Lingering symptoms of Salmonella

[toworryornottoworry]

Hi everyone, this might be a bit long, I appreciate your time and responses.

On June 12th 2012 I woke up with horrible cramping and had to run to the wash room, that is when it all started. I had a lot of diarrhea and cramping during the first week and about 4-5 days in I started feeling this pressure on my rectum, almost like a constant pressure for a bowel movement. After a week I decided to go to the doctor, she gave me flagyl and had me take a stool test to find out what was going on. The flagyl did nothing, I took a week of it, we then found out it was Salmonella.

I was then put on 7 days of Septra and 10 days of Septra DS in which the infection finally cleared. I tested negative about 2 weeks ago and now still have lingering symptoms, for one my bowel habits are all over the place, sometimes I go once a day, sometimes three and it can vary from normal stools to loose and sometimes even still a bit of diarrhea. I am also still experiencing the pain I developed on my rectum which is on and off, warm baths seem to help it. I sometimes still feel some indigestion pains throughout my stomach area as well. Some days are better than others.

I have been tested for Crohns, Ulcerative Colitis, and Celiac disease, all negative. I also had occult blood tests which were negative and was tested for C. Diff while I was on antibiotics to make sure that was not beginning to develop.

Why am I taking so long to recover from this? it has been almost 4 months since initial infection and about 2 weeks since testing negative, the indigestion pains I can ignore as well as the bowel changes however this pressure on my rectum is driving me absolutely nuts, I have no idea what it is and want it to go away. I am a 21 year old male with no other health issues (had physical done with a full blood work check a few weeks ago) when can I expect to feel 100 percent better and what do you think is the cause of this weird pressure? I am now starting to worry that I have developed post infection IBS.

[ggreg]

Glad you're getting some positive results.  Give it another week and see then how you are.  Also the other tips I suggested will help, too.

[toworryornottoworry]

I started taking acidophilus pills about a week ago which seems to have helped a bit. Stomach can still be rumbly after some foods.

[ggreg]

Since you've had so many antibiotics, you could get some "probiotics" in you.  Antibiotics kill both "good" and bad bacteria, so probiotics restores the good bacteria that helps break down waste.  Two weeks of Activia yogurt or Acidophilus milk, as examples, or a pill kind from the health food store should straighten that part out for you.  You can also drink extra water, and also at bedtime for a few days take "Original Alka Seltzer," to hopefully settle down your digestion and get your pH more alkaline.  Let us know how things go.