diverticulitis and gleevac, Lorna and MRSA

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone,

I've been following this one with interest as I have inflammatory bowel

disease and a family hx of diverticulitis - my mother and grandmother had

this.

Since I have been on Gleevac except for the first month of adjusting to it,

I have been experiencing no symptoms what so ever. My haem/t said his

experience in OZ is that for some reason not known, Gleevac is doing good

things for people with auto immune diseases eg rheumatoid arthritis, IBD.

There is always a risk with my bowel disease that it can develop to cancer

later on or from scarring also cause diverticulitis.

MRSA - having been a RN, I worked through the early days when this reared

it's ugly head as a result of antibiotics being used willy nilly and mops

left in buckets creating a lovely breeding ground for new superbugs. Golden

staph ( staphylococcal aureus) has always been around and the best way of

getting rid of it is to expose the wound to direct sunlight (if possible)

which kills it. If it has become methicillin resitant, them the 'penicillin'

range of drugs do not work on it, therefore essential to take swabs and find

out what the bug is sensitive to. On open wounds we use manuka honey which

has antibacterial properties and cleans up wounds very effectively in both

humans and animals.

The problem with taking antibiotics is that commonly they kill all the good

bugs which then result in diarrhoea and nasty bugs like e coli can then take

over and thrush (candiasis) infections can also cause these symptoms and set

up a vicious circle which results in more drugs and worsening diarrhoea.

Taking natural therapy like slippery elm and the high gastric interflora

tabs (drinks) also help get the bowel back to normal, as well as

antidiarrhoea drugs and codeine phosphate.

In Australia we have a wonderful drug called Buscopan,

www.buscopan.com.au/au/homepage.jsp which helps to stop the bowel spasm and

reduce pain, and in my experience assists with nausea as well. It is made

out of extracts from a native bush and we can buy over the counter.

According to the website it is available overseas also.

For Lorna - it was heart renching to hear your story. I am forever grateful

in Australia that we have Medicare, which means everyone has access to free

public hospital health care - we truly are the lucky country. I can't

imagine how terrible it has been for you struggling with a life threatening

illness, young children and no income coming in. I hope everything continues

to get better for you and as you say - how wonderful it was to have your

family with you at Christmas. I'm sure it took you a lot of guts to write

this for everyone to read and hope it will help other families in the future

that there is a silver lining somewhere.

Regards,

Rodorbal Labradors & Dachshund Smooths Australia

www.geocities.com/rodorbal

http://au./group/Ozlabradors/

www.labradata.org

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