Because of the failed experiment with VSL#3 DS I had a setback last week and I feel like I will need to be on antibiotics for 2 weeks straight before I attempt to go off antibiotics again. I was miserable Saturday, Sunday, and yesterday and only now is the Xifaxin starting to kick in.
I was actually able to go as long as 10 days off antibiotics in the past. However I was slowly decreasing dosages and when I went back on Cipro and Flagyl the week before the failed experiment, I probably should have stayed on longer at a higher dosage before this experiment.
It's actually the worst pouchitis flare I've had in the last few years but I can feel the Xifaxin kicking in today.
Prior to all of this I had boiled the rotations down from 2 weeks to one week and this may have been a problem. I suspect that the one week on and one week off may have weakened up the pouch a little bit resulting in the dramatic failure of the VSL#3 DS after only 5 days.
I would encourage you to keep experimenting and don't put too much stock into what I am doing. I'm going back to a two-week on and then one week off rotation, between Cipro, Flagyl, Augmentin, and XIFAXIN.