Nutrition Health Chat Live NOW! Learn how vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients affect your health. Free live Q&A with Amy Hendel now. Join us!
Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum.  ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
 | 

Diarrhea after long term use of antibiotics

by JTRN86, Aug 14, 2008 03:31PM
I am a 43 year old health female.  I have been taking oral antibiotics for over 4 years for acne prescribed by a board certified dermatologist.  I would take one, it would work good for about a year, then we'd switch to a different one.  It would work for a while and then, again we would end up switching it.  My most recent antibiotic was minocycline. My stools changed to soft and then to diarrhea.  It took me about 3 months of diarrhea before I realized this was not going to get better so I went to my doctor and she took me off all antibiotics.  I do not have excessive numbers of bowel movements a day, but my daily BM is diarrhea.  My doc said this would take a good 3 weeks for my gut to get back to normal.  It has been over 3 weeks and I still have diarrhea.  Since going off the antibiotics I have had one normal stool.
My question is:  Should I give it more time or seek advise from my GP or a GI doc?  Would probiotics help?
Member Comments (2)

by CalGal, Aug 14, 2008 05:22PM
Probiotics will help. But in addition to that, go to your doc and ask for a test for C. diff just to rule out that possibility. You didn't mention any of the more obvious symptoms that one gets with C. diff, but if you've been on antibiotics for that long a period of time it's better to be safe than sorry.

by girlvet, Aug 15, 2008 06:32AM
Definitely go in for C Diff testing - make sure they do three days in a row for Clostridium Difficile Toxins A/B.  Your GP would probably have more knowledge about this than your dermotologist too.  As CalGal said, there are very obvious symptoms of C Diff, but you just may be able to stop it early, if in fact this is what you have.  Best of luck to you.
Post Comment
To
Comment
Post Comment
Recent Activity
babysnakes commented on Arm and Leg keep goin...
10 mins ago
GrannyMichelle is ...frustrated
SFmonsterdark The new iphone app looks great: http://www.medhelp.o...
TrudieC commented on I must be insane.
4 hrs ago
April2 is snowed in and house bound! Guess we'll make Christmas co...
iris986 happy
April2 commented on Tiger Woods behind th...
5 hrs ago
shakeeb uploaded a new photo
9 hrs ago
RSS Expert Activity
Cataract, Removal, Artificial Lens,...
29 mins ago by Jim Humphries, B.S., D.V.M.
7 Ways to Reduce Stress During the ...
Dec 07 by Steven Y Park, MD
What You Can Learn From Tiger Woods...
Dec 04 by Steven Y Park, MD
Community Members