Seniors and Aids

Postby **administrator** » Mon Aug 13, 2001 4:56 pm

Cary User ID: 1689844 Aug 26th 11:27 AM I am a 40 year old male from New Mexico, relatively healthy until this bug hit me. In December 1999, I went to my general doc for an ear and sinus infection. He gave me Cipro for 10 days, it really update my stomach. After the 2nd day he put me on Zithromax (5 day), I tolerated it OK. Within a week I had severe diarrhea a couple times a day. The doc said to let it take its course. e-mail <a href="mailto:Cary_Alisa@plateautel.net">Cary_Alisa@plateautel.net</a> This lasted until early January, my diarrhea was considerable worse at 15 to 20 stools a day. He finally suggested I send in a stool sample. It came back positive with C' Diff and H-Pylori. He put me on Flagyl and Biaxin/Prylosec. After 30 days of each I thought I was getting better. Within days it was back. Feb. 2000, my Doc suggested I go to a Gastro specialist (#1). He scheduled an Endoscope and found nothing other than some inflammation. He said I had severe GERD! And wanted to do surgery on my stomach. (I don't think that was causing my diarrhea). In March I was off to another specialist (#2), the sad part of all this is that it takes a couple weeks to make an appointment and another week to schedule a scope. So the condition only gets worse. The new specialist confirmed via scope I had PMC i.e. C' Diff. He put me on Vanco for 10 days. It worked well, my symptoms improved within 5 days. My condition got progressively worse. Two weeks after the vanco it was back. (Those of you who have had this mess have no doubt when it comes back). I called the same specialist again, he said he couldn't see me for a couple weeks but the emergency room could see me right away. In the mean time he wrote a prescription for Question, 4 times a day. In April I made another appointment with another specialist (# 3), he put me on Vanco again, 4 times a day for 14 days this time. Again I felt better after 5 days, again after the 14 days I was back on Questran. This time it lasted for about a month. I gradually got worse, in June I called doc #2, he said he couldn't see me until September. I called Doc #3, he said he would get back to me as soon as possible. He never called back. After a lot of research, stress, fear I wondered if I would ever get better. My diet consisted of no soft drinks, no fried food, and no sweets. All I ate was grilled chicken and salads. Nothing seemed to work. I took probiotics 3 pills, 3 times a day, questran and fiber. Nothing helped. I noticed a pattern with all the case studies on Webring and other sites. Every time we take antibiotic it kills all the bacteria in the intestines. The C'Diff has the ability to spore, lay eggs, which the antibiotics has no effect. The eggs hatch and there are no other bacteria to balance the system. So it multiplies again. It is a vicious cycle that you can't win. You can't pump in enough good bacteria to offset the bad… In reading Ellen's case where fecal transplants worked well for her. I searched the internet for probiotic enemas; there is not much out there on this topic. I found an ad it a nutritional book that probiotic enemas are effective but not to do it more 3-6 times a year. I didn't understand why. In August I made an appointment with Doc #4, asked him about probiotic enemas. He said the only danger was damage to the intestinal wall. Other than that it sounded OK. It is now August 25, my schedule includes a probiotic enema after each BM and 2 probiotic pills with each meal. Within two days my stool dramatically improved. After 7 days, I will do a "Probiotic Blast" for 4 days. That includes 5 pills per meal three times a day. After the "Blast", I'll go back to 2 pills / 3 times a day. Needless to say, It is easy to get frustrated with this medical field, One glaring thing I noticed, after they administer the first round of antibiotics and it doesn't work, they really don't want to see you back. They hope you go somewhere else…. They just don't seem to care. Also, Thank you to all the people who are willing to share there lives and stories. It helps to know we are not alone. Bobbie User ID: 9663323 Aug 26th 3:23 PM Yup, yup. The same people who prescribed the medication for the original problem are then faced with another problem they know little about and don't know how to cure. What a blow to their Egos! Once they can't cure you, it's just easier to "dump" you as a patient. Doctors are so afraid of lawsuits now too with good reason. Many people are "law suit crazy." Also, even doctors in the same field seldom agree on anything. I call it the "uh, huh" syndrome. When one doctor reviews the medication or procedure another doctor prescribed, they shake their head, frown, and say "Uh, huh." One doctor told me that he has seen doctors come to actual physical blows about medications. I used to be on a board with a number of doctors, and they would argue about medications constantly. Unfortunately, anyone with a chronic illness needs physicians, however, so I now try to approach going to them as a "game." It has helped a little bit. Every doctor has his/her own opinion, and that's all it is -- an experienced, educated, expensive guess! Sometimes it works, sometimes, it doesn't, and sometimes their cure is worse than the original disease. We will see C. diff. escalate as more and more powerful antibiotics are pumped out by the pharm. companies. Just look at the increased activity on this web site alone. It look me four years to finally win over C. diff., and I got it back the next time I had to take an antibiotic but got rid of it again. I still have problems but eat everything in moderation. Sometimes milk products cause problems with people who have had C. diff. for a long time, so I minimize those. When I obsessed about what I ate, it just made things so much worse, and I couldn't really see a difference. I was fortunate to find one of the few G.I.'s who knew what he was doing or as much as possible because C. diff. is such an unpredictable disease. Very few men have the guts (small joke) to write to this site. Good luck and keep us informed. Cary User ID: 1689844 Aug 27th 8:52 AM Bobbie, When you got C'diff the second time what were the symptoms? Also, What does your GI doctor say about probitoic enemas? Bobbie User ID: 9663323 Aug 27th 10:15 PM The symptoms were the same as the first time --lots of stomach pain and everything that goes along with it. He never mentioned the probiotic enemas, and I never read much about them. The scope he did goes down the throat, through the upper G.I. tract and into the lower and deposits the good bacteria there. Shawnda User ID: 0038914 Aug 28th 2:07 AM Cary, Doesn't the enemas feel bad after all the other symptoms of the C. Diff. I guess I'm just in too much discomfort to think about an enema. But if it really helps. Where do you get them? I'm pulsing my vancomycin right now, my last day on the pills is Sept. 13. After that I'll wait a few days and then call the GI doc if the symptoms return. Or should I say get bloody again. I don't think I've gotten rid of the C. Diff. I've had it since May. But when I'm on the vanco I don't have the bloody diarrhea very often. Glad you joined the site Shawnda Cary User ID: 1536664 Aug 28th 11:12 AM Shawnda, I believe it works on the same principle as the oral tube used by Bobbie. It's like attacking the problem from both ends. The faster you can get the good guys in after Vanco or Flagyl to more likelihood of beating the "Hatch". I don't think this method will be very effective while on the antibiotics. What I did for the enema was use a Fleets Enema kit from the drug store, after the first BM use the whole bottle of fleets, keep it in for two minutes and expel. Within about 10 minutes fill the fleet bottle half full with distilled water (Luke warm), the book I have referred to recommends either Digesta-Aide or Kyodophilus. I use Total Body Flora from Infinity products ( <a href="http://www.Infinity2.com" target="_blank">www.Infinity2.com</a>). I open 5 pills and pour in the bottle, shake well. Follow the same directions on the Fleets bottle. Lay on your right side a minimum of 15 minutes, after that time I prop my hips up so the flow can goes for as it can. I think the best results are achieved when you don't expel. I felt better within 4 to 6 hours. I don't really have the need to expel until the next BM, 24 hours later. Be careful and use commonsense. Cyndie User ID: 9209903 Aug 28th 3:36 PM Hi Cary - thanks for posting your story. Sounds like you may be having luck with your technique. You referred to a book that instructed you how to do the probiotic enemas - can you tell us what that book is? Thanks. You do this every day???? I don't know if I could handle it and get to work on time - I've never done this before! I guess it's worth a try as nothing else is working. You never tried pulse dosing?? -Cyndie Cary User ID: 1689844 Aug 28th 8:34 PM Cyndie - The book I've been using is called "Prescription For Nutrional Healing" by James Balch,MD and Phyllis Balch, CNC. You can get it at just about any health food store or even order it through B. Dalton or something. It's called the L. Bifidus Retention Enema on pg. 546 It says it may be helpful in cases of severe gas and bloating, and yeast infections. It may also be beneficial when high colonics have been used or when antibiotics have been taken over long periods of time. It will also give you the procedure. I check with my doctor and he okayd using the probiotic enema after each BM(1X day) but you have to be very gentle so as not to perforate or puncture the colon/rectum. I've asked the doctors to prescribe pulse doses with the vanco but so far they havent done that. After reading all these case histories at this sight, I'm not so sure that's very successful either. Seems to me it just goes away when it's darn well good and ready! So far, I've tried everything the doctors and I know to do and to no avail. Maybe the best approach is to "wait and see". I am fully pursuing the probiotic way thought via enema and capsule ingestion. The enema does seem to help the stool though. -Cary PS - do you have family? if so, how's this affecting them? Cyndie User ID: 9209903 Aug 29th 9:41 AM Thanks Cary: I have that book so I'll look it up tonight. No, I'm single, no kids. But my sisters are not all that understanding about this. I have another chronic, painful medical condition as well to deal with (that doctors know nothing about too!) so I'm having kind of a bad time. Best of luck to you and to us all!! -Cyndie Cary User ID: 1536664 Aug 30th 4:45 PM I did get some feedback from Infinity2 technicians on Probiotic Enema's, Daily enema's would help re-establish good body flora in the Colon area. Cary

Guest · Postby **Guest** » Thu Feb 07, 2002 10:27 pm

I recognize that not everyone here is a senior citizen, but hope you enjoy this anyway! BULLETIN SENIORS are the NATIONS LEADING CARRIERS of AIDS! HEARING AIDS BAND AIDS ROLLAIDS WALKING AIDS MEDICAL AIDS GOVERNMENT AIDS Most of all Monetary AID to their kids! The golden years have come at last I cannot see I cannot pee I cannot chew I cannot screw My memory shrinks My hearing stinks No sense of smell I look like hell My body is drooping Got trouble pooping (really? Not here!) The golden years have come at last THE GOLDEN YEARS CAN KISS MY •••! [Guest Posted by: 'Mary']

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