HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

4 Months of Antibiotics and Terrible Pain

Support Forums
>
Crohn's Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 12/21/2011 12:49 AM (GMT 0)
OMG!!!!! All night long my son 30, has been in HORRIBLE NON-STOP gut pain. I coming online to ask (plea for an answer!) about the affects of antibiotics on Crohn's. He recently posted about an absess that won't get better even with MONTHS of Antibiotics. I'm his Mom and I am taking care of him. I too have posted about this.

For the past 3 MONTHS he has been taking ...

CIPROFLOXACIN HCL 1 tab 500mg every 12 hours and...

METRONIDAZOLE 2 tablets 3 times per day!! 250mg

That's a total of 8 ANTIBIOTICS PILLS A DAY! The VA doctors tell him not to miss a dosage or they'll have to take out his Colon. But I am SO WORRIED about HIM. HE WAS ON OTHER ANTIBIOTICS VIA AN IV FOR A MONTH PRIOR TO THESE! I feel like all his good bacteria is gone, killed off by so many antibiotics!

I'm trying to get him to take Probiotics but it's so hard to squeeze them in when it has to be both 2 hours before and 2 hours after.

The VA doctors tell him NOTHING but to take the antibiotics and eat healthy. Well, I've got him eating healthy and taking supplements plus the one lone Probiotic I can get him to take. (He's SO TIRED of thaking pills!) HE'S MISERABLE!

PLEASE REPLY! THANK YOU
Posted 12/21/2011 1:00 AM (GMT 0)
Where abouts is the abscess?I ask as I had an abdominal one a few years ago and they surgically drained it and it was fine for about a month, all healed up and then suddenly the incision burst open and it started leaking puss again. This went on 5 times over next 6 months until the eventually did an operation as the abscess they could see on the scan was only a tiny end pocket but couldn't see where it was being fed from. Turns out I had a huge abscess wrapped around my stoma (have hsd an ileostomy for 20 years) and this was main source of the abscess and it only sorted it out when they got rid of the main one.

He should have a MRI with contrast which they can do injecting it into the abscess so it shows up if there are any little (can't remember name as having mental block) sort of tributaries running off it as they need to drain all of it and not just bit they can see. Antibiotics alone cannot always get rid of abscesses on their own.
Posted 12/21/2011 2:24 AM (GMT 0)

His absess has had 3 tubes draining it. Right now he's down to one. It is in his bowel/abdomen and it drains yucky brown liquid that makes a terrible mess when it leaks from the bag/pouch.

But he's not getting any better with the antibiotics and I feel like the doctors are just playing games with him sort of speak. Makes me mad! Where's Dr. House when you need him???

This pain has become common place with him. However, this mornings stomach pain at 3 am was different. He has the absess to deal with and the Crohn's so defining where the pain comes from gets a more than a little confuzing! He's SO TIRED OF THIS! 8 years of this crap and he says he's had more bad days than good.

I woke up at 5:00 to hear him moaning and groaning in pain. He said it was a constant pain as opposed to the throbbing pain he gets from Crohn's. He'd been doing good and then this!

We didn't go to the VA hospital which is a 45 minute drive away and many many hours of waiting to see uncaring doctors for a couple of minutes. He was finally able to sleep at around 10:00am. He woke up feeling like he'd been beaten up but felt a little better.

I HATE him being on all those antibiotics! Yes, he has switched his insurance and will be able to see another doctor in about a week.

I WISH he could just chuck the antibiotics and then there'd be nothing stopping him from taking the Probiotics. Juggling all these meds and supplements is hard to get used to

Posted 12/21/2011 2:42 AM (GMT 0)
DOES THE AMOUNT OF ANTIBIOTICS HE'S TAKING SEEM LIKE IT'S TOO MUCH? The VA doctors suck! I feel like telling him to STOP and then just take the PROBIOTICS, as many as he can each day. Is that a fair question to post? Or should we always do as our doctors say? I cringe each time I give him the pills. He'll keep taking them but it sure is tempting to stop and see what happens...(is it an option?)
Posted 12/21/2011 4:22 AM (GMT 0)
Diane, I'm so sorry that you and your son are having such a hard time and that he is in so much pain. Is he on other medication for crohn's besides the antibiotics?
Posted 12/21/2011 4:29 AM (GMT 0)
Some people with Crohn's do well on the antibiotic regime your son is taking. These antibiotics are ones commonly used to treat gut related infections. Since he has an absess, it is not uncommon for for him to have this antibiotic regime.

HOWEVER, given the amount of pain he is having, and that it is seemingly increased in intensity, that could very well be a sign of a worsening problem. When is he scheduled to see the doctor again? When is he going to have the next CT or ultrasound to check on the size of his absess? It sounds to me like the doctor should be doing a follow-up sooner rather than later.

If his pain is getting so bad he cannot sleep, and he appears to be getting worse instead of better, what about taking him to the ER?
Posted 12/22/2011 1:01 AM (GMT 0)
 Hello Alberto and others on Healingwell,

First of all I LOVE Healingwell! Thank you so much for your responses.

I checked the bottles of the Antibiotics and they're both still half full (90 of 180 tabs and about 40 of 60 on the other) and there is no dates indicating when they want him to stop. Doesn't look good as far as stopping ANY time soon!

The only other CD related med he takes is HYDROCODINE 10 ACETAMINOPHEN 500MG tabs for pain. The doctors don't have him on anything else specifically for CD.  I've always thought that was strange, that he isn't on any CD meds...But I'm only an ignorant

Mom.

I have the book "The Maker's Diet" and I'm getting the supplements together that they recommend. I wish I could get him to follow the diet closer (he does follow it somewhat) but Rome wasn't built in a day especially when you're dealing with someone who is ANGRY AND AT THE END OF HIS ROPE...My gosh, he is so angry with all this. I feel like I'm a tiny mouse trying to pull a thorn out of a roaring Lion's paw. 

THANK YOU ALBERTO! I can't say that enough. WE ALL can't say that enough! I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day as a doctor to reach out here! PLEASE feel welcome and don't be a stranger to the Healingwell family!  

Post Edited (Diane D.) : 12/21/2011 6:23:29 PM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/22/2011 1:18 AM (GMT 0)
My feelings are, for what they're worth, and that is if your son is suffering badly, and it does sound
as though he is. Maybe he needs the hospital. They could give the antibiotics through an IV, and let
his gut rest. I think he could also do with some pain management! Is this a possibility for you? Please
let us know. I hate to think someone is in so much pain....
Posted 12/22/2011 2:08 AM (GMT 0)
I was ready to go with him and I called his dad to come, who lives in the area 10 minutes away, and drive (I'm without a car and I can't drive stick which is what my son's car is) but the VA hospital where he'd go is a nightmare to be at. He'd just been in there for over 2 weeks and he hated it. As sick as he was he wanted to try to "sleep it off". Dad came and we were both on standby. Luckily it did "pass" to a more bareable degree. Today he is almost normal. It comes in cycles.

I've been here almost 2 weeks and he's had about 3 HORRIBLE NIGHTS of LOUD moaning and groaning and "D" and heavy duty throwing up. Sleep is out of the question when he gets like that. I just sit there and rub his feet or just talk to him. He asked me to pray real hard outloud for him.

He did have an IV for the Antibiotics that he had to change every 6 hours. But it was so hard to sleep with it because it took 1/2 hour to set it up and then it took him an hour to get back to sleep if he wasn't in pain at the time. He was a wreck! He'd call me at 3 am just to have a shoulder to cry on when he was in too much pain to sleep. He'd go for days without eating because it was just too much to stand there and cook. (He has Celiac too)

Luckily I'm self employed and could come to take care of him. He flew me out and I'm here, the only woman in a house full of 4 young men. Yes, I wished they would have been of more help to him but what can I say...I've had enough football too.

At Alberto's suggestion, we're going to request he be taken off the Antibiotics depending upon how his absess is doing. Maybe, if they insist he stay on them we could go back to the IV to give his gut a possible rest.

IN THE MEANTIME, Christmas is coming. Oh yeah, that's right. Christmas. Somehow it seems like an after-thought at this point.

Posted 12/22/2011 3:43 AM (GMT 0)
I'm so sorry Diane. I truly hope things improve, but he really does sound so sick!

I'll keep you in thoughts, God Bless!
Posted 12/22/2011 5:08 AM (GMT 0)

This is the son with the problems. Just at work and read what my mom and everyone had to say.

First off I'm taking Cimzia for my chrones. Tried Remicade and had horrible reactions twice unfortunately. I've been on these oral meds for a couple weeks now but overall been on antibiotics for 4 months now. Just seems like I get better then get worse with this abcess. After a CT scan I got last week they said a fistula formed again (supposively they healed before) and that the abcess got bigger. So they placed a drain back in me.

I'm tired of this, it never goes away. I don't think these antibiotics are doing anything but am afraid to just stop taking them.

Posted 12/22/2011 3:11 PM (GMT 0)
Hey Alberto talk to the administrator of these forums about the rules. The moderators do not make the rules they are only here to enforce them at the administrators request. If you have issues with it you can contact him at [email protected] Regards!

And to Attey, I think you need antibiotics for the abscess and fistula, but not sure 4 months on them is the right thing. Any way you can see another doctor at another clinic? I am so sorry you are suffering so. Big hugs to you!
Posted 12/22/2011 4:16 PM (GMT 0)
Alberto, 'cure' therein lays the problem! I'm sure you may have had some success with reducing
some inflammation with your herbs, but to claim 'cure' is cruel, insensitive and wrong.

Please don't give people false hope!
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply