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UC flare-up or bug? Help!

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 6/28/2016 8:23 AM (GMT 0)
Hi All,

Long time no post. I've been happily in remission (totally symptom-free since October 2013). After a very severe three-year flare-up, I began Remicade in Oct 2013 and never looked back!

However, I've had infections (mainly fungal) as a side-effect of Remicade. My doctor put me on two week-long antibiotics last week. In hindsight, I should have taken one course at a time but I took them together. Now, I have liquid-D and cramping. BMs aren't too frequent. 2-3 times a day.

I'm wondering have I caught a bug, is this D from antibiotics or is it a flare-up caused by antibiotics? I'm really anxious because I can't go back to how my life was when I was sick! I have been on antibiotics before in the last year and I didn't get D from them. My stomach wasn't perfect on them though!

I'm just drinking water at the moment, taking my Mezavant XL and I'm going to take strong probiotics and l-glutamine.

If anyone has any advice of what else I should do please share. I am due my infusion of Remicade/Infliximab on Friday so if it hasn't stopped by then, I'm hoping it will help.
Posted 6/28/2016 4:22 PM (GMT 0)
Hi....your first request to your GI is ask for a stool sampling kit. If all is OK consider it most probably a flare.

What do you men you're just drinking water? As in not eating?

q
Posted 6/28/2016 4:28 PM (GMT 0)
antibiotics frequently trigger flares, and are implicated in the start of many people's UC

taking lots of probiotics with/after abx is a good thing.

You might have gotten c-diff, or you may need probiotics to rebalance you gut microbes (get some live ones like VSL), or you have begun a mild flare that might benefit form a short taper of pred.

got to determine which

good luck
Posted 6/28/2016 5:18 PM (GMT 0)
The antibiotics are certainly suspect in messing with your symptoms. Ditto the cdiff stool test. Things might still settle on their own if there's no pathogenic cause. It's certainly plausible that antibiotics triggered a flare, it happens sometimes.

The reason for your increased symptoms is found through a process of eliminating other possibilities. Get a stool test, a flex-sigmoidoscopy might be necessary. Other than a scope, diagnostics like CRP blood test or a fecal calprotectin test might be helpful in check your current inflammation levels.
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