Vegan & Coming off antibotics Help!!
The past 120 days or so, I was fighting a mrsa infection on my legs. About half way through fighting the infection, I was placed on very serious antibotics for two weeks at very high dosages. Then took off the antibotics and then to be put back on another high dosage of different type of antibotics. Which result into allergic reaction to different antibotics, then place back same antibotics as the first timefor another two weeks. At this point all together it had been about 7 weeks of antibotics.
Needlesss to say with all antibotics I was taking the infection is gone, but now I have EXTREMELY bad stomach cramps.
I cant practically eat anything without getting stomach cramps. What should do help stop the stomach cramps, last time this happen which was last year. Thats how I found out I was allergic all milk products, and went vegan.
you need a good probiotic. there's a vegan one called 'good belly' and you need to go pick it up. a good rule of thumb is to have a serving for everyday that you took antibiotics. next you need to check out your alternatives to antibiotics next time you get an infection. check your local healthfood store for homeopathic, herbal, or otherwise natural remedies. antibiotics should only be taken in times of life or death situations. because antibiotics can kill you, after all that's what antibiotic means: anti-against biotic-llfe. let's not take anything that's against life inside our bodies again, ok? unless of course you've fallen into sepsis and the only alternative i death. research your options so you won't have to recover first from your sickness and then from your 'medicines' and you'll be happy you did. take care of yourself and i hope the good belly works for you :)
I agree that antibiotics are awful, but they are a double edged sword. I personally got a bad case of parastic/yeast colitis that lasted 1.5 years after taking a round of Amoxicillin (a pretty standard course) after getting a tooth extracted. The thing is, you HAVE to take antibiotics after tooth extraction/surgery of any kind...infection can get to your heart and kill you. People use to die from say, breaking a bone or getting a large wound because infection would kill them. You rarely worry about dying from those things because of antibiotics. Our life expectancy has increased because of antibiotics. But we have all kinds of gut problems because of antibiotics.
You have to weigh what is worse. I would not take antibiotics for say, strep..because I am otherwise healthy and am not worried about the infection getting to my heart. For me, the fact that I may get a raging gut infection that could lead to colitis is a bigger danger for me. However, MRSA is serious and can be life threatening, and I absolutely would take antibiotics in that case. I also tried natural remedies and diets for my colitis, that's why it went on for 1 1/2 yrs. I was totally into naturopathic medicine and was against taking medication, but nothing natural worked. I finally took Alinia for the parasite, and 2 rounds of Nystatin and 1 round of Diflucan for the yeast. It worked and I have been healthy for several months now.
Now, onto how to deal with healing your gut. I agree, a good probiotic is a must. But the catch is you have to find one that works for YOU. Each of our gut flora is unique. I found I have to stay away from anything with FOS (fructoolgiosaccharide) or inulin. Those undigestible sugars are "supposed" to feed good bacteria and not bad, but there is no proof that they don't feed the bad and in my experience, DID terribly feed the bad bacteria. Then other probiotics were just ineffective. And ofcourse, being vegan many are cultured in dairy or are animal strains. A human strain probiotic will have a better chance of colonizing in your intestines. The only 2 probiotics that were for me were Primal Defense by Garden of Life, but that is cultured in dairy and you have to take 12 per day for a therapeutic dose.
The one that worked even better IS vegan, human strain, FOS free AND you only have to take 2-4 per day for the therapeutic dose: HLC Intenstive Caps: http://www.rockwellnutrition.com/HLC-Intensive-caps-by-Pharmax-Non-Returnable_p_63.html
Make sure it's that one, the other ones they make have FOS and about killed me.
But again, these things did not cure me, I tried them before the meds and they helped a bit..but once the meds killed the infection the good probiotics restored my gut flora properly. Even then, it did take a few more months for everything to calm down.
If good probiotics don't clear everything up in a couple weeks, I would get back to your Dr for a stool culture to make sure you are not now harboring yeasts and parasites from the antibiotics. It is very common, especially yeast overgrowth. Drs use to automatically prescribe anti-fungals to follow antibiotics, but stopped because they were afraid of developing resistance to antifungals. I wonder what the heck they think they are doing with overuse of antibiotics then? Hmm. If the tests come back clear and you are still miserable and they have no answers, don't give up. Get tested by a good parasitic specializing lab like http://www.parasitetesting.com/about.cfm (mail in samples). A hospital lab said I was all clear, but this lab showed I still had yeast overgrowth, so my doctor gave me another round of antifungals and that did the trick. If I would have just sat back and trusted the first lab I would still be miserable.
What's even worse is doctors still rarely look for/treat this unless you do your research and press them. They will just diagnose you in a few months "IBS" and say there is no treatment, and not connect it with your antibiotic use.
Also, don't waste your time with anti-candida diets, they are unscientific and did nothing for me but make me lose a crap ton of weight and have no energy. They are hard to do vegan anyways because they are low carb. This is when I actually started coming over to veganism, because though everything said to avoid carbs I felt better and better the more carbs and whole grains I ate. Stay with your good vegan diet and eat whatever DOES sound good to you. Super high roughage things like salad are hard to digest right now, eat stuff like pasta if it sounds good to you. Maybe try soy and coconut yogurts as well.
I TOTALLY feel for you, I feared for my life for 1 1/2 years (lost of a ton of weight...was also allergic to dairy during that time) and am so grateful to be well now.
I hope and pray you get over this soon and hope I helped in some way.
Take care.
Poor you! MRSA is very serious and definitely did require antibiotics. However even though antibiotics help us with those types of infections, they totally clear out any bacteria, good and bad. This can sometimes result in a whole separate infection, as the above poster was saying, a lot of women get yeast infections after taking antibiotics. I would start with the probiotics but if it doesn't improve you really should consult your doctor, you could have a different type of infection. Hope you feel better soon!
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Thank you nicolelynn what you wrote was helpful. I was starting feel that it was all my fault that my stomach was hurting.
I went to wholefoods and got good belly it seems to be working but I had to take two of them to feel better. I was able to eat some vegan red curry today, first time to eat food without stomach cramps.
Im going back to wholefoods tomrrow or anywhere I can by more of good belly.
Thank you nicolelynn. :) :smileside: :smileside:
> The thing is, you HAVE to take antibiotics after tooth extraction/surgery of any kind...infection can get to your heart and kill > you.
They do like to scare you and tell you that, but it's really not required...I'd rather be treated for an actual infection, should it develop, than take extra drugs just to prevent the tiny possibility of dying from a heart infection. Kind of like TSA--I'd rather not be molested by TSA agents and live with the tiny possibility of someone getting a bomb onto an airplane between their boobs.
Ashles: no problem...hope you continue to improve quickly!
Aziz_esroh: and only you can make that decision for yourself. I use to think like you, that's why I suffered for 1 1/2 yrs trying herbal remedies and dozens of diets...I was determined to not take drugs. I've only taken drugs a few times in my 30 years. But for me personally only the drugs worked, so I humbled myself and thanked God I live in the year 2011 =). I say go natural as long as possible, more power to ya!
Hi....I was going to say the same as the others...pro biotics to get the good bacteria back in your gut.
I am curious...you had an infection on your leg? How?
I ask because I literally had three infections on my shins, at different times, where each time I had to go to the doctor to remove it. It's weird because I rarely go to the doctor at all and rarely have to take anti's. I am wondering how this is caught? I was taking dance at the time and I wonder if it was because I was rolling around on the floor in the gym and that is how I caught it?
I haven't had one since. I know it's scary and weird.
This scares the shit out of me. I got a new tattoo and it got infected with staph that "might have been" mrsa. They don't know. I was treated with like two weeks worth of antibiotics but I'm still scared cause theres a little sore. Its basically gone but I'm so so so paranoid.
I am curious...you had an infection on your leg? How?
They believe that someone at work had the infection and that I may have gotten from the bathroom at work. Their not too sure if its from work or not but their sure someone in the area I either work with or may have been in contact with may have past MRSA to me. In regards to where exactly the infection was it was my upper leg, in a place that was not to comfy.