Does Ursodiol cause bad stomach pain and gas?

Hi--

I recently started Ursodiol and I am having constant stomach pain and gas, but not sure if that is from the Ursodiol or maybe just liver getting worse. I have to take one 300mg cap three times a day because my state funded medicare drug plan will only cover 300mg caps, nothing else.  I am getting headaches too.

Does this go away if it is caused by the med? I took some mylanta and it helped some. I'm scared about the pain and indigestion because my grandma died from ruptured varices.

I get the elastomercy (I know I butchered it) on my birthday unfortunately.  I said I didn't care what day so they put it on my birthday.  At least it is getting done.

Hope everyone here is doing well as can be.

Love, marji

 

Marji!

I'm swamped right now but will get back to you this afternoon....from my experiences with Urso, I haven't had any more bloating than normal.  I have some ideas but I gotta run.

 

Hi again Marji,

I was looking up dosages and 900mg a day should be fine.  I found rough dosages on pbcers.org and the lowest dose is still over 500mg for someone weighing only 100lbs.  I take 500mg a day and I know that's on the low end.  I don't take it for PBC though just because my hep thought I was having cholestasis from my Imuran.  I do have bloating sometimes but I think it's purely from diet.  That said, celiac disease (CD) is common with AIHers.  You may want to speak to the doc about testing you for celiac sprue.  There's a blood test they can do but apparently, there are a lot of false negatives.  An upper endoscopic biopsy is the gold standard for diagnosis.  Some people have CD and some folks have an intolerance to gluten.  So you may have a negative celiac test but still need to be gluten free.  In any case, don't cut out gluten before the test as it will skew the results.

Are you still on pred?  If you're still on pred, are you also on a proton pump inhibitor?  The pred will tear up your stomach lining when on it for a long time.  That could be your trouble too if you aren't on something like Prevacid, Aciphex or Protonix.  They actually decrease acid production and not just coat the stomach for a short time.  Prevacid is off patent so you can buy it OTC now.  I used ot take it every day until I got off the pred.  now I only take it when I'm having digestive issues.  Nausea comes and goes and I think that just may be part of having a liver disorder as my labs are perfectly normal.

As per your elastography...YAY!  That's cool that you'll be having it.  Even if on your bday...it's non-invasive so it'll be an in-n-out procedure!!

Let us know how that goes and and other questions/thoughts you may have,

Dany knows a lot more about this than I do, but I do think you should go to the ER if you are feeling so poorly and are in pain.

Hugs,

Connie

Thanks Dany, Connie, and David. Because you let me know it wasn't the meds, I went in and you are right, it isnt the meds. I finally figured it out after being up all night with bad heartburn.

It ended up being a crown repair job that I guess wasn't cleaned out well enough before patched. I cannot feel along my jawline or under my chin and have no lymph nodes there anymore due to having them and my salivary glands removed. I only have parotid glands pretty much and they are always swollen. I was getting dizzy too. And the lymph nodes in my chestand ribs were swollen. It was the tooth draining into my stomach causing the heartburn and probably a little infection there as well, the dizziness was from pressure of the parotids and lymphnodes on my ear.

With those nerves being gone under my chin. I can't feel a toothache sometimes or throat infection.

The ER gave me a shot of Clindamycin and a high dose regimen of penicillin. I am feeling back to normal, even better with the Urso helping with the fatigue and pressure under the ribs!!! I have probably had this infection for a few months maybe. I don't run fevers anymore either.

I'm so glad it was not some kind of reaction to the Urso. Being so sensitive to drugs because of the disease, my mind goes there first.

Well, thanks so much!!! Now I can enjoy the weekend!

Love, Marji

I'm so glad to hear that you went to the ER and they detected the cause of your problems.  With the antibiotics, you should be feeling much, much better by tomorrow.  But don't forget to take the entire bottle of penicillin!

Hugs,

Connie