Need help with gastrointestinal issues from Clindamycin

Hello. I am reaching out to you in hopes that you may be able to give me some guidance regarding some recent gastrointestinal issues that I am experiencing.

My new LLMD has me switching between abx every few months. I have been on Doxy for about 4 months now. about two weeks ago he switched me from Doxy to Clindamycin. about an hour after taking my first Clindamycin capsule I began to experience weird symptoms in my digestive tract (gurgling, gassiness, burning pain) and began to experience the first symptoms of diarrhea. Having experienced these symptoms from the Clindamycin, I did not take any more of the Clindamycin but that one initial capsule.

The diarrhea lasted for three days where the last two days were not watery, just soft clumps. The diarrhea stopped after the first three days.

Since taking Clarithromycin my stomach and lower intestines have been experiencing sharp burning sensations as if I had ulcers in different parts of the tract. These last two days my lower intestine has been jumping and vibrating on occasion to where I can feel it if I put my fingers over it and at night sharp pains in the tract would awaken me. Also, every time that I eat it hurts when the food reaches my stomach. Almost as if the food touches an ulcer and that causes pain. The gurgling and severe gassiness hasn’t stopped.

It has been 9 days since I took that one capsule and I am still having issues. Because of the holiday my LLMD has been out of the office and my PCP moved out of state. I plan to reach out to them next week.

What I have done to help the symptoms is that I have added Pepcid AC (20mg) once a day for the ulcers and have added Green Vibrance (25 bn) probiotics to the already 50 BN/10 strain probiotics that I take. My diet is free of gluten, sugar, alcohol, dairy and acidic/spicy food. I was tested last summer for C. Diff (fecal test) and it came back negative.

I am still taking the Doxy along with low doses (5 drops) of Cryptolepsis, Sida Acuda, Alcornea, Houttuynia, Japanese Knotweed, Curcumin, and many vitamins.

Can you suggest anything else that I can do to undo the damage that Clindamycin did? Any responses are greatly appreciated.

Thanks Little Bear. I am aware of it but had not considered it. I will try it and see if it helps. It should help detoxing as well so it hits multiple points which is a plus.

After I wrote the post I began to look though my drawer of goodies and found a bottle of DGL that has not expired. I am going to try that as well and see if it helps.

ugh, this is tough, so sorry to hear of your struggles!! it may not be that one capsule of clindamycin that did it, it could actually just be that you messed up your gut flora from switching and being on so many different antibiotics.

have you ever heard of psyllium husk?? that is a binder also, similar to charcoal, but it may help with the diarrhea. but i would suggest you use it under your Dr's supervision, bc if you take the wrong dose, it can have the opposite effect and cause more diarrhea.

i will put my thinking cap on - if i come up with any ideas, i will reach out to you!!

CD3764 and Chapelle, thank Goodness that the diarrhea was for just three days but I am going to add Saccharomyces boulardii because I think I may have Candida so thank you for the suggestion. I will talk to my doctor about psyllium husk. As for the kefir, I can't tolerate dairy products so for now I can't go on it yet. I may have to do water kefir though if my flora is damaged though.

Traveler, I though of it being die off at first and it could have been in the beginning. The tract spasms and burning ulcers throughout the digestive tract is what has me worried. It feels as if the protective mucus of the tract and stomach has dried up and bugs are eating at the lining. Can Candida do that?

It has been 10 days now and they keep getting worse. There is nothing in my diet that is triggering the pain so I must have damaged the lining with the abx. The spasms can sometimes feel like electrical shocks being applied to my GI tract. They only happen every few hours so I haven't rushed to the ER. If the diarrhea comes back or the pain worsens I just may have to do that.

I am probably have to stop the abx and herbs to give my flora a chance to recover. What stinks is that I felt like I was this close to conquering the infection and now this. bummer.

My llmd prescribes Clindamycine for intestinal dysbiosis. Alternating the antibiotic with strong probiotics. I read that some of the patients have diarrhea when taking it. They have to get the enteric coated version though (pharmacy needs to coat the pills).
I also read that after a few weeks, it disappears, but they need to go on very strong probiotics in the abx free weeks.

Sorry I can't help more. My sister is taking it I think, I'll see if she can give me more information. I will get back to you if she can tell me more.

Thank you all for your kind suggestions. I believe that I may have found the answer.

On a hunch, I took 100mg of fluconazole that I had in my drawer and within a few hours it calmed the gastritis, the gurgling, and the intestinal spasms. Yup, everything points to a systemic Candida infection.

As I think about what is going on, some things are beginning to make sense. You see, my vision has been deteriorating rapidly as of recent. I have also had a constant itch on the outer end of the colon. I was developing nerve spasms in my right hand's index finger, I have itching all over the body, tingling in my extremities, I would get ear ringing within minutes of eating fruit, nothing was helping the brain fog, and things seem to have gotten worse since I ran out of Monolaurin.

I attributed these symptoms to the different antibiotics that my new LLMD has me on as well as herxing symptoms from the new herbs that I had recently added.

But let me tell you, I have the worst headache that I have had in a very, very long time. Classic herx headache. Plus may of the symptoms that I mentioned above have gotten better or gone away with just one pill of fluconazole.

So as I add it up, the major herx and the improvement of symptoms, I am leaning towards it being Candida and in a major way. I guess that for now I am going to read as much as I can on Candida and ask my docs for Nystatin powder to help out the Fluconazole and reorder the Monolaurin which I think was keeping it at bay. I think I have some pau' D arco in my drawer so as soon as this debilitating headache eases up a little I am going to throw more stuff to it.

I guess that the Clindamycin broke the camel's back as they say and it killed whatever few remaining bacteria that I had left after years of being on antibiotics. When it is not one thing, it is another, I just can't seem to get the upper hand on these infections.

Post Edited (Healing98) : 1/3/2016 7:18:38 PM (GMT-7)