First bad flare up in 3 years - antibotics to blame?

I was on antibiotics in February of this year and by the end of March I started bleeding.  I don't know if the antibiotics triggered it or not, or if the stress of the Holiday's had an impact on anything.  I also had a minor surgery in January and I am sure they may have given me some form of antibiotics through the IV.  I have know idea....  I look back to all the times I have started to flare and there doesn't seem to be one commonality between any of them. 

Danni

Wow 3 years without a flair...that's great! Feel better : )

Yeah i think its the antibiotics..it surely kills infection but awakens uc!

Yes, I had IBS for years and D from antibiotics but when I had to take 2 courses of Amoxicillin last Spring I almost immediately got D with bleeding (never had blood before).  I was eating yogurt, etc, too.

I will not take Amoxicillin again either - there are many better choices - Zithromyacin (sp?) seems to be ok for me along with probiotics!

ElaineNY

I almost forgot the first thing the gastro doctor gave me to try before the colonoscopy and tests of celiac and infection was Flagyl and Canasa.  I had to stop in four days as I was sooooooo sick!  But, then I cannot tolerate cipro either which is a very good antibiotic. 

ElaineNY

 

Brandon.  My GI doctor said to take the Flagyl while I was taking Cipro.  Something about it keeping the good bacteria in the gut.  He also had me on Flora Q.  Flagyl is nasty.  They had me on it the entire time I was in the hospital too and boy did I ever get a bad case of thrush on my tongue, took weeks to get rid of it.  Doctor tended to think it was the prednisone and not the Flagyl which gave me thrush.  However, I got rid of the thrush while still on prednisone...hmmm.  Still say it was the Flagyl.

Nystatin - works great!  Both my husband and son use it for thrush caused by asthma inhaler steroids!

ElaineNY

You are a wise college student Tawn.  Antibiotics should NEVER be taken unless absolutely necessary.  For us all they will do is mess up our good bacteria, etc.

ElaineNY

Nystatin...comes in a swish or lozenge.  Takes a long time to get rid of the thrush though.  When I was discharged from the hospital, they sent me home with a bottle for the swish.  It's swish and swallow.  I little yukky.  Took me a few months to get rid of the thrush.  I was, and still do, take probiotics.

 

Speaking of antibiotics.  I think my old family doctor contributed to this UC I now suffer with.  He prescribed erythromycin for EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING.  Back in the early 60's not many people questioned their doctors, that most likely included my mother.

Peety.... To answer your question in regards to thrush, I used wild oregano oil ( which is a natural anti-fungal) and swished it in my mouth mixed with water. It is spicy/hot so mixing it with water is recommended. I believe I did 10 drops, twice a day. It took about a week to go away, but it worked.

Also, I agree with most everyone here about antibiotics. I firmly believe that the antibiotics I took regularly for frequent UTIs assisted in my development in this disease. I had finally acheived remission approx 7 months ago for the first time in 2 years with this disease with the help of diet and supplements, until I foolishly took another antibiotic for a UTI (or what I thought was one). Within one week of finishing the antibiotic, I was beginning to show signs/symptoms of a flare. Although they were slow to develop, my flare became pretty bad despite receiving a remicade tx in the midst of everything. I returned to my bland diet and increased my supplements (including probiotics) and within a week I am feeling much better. I will stick with the diet (which excludes alot of things like sugars, starches, soy etc) for two months like I did last time and I am sure I can return to a fairly regular diet when my bacterial flora is restored in my gut. It really stinks that medicine that was made to help us really does more harm than good!!

I agree with this statement to the point that i will never take an antibiotic again for as long as i live. Here is my story of why.

I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis when i was 25 after i was hospitalized when my blood count got dangerously low and i couldnt even get out of bed. It was something that none of the specialists i met with could help with. They gave me pills like azacol and nothing seemed to help. I got to the point i was going to just give up.. I went to a natural path dr as a last resort. He said something to me during our meeting.. We are the only species that drinks milk after being a baby. What if you remove dairy from your diet and you get better. I took that suggestion and i actually got better.

My colitis went into remission and the only thing that would flare it up a little was dairy, taking prednisone steriods would quickly stop any bleeding and i was better within a couple days.

Just to be clear, this wasnt just an allergy to dairy. I am keeping to key points to tell the story.

10 years of remission and normal bowels was great. Then i met a girl.. We became close, and later i found out that i had caught an std from her. My stupid fault for not always using protection. (lesson to others). Luckily it was something treatable.. I will be honest that i was freaked out by the thought of this dirty disease inside me.. Made me feel dirty and disqusting. I went to a walk in clinic and told the doctor what the girl told me she had. She asked me if i wanted to be tested and i said no, just give me the pills as i had slept with her a couple times. Dr gave me 2 options. 7 days taking a couple pills twice a day(antibiotics). Or taking a couple pills a day for a month(not an antibiotic).. Me feeling dirty wanted this gone fast so i said the 7 days treatment and we never talked about probiotics, he wasnt my dr and it wasnt a clinic i have ever been to.. So they didnt have my history on file and i never said that i had ever had ulcerative colitis as it had been in remission for 10 years and i never thought about it.

I picked up my perscription. Went home and started taking the anti biotic pills. By the last couple days of the pills i had devloped watery stools.. And it never went away. No bleeding started but i was nothing but watery stools every day and the frequency and urgency started getting worse and worse. Since there was no blood i assumed this was caused by the antibiotic. Saw my dr, they didnt help much. Eventually the bleeding started a couple weeks later. I got onto prednisone. I started taking random probiotics that werent that great.. Nothing was working and probiotics and prednisone were just keeping me with watery stools but kept the pain and bleeding masked. My frquency was anywhere from 2-8 times a day and liquid stools all the time is extremely frustrating.

I got tired of my dr and specialist.. And got a really good specialist. I saw him and then went in for a colonscopy. After that he said some things we would do.. He wanted to get me on new medications. Then i never heard anything for 6-7 months. I had even gone in to get tested for tb and got my bloodwork done. I assumed because i never heard from him about the new meds that i didnt pass something in my bloodwork or tb test. So i had gone that 6-7 months living with liquid stools a couple times a day, every day. I had event got myself off prednisone(at 1 point i was taking them every day for over a year straight which is horrible for our body). I was taking prenisone everyday a year before when i went on vacation to the philippines, this year when i went there again i had been off prednisone for a couple months was only taking an "ok" probiotic each day.

While i was in the philippines my bleeding started after a week of being there. My vacation was for 3 weeks and i was there alone. Part way through my second week the bleeding an frequency/urgency of my bowel movements had me pretty much staying in my hotel room every day. I got weak.. And lost so much blood. I barely had enough energy to make it home after my trip.. I felt so weak and in so much pain that i felt like i was going to die on the plane ride home. I made it home and it took me 2 days just to get out of bed. I had a family member talk to my specialist and get me prednisone. I took those and slowly got the bleeding under control. But i had lost a lot of blood on my trip and could barely eat because of the stomache pain.

I had to take 2.5 months off work.. During that time i got the bleeding to stop. Then the dr got me started on the treatment that i was supposed to start 6-7 months before. It was aparently a mix up and the people were supposed to contact me 6-7 months before to start the treatment. The treatment was called remicade and it is an infusion treatment.

I started that treatment in early november. I continued to take prednisone. I got off prednisone in january and continued the remicade infusions. Those after taking them in closer time intervals got to once every 8 weeks. I also take an apo-azathioprine(100mg 1 time a day).

Now it is near the end of april and i have been getting better but still watery bowl movements. Frequency, urgency and any pain have all pretty much gone. It is much easier to live a more normal life. Dr believes that my bowel movements will go back to firm by summer.

This has been pure hell to go through for the past 3 years. And all started from an antibiotic.

I hope this story may help someone, as there is a couple lessons. Some tips on medicine that helped me.. I was/am looking to find the best probiotic for someone who got antibiotic diarrehea in hopes that speeds this up to get the flora balance back to normal in my stomache.

Let me know if you have any brand specific suggestions