[trac62900]

I need some help. I am a 29 year old woman who up until about 2 and half weeks ago was fun, exciting, and happy. Now I am on the verge of a breakdown. I have no medical insurance and I started having nausea and stomach pain along with some diarreah. I went to the doc and they said it must be giardiasis so they gave me flagyl without doing a stoool sample. I got worse. Much worse. I went to a different place and had some blood and a stool sample taken. Everything was fine. Kept getting worse. WEnt to hospital and had x rays and more blood work. Everything is fine with me!!!!! But I hurt. I quit taking the flagyl and am better but not good I am not sure I can work and I cry all the time because I want to be normal and play with my 3 year old again. Please help.Tracie

 

[ebbie]

hi tracie. you're in the same boat with alot of us. work is hard to think about when you are having these symptoms. can you think of any triggers before these things started happening? i was on flagyl as well, and it made my d alot worse too - so i stopped it. it's an antibiotic to treat anaerobic infections that can live in the intestines - pretty sure... you should try some over the counter remedies if you don't have insurance right now, just to be on the cheap side, but seeing your doctor is the best bet. it seems that all the tests i've been through prove to be fine/normal, etc, yet i still have these symptoms. i am on amitriptyline, it's a tricyclic antidepressant and it helps with the pain and d. it's also very cheap even w/out insurance. try looking at your life - stress levels, the foods you might have eaten - and work to find the trigger. that's what most of us have done and when you can avoid the triggers you might be able to control this yourself. being "normal" is defined by each individual differently, so i hope you find some answers. good luck!

 

[Talissa]

trac,Flagyl wrecked my life too, but there's alot of info out there if you google ibs + flagyl.Right now, you've got low beneficial bacteria to fight pathogens, & for ex, Culturelle GG has been shown to help after flagyl. I have tons more info , but no time now. For good measure, also take another probiotic with mixed strain & in the billions(not millions.) Many folks with postinfectious ibs got it after taking flagyl, or something like tetracycline.Errrrr!

 

[trac62900]

Thank you all for responding I started yesterday after reading you alls articles drinking aloe vera Yuck! and taking a probiotic. By normal I didn;t mean anything bad I just meant I want to be able to play with my son and dance with him like I used to but I am so weak from not being able to eat much. Does anybody know what I should eat that will help me get some strength back and maybe gain some weight. I feel like even if I don't have D I am pooping it all out anyways nothing is sticking to me.ThanksTracie

 

[Sally Jane]

Now I'm a little confused. I have diverticulosis as well as IBS. The IBS keeps me from getting the high fiber I need for the diverticulosis. I occasionally eat something that causes me to get an inflamation and then I have diverticulitis. (Poppy seed dressing on fruit will kill you, ha!) When I have an infection my doctor gives me Flagyl. I thought it was an antibiotic only for infections. It kills the infection and I get over the attack. Is it also given just for IBS? Just curious about this post.

 

[jrusso11542]

Trac Watch out for aloe vera. It can cause "D" in some cases. Try the book "Eating for IBS". Its is wery helpful. MT

 

[Talissa]

Hi Sally Jane & Trac,This is what many MDs do--they Rx flagyl(metronidazole) without countering the bacterial die-off with multi-strain high quality probiotics. (you should always take a probiotic 3-4 hours after an anti, or one hour before the anti.)ie--"Currently under investigation are antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, metronidazole, and doxycycline, which can treat postinfectious IBS, a disorder believed to be caused by alterations in intestinal microflora." http://www.emedmag.com/html/pre/gic/consults/041501.asp >>But many people here & elsewhere have a worsening effect from flagyl because of having very imbalanced gut flora before the flagyl was given.Here's some more info on bad reactions to flagyl/metronidazole:"A second study in the European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology shows that taking metronidazole kills the bacteria that cause the gas, and it takes around 50 days for the bacteria to return, so if you do not avoid refined carbohydrates, expect the irritable bowel syndrome to recur (2). " http://www.drmirkin.com/morehealth/9095.html Irritable Bowel SyndromeHunter and his colleagues have studied patients with the irritable bowel syndrome in whom diarrhea, cramps and specific food intol- erances are major symptoms(24). They have found abnormal fecal flora to be a consistent finding, with a decrease in the ratio of anaer- obes to aerobes, apparently due to a deficiency of anaerobic flora (25,26). Previous exposure to antibiotics, metronidazole in particular, was associated with the development of this disorder(27). http://healthy.net/asp/templates/Article.a...=Article&Id=423 ___________________So, ironically they are treating postinfectious IBS symptoms with a known cause of postinfectious IBS.It's maddening!Lots of research is going on right now on the intestinal ramifications of gut microflora, so hopefully, things will change!________________(ps--I reacted very badly to striaght aloe in the form of Molocure when I tried it)

 

[Sally Jane]

Thanks for clearing this up. I only take the Flagyl for the diverticulitis and only for about 6 days. I seemingly have no side effects from it but to make me feel better. It does. I never take it at any other time and I have only had these infections about 4 times in my entire life. I don't think these attacks are related to my IBS at all.