# How long does Flagyll take to work on giardia?



## Guest (Jul 14, 1999)

Went on Flagyll last Saturday night - it;s now Wed. AM. - D is somewhat better but A.M. nausea is getting worse and showing up in the afternoon as well! Anything anyone takes WITH Flagyll to help the gut cope with it? Anti-nausea remedies? I also have a lot of post-nasal drip, which I'm considering doing nasal irrigation for.Thanks for being here, all.


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## christine (Jun 4, 1999)

Well, for me, the Flagyl was not an "overnight" miracle cure. I had giardia for two months prior to be diagnosed and by the time I was given the Flagyl my whole digestive system was a wreck. I had lost 20 lbs due to lack of appetite and terrible nausea/indigestion. By about the 3rd or 4th day of Flagyl the diarrhea episodes had stopped but I would not say my bowels were normal. I still had quite a bit of mucous in them but they were firming up. I was still having many problems with eating food. After the Flagyl, I had one more isolated incident of diarrhea which freaked me out but I was told that was quite normal as you are still "shedding" out the giardia. My upper gut still never got any better so I ended up going to get an upper endoscopy which revealed mild esophagitis. I was then given Prilosec which was like a miracle for me. The giardia really did a number on me. It has been one year now and I still have many upper GI problems, but for the most part I am so much better. Good luck.Christine


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## Julie (Aug 29, 2004)

I have questions about guardia..... How do you know you have it? Did they do a stool test? My Dr. Will not do a stool test, wants to do the upper endoscopy to get a sample - I am terrified and it is scheduled for tomorrow. I am so sick and nausous that I would rather do a stool test. I heard you can get this from travel - I do not travel. How did you get it?


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## Guest (Jul 14, 1999)

Christine, thanks! Your case sounds similar to mine - I'll ask my internist about Prilosec.Julie - giardia is a single-celled organism that , in its cyst form, lives in water and can be passed on to humans via water or direct contact with feces. HUmans, bears and beaver can be infected, and possibly rodents, but with a different strain. Day care centers where diapering happens also are prone to giardia, and I've read of infections from contaminated food. It's really hard to detect giardia in a stool test - my stool tests came up negative but my internist said she'd treated lots of giardia cases "empirically" with Flagyll but had only seen three positive stool tests. The critters hide in your upper GI, and they think the critters irritate the intestinal lining, causing mucous and malabsorbtion.Your doctor may want more proof that you have giardia before putting you on Flagyll - Flagyll has its own side effects, including nausea and dizziness. Good luck with the endoscopy - let me know how it goes via email. If I don't get better on the Flagyll I may be in for one too, who knows?


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## christine (Jun 4, 1999)

Julie,Everything Elissa just posted is the same information I received. A standard O&P (Ova & Parasite) stool test is MOST ineffective for detecting giardia. It will usually miss about 90% of the cases. There is a relatively new "stool" test to detect giardia with a 90% accuracy rate. It is called the giardia antigen test. Most general practitioners do not know about this test (mine sure didn't) and was shocked when I mentioned it later like he had no clue about it. Apparantely, giardia leaves behind a substance in the stool which is always present if you have giardia. The antigen test picks this substance up. The giardia shed into your stool intermittently which is why an O&P stool test often misses it. I know what test your doctor is referring to. They are going to take a tissue sample of your small intestine (where the giardia resides) to prove you have it. My gastro did not do that. Said it was too extreme considering the antigen test is available and also says that he likes to treat giardia "empiracally" before any serious tests are done.Christine


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## flux (Dec 13, 1998)

At least some labs do the antigen test (using a technique known as ELISA) on the stool already, so that the doctor doesnï¿½t necessarily have to order it specifically. However, the stool should be tested three times to be sure. It is also possible to test for the antibody in the blood. If you donï¿½t find giardia after all that, it is probably likely you donï¿½t have it.I would think that Flagyl should probably clear up the infection by the time the bottle runs out.


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