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Sorry if this is a bit long-winded and disjointed. I'm not thinking super clearly at the moment.

So, I had a scope recently and it showed a mild inflammation in the pouch. But my symptoms have been outsized in comparison. I did a 30-day course of cipro and flagyl in January, went off for a couple of weeks, started having symptoms again and wound up back in Emerg with moderate/severe dehydration and that's when I got my scope appointment. I dunno, maybe the timeline is off a bit. I saw my GI doc finally about 2 weeks ago (early May) and he put me back on cipro/flagyl, this time for a 6-week course (250mg of each x2 per day), having nothing else to offer me. But now I'm having symptoms again. It feels a bit like dehydration, which I am woefully familiar with, since I seem to be getting severely dehydrated more and more often. I just can't seem to orally hydrate enough to keep myself afloat (so to speak) without upsetting my GI system.

Right now I have crushing fatigue, waves of nausea, loss of appetite, weird rapid heartbeat and some shortness of breath and lightheadedness. Despite the fatigue I am not sleeping well at night. My bowels are up and down -- mostly they are fine, with periods where I make several trips to the bathroom in rapid succession.

I am also hypothyroid and I've been taking synthroid for years (predating my UC). Mostly I don't really feel it, but my meds have been off, apparently, and I just adjusted the dosage upwards. So I'm hoping some of this stuff is due to the fact that I'm essentially hyPERthyroid at the moment.

I know this is a lot of information. I haven't really gotten any satisfaction from doctors. I get some relief if I go to the Emerg and get pumped up with IV fluids, but I can't really do that every week. And it seems like a stopgap. I need to figure out what is wrong. I worry that there might be something completely different, not related to my pouch or pouchitis or whatever, and because I've been dealing with this particular set of problems for so long, I just assume my issues are all related to that. But maybe they're not.

If anyone has anything for me, I'd be eternally grateful. I appreciate the opportunity to crowdsource my health problems!

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You might do better with a real oral rehydration solution than plain water, given that the water alone isn't working. And if your thyroid is off then nothing will feel right. I think you need your thyroid levels checked, probably more than once as the synthroid is tinkered with. It's nearly impossible to get synthroid dosing right without labs and a systematic approach.

Good luck!

Thanks for your response, Scott. Yes, I've tried a variety of homemade oral rehydration solutions, involving assorted juices, coconut water, salt and honey. They definitely work better than plain water. I'm wary of commercial brands like Pedialyte because they are so full of chemicals and sugar substitutes, which are bad for everyone's guts.

My thyroid is under constant observation. During the period of my illness and my 3-step surgery my levels were tested quarterly, and adjusted almost as often. It was stable for nearly 2 years, so we got a little lax with the testing, and lo and behold, I've discovered my "underdose." So it's in the process of being fixed. I'm definitely hoping this latest round of misery can be at least partly chalked up to that.

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