Antibotic dependency?

WW
Yes there are some of us who are dependent on antibiotics for reduced bowel movements and to eliminate the cramping and pain you are describing. I have been on and off antibiotics since takedown 2 years ago and I can never really get through 2-4 weeks without the pouchitis acting up. My GI suggested 250 - 500mg daily Cipro or every other day to control the pouchitis. I am just stubborn and do not like to take any more medication than I need to so I try to go off as long as I can before symptoms become unmanagable and then I will start another few day to week dose until things calm down. You will need to talk to your GI about a maintenance dose and I think cipro would be a better pick for you than flagyl from a maintenance perspective.

It sounds like you might have antibiotic-dependent pouchitis. I stay on Cipro all the time for exactly that - I worked down to the lowest dose that kept symptoms from returning (500 mg daily). Some people rotate antibiotics (Cipro, Flagyl, Xifaxan, whatever). Your doc may have a preference on what approach to take. Each method has pros and cons. FWIW, I found that Cipro once a day worked as well as divided into two doses, and that made it much easier to space it away from the yogurt I mix my VSL #3 into (Cipro interacts with dairy products and calcium).

Thank you for the advice. For some reason Cipro does not really work all that well for me. But maybe as a maintenance antibotic it will work out better. I just really need to get this under control. These sleepless nights are really taking a toll on me.

after my ileostomy takedown, I developed pouchitis and cuffits symptoms. My surgeon gave me 2wks of flagyl and cipro. Shortly after finishing this course, I developed symptoms again. So she gave me a refill of both. I ended up doing 3 rounds of those 2 meds and during the 3 round, the meds completely stopped working. So then I was put on xifaxan one daily. Worked for about 4-5 months with occasional flare-ups that I treated with cipro. After 5 months xifaxan was increased to 2 daily. Still had to use cipro. So now I'm at mayo and do rotating vancocin 2wks, then cipro 2wks, and Zithromax 2wks. I need to be on antibiotics constantly or those symptoms come right back. Hopefully these work, I certainly don't want anymore complications. It will be 2 yrs on 5/23 and have been on antibiotics since then.

I'm told that some centers are trying fecal transplants for pouchitis that won't respond to antibiotics. I don't know if the FDA is getting in the way of these early explorations, though.

WW, I too was dependent on antibiotics for more than two years. It was very discouraging because I thought I'd be on them forever, with all of the side effects that that would entail. I have a thread under the "Pouchitis" topic in which I talk about my experience and how I've now been off antibiotics for over three months. It's called "No antibiotics--First time in two years"