Hello everyone, I am new but my wife has been a long-time lurker/supporter here for me.
I could really use some advice on how to recover from my current situation. I was diagnosed with UC in 1999, am 36 yrs old now, and have had a functioning j-pouch since 2009. I have generally been very happy with it, living a normal(ish) life using only very small amounts of Imodium for maintenance. Twice I have been diagnosed with mild pouchitis and given Cipro to (successfully) treat it.
PRE-surgery I had a very nasty bought of UC, and was on 60mg of prednisone/day during the final year, but I have been essentially drug-free since the j-pouch in 2009.
About a month ago I was prescribed Amoxicillin to treat a jaw infection in preparation for a root canal. During that week I came down with moderate diarrhea, increased urgency/gas, and very bad smell. I completed the Amoxicillin (10 days) and then went to my GI with my complaint. He strongly suspected C.Diff, as I had it once before when I had a colon, and he put my on Flagyll (and ordered a c.diff test).
The test came back as negative (as did the retest) but after four days of Flagyll my moderate diarrhea/gas turned to very severe pure water diarrhea every hour. Anything I drank would very quickly leave my body, as if I was doing some kind of colon prep (not exaggerating one bit). My GI took me off of Flagyll after 4 days and put me on a week of Cipro.
After 1.5 days of the Cipro I was hospitalized as dehydrated, with NO improvement, unable to eat and barely able to sip water. I was in for two days, rehydrated, put on steroids (which.. helped, but they are steroids), and returned home. I am now on 40 mg/day of pred for 5 days, then 30 for 5 days, tapering down, while finishing up my Cipro course. My instruction is to start VSL#3 as soon as the Cipro has ended, and continue to pred taper alongside that.
I understand that I have probably destroyed all good bacteria in my gut and need to get it back. A concern I have is that while I take pred every 12 hours, it only lasts about 9 hours. Near the end of a dose cycle I have the same basic symptoms as what put me into the hospital.
Do you all think I am on the right track to recovery, with the prednisone taper, and ending Cipro soon? My Cipro seven-day course ends tomorrow.
Thanks
Rocko