The microscopic colitis was found on colonoscopy, and all my latest c.diff tests are negative. The GI doc saw no signs of c.diff in my colon either.

Does anyone else on here have this issue?

People seem to be getting good results for gut problems with this. (See testimonials.)

Anyway, I have not had any relief from going to bathroom, lost 40 lbs in 4 months and LLMD's are slow going because of it -- don't know if oral meds are helping due to "malabsorption" --

Look up info that Dr. Martin Fried researched regarding children and GI Manifestations of Lyme -- talks of "Crohn's disease" that was shown to be actually Lyme lesions. I think you can find it on this site link -- (I have taken my kids to see him in NJ, he's not willing to do much for congenital Lyme even though he researched and understands Lyme clinically)

Maybe, your GI doctor will be open to reading this -- mine isn't -- doesn't see connection of GI and Lyme.

I am frustrated b/c the high doses of Flagyl that original GI doc gave me brought out all kinds of neuro stuff and loads of other symptoms from years ago. Now I am a mess cognitively and physically.

It seems that opening up the cysts in my colon without another antibiotic combined caused me more problems --

Has anyone found a combination that actually works to clear the infection from the bowel --

This is not diarrhea from abx -- I had the frequent BM's with undigested food before ever given abx.

I have been on colazal for past two weeks along with Zith and Flagyl again and it is getting worse -- anyone having these issues?

Someone e-mailed this to me recently, and I don't know if it's related but appahrently there is a mutated strain of C defficile:

CLOSTRIDIUM DIFFICILE, INCREASED VIRULENCE - UK (ENGLAND)
*********************************************************
A ProMED-mail post

ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases

Date: Mon 6 Jun 2005
From: ProMED-mail
Source: The Guardian [edited]

---------------------------------------------------------
A new strain of a hospital-acquired infection has claimed 12 lives at
the specialist Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, and
infected more than 300, the Department of Health confirmed last
night, 5 Jun 2005.

The outbreak of the bug, _Clostridium difficile_, dates from 2003. It
causes diarrhea in patients and has been added to the department's
mandatory surveillance system, which also scrutinizes the development
of the so-called hospital "superbug" MRSA

[methicillin-resistant
_Staphylococcus aureus_ - Mod.LL].

A health department spokeswoman stressed the infection is not the
same as MRSA and is not considered a "superbug." However, she said
the NHS has been supplying specific advice to hospitals on how to
deal with the bug since 1994. The victims of the outbreak at the
world famous spinal injuries hospital at Stoke Mandeville have been
affected by a new strain of the bacteria which 1st appeared there in
2003. The news comes amid rising concern over the growth in
hospital-acquired infections and the possibility of a government
crackdown on the hygiene of interaction between patients, clinical
staff and visitors.

"_Clostridium difficile_ causes a hospital-acquired diarrhea that we
have known about for some time. It is not a new phenomenon," a health
department spokeswoman said. "There is a particular new strain which
has affected patients at Stoke Mandeville which is still very rare in
the UK as a whole. We are continually updating our guidance on this
to the NHS. I would like to stress that most people who do contract
_Clostridium difficile_ do make a full recovery."

The Health Protection Agency has issued guidelines which include
staff using disposable gloves at all times when in contact with
patients. But incidences of _Clostridium difficile_ have risen
quickly in England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 10 000 a year in
1995 to more than 40 000 in 2004.

[Byline: Rob Booth]

--
ProMED-mail

[The report does not state over what period of time the cases
occurred. It is possible that the organism present there is the
so-called toxinotype III strain, which is thought to be of increased
virulence and has been described this year (2005) in North America.
The toxinotype III strain produces 16 times more toxin A and 20 times
more toxin B in vitro compared with 13 variations of the toxinotype 0
strain commonly found.

Genetic analysis of the type III strain revealed deletion of the tcdC
gene, believed to be a negative regulator [depressor] of toxin production
that
is normally expressed during the log phase of replication [when bacterial
multiplication increases exponentially]. Toxin production during the log
phase
rather than the stationary phase was consistent with this finding. - Mod.LL]

[see also:
Clostridium difficile, increased virulence, 2004 - USA, Canada 20050412.1055
2004
----

After tx for c. dif /h pylori tx we still had stomach/gut problems, including barretts esophagus, and inflammation, polyps, and lesions in the colon. For us, massive doses of freeze-dried garlic and sacchromyces boulardi, prilosec, and probiotics got rid of the problem, but it took a good 6 months to really turn the tide. I think the SB was absolutely critical in healing the membranous tissue.

The hubby had the worst time of it; his gut was a dreadful mess. But he went from having many polyps and a massively inflamed esophagus and colon to having no polyps and some very small spots of minor inflammation in the colon and esophagus (a year ago). The entire process of healing took about 3 years, but he had major relief from gut problems within 6 months of starting the protocol I mentioned above.

And yes, he was off pharmaceutical abx completely at the time, doing Dr. Zhang's protocol for 8 mo. Didn't do much for the LD, babs or bart, but massively helped his gut. Being off abx was part of it; I think the garlic cleared up lingering yeast problems and possibly other gut pathogen problems, although he'd been on a lot of probiotics and some antifungals at the time; and the SB healed the membrane, or so I speculate. Possibly the other herbs helped in some way, but (gut healing) progress continued after we quit all but the prilosec, garlic and the SB. Dunno exactly.

Whether the garlic would cause problems for someone else, I don't know. In our case it was immensely helpful.

He had to go back on abx for LD/Co, but has not had significant gut problems since then, although Mepron did cause some diarrhea.

ssucho, I am worried about your diarrhea too, not only because of the severe weight loss and issue of absorbing nutrients, but because I don't see how you can be absorbing the abx properly with your gut being so damanged. We've found some work arounds to slow the diarrhea when it hasn't been too awful, like taking lots of citrucel. But can you talk to your doc about maybe doing IM abx for a while until your gut heals?

We didn't find much that helped in terms of diet after the stomach/gut got really bad. We either had gastroparesis, and entire meals would get upchucked 24 hours after eating them, or diarrhea and everything would run through. It hurt to eat. It hurt not to eat. It hurt to go to the bathroom. My skin looked terrible and my hair started coming out.

My new GI (we just moved here after Lyme crash happened after first colonoscopy in February) is a total sceptic on Lyme -- afraid to call and ask to change medicines b/c of new lyme treatment -- did not schedule colonoscopy like he wanted to see "if lesions wer still there" even tho my symptoms have not improved.

thanks for reply -- need help and am straddling b/t GI and LLMD and they both contradict on so many points -- I have gone w/o abx for time,with no relief and now it seems like worsening on orals.....

have Bicillin CR in fridge from LLMD, have heard that is not the best version of the IM stuff -- but they are going to try it at my next visit in 10 days. in the meantime, worried about dehydration -- since I am going no sugar, no carbs, no yeast, it is hard to keep hydrated -- previous GI dr. said water will not do the trick when going to bathroom so much.....

thanks for guidance... need GI doctor's help I think even if I try to work with supplements --

Dr. Kenneth Fine (found info online)says regular pepto bismol can be effective for this. I may try that next. Ugh

------------------
Lyme Disease Help
http://www.wildcondor.com