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Posted

Hello all.

Looks like I have gastroparesis overgrowth and if I may quote Francis Bacon, "the remedy is worse than the cure."

overgrowth symptoms: unbearable pain when eating anything, white bowels, massive gas that doesn't leave the body, so much so that I can't catch my breath, bad cramps, 7 pounds lost in 10 days. Can keep soft gushy down (toast, noodles, etc.) but not other foods.

Put me on Alinia last Thur. to kill overgrowth bacterial types. Symptoms cut in half. HOWEVER, now I have the runs...white runs.

Although I got a liter of saline in my port on Thursday, had runs all weekend, and got another liter yesterday a.m., I am still in a POTS event.

BP dropping when standing, only 20 points apart (dehydrated?). BP 190/105 to 200/120 sitting. And all the other POTS syncope-ish junk plus the NE shakes. Taken all the meds I can. Get saline again on Thursday.

No callback from dr. yet. Can't work me back into dr.s until Friday 3 p.m. (another sick weekend, I guess). Pharmacist said do NOT take any over the counter (Imodium) with this pill til dr. calls.

Anybody hear of other treatments for this overgrowth? Anything natural that would help? Advice from those with this condition, please? I feel too badly to google for it.

I need to get off Alinia. I still have three 1/2 days of pills left. I've been hospitalized for hypertensive urgency with prinzmetal angina twice since Nov. and I don't need more NE-induced expensive hospital stays. I HAVE to keep that fluid in my body!

THANKS! And my heart goes out to all those battling this frustrating disease.

Elegiamore

Posted

I don't know if you have a Whole Foods but there is a drink they sell there that at least takes the edge off. It is Aloe herbal Stomach Formula. It helps: nausea/ vomiting, diarrhea/ cramps, bloating and gas. It tastes TERRIBLE. But you only have to take a tiny bit. Good luck!! I know how you feel!

Posted

I suspect I've had bacterial overgrowth for probably 12 years. I had horrendous bloating that causes shortness of breath. I could go days and not pass gas!! And think of that when an average person makes 1-2 liters of gas daily!! So, obviously I had no room for all that gas, and everything seemed to push up on my diaphragm.

I didn't have any gi doctor actually catch me in the throes of the worst of the bloating, as when you call to make an appt. for it, they can't see you for a month or more. My last resort that works for me is Milk Of Magnesia about 5x week. It keeps the stools very soft and enough fluid with it to bring the gas on through. Sorry if this is gross, but it is a very serious issue for me!!

I tried Xifaxin and Metronidizole(?). The Xifaxin didn't seem to do much, but the Metro seemed to *poof*, take the bloating magically away! Then, I was to take the probiotic Align right away, and the bloating came right back. Probiotics are absolutely horrific for me, causing almost a crisis bloating situation.

So, I just take my MoM to help with it the most part, but no doctor has REALLY helped me work on getting the overgrowth under control. I hope you get better, as I totally understand how bad this affects you.

Posted

This happened to me about 5 years ago. I was diagnosed at Cleveland Clinic with a breath test. The gi doc prescribed antibiotics - I think I remember a sulfa drug was used, along with another antibiotic. I was better within a week or so, but stayed on the antibiotics for about 2 weeks. I haven't had an issue since then. I really swear by probiotics. I eat 8 ounces of yogurt per day, and that really seems to help. Hope you're feeling better soon.

Posted

I think you need to talk with the doctor or someone from his/her office. It sounds like the Alinia isn't working. It should be slowing the diarrhea not causing more. I know how you feel I just got over a bout of intestinal flu which caused my microcytic colitis to flare up. I had diarrhea everyday all day for a month. I had stool cultures done-negative, was on immodium and lomitol and nothing helped. It had to run its course. I like you lost about 8 lbs and was miserable-housebound. My OH symptoms were horrible. I stayed hydrated with Gatorade, homemade smoothies and ate a brat diet-bananas, rice, dry toast/crackers for the month. I spent most of the time resting and close to a bathroom. It has been about 10 days that I have been back to normal with bowel movements and OH symptoms under control. I have Gastroparesis and take Domperidone for it along with a Probiotic. I did keep taking all my medications while having diarrhea. Hang in there and I hope you feel better soon.

Posted

Thanks, guys. Will check out that Whole Foods stuff tomorrow, as hubby goes there to do his juicing.

Hanna, good thinking; already on probiotics with no obvious results. MWise, the food suggestions are thumbs up and I'll try the bananas for variety. Boy, so sorry you/we all suffer so much! Domperidone = nobody has suggested it. That is EXACTLY the kind of info I needed. Reglan made me an adrenal nightmare and I tried something else (forgot) in the 90's that was taken off the market (so many pills, so little memory left - lol).

PCP called back and said to stop the Alinia as he believes I have killed off whatever it will kill. Wants me to get saline tomorrow; being worked in at gastro on Friday so we'll see what else can be done. Just finished a batch of regular antiobiotics for pneumonia from CHFailure in February. Wonder where that fits in, even though I was already on probiotics at the time.

Uncle Eddie, the family's Mayo clinic surgeon, thinks this is a combo of gastro overgrowth and gallbladder (because of the white bowels and such); googled it and it made sense. Hope it's not because I don't "do" surgery any longer after the last bout left me unable to retain salt.

THANKS!

Posted

I had ulcerative colitis and yeast overgrowth - and nearly died from it - had to do chemo twice for it - to kill off all bacteria - both good and bad. I re-populated with good bacteria with lots of Kefir and probiotics with bifidus - and the one thing I think helped the most was Symbiotics Colostrum.

Magnesium makes diarrhea worse and so will too much aloe - aloe is a laxative - but, it will heal the intestinal tract like for ulcers. Magnesium will help with spasms of the colon - not sure if you could handle either at the moment. But, the other things - unless you're allergic to milk should really help. You can get kefir that is 99% lactose free and the culture helps to re-populate the good bacteria. The colostrum was almost instantly soothing to me - even emotionally - it affects you that way too. Hope you feel better soon. and things get in check for you.

Issie

Posted

Oh, Issie. What a traumatic, painful (and probably expensive) experience you've had! I'm so sorry.

But thanks so much for sharing with me. I was already on 400 mg of magnesium at bedtime but I stopped when I was put on the Alinia, as the pharmacist told me to get off all supplements and OTC including imodium. Might have made it WORSE myself by stopping it re: spasms.

I'll send Mr. Husband out for the colostrum this morning. THANK YOU!

I'm letting him sleep in as we were up all night with me having the runs/cramps. When I woke up (slept three hours, almost my usual), I had a RCE from dehydration in my left eye (recurring corneal erosion, sorry); the pain is exquisite. BP is 200/110 and I show other POTsy/dehydration symptoms. Twelve hours after I had a bag of saline. NOT GOOD.

Issie, I'm thinking I can't wait until tomorrow for my gastro appointment. I need either advice or something and I will need saline again by Friday. Let's hope my expensive, concierge pcp delivers quickly.

THANKS.

Posted

Hoping for the best for you. I remember the horrible spasams and the trots very vivedly. I slept on the bathroom floor for days and the doc that helped me - FINALLY - said I should have been dead from it - it was the worse case he'd ever seen in his over 20 years of doctoring.

I did send you a PM asking about something. Hope you got it.

Hope things will settle very quickly for you. I have more than sympathy for you - there is genuiune "EMPATHY" - I do understand what you're going through.

Issie

Posted

You may also want to try either drinking papaya puree (which you can make yourself or even add it to a smoothie with your bananas) or getting one of the papaya supplements...they have enzymes that help your digestive tract and actually help settle diarrhea. Hope you get this worked out soon.

Posted

Tell your doctor about the white stools. That definitely needs to be addressed. Fatty stools, shout your liver to me...just saying...YOGURT, and whoever mentioned the BRAT diet, that is great for diarrhea..., so sorry...sounds like you might need a lot of fluids, too. So sorry you are feeling so badly. I will pray for you!

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