i cant eat certain foods or food at all without my stomach hurting.

i was scrolling through this sub and saw that people said u have to wait months to take xifaxan again but is that fully true? i will be taking it either tmr or friday but once again i just finished one course of it. I have seem a bunch of people talk abour Cdiff on this sub as well which is what i am scared about if im being honest.

any advice is welcomed!

Edit: to point out my diagnosis is post infectious ibs

Im so confused. ive been on this med for 5 days and my pharmacist says i can cut it in half, so what i have been doing is biting it in my mouth then swallowing with water.

then i went back to ask again in person and now they r saying no???? im so confused

has anyone ever did that with theirs?

To be clear i dont know for sure if i have sibo, im on a trial with this meds to rule out if i do or dont.

Hi can someone please lend me some help with this issue?

I made a post on this sub a few days ago stating that I am currently on a xifaxan trial for two weeks since my gastro wants to rule out some issues i've been having. I got food poisoning last year in may and ever since then ive been having problems with my stomach. She thinks its post infectious IBS ( not specific on D or C ). I got a sibo test done but they only tested me for hydrogen and not methane. I told my doctor about it and she said it's fine and it means I don't have sibo? she did suggest I trial xifaxan for a 2 weeks and see what it does for me so I am currently taking 550mg 3 times a day.

Yesterday was my first time taking it and I was very shocked over the fact that I did not have any side effects besides slight nausea, bloating, and dry mouth.

She also did not specify how far apart to take the meds so I kind of spread it 6 hours apart yesterday but decided today to do 8 hour.

Last night when I took my last dose, I did notice an issue wth laying down after taking it. I do also want to point out my main issue prior to this was LPR, along with other stomach issues so keep that in mind. As I was dosing off to sleep I did notice that I was breathing weirdly but since I have anxiety I figure that was practically normal cuz it did go away. As I was dosing off though my body jerked me awake which was also very strange but I couldn't tell if it was the meds or not.

For the past few days prior to the meds I have been waking up wth a terrible sore throat in regard to my LPR. I got up at 7am to take the meds and I only ate something small like a small container of rice ( literally don't even question it I could not cook ), than I took the meds and went to lay down. I deiced to try and go back to sleep but all of a sudden I started feeling so weird.

If you ever had a panic attack you would know that your breathing feels like ur not breathing. that's exactly what I was feeling, but I wasn't panicking at all. every time I would dose off it would happen in a way and the sore throat that I had got worse and my chest felt heavy.

It's been almost 4 hours since I took the pill and all of right now I feel tired, and I do have slight chest burning. I was thinking maybe all of this happened because of acid reflux and not the meds? When I took it yesterday, I was sitting up and basically waking around my house yesterday and had zero issues, only until I laid down to go to bed. same with today. I feel better now as we speak but I am concerned about it. I looked it up on google out of fear and they said it could be a die off effect? but the thing is idek for sure what my body is killing since this is just a trial.

Idk what to do cuz I am scared about it but it could probably just be acid reflux maybe? has this happened to anyone?

So I've been doing a bunch of research as well as scrolling through reddit to find other peoples stories with an issue I've been having for months. ( I had put this in the sibo sub but I lowkey should've just put it here ... )

Back in may of 2025 I got food poisoning and ever since then my stomach was not normal. it did wear off a bit but I do wanna mention that I got strep throat TWICE that summer too. in July and September. After my throat healed in September, that's when all my stomach issues and what not began. I had acid reflux, then developed LPR which I thought was allergy related but it wasn't. then months after it moved onto my stomach and I had to cut out sooo much food.

my symptoms were:

· Throat tightness ( Globus )
· Fatigue
· Insomnia
· Heart palpitations
· Sore throat
· Dizziness
· Dizziness when bending 
· Dizziness when getting out of bed
· Weight loss ( went from 167 - 134 since september )
· Headache
· Arm and leg weakness ( joint pain? )
· Feeling of rock in stomach
· Stomach pain
· Nausea
· Metallic taste in mouth
· Shortness of breath
· Heart racing 
· Light sensitivity
· Eye blurriness 
· Feeling full after eating
· Extreme hunger if I don't eat 4 hours after last meal

Some symptoms stayed, some left. The ones that did stay and I am currently suffering with are:
· Fatigue
· Insomnia
· Sore throat
· Dizziness ( depends )
· Headache ( sometimes )
· Feeling of rock in stomach
· Stomach pain
· Nausea
· Metallic taste in mouth
· Shortness of breath ( Sometimes )
· Heart racing ( Sometimes )
· Feeling full after eating
· Extreme hunger if I don't eat 4 hours after last meal

I also realized that I cannot consume vegetables? They were a huge trigger for me and once I cut them out, my LPR somehow cleared up ....

I had an endoscopy, stool test, H pylori test, and blood test and everything came back clean. I also recently got a SIBO test but they only tested for hydrogen and not methane, which hydrogen came back negative. I saw a new gastronologist and she thinks it's post infectious IBS. I did ask her if the sibo test could be a false negative but she didn't really seem to know if to say yes or no. She wants to trial me with Rifaximin for two weeks to see if it will help with the post infectious ibs and POSSIBLY if it is sibo.

Do you guys have any advice or possible any similar stories? I want to get better truly. I go away to college in a few months and I cannot imagine being like this while I'm away from my family.

So I've been doing a bunch of research as well as scrolling through reddit to find other peoples stories with an issue I've been having for months.

Back in may of 2025 I got food poisoning and ever since then my stomach was not normal. it did wear off a bit but I do wanna mention that I got strep throat TWICE that summer too. in July and September. After my throat healed in September, that's when all my stomach issues and what not began. I had acid reflux, then developed LPR which I thought was allergy related but it wasn't. then months after it moved onto my stomach and I had to cut out sooo much food.

my symptoms were:

· Throat tightness ( Globus )
· Fatigue
· Insomnia
· Heart palpitations
· Sore throat
· Dizziness
· Dizziness when bending 
· Dizziness when getting out of bed
· Weight loss ( went from 167 - 134 since september )
· Headache
· Arm and leg weakness ( joint pain? )
· Feeling of rock in stomach
· Stomach pain
· Nausea
· Metallic taste in mouth
· Shortness of breath
· Heart racing 
· Light sensitivity
· Eye blurriness 
· Feeling full after eating
· Extreme hunger if I don't eat 4 hours after last meal

Some symptoms stayed, some left. The ones that did stay and I am currently suffering with are:
· Fatigue
· Insomnia
· Sore throat
· Dizziness ( depends )
· Headache ( sometimes )
· Feeling of rock in stomach
· Stomach pain
· Nausea
· Metallic taste in mouth
· Shortness of breath ( Sometimes )
· Heart racing ( Sometimes )
· Feeling full after eating
· Extreme hunger if I don't eat 4 hours after last meal

I had an endoscopy, stool test, H pylori test, and blood test and everything came back clean. I also recently got a SIBO test but they only tested for hydrogen and not methane, which hydrogen came back negative. I saw a new gastronologist and she thinks it's post infectious IBS. I did ask her if the sibo test could be a false negative but she didn't really seem to know if to say yes or no. She wants to trial me with Rifaximin for two weeks to see if it will help with the post infectious ibs and POSSIBLY if it is sibo.

Do you guys have any advice or possible any similar stories? I want to get better truly. I go away to college in a few months and I cannot imagine being like this while I'm away from my family.