Tagged As: C Difficile Colitis
Question:
I was diagnosed 6 weeks ago with non-specific colitis...the irritation occurred only on the ilium, not the large or small intestine. This is why they can't call it Crohns. However, they suggested I take Flagyl for a week and then asacol for 3 months. I took the flagyl. Then I started taking the asacol for 1.5 weeks and felt awful. I decided to go to a nutritionalist and am trying to control what I have in that way. I never believed in meds...only as a last resort. I am somewhat better...not knowing what to expect, because they never told me what to expect. I'm pretty tired all the time and look and like crap compared to how I was before this episode. My question is having you or anyone you known with this disease taken a round of antibiotics BEFORE the first episode with this disease? This was the case with me. I was feeling perfectly fine one month before this. Best ever. Then I went for a female exam. The nurse practioner found blood in my urine. Said it could be a urinary tract infection (however I was feeling perfectly normal). By the way, I've recently found out that a small amount of blood, like I had in the urine, is perfectly normal). However, rather than try out a moderate antibiotic, she put me on a broad-spectrum antibiotic called Macrobid...I had a severe reaction to it. And ever since then, I haven’t felt right. Then 4 weeks later they put me in the hospital for what they thought was appendicitis, but ended up being the colitis. My feeling is that the Macrobid wiped out the good as well as the bad bacteria and then allowed this virus or infection to invade my system...and then voila...colitis. Were any of you on antibiotics anytime prior to your being diagnosed????? If so, perhaps there is a correlation....
Answer:
I have had a similar incident. I was put on a antibiotic (penicillin derivative) for breast infection and started having bowel problems about four months later. My uncle has had similar symptoms and his doctor told him he had AAC (antibiotic associated colitis). He was put on vancocin for a few weeks and his problem went away. After researching the AAC a little I understand that about 20% of those treated get re-infected due to remaining spores but these people are treated again. Another 20% are still re-infected but then retreated. My uncle had C. difficile which is just as you stated caused by antibiotics killing the good microbes and allowing the C. difficile to spread out. The toxins of the C. difficile are detectable (this is what they found with my uncle) and so can determine if the root cause of your problems is actually AAC or not. I hear that the Flagyl is the first line of defense but that Vancocin is used if Flagyl is not effective against C. difficile. I plan on going to the doctor my uncle visited to see if I too have the C. difficile vs. actual colitis.
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