[Bradw4040]

This is to warn others who might be having minor surgery. At the end of December I had a minor day surgery procedure done. During most of these kinds of procedures they give you a small amount of antibiotic. I had Rocephin listed as an allergy as I'd had a mild reaction to it 25 yrs ago. When I had pneumonia two years ago I was at a new hospital and was so sick I failed to mention the allergy. They gave me Rocephin and I did fine with it. I told my primary doc and he took it off the list.
The info was still on my chart at the day surgery and I explained to the nurse that I was no longer allergic. She took it upon herself to ignore me and had the doctor order Clindimyacin as the antibiotic used.
Twelve hours after having surgery the diarrhea started. By 3 days later I was having 18 BM's a day. My partner was in Thailand for a month and I was trying to take care of myself alone. After 10 days, I began to get a sharp pain in my leg and in my lung, called my doctor who flipped and said to go to the ER immediately. I ended-up having DVT's (blood clots) in my left leg and a PE (a clot in the lung). Now I had the runs and blood clots. The ER doc said I had gotten too dehydrated and that my inactivity from being so sick had been a double whammy. The next 2 weeks were miserable, with more time on the couch and giving myself a shot in the stomach for 11 days for the blood clots. The diarrhea diminished some and I thought I was coming out of the woods, but suddenly came back with ferocity. During the initial illness I had been awakened with my bowels moving. That has happened to me maybe 5 times in my whole life. It happened 7 times in the first 10 days. I have never had so severe and prolonged D during the 18 yrs of having IBS. I had started taking immodium before going to bed, but still had a couple of breakthroughs.
It has been 6 weeks now and things are only going minorly better. I had a grastro appt set but my car's fuel pump went out when I was a mile away. I tried to reschedule but my "sin" had cost me the appt. "We have no emergency appts" and they scheduled me a month out. My regular gastro doc had left the practice in December along with another doc. Not a good sign about a large practice. Plus, I thing Gastro docs are worthless for these types of issues. He'll probably want to do a colonoscopy, but I see little point as I had one done a year ago.
I ended up at the Bastyr Naturopatic Center here in Seattle. The doc is great and gave me starter supplements and advice. And a $225 out-of-pocket bill! He blames the Clindimyacine. I have a suppressed immune system and a long history of moderate to severe IBS. If the dip ###### doctor who did the procedure would have taken two minutes to review my history he should have realized the risk of Clindayacyn and given me the Rocephin, or Vancomyacin. I went online to research Clinamyacin and found out that it was dubbed the "diarrhea drug".
The long and the short of it is that it was most certainly the Clindimyacin. It wasn't stomach flu or a virus since I had no other symptoms. I could have picked up some exotic bug in the hospital but 2 stool tests were negative.
I walked in to the surgery having had reasonably solid stools for 5 months and walked out with major D.
BE REALLY CAREFUL AND QUESTIONING ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF ALL ANTIBIOTICS ON THE GUT, RATHER IV OR ORAL. THIS DRUG SHREDDED MY GUT AND IT COULD TAKE 6 MONTHS TO GET BACK TO ANY SEMBLANCE OF A LIFE. I only go out of my Condo for 6 or 7 hours a week. I get too tired and can't live on Immodume and it's side effects. I'm becoming the invisible man!

[BQ]

Actually Any antibiotic can mess with one's gut bacterial balance not just the Clindimyacin.

So has your Dr tested you for C-Diff yet?? If not I would urge you to get tested asap. If you turn up negative for that. I would ask them if they could try some Flagyl on you anyway.

Also I would get a probiotic into you asap. A good one like Align, Florastor, Culturelle, Sustenex etc... would be good. Give them a decent trial.. think weeks not days.

[Korga]

Holy #####! What an ordeal! Thanks for the tip.

[jmc09]

All the mycin drugs give me problems,most recently it was clarithromycin like you and it made me horribly nauseous with terrible diarrhea too.

[Bradw4040]

I had the two stool tests... no c diff. After this happened I went to the Mayo Clinic website and read up on Clindimycin. It specifically stated that it was not a good choice for people with a suppressed immune system, or those with other underlying illness. It was just a really stupid mistake by the doctor.
I'm on 3 probiotics. I was on two I was on before all this, which were working well, but did nothing once I was sick. The natureopath I'm seeing put me on Sac. boulardii, and l. glutamine, both high dose. I am somewhat better. At least the brown water squirts have stopped and now I am having barely formed stools about 10 times a day. I've only been on the new stuff for five days, so I guess that's progress. I see him again next week and I expect him to put me on a prescription probiotic and possibly something else. The cost is really high. Just the high dose S B is about $110 a month. The l Glut was $40. The visit, $150. This episode could end up costing me a couple of grand.
All antibiotics can be a danger to people with IBS, but there are some that have less effects on the GI tract. All doctors should be aware of this, but most are too busy filling out ###### insurance forms (the insurance companies fault) to read anything about IBS.
I think the naturopath would freak if I tried another antibiotic like Flagyl. I'm betting on natural meds this time. I'm beginning to hate western medicine.

[BQ]

No hon the Flagyl is a different type of antibiotic.... You may indeed benefit by a course of that. ALL antibiotics are not evil hon.

[Mr 100]

Clindamycin. One of the prime suspects for the cause of my IBS-D.

I took two tabs [not sure what size] prophylactically, before dental surgery a few years ago, ibs started very soon after. I also developed alopecia, dry eye and some strange skin conditions. These may or may not be connected. I would always suggest people seek alternatives to this broad acting antibiotic.