Question to Tex or Polly about pepto
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Question to Tex or Polly about pepto
First off I'm a super newbie, diagnosed with CC 3 weeks ago and am so thankful for this forum. Tex your book is a huge comfort and super informative. My question is about the pepto treatment. I have been on a strict GF diet (only for ten days now) and ordered my enterolab testing A2 panel with fat malabsorption test. I'm on day ten of the pepto treatment of 8 chewable tabs and had an extreme reaction...insomnia the last couple nights, fast pulse and leg trembling to the point of thinking of going to the ER....the legs finally calmed down and got a few winks of sleep. Just very unusual high anxiety. Have you guys heard of this? Thanks so much By the way Tex my birthday is also June 10...its a sign I'm on the right path.
Vanessa
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I am neither Tex nor am I Polly but I will offer my opinion any way. Pepto is not a cure. It can help only with symptoms. This being the case, if you are having an extreme reaction to it I would advise that you just stop it. If you stop the pepto and the problems you are having go away you will know that it is the pepto that is causing them. Maybe you could try Immodium to control symptoms while you wait on your Enterolab test or you could try to get ahead of the game and eliminate dairy and perhaps soy and perhaps eggs. While I waited for my Enterolab tests I ate only a small handful of foods (4 I think) which really helped. I also took Immodium.
Jean
Jean
Hi Vanessa,
Welcome to our internet family. I have to agree that your birthday seems to fall on a good day for a birthday.
I totally agree with Jean, that you should stop using the Pepto, in order to verify whether it is the cause of your symptoms. Neurological symptoms, such as you described, are not particularly common, but neurological symptoms are also not rare for Pepto. The active ingredient in Pepto-Bismol of course is bismuth subsalicylate, which is a prodrug, meaning that it will be broken down in the body to the active moieties, bismuth and salicylic acid. The good news is that the salicylic acid has a half life of only 2–5 hours, but the bad news is that bismuth has a half life of 21–72 days. Hopefully, once you discontinue it. the symptoms will fade away promptly, even though it will take a while to completely pass out of your system.
Again, welcome aboard, and please keep us posted on your condition and your progress.
Tex
Welcome to our internet family. I have to agree that your birthday seems to fall on a good day for a birthday.
I totally agree with Jean, that you should stop using the Pepto, in order to verify whether it is the cause of your symptoms. Neurological symptoms, such as you described, are not particularly common, but neurological symptoms are also not rare for Pepto. The active ingredient in Pepto-Bismol of course is bismuth subsalicylate, which is a prodrug, meaning that it will be broken down in the body to the active moieties, bismuth and salicylic acid. The good news is that the salicylic acid has a half life of only 2–5 hours, but the bad news is that bismuth has a half life of 21–72 days. Hopefully, once you discontinue it. the symptoms will fade away promptly, even though it will take a while to completely pass out of your system.
Again, welcome aboard, and please keep us posted on your condition and your progress.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Thank You Tex for such a quick response!
Knowing stress and anxiety makes our symptoms worse, it is extremely difficult not to let that take hold and get into that continuous wheel of fight or flight. Do you have any suggestions or know of any posts on not letting the fear take hold of all the What Ifs? of this disease, like am I going to be up all night with D...etc. I suppose that is a very personal journey for all of us but boy am I stuck in fear mode. Mostly about not being able to sleep. I guess I just need some words of comfort that this thing can be controlled with the right steps. It doesn't have to take over your life and your mind. Thank you for all the hard work you do with this forum. I suspect it has really gotton a lot of folks out of the depths of despair.
Knowing stress and anxiety makes our symptoms worse, it is extremely difficult not to let that take hold and get into that continuous wheel of fight or flight. Do you have any suggestions or know of any posts on not letting the fear take hold of all the What Ifs? of this disease, like am I going to be up all night with D...etc. I suppose that is a very personal journey for all of us but boy am I stuck in fear mode. Mostly about not being able to sleep. I guess I just need some words of comfort that this thing can be controlled with the right steps. It doesn't have to take over your life and your mind. Thank you for all the hard work you do with this forum. I suspect it has really gotton a lot of folks out of the depths of despair.
Vanessa
Vanessa,
I'm sorry for the late response — I've been out working on other projects.
I'm not much of an authority on relaxation techniques. There are many different approaches, and most people tend to favor one approach over the others. Some people find exercise, or yoga, or similar endeavors to be relaxing, but when MC symptoms are active or severe, those may not be practical. Meditation, controlled breathing exercises, or listening to relaxing music, works for some of us, but controlling the mind is easier said than done, and most people find that they need to follow a regular, daily program in order to derive much benefit from such a program.
Sometimes, just keeping the mind occupied by replaying old (happy) memories and experiences, or making plans for future vacations, etc. can help. Anything to keep the mind occupied is better than just allowing it to wander aimlessly, because when we have a condition such as active MC, if we allow the mind to dwell on our symptoms, it will always select the worst possible scenarios, and we will tend to worry about anything and everything.
Sometimes it helps just to recognize that it's human nature to fear the unknown. And when we fear the unknown, we always visualize an outcome that is much worse than what actually ever happens. When I found myself in that situation in the past, I just tried to focus my thoughts on something other than my symptoms, and I tried to deal with life one day at a time, one hour at a time, or one minute at a time, if necessary. The future is always brighter than it seems at night, but it's not easy to appreciate that fact when we're staring at the ceiling because we can't sleep.
Tex
I'm sorry for the late response — I've been out working on other projects.
I'm not much of an authority on relaxation techniques. There are many different approaches, and most people tend to favor one approach over the others. Some people find exercise, or yoga, or similar endeavors to be relaxing, but when MC symptoms are active or severe, those may not be practical. Meditation, controlled breathing exercises, or listening to relaxing music, works for some of us, but controlling the mind is easier said than done, and most people find that they need to follow a regular, daily program in order to derive much benefit from such a program.
Sometimes, just keeping the mind occupied by replaying old (happy) memories and experiences, or making plans for future vacations, etc. can help. Anything to keep the mind occupied is better than just allowing it to wander aimlessly, because when we have a condition such as active MC, if we allow the mind to dwell on our symptoms, it will always select the worst possible scenarios, and we will tend to worry about anything and everything.
Sometimes it helps just to recognize that it's human nature to fear the unknown. And when we fear the unknown, we always visualize an outcome that is much worse than what actually ever happens. When I found myself in that situation in the past, I just tried to focus my thoughts on something other than my symptoms, and I tried to deal with life one day at a time, one hour at a time, or one minute at a time, if necessary. The future is always brighter than it seems at night, but it's not easy to appreciate that fact when we're staring at the ceiling because we can't sleep.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.