Re: My digestive system has been completely messed up ever since visiting China while on antibiotics and getting diarrhea there (7 months ago).

Thanks sickinseattle,
it was a hydrogen breath test.
I believe it was lactulose they used. He said the hydrogen remained flat the entire time, he only kept me there for like 1.5 hrs when it was supposed to be like 3 or something, because he said there was no change and usually he would've seen something by now (he was just a nurse, so not sure if he could really be making that call but idk). and he said the methane just rose one point or something.

Are these metametrix and biohealth tests something I should get so I can know more precisely what's going on and plan treatment more appropriately? i mean i'm guessing it would be close to $1000 for those two tests, so I want to be able to know that they can point in the right direction.

Like, where can I found out the specific strains of beneficial bacteria the specific Antibiotics I was on kill? They should have like a chart of which probiotics to supplement while taking which Antibiotics you know?

So, i'm also supposed to be submitting a stool test to my GI, but I've read they aren't too accurate? and require multiple submissions? and he's only requiring one, so...
I'm going to UCLA medical (sometimes USC) but the GI doctor didn't offer any additional insight, seem interested in helping, didn't mention anything about probiotics, I mean I pretty much laid everything out for him like I did in my original post and he just concluded "yeah, you're right, probably post-infectious ibs and it'll probably go to away in a year or so"


LOL, man I'm tired of doctors. I mean my problems aren't as significant as many other people, and I've only had them for half a year, but the prospect of facing this for years and years is pissing me off. I really need to solve this now and get on the road to recovery ASAP. Blows my mind there isn't the medical knowledge/technology so far to know exactly what's going on in the gut. I guess the typical patient complaining of "bloating/constipation" is just not high priority.


I even have to take a semester off from college now because I was so damn bloated and my Acne literally went from nonexistent to severe and confident went severely down. I felt like shit and could never leave my room.



sickinseattle, what do you make of the fact that my symptoms completely went away while I was on flagyl/cipro (which were prescribed to me maybe 3 months into my bloating/constipation problems, which started after China/doxy/amoxicillin/stomach spell).
Does that mean those Antibiotics were killing some bad bacteria? and thus making me able to go again, or is that just like a side effect of those drugs, making people use the bathroom frequently.

Also, flagyl and cipro are used to kill parasites too, so perhaps they were killing parasites, but they returned after I stopped.
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