Helicobacter Forums

I’ve completed my antibiotics about one week ago now. Im back eating normal, and starting to feel like myself again. I don’t have diarrhea, but sometimes my stool contains the food I’ve eaten that day. When should I expect my stool to be normal again ?

Don’t worry about the stool. As long as you get a breath test done three weeks later, and you feel that your energy is back, there is nothing else you need to worry.

Do I need to stop my PPI before I get another breath test ?

Yes, you will have to stop PPI for at least 2 weeks (better result after a month) before breath test.

However, you can switch to ranitidine and continue until the night before breath test.

Is that something I can get over the counter ?

yup. ranitidine is very safe. in fact many PPI (omeprazole, pantoprazole, rabeprazole, etc) can also be bought over the counter in Australia.

My breath test cane back negative. I do have a question about my stool and how long will it take to become normal again? I have solid stool daily, but it hasn’t been looking like normal poo ever since I’ve taken all those antibiotics.

Also, I still get bloating every so often and rumbling in my stomach, will PPI help with this?

First of all, congrats to your negative breath test.

There are studies that show that guts microbiota do come back to normal within a few weeks after antibiotic treatment. So I would expect the stool to come back to "normal" within a month.

Let's give it a few more weeks. Hopefully not too long. meanwhile, try eat more vegetable and fruits.

It’s been over a month since I’ve finished antibiotics, going on 2 months June 13. I did have to take another coarse of antibiotics because I caught pneumonia 2 weeks after I finished my treatment. Can there possibly be a delay do to me taking more antibiotics?

Yes, every time you take antibiotics, your guts bacteria will be disturbed. So perhaps you can try some probiotics.