# Vancomycin?



## distressed (Jan 7, 2009)

Anyone have experience with vancomycin?I'm not at the worst Ive been and for years the drs have told me that antibiotics are the devilsince I am still feeling horrible some 5-6 weeks after a gastro bug they are now suggesting vancomycin.I have a long history of getting better following fecal bacteriotherapy/probiotics and then relapsing again.As Im only going to the loo once a day im very hesitant to take any antibiotic, however they are saying this can only help...problem is i feel nauseated and very uncomfortable almost all day everyday with it being much worse when i dont eat and in the mornings. I am already taking probiotics and activated charcoal. I am also on PPI medication.Ultimately i just have to make a descision...but i'd like to hear people's opinions/experiences please?


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## IanRamsay (Nov 23, 2008)

HiAs you relapse after taking probiotics you may have to take them daily for life. the relapse may be due to the reason that you may need to vary teh probiotic strains that you are taking on a rota so that you are getting a broad spectrum of 10 or 12 probiotics over the course of the year rotated every 3 or 4 months. or something along those lines.cheersian


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## distressed (Jan 7, 2009)

Ian,I have been taking probiotics for some time.....i'm not getting well on them ...forget relapse. On antibiotics i generally get well, but then I relapse. The most effect has been fecal bacteriotherapy(that involves several weeks of antibiotics, folllowed by bowel wash out and then several weeks of fecal infusion, a bit of an extreme treatment and hence why im keen to get away from it)....I am well for about 6 months...but then relapse. So i know i can be well...its a matter of making it permanent. Over the last year ive tried to rely on probiotics but they dont seem to have prevented me relapsing......either that or i just cant seem to avoid a gastro bug once a year and that sends me back to square one kinda thing.


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## caputsky (Jan 21, 2009)

I certainly don't know all that much about relapsing, but I do have experience with vancomycin. I had cdiff over the summer, and the first meds my GI prescribed was a two-week course of vancomycin. Now, just to keep things in perspective, you know how they say that 90-something percent of people with cdiff will be able to eradicate it with vanco? Yeah, of course I was the small percentage that it didn't work for (a theme in my health since being diagnosed with IBS)







. In fact, when I was on the vancomycin my diarrhea was even worse than before. Which my aunt, who is a nurse, said could happen sometimes. I'm not saying to freak you out, because I did used to post on a cdiff forum for people still recovering and many of the people there found that it the drug really cured them and helped with bacterial overgrowth. So it could very well work wonders for you. But if you do go the vancomycin route, you probably want to have a good probiotic with it. I would recommend one, but my system is really sensitive to those and only certain ones have actually benefitted me. Anyway, I hope that whatever you decide starts to make you feel better! And if not, we are always here to listen to you vent and commisserate







One more question: I have heard of fecal transplants before (or whatever they are called) and I was wondering where you got yours done? I had heard that its hard to find dr's who will do it in the US.


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## distressed (Jan 7, 2009)

Im in australia, theres a clinic here in sydney that kinda pioneered the treatment.I have heard that some US and Canadian clinics are doing it though....maybe you should research it a bit, find out who is doing it where. It is expensive here, so I am guessing it would be equally expensive there.Let me know what you find out as I'd be interested to hear how its progressing elsewhere in the world.Oh, if the vanco didnt eradicate the c-diff have you still got it? if so I would try flagyll and rifampicin together, thats the other big combo thats used here for c-diff.


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## IanRamsay (Nov 23, 2008)

DistressedDude, its possible that you are not taking teh right kind of probiotic. there are alot of them. it took me 12 years to find the right specific strain of bacteria that my gut needed to function properly, and in that time i went through almost 80% of teh probiotic strains.cheersIan


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## distressed (Jan 7, 2009)

Yeh that I realise....which is why I continue to try anything different.....but honestly at the moment Im running out of options for productsCertainly theres nothing else to try at my pharmacy which stocks almost bloody everything....and they have whole fridges for probiotics.the search continues though.....thus far I would say that saccharomyces boulardii is the only wone that has any significant impact......and maybe L. Rhamanosus, everything else in various strains has done next to nothing, or made me much worse....even after persevering for months. The tricky part also is that probably my bacteria balance is at different stages when I try different things....so i guess its literally like trying to guess the combination to a lock.....I still need to make a decision about whether to take this antibiotic not though.


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## distressed (Jan 7, 2009)

Ive been reading about bacteria, and antibiotics etc....vanco apparently kills gram positive....but arent they mostly the good ones??Im supposed to be starting the vancomycin tommorrow but im still so friggin worried i dont know if i can or should....


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