Catch 22 Probiotic Treatment

I won't know whether taking capyrlic acid successfully eliminated achromobacter, without taking another $350 stool test, which is not covered by my HMO policy. So I plan to just see how I feel after the side effects of the caprylic acid wear off. Currently I'm taking a 7 day course of high dose (127 billion per dose) probiotics to replace whatever the CA destroyed in my gut and hopefully protect me against other tiny amounts of bad bacteria overwhelming the good bacteria (which would cause another infection).

I'm in a catch 22 situation here. If I overtreat achromobacter by taking CA too long, I can easily develop an overgrowth from another bacteria. My pattern has been one gut infection after another for the past 4 years. Actually that often happens to other people with any treatment. People often get c-diff after being treated with antibiotics for other problems. However, if I undertreat the achromobacter, I obviously still have the infection and symptoms.

The stool test I mentioned requires that I go off all probiotics, digestive enzymes (I take betaine hydrochloride to replenish my stomach acid) and other meds for 3 days before the test. Then I have to wait 3 weeks for the test results. So whatever I have in my gut on the day of the test obviously changes positively or negatively over the next 3 weeks. If I have an infection, it gets worse. If I have no pathogenic bacteria or parasites, I could actually have one by the time I get those test results.

So I need to reassess how I feel after taking the high dose probiotics. Then I'll consider that expensive retest. Taking high dose probiotics can only help, whether or not I still have achromobacter. Some naturopaths treat 'bad gut bugs' by crowding them out with good bacteria from probiotics. I took probiotics while taking an antibiotic for achromobacter. So hopefully, I didn't leave much room for new villians. Nevertheless, adding many more good guy bacteria could improve whatever is going on in my gut.

Right now I feel pretty good. I have no headaches, cramping pain, bloating, gas and finally no nausea. So maybe this time I'll stay healthy for awhile.