Antibiotic and flares

[grammy1952]

You all were a tremendous help 3 years ago when I was diagnosed with MC. Tex told me turmeric was often an underlying factor and 3 days after I stopped it the massive diarrhea stopped and never returned. Until 2 weeks ago. I'd had 4 UTIs over a 4 month period (usually took Macrobid since it is less systemic) but on the last round the dr thought I might have a kidney issue to prescribed keflex. I had some soft stools while on it but nothing major. Then 10 days later was hit with massive 20+ a day diarrhea. I thought maybe it was c-diff or something like that but all stool tests were negative for everything which leaves me with the realization this must be a flare of the MC. Can an antibiotic cause a flare like this? Nothing has been working so I've been pouring over the wonderful information here again. I'm upping my vitamin D and magnesium now to see if that helps, and of course diet changes. I've been doing mostly meat and no raw veggies or anything. I'd been taking lots of probiotics but nothing really helps.

[grammy1952]

Oh and I also started LDN 2 nights ago. I'd been on it once and had some pills here so decided to try it. I jumped straight into 4.5 mg because I was desperate enough to deal with any side effects for a bit!

[tex]

A flare triggered by an antibiotic should have started while you were taking the antibiotic, not 10 days later, unless it was due to a C diff infection associated with the antibiotic treatment. How many culture test did your doctor do specifically testing for C diff? C diff tends to be difficult to diagnose sometimes. Usually though, by the third sample culture it should show up if it's there.

Note that we're all different in our response to various probiotics. A few of us can tolerate all sorts of probiotics, whereas some of us can tolerate precious few, if any. Have you tried doing without the probiotics for a day or so? Taking several, especially, is a red flag for MC patients.

Tex

[grammy1952]

Thanks, Tex! I had loose stools on the antibiotic, about 3 a day but it wasn't anything like this right now. They did a bunch of different bacteria type tests and they were all negative. The first c-diff they messed up and I had to take another one in. Then it took a week to get back and it was negative also. A blood test showed high lactoferrin which indicated either the colitis or c-diff so I assumed it was a flare. I don't have any pain like my mom did with c-diff so I thought I might have had a mild case or something. Yes, I've done several different types of probiotics while I was taking the antibiotic. I stopped for about a week after my naturopath told me they could be a problem but it only got worse so I started them again about 3 days ago. There's been no real change in over 2 weeks, Still lots of diarrhea. they did this one: CLOSTRIDIUM DIFFICILE CULT W/ RFX TO TOXIN B

[grammy1952]

I saw someone here on the forum had good results with saccharomyces Boulardii so I added that today. Should I try just that and nothing else?

[tex]

Someone also had what they described as great results with Bacillus coagulans, but I know nothing about it, otherwise. The only probiotic I've ever ingested is sauerkraut, and that was years ago.

Tex

[grammy1952]

I've been eating that as well as naturally fermented pickles. :)

[fredi223]

You might also consider trying different probiotics or a specific strain known to be helpful for MC