# Advice needed for IBS-D, getting worse by the day



## nashvillenathan (Sep 4, 2013)

Hi all,

A little background on me. I was first diagnosed with IBS-D when I was a teenager. I was given hyoscyamine (Levsin) tablets to help, and took Pepto or Imodium when needed. I also cut out spicy foods, garlic, onions, caffeine, dairy, and chocolate from my diet. This helped for the most part and my IBS-D was manageable throughout my 20s.

I'm in my 30s now, and over time, my symptoms had gotten worse than ever. But I didn't have diarrhea. Instead, I had loose stools with a sudden urge to go to the bathroom after eating. I thought this was my IBS-D, but after my doctor took a stool sample, he said I had blastocystis, which is a parasite in the digestive system. Apparently it's common and usually comes from eating contaminated food.

This explained everything. I finally understood why I would eat the most basic food and still be running for the toilet within an hour.

So I was put on a 10 day dosage of Flagyl (Metronidazole), an antibiotic that kills the parasites. I actually felt pretty good while taking the Flagyl. My bowel movements were becoming more normal and I thought I was on the road to recovery.

As soon as I stopped taking the antibiotics, all hell broke loose. I started having daily diarrhea, painful cramping, and it came at all hours of the day and night. It didn't even seem to correlate with my food. Sometimes I'd just wake up in the middle of the night in pain and have to run to the bathroom.

This is how it was 15 years ago, when I was a teenager first diagnosed with IBS-D. That awful fear of leaving the house because you might crap yourself. Not being able to eat anything because you're afraid it will make things worse. It's like my IBS-D symptoms have returned with a vengeance.

And I don't believe I still have the parasites. They caused loose stools, but not diarrhea or cramping. This feels like full-blown IBS-D.

My doctor put me back on hyoscyamine (Levsin). Since it helped so much when I was a teenager, I hoped it would help now. It did reduce some of the pain and cramping, but the diarrhea persists. Then I tried Imodium. That suceeded in constipating me for 2 days, but then I had diarrhea again, so no changes. I also tried Fibercon for a few days. It had no effect either way.

I feel as though the Flagyl antibiotic somehow wiped out my system's ability to produce solid stools when it wiped out the parasites. I have not had one solid bowel movement in over 2 weeks, since I stopped taking the antibiotic.

Beforehand, I was able to have solid stools sometimes. It usually required a little help from Imodium, but it was possible. Now I can't have them at all.

Can anyone offer a suggestion that hasn't been tried? I'm scheduled to get my doctor a stool sample next week, so that will help. But until then, every day feels like a year because I don't know when the diarrhea is going to strike again and I feel crappy all the time.

Thanks,

Nathan


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## SJN888 (Jun 18, 2013)

Saccharomyces boulardii is very helpful for me. If you can't find it locally, it's available from Amazon (Florastor, Jarrow, etc).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharomyces_boulardii


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## daniellefoto (Sep 3, 2013)

I found staying taking Phytostan and Betaine HCL with every meal helps me. I have been IBS-D free for over a year now and I feel so much better! Thankful I can now live a normal life. I had parasites for years and I think I developed food allergies because of it. I now maintain a gluten free diet and can pretty much eat everything else.

Also, I think antibiotics really deplete our systems. I make sure all my food is organic because the antibiotics given to animals can also affect us. I hope this helps you!! Please read my post... It has a little more detail about things I used to fix my issues.


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## BentNBroken (Aug 31, 2013)

You might want to give psyllium a try (possibly along with some bentonite); I'm IBS-C and I WAS having a good spell, so I decided to try some psyllium and almost ended up in the ER&#8230; it took EVERY laxative I had on hand (TBSPs of Epsoms salts, couple cups of senna tea, and a wicked high dose of Dr. Christopher's LBB formula (Cascara) to get things moving).

What happen to me is pretty typical as to how/why psyllium can backfire for many C types (and actually help D types). I would think psyllium would be THE CURE for diarrhea if the effect it had on me was reproduced in a D type, but I know that's not the case&#8230; it's never that simple and I'm sure it goes both ways where certain supplements that would give a D-type explosive D does nothing to help with C. 

Anyhow, the psyllium may be worth looking into. It acts by adding bulk to the stools which you mentioned seems to be an issue.


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