Post by Gretchen on Jul 5, 2006 8:09:31 GMT -5
I saw this post on another board I sometimes look at. I realize this lady is an adult, but gosh it would be nice if there was something that could help our kids too. I'm going to just copy the post for you guys to read. I'll keep tabs on her updates and see what happens. I might ask our GI what he thinks too!!
I recently had a follow-up appontment at the Center for Digestive Diseases at U Iowa.I talked to my provider about the DFI site. She said she would contact Nutritional Services to find out what's going on with the site and will get back to me.
Here's the post:
She has prescribed a trial of an antibiotic called rifaxamin, which only targets the gi tract, for a few of her DFI patients. There is thought that maybe there is a component of bacterial overgrowth that may be contributing to our symptoms. Bacterial overgrowth can usually be detected by doing the glucose breath test. She told me that this test can miss bacterial overgrowth in the distal small bowel near the colon. (I happen to be missing the valve in the gut that ordinarily prevents colonic material from going back into the small bowel, because I had surgery for colon cancer a few years back so I am at special risk for bacterial overgrowth.) She has prescribed the antibiotic to five patients, all of whom have had improvement in symptoms, including the fatigue/sleepiness problem. Some of the patients were also able to liberalize their diet.Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to try the antibiotic. So far, no side effects. Her patients took the antibiotic for two to three weeks. This information is based solely on anecdotal experiences of patients and is not proven by clinical trials. I'll keep you posted and keep your fingers crossed for me.
Hummmm!!
Gretchen
I recently had a follow-up appontment at the Center for Digestive Diseases at U Iowa.I talked to my provider about the DFI site. She said she would contact Nutritional Services to find out what's going on with the site and will get back to me.
Here's the post:
She has prescribed a trial of an antibiotic called rifaxamin, which only targets the gi tract, for a few of her DFI patients. There is thought that maybe there is a component of bacterial overgrowth that may be contributing to our symptoms. Bacterial overgrowth can usually be detected by doing the glucose breath test. She told me that this test can miss bacterial overgrowth in the distal small bowel near the colon. (I happen to be missing the valve in the gut that ordinarily prevents colonic material from going back into the small bowel, because I had surgery for colon cancer a few years back so I am at special risk for bacterial overgrowth.) She has prescribed the antibiotic to five patients, all of whom have had improvement in symptoms, including the fatigue/sleepiness problem. Some of the patients were also able to liberalize their diet.Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to try the antibiotic. So far, no side effects. Her patients took the antibiotic for two to three weeks. This information is based solely on anecdotal experiences of patients and is not proven by clinical trials. I'll keep you posted and keep your fingers crossed for me.
Hummmm!!
Gretchen