Didn't Take Asacol for Three Days

Few Words about my Case:
So last six months, I have been suffering with some kind of colitis. I did a colonoscopy three months ago and my biopsy results said " Alterations of colitis, possible infectious reasons. For final diagnosis and to exclude idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease is recommended for the patient to re-examine after treatment." It was on Greek, so I might not be precise on the translation. My doctor tho didn't give me any treatment, because by the time biopsy results were out, I was already fine and he didn't give me any treatment. He told me that if it happens again, I will visit him again and we will re-examine. I changed city by that time and last three months I have been having "flares" every other week.

My solution:
Since this has been affecting my life very badly and I do not even feel "free" anymore, I decided to go to another doctor here. I showed him my old exams and he told me that the other doctor should have suggested me some treatment even tho I was fine that time. By that time I went to this doctor, I didn't have a flare, but I just needed a second opinion. So he told me to take antibiotics and I am currently doing a 10-day treatment. I am taking Flagyl, Asacol, Ciprofloxacin and probiotics.

The problem:
It's fourth day of my treatment and it has been only problems til now. Since I started taking antibiotics I have diarrhea, I feel that my stomach is bloated and the worst part.. I realized today about Asacol. All this time I thought it was second package for Flagyl and I was not taking it last three days. I called my doctor in panic and he told me to start taking it today, and just keep taking it for 10 days. That it's not really a problem, but isn't it? I was also googling about each medicine and it seems like Asacol is for ulcerative colitis and Krohns, so why would he give me that if it seems like I have infectious colitis and not ulcerative? Why I worry about this? I read people saying that when they stop Asacol and get flare again, same medicine won't work as good as before. So in case that I have ulcerative colitis, this will be bad for me. Because I will obviously stop taking it after package is used and if what I have is not infectious but ulcerative, Asacol might not work anymore for me

Been really stressed all these months with this "crap". I really hope that after this treatment it will be gone, but i really don't feel like it will.

Infecious-colitis can be treated with antibiotics and/or anti-inflammatory medications like Asacol/Mesalamine and it sounds like your doctor is giving you everything that is possible to quickly get your symptoms under control.

Don't worry about asacol suddenly not working any more in the future. Asacol never ceases working for someone. Rather, their UC/IBD can get worse in extent and/or severity over time and that disease-progression is what can necessitate stronger medications being used instead of asacol.

If you have infectious colitis, it shouldn't come back though, so you try not to worry about having to take Asacol again for right now. When I had severe food poisoning (campylobacter) for 3 months in 2016 that I had to be hospitalized for twice, I was on about 5 or 6 rounds of antibiotics (which led to getting c diff.). But eventually, it never came back. He had me take several different types of antibiotics. It was absolute hell and worse than any UC flare I have ever had. Have you been checked for c diff?

Did your doctor recommend taking probiotics along with the antibiotics? Mine had me do that, although I do pretty well on antibiotics and I'm not a big believer that the probiotics really did anything. Antibiotics usually help my UC, but they mess a lot of people's guts up, UC or not. Flagyl is horrible though...it is very strong and gave me other side effects, like a metallic taste in my mouth. I have to take it with food, like applesauce or yogurt.

Sorry, I just re-read your post and see you are on probiotics. I think you are on a good regimen. I took Flagyl and Cipro at first when I had campylobacter (food poisoning bacteria which caused "infectious colitis"). Stick out the antibiotics and Asacol. Call your doctor as much as you want if you have questions or you get worse or aren't feeling better in a few days. Good luck. If those antibiotics don't end up working, I think the last one I took was Azithromycin. That's the one that finally seemed to get rid of it. I had to take special, super strong antibiotics for the c diff as well.

Sara14 said...
Put the Flagyl in a spoonful of applesauce or yogurt or pudding or something and swallow it like that, it will prevent the nasty metallic taste. Yep, c diff is from taking antibiotics for a long time and also can be picked up in hospitals very easily. It's horrible.

I was actually told to not eat any diary products.. So you think that an infectious colitis would not last so long? Seems most likely like something chronic?

I don't eat dairy either. They have vegan yogurts.

Next time (if it happens again) you have symptoms, request stool samples again. It will be a more definite answer for you regarding an infectious cause. It sounds infectious to me.

Sara14 said...
I know it sucks not knowing! Hang in there.

I really hope that after this annoying treatment I will be fine. I love travelling, but this "crapty" colitis has decreased my enjoyment of travelling so much. I really wanna feel free again, thank you!