Gastritis after antibiotics.

Question

I recently took doxycycline hcl 100mg for 7days twice a day. A week after I was done with treatment I had the worst heartburn and abdominal pain in my life. The pain so strong that it woke my up in the middle of the night. The pain has been in my upper abdomen around where my ribs begin to join, and I had also some lower abdominal pain. Weirdly enough the onset took place after having a calzone and pizza. Does any think that it could be caused by the doxycycline, has anyone heard of gastritis from taking an antibiotic for such short period of time? -- I was prescribed Prevacid. If eat something "fattening" the pain does not travel all over like before but rather stays stationed on the left upper abdominal region. 

If anyone can answer the question its highly appreciated, any advice on how to treat gastritis is welcomed and anyone who had a similar experience please share.

thank you

JanineT · Answer

I know I started to have problems with gastritis after I had to take an antibiotic for 10 days. I have, apparently, a reflux of gall into the stomach. Gall is there to make fat solvable so it can be digested, so for me, it is better with avoiding high-fat foods. Does anyone else have that experience of a chronic gastritis (reflux of gall) starting after having taken antibiotics?

GreekTragedy1 · Answer

I just finished a round of Doxy. I was on it for 14 days taking 2 pills a day.  I didn't really have any issues while I was on it but the day after completing the medicine I was bed ridden with extreme stomach pain/pressure.  I went to Urgent Care where they gave me Flagyl (another antibiotic to hopeful kill any bad bacteria in the gut) and Diflucan (to kill yeast).  I'm not a doctor but I KNOW that taking Doxy played a role in this.

NeedSomeHelp456 · Answer

How is everyone doing?  Did anyone heal their gastritis completely, or is it a permanent problem now?  Please update.  I am in a similar situation and would love to know if you have recovered or not recovered.  Thanks a lot and good luck to everyone!

krais · Answer

I know this is an old post, but I too took an antibiotic and 12 hours later knew something was horribly wrong. 1 year later and 6 drs later noone has been able to help me and the pain interferes with my daily life too! I was diagnosed with chronic gastritis and a chemical burn in my stomach, but nothing helps. How is your pain at this point and what have you done for relief? Thanks KR

velvetmichelvis · Answer

I didn't get through the MANY comments you have recieved so I hope I am not repeating anyone. I think you should be checked for c-diff. Amazingly this little problem hasn't gotten much attention but it has out-killed MRSA since around 2005. The antibiotics kill the good stuff in your gut and what you are left with is a raging c-diff colonization. It is usually found due to persistent diarreah after antibiotics or hospitilization but it CAN show up as nausea, stomach pain and vomiting. I know because I got it and only had the stomach problems so no one looked for it, I got sicker and sicker until I was almost dead, I went to every specialist under the sun and because they thought I may have leukemia (I was that sick) I went to an oncologist who was the one who found it. I had had symptoms for about a year and it took about 9 months to get rid of it. Simple acidopholis won't help and trust me you do not want it getting bad. I was on four seperate oral treatments that each failed and was hospitilized with severe gastritis multiple times until they finally kept me for weeks and did IV drugs until it was gone. Funny thing is I was just in the hospital (the same one with the same doctor on duty) and was told that c-diff wouldn't show as vomiting... I would go to my doc and insist on the test, stool sample, no big deal.  I know that this is unethical but knowing what I know now, I would have lied and said I had diarreah just to get the darn test and get treated earlier. It would have saved me thousands of dollars, weeks of doctor visits (well months really), innumerable hours of mind bending pain and fear, a job, and a transmission from travelling around the whole state. I'm not saying you should lie mind you, just insist, it's only a test and what you don't know can kill you.

Sicko123 · Answer

C. diff is a common problem after taking antibiotics. It can last quite a while and may be difficult to get rid of. If anyone wants to Google it for more info..just type C diff or Clostridium difficile. 

I am having similar problems as many of you, but added to it is intermittent shortness of breath. I don't know if I have C diff or not. My doctor is looking into several causes right now. I do agree with the earlier post that to cut out fatty foods from your diet will lessen the rib pain (in some or MOST cases). I think we can get a fatty liver when our diet is genetically modified and full of fat.

tinylu · Answer

I was also diagnosed with gastritis. I was wondering if weakness has to do anything with gastritis because I haven't been feeling strong like I used to.all I want to do it lay down. I'm always thinking about my gastritis and when will it go away, pretty much my symptoms are heartburn, weakness and stress

tinylu · Answer

Do you think people can get gastritis for drinking alcohol and can it be cured?

ggreg · Answer

Polar,
Since I had participated in this thread a couple years ago, I thought I'd give your digestion situation a try.  JayBay may come on here too, but wont' hurt to have two replies.  If I understand you correctly, you said "upper ribs," but I presume you mean lower ribs above your stomach.  If your pain is close to your stomach, I would look at your medicines the hospital gave you, and if there is an anti-gas in the bunch, be SURE to take that.  Gas can cause a whole lot of pain when it builds up in the tummy.  If you have no anti-gas stuff, you can try the over-the-counter Alka Seltzer that does NOT have aspirin in it, just regular bubble stuff (not cold medicine or anything else).  It will release the gas in your tummy.  Just take it whenever you feel the pain.

Now, if you meant your pain was actually in your ribs up near your collar bone and throat, then what happened is you had acid that gurgled up into your throat and you have injured it somehow.  Healing of the internal mucous membranes is similar to skin burns, it'll improve in a couple weeks with the use of the drugs the hospital gave you, just keep taking them until eventually the pain goes away.  The antacid they gave you will reduce the acid in your tummy, as that would be the source of the burn you have in your esophagus.

Since you were taking an antimalarial, I think you had the same problem as some of the others in this thread have talked about, where the antibiotic killed both "good" and "bad" bacteria, so your intestinal flora is not balanced, and thus waste may be traveling way too slow through your digestive tract, and this is causing a backup to where your stomach is producing extra acid to break down the waste.  So, my suggestion to you is the same as the last time I posted a couple years ago, and that's you need "probiotics" in your system to restore the "good" bacteria, and you can get that from either Acidophilus milk or Activia yogurt, or a new one I found out about at health food stores, "Pearls," and they come in pill form with other names, too.  Consume one of those items for two weeks, it will assist your digestion so that the acid overproduction will stop by virtue of your digestion moving more regular.
GG

polarqueen · Answer

I was taking doxy as an antimalarial, and during my last 2 weeks one I took one right before going to bed. This has led to an doxyclycline endocytosis. 
I have severe pain under my upper ribs, and it has been 5 days now. The pain is not getting better. Its agony to eat of to drink food. I had to go to the hospital and they perscribed alot of different drugs to reduce the acid and some painkillers. I just hope it goes away eventually, I was wondering if anyone know how long it could take to get better?

elainedonnelly · Answer

i'm only out of hospital i had a bladder infection and got 2 courses of temytheprim then one tablet of ceproxin which i took a very bad reaction to, i ended up in agony with my stomach and all, i was took to theatre last night and a camera put down my throat he took a biopsy, he said it was gastritis and the docs today said they were pretty confident to say it was definately the antibiotics that caused it

MegLeigh · Answer

Nicole41: 
I took a round of very strong antibiotics a couple years ago (for bronchitis I think).  I took ONE pill, and my stomach burned.  I did not take anymore pills.  Ever since that day two years ago, my stomach has burned, and I've had IBS.  I was diagnosed with chemical gastritis after an endoscopy.  I asked the doc if it could have been caused by antibiotics, and he said no, but I beg to differ. I KNOW that is the cause of my pain.  I have never had any digestive problems in my life until I took that antibiotic.  Now, the question is, what do we do about it?  They cannot seem to come up with anything to treat my pain, which interferes with my life daily.

afolabi · Answer

pls eeryone myine case is een differ from the previous comment.am seeeing blood in my sperm.what do i do as solution

nicole41 · Answer

i was on three different antibiotics for a bladderr infection and ended up haveing upset stomach and nausea and am still haveing it a month afterr antibiotics gi doc did upper endoscopy and saaid gastritis and acid reflux does any body know if antibiotics can cause gasttritis

ggreg · Answer

I want to confirm what Jaybay and others have said, and that is try the Acidophilus route, which adds "good" bacteria back to your digestive system, after a bunch of antibiotics have killed ALL the bacteria.  Usually the body will fix itself slowly, but for many people, they get tummy upset after antibiotics.  So, for example, buy that Activia yogurt from the grocery store and eat it for a couple weeks, it has Acidophilus or "good" bacteria in it, and hopefully your gastric symptoms will improve.

alittlebitconcern001 · Answer

Hey mungufuata,

Hope you get better. 

I was reading around the web, but you know, now a days the web could make anything be anything else. You can pretty much input symptoms and you can have 20,000 other things. 

So what I found to be some "sound" information was that some people do get ulcers and gastritis from using Doxycycline. Now there is a study published on Doxycycline and ulceration, which has three cases studies. Also there are warnings that if you don't take enough water with the Doxycycline it can cause an ulcer in the esophagus or that if you don't take it with food it can cause gastritis. One final thing that I found was in an Acne.org forum, since people with Acne are prescribed Doxycycline I found some people posting problems with ulcers, these usually because they didn't take enough water.

My personal experience was that towards the end of the seven days around the 6th/5th day I started feeling my stomach irritated like a mild burning, but no acid reflux, nausea, vomiting or any of those other side effects. Plus my prescription told me not to take with food at all. So I always took it either 1 hour before eating or 2 hours after eating. 

Let me know if your doctor thinks that it was caused by the antibiotic I am interested in knowing what I should avoid in the future.

Somethings I read:

http://www.druginfonet.com/index.php?pageID=faq/new/DRUG_FAQ/Doxycycline.htm

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3912/is_200103/ai_n8942395

http://www.acne.org/messageboard/Doxycycline-and-Stomach-Ach-t151490.html

http://www.acne.org/doxycycline-antibiotic-reviews/28/page20.html

mungufuata · Answer

I am having the exact same problem.  Just finished a round of Doxycycline and about day 6 or so of taking it, severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, etc.  And it's not going away!  No antacids or acid-relieving drugs work at all.  Don't know what to do, so seeing GI doc next week.

PVRSARMA · Answer

I have been suffering with the same problem since last 3-4 years. This problem occurs mainy because excessive acid secretion in the stomach due to irregular diet, spicy food, consuming fruits which contains citric acid, alchohol intake, smoking, fast food intake and anxiety. ( In brief it is because of HURRY, WORRY AND CURRY) - You can overcome this problem, if you can discipline yourself on the above areas- Still if you find the problem, you need to consult the doctor.
Have a nice day "

alittlebitconcern001 · Answer

Thank you for the input. I have been on the bland diet for 5 days already. All my abdominal discomforts are pretty much gone. I am still taking the Prevacid also.

Jaybay - made some points but I wanted to add some information about my problem. 

1. It is not a constant heartburn, even when I wasn't taking Prevacid. 
2. It's just pretty much three things that have been setting it off : high fat foods, alcohol which actually caused a sharp pain on my left side near my rib close to the sternum and coffee which caused a feeling of irritation.

Do you think that it might be more than just gastritis that I am dealing with? I mean my doctor prescribed the Prevacid but did not diagnose me.

thank you for your responses

cathmessg · Answer

In addition to the previous post;
I would strongly suggest not drinking any alcohol, none, nada, zip!
Also the doxycycline may have set up the proper conditions for a bout with heartburn.
Jaybay is right that with any antibiotic treament one should add a regimen of acidophillus, in fact it's a good thing to take on a daily basis.
Good luck!

cathmessg · Answer

I would say to take the Previcid as prescribed and follow a low fat diet for at least a couple of weeks. Follow a bland diet. Baked not fried. Apple sauce, cream of rice cereal with skim milk etc.
No greasy burgers, cheeses, fast foods, etc.
In addition: offending foods are caffeine, chocolate, sugar substitutes, acidic fruits such as; oranges, pineapples, mango lemon,  limes etc. anything having to do with tomatoes.
In the mean time make a follow up appt with your Dr. Let him know what happened and if the above measures helped.
Also if you have abdominal pain, fever, vomiting, bloody bowel movement go to the ER.

Jaybay · Answer

Hmmm.... I don't think it was the doxycycline, but rather the pizza.  The symptoms would have shown up while you were taking the doxycycline - not days later.  Have you ever seen a gastroenterologist about the pain after eating fatty foods?  You may have a pancreas or even a gallbladder/ biliary tree problem going on.  

If it was simple gastritis from the antibiotic (or even the pizza) then the prevacid would have made a noticeable improvement.  I usually take prevacid or pepcid or tagamet with antibiotics along with acidopholus capsules to ward off stomach upset and yeast problems.  

I really think you have something more going on than simple gastritis - from whatever cause.  In your case, I think a visit to a gastroenterologist would be a good start in getting to the bottom of your problem.