I'm a "Scooty Newbie" with some questions :)

[IDreamInColor]

Hello fellow MC sufferers. I was just diagnosed today after 5 plus years of symptoms. The past month has been a really rough time for me. I have had the scooties 6+ times per day, everyday consistently for the past solid month. Because of this I have barely been eating. I have been living on Ensure and baby portions of food for the last month. Due to the weakness from avoiding food I have landed myself in the ER twice, I have visited my primary doc, the gastro doc, and even my endocrinologist (because I have graves disease and was thinking the problem might have been related to that.) I have had cultures, and sample tests, upper gi and lower bowel series, and then a colonoscopy with biopsies. The biopsies "suggested" that I may have MC of the lymphocytic kind.
I had a similiar situation 5 years ago, but never got answers.
I have a few questions:
I am agoraphobic with panic/anxiety disorder, I recently came off prozac just to see if maybe it was the prozac causing the scooties. But now that I have a diagnosis I need to get back on my medication for the agoraphobia, I have a prescription for paxil which I took about 4 years ago and it worked well for me. My question is...will the paxil affect the MC? Or is their a safer SSRI for MC sufferers?
I have lots more questions, but company just arrived and I need to get off here, but will be back later with more questions.

[tex]

Hi,

Welcome to our internet family. I'm sorry to hear about your need for anti-depressants, because sertraline, (Zoloft), is one of the primary causes of MC, and most of the other SSRI's are suspect, but they haven't been available long enough to have accumulated enough case studies for a blanket determination to be made, (regarding their tendency to cause MC). IOW, the jury is still out on them. We are all different, and we are all affected differently by medications. Therefore, about all you can do, is to try one, and see how it affects you. That's tough to do, I know, because anti-depressants usually take a while to regulate.

Have you tried bupropion, (Welbutrin)? It has a lower risk of side effects, and it's not a SSRI.

How do you plan to try to control the MC symptoms?

Again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything.

Tex (Wayne)

[natythingycolbery]

I am agoraphobic with panic/anxiety disorder, I recently came off prozac just to see if maybe it was the prozac causing the scooties. But now that I have a diagnosis I need to get back on my medication for the agoraphobia, I have a prescription for paxil which I took about 4 years ago and it worked well for me. My question is...will the paxil affect the MC? Or is their a safer SSRI for MC sufferers?

The first question I have is, when you came off the Prozac did you bowel habits improve even slightly? because if they did it is highly likley that was the trigger for your MC.

I have anxiety disorder and depression and was put on Serteline in May this year, this is what triggered my MC they think, like Tex said the jury is still out there onto what effects anti-depressents have on causing MC etc. I am being used as a case study for a paper in the UK on if Sertraline can and does cause MC.

I'd talk to both your GP and GI about the medications you can use for your mental health issues, because a lot of anti-depressents are believed to cause/aggravate MC. I know I have been offered a different one if I feel the need to go back onto anti-depressents but the current attitude with this issue by GP's in my area is to avoid anti depressents altogether. Maybe you could cope without the medication? do you have any form of counselling for your issues?

I'm also confused as to why they would put you on prozac for a anxiety/panic disorder I've always been told that it was too stong for that type of health problem but i am not a dr at the end of the day.

[JoAnn]

Welcome, I noticed something in your post that you might want to check. It sounds like you probably don't know what your food sensitivities are at this time. Enterolab is the best place to verify these. When I was reacting 2 years ago and looking for food replacements (before I learned that I was sensitive to gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, and yeast) I bought some Ensure. I didn't do well on it and figured out later that it was because it has soy in it. If you're sensitive to soy, it is probably causing you problems. I'm assuming that it still is an ingredient in it. Good luck figuring this out, JoAnn

[JLH]

Naty, I've seen lots of web sites that say Zoloft/Sertraline is an MC (LC or CC) cause.

My DD#1 is using a light box for her depression at the present time. She was on Zoloft.

I took Prozac for quite a while. :-(

[Gabes-Apg]

alot of people had a 'crap' time pre diagnosis (and yep the pun is intended)

i too found this site the day i was diagnosed (i am LC MC as well) - and i credit and will be forever grateful to the wonderful people on this site for giving my life back (freedom, sanity, feeling reasonably well etc)

i just wrote you a note in the other post about the questran, there is alot of read and absorb, take your time and feel free to come back with questions.

There is a great search function so if you put in the word you are looking for you will get a summary of threads where that word/topic is discussed

take care

[natythingycolbery]

Naty, I've seen lots of web sites that say Zoloft/Sertraline is an MC (LC or CC) cause.

Yeah my GI knows that, he's doing a study into something to do with other medications and this one too. (I've got a history of Overdosing on Ibruprofen and Asprin) so I'm being used as an example in the study to suggest that MC may only have been caused due to all three of these medications. (He's comparing me to other MC's in the UK who got MC through just Sertraline and seeing how they are different etc). I can't remember exactly what he said, a lot of it did go over my head at the time because it was the day I was diagnosed when he asked me, I know I said yes because I will be helping future and current MC sufferers

[ant]

Dear IDIC

Welcome.

Before I was Dx MC (LC), I had dizzy spells and vertigo attacks (enough to hospitalize me). I am wondering if your panic attacks could be caused by neural issues triggered by gluten intolerance (which also causes your MC)?

It may be that going GF will help both MC and panic attacks.

All the best in your journey to better health, Ant