EMBARRASSING QUESTION

[teslagirl]

FOR ABOUT 2 MONTHS NOW, I AM HAVING DIARRHEA. NOW, NOT JUST NORMAL DIARRHEA, CAN'T GET TO BATHROOM IN TIME AND MESS MYSELF DIARRHEA.

WITHIN 10 MINUTES OF EATING IT HITS. I HAVE GOTTEN TO WHERE I WON'T EAT WHILE I'M AT WORK, JUST IN CASE, SO I AM ONLY EATING 1 MEAL/DAY. I KNOW THIS IS NOT HEALTHY, BUT I'M SCARED THAT I WILL HAVE ANOTHER ACCIDENT AT WORK! I WON'T GO OUT WITH THE FAMILY TO EAT FOR THE SAME REASON.

I DON'T HAVE MY GALLBLADDER AND HAVEN'T FOR 15 YEARS. I NEED HELP!!!

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO ANYMORE! I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE THE HOUSE CAUSE I NEVER KNOW WHEN ANOTHER EPISODE IS GOING TO HIT. AND WHEN IT HITS I HAVE MAYBE 1 MINUTE TO GET TO BATHROOM.

DOC NOT ALOT OF HELP; JUST SAYS THAT LOSING CONTROL OF BOWELS IS PART OF HAVING MS.

ANYONE WITH SIMILAR ISSUES OR ANY SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO HELP WITH MINE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

I CURRENTLY SWITCHED TO AVONEX. COULD IT BE THE MEDICINE? ALTHOUGH, I AM BEING TOLD THAT IT IS NOT A COMMON SIDE EFFECT.

THANKS FOR ANY SUGGESTIONS,

[GardeningMSer]

Might be C. difficile

I am not a dr, but I think you might have C. difficile in your GI system. It is a bacteria that causes uncontrollable diarrhea. It is all too commonly caught in hospitals and doctors' offices, transferred from dr. or nurse to patients.

My wife has had it and is having it again, the first line antibiotic Flagil, didn't work, she is taking the very expensive Vancomycin, we are lucky it is covered by her insurance.

When you find the right med you'll feel better in a couple of days, do not stop until you run the full course which in my wife's case was expected to be a month, she actually had to have several months of anti-b in both cases.

C. difficile is dangerous and unpleasant, often painful and difficult to treat successfully. One possible diagnostic clue is your feces stink, I'm not sure this is a necessary condition, if present it is pretty conclusive.

It is literally a killer, my 84 yo mother probably died of it, too many people with compromised immune systems get it, too many of these end up in the hospital, or die in their sleep from dehydration, please ask your dr to test for it, if found start the anti-biotic ASAP, if Flagil doesn't work within a few days tell your dr, there is at least one strain that will never respond to Flagil.

If your dr. doesn't listen, all too frequently the case when male and female dr.s have female patients, see an infectious disease specialist, I can't express my level of concern, I don't think your symptoms are MS related.

[khs]

great advice

from GMSer, your dr should not blow off something that can be so serious

pretty sad when WE need to remind our DRs that not everything is MS

[djprieve]

bowel issue

I understand your issue, I have had a similiar issue. I corrected my issue over time by working with a nutritionist after many trial and errors of my own. I have progressive MS and if I manage the food choices correctly I do much better. I can not post my nutritionists information on hear, but you can email me if you like and I will tell you more.

[nutritiontara]

teslagirl, has your problem been resolved?? Its sounds like an abnormal happening and needs to be corrected.

[newme]

I agree you should check with the doctor but wanted to let you know of my experience.

I also had sudden urgency. Mine was not tied so closely to eating. It was very random. I often would feel a need but not make it to the bathroom in time. Luckily, it only happened once when I was not at home (the not making it to the bathroom thing - not the urgency).

Much of this was before my DX. I had a friend with IBS who suggested an increase in fiber. This really helped me. Like I said it was pre-diagnosis and my GP at the time was clueless about what it could be. He said since it wasn't always, it probably wasn't anything to worry about. (haha - it wasn't him having to run). I still don't know for sure that it was MS related but once I was diagnosed the neuro said most likely it was.

I haven't had this in a while (knock on wood). I guess the Copaxone might have helped.

[dee-dee]

newbe

I had the same problem before dx. My pcp sent me to a gi dr. He did some tests and told me i have colitis. I take some steroids sometimes 3 months at a time and fiber. Change in diet. Good luck.

[Milhous]

I have IBS and it really increased the diarrhea when I added Lasix. It has helped some going with the proboitics like in some yogurts -- you want the live bacteria. -- they also make pills that have live cultures.( some antibiotics you take will kill the good bacteria in your gut and you need to replace them with the good ones also)

before I had also increased the fiber in my diet which had helped until I got the new pill.

but get a stool sample and have it tested to make sure you do not have some bad bug causing it.

hope you find a answer as it is not a very nice problem to have.
hugs