Xifaxan?

Hi everyone. For those of you following my misadventures, I had recurrent C Diff and recently got an FMT. I am now 3 weeks post FMT and tested C Diff negative twice! Doc who did the FMT via colonoscopy also says that I have virtually no inflammation in my colon anymore due to Remicade! I've also tested negative for everything else.

However, frustratingly, am still having the EXACT same symptoms I've always had....frequent D.

Doc thinks it's IBS. He's prescribed me Xifaxan. I am terrified to take this because I JUST beat C Diff and don't wave to kill off my good bacteria.

Any thoughts?

What are my alternatives? I can't just accept having uncontrollable D for the rest of my life.

Question: If doc thinks it's IBS why is he RX'ing Xifaxan?

I took a course of Xifaxan several years ago because no RX was really working and yes D was a daily feature along with lots of urgency. Xifaxan did nothing to help but it could be crossed of the list. Hail Mary play really because IIRC there is not much pointing to it being helpful to many at all.

Diet modification, which took a long time to nail down, rid me of D and urgency, also used mesalamine enemas to heal inflammation. My GI does not think I have IBS, he thinks it's a feature of my UC. My GI did not participate in diet mod but does not argue about it either. He's been in the field for a long time so he's seen a lot and does not act like he knows it all, because who does?

My thoughts are give diet a try if you haven't already. I tried SCD twice years apart and not much success but enough to see that diet made a difference for me, just not that particular one. I threw the book at my UC, supplements, diet, fasting, hypnosis, acupuncture. Diet made the biggest difference for me.

Good luck. If you don't want to take Xifaxan then don't but keep trying to find answers.

My modified diet has no name and the foods do not belong to any particular group. I kept testing each food, one by one, if it passed the gut test it stayed in. Some foods showed fast reactions and were easy to detect (fruit, juice, caffeine, chocolate, yogurt, many more) but others were sneaky (bread, gluten, grains, fiber, carrageenan, citric acid, beans) and were much harder to figure out.

I really tried every diet possible but scientific reasons did not work for my gut. It seemed like all my favorite foods made my colon angry, even water could provoke a BM. It took a long time to calm things down enough to find foods that were tolerated and after a while see if more foods could be added back.

Gluten-free expanded to being grain-free except for just a few things. Udi's white bread made with rice flour is gut-friendly and rice noodles are OK too whereas cooked rice is not. I cannot explain it I just do what my gut tells me.

Restaurants are easy for me,can always find things to eat because meat, low-fiber veggies and potatoes are beloved by my gut. Eating someone's home-cooked meal? Not easy, can't order off the menu there haha.

I look and feel healthy and outsiders might say I'm a nut job about food but they don't live with my UC symptoms which always lurk close by. I wish UC RX meds worked so I didn't need diet modification but I gave them 10 years and they didn't do it.

I agree...but foods that are roughage, fibrous and any that help constipation can exacerbate loose stool. Not UC, but action of the foods in general.

Do you have any allergies? Because many foods do contain allergens that we wouldn't imagine. Those allergic to salicylates should realise the foods that contai them, for example.

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