traveler's diarrhea, cipro, acidopholus

[Guest guest]

I am just asking for advice concerning diarrhea and traveling. I am a 33

year old woman with Crohn's disease, with 2 healthy children, and have

been on SCD for 2 years. About 2

weeks ago, I left on a cross-country road trip with my mother and

daughters. I was having a little bit of altitude sickness (nausea,

fatigue) but was eating all of my own food until the one time I decided

to go out to breakfast. I ordered scrambled eggs with olives and

checked that the eggs weren't mixed with milk, the cheese was cheddar,

and instead of toast I got green chile salsa. That evening, we ascended

to about 9000 feet and that night I started getting cramping. The next

24 hours, I went diarrhea about 20 times, and the following days leveled

out to about 4 X a day. I took immodium, and went back on the " intro "

diet, and had a normal BM finally on the 7th morning, but by the next

night, the diarrhea and cramping had returned. The last 2 nights have

been horrible cramping and diarrhea, so things tend to be getting worse.

I have been drinking only

bottled water for the whole trip. I called the restaurant and they said

the chile was homemade, with garlic and roasted chiles, but had diced

ham in it which probably had sugar in it. Normally I'm ok with cooked

chiles, but I did eat a lot. I couldn't see the ham in it, so it wasn't

a lot, though definately illegal. My daughter, who ate something

different, also had diarrhea a couple of times, but now is fine.

However, my cramping and diarrhea will not subside, even though I have

been eating chicken soup and eating lots of homemade yogurt; I have

taken more of Lucy's acidopholus, all to no avail. Last night was the

worst cramping yet. I called my doctor and he prescribed a 5 day course

of cipro, and just called it " traveler's diarrhea " . However, I have to

wait a few days to rule out whether I'm pregnant or not (Just took the

test; it said no), and I am afraid of taking antibiotics in

general. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

I read on a Dr. Weil sight for traveler's diarrhea to take one

acidopholus capsule every hour until diarrhea subsides, but that was

for people without IBD, and I know Elaine has said in the past not to

overdue them. Does anyone have any advice? Since I have to wait a few

days before submitting to antibiotics, and since I'm only going about

3-5 times a day, I figure I can last a few days. However, my awaited

cross country vacation sucks. I am finally at my aunt's house in

Michigan, and will start a new yogurt batch tomorrow, am eating intro

diet, etc. I decided not to drive back from Michigan to California, but

I have to wait here 2 weeks to get a decent flying rate before I can

return back to my home and the water and food I'm accustomed to. I

switched to distilled water today, just in case I was reacting to the

local bottled spring water, and will look for a mineral rich water like

Trinity to supplement it; I think it will be fine for 2 weeks.

Does anyone have other suggestions? Have you or your children taken a 5

day course of

cipro and recovered fine from it? After last night, the antibiotic is

looking better, however, I have been relatively stable for over a year

now, and I hate to introduce a whole new can of worms. I've been on the

SCD diet for 2 years, and had surgery a year ago to remove my strictured

descending colon. Except for mucus now and then, I've been healthy.

About 6 weeks ago, I was starting to have looser stools, but found out

my yogurt maker wasn't heating to proper temperature, and I resolved

that by stopping the yogurt, and using a new yogurt maker. So perhaps I

entered this trip with a little weakness, but my BM's were fine before I

ate that stupid breakfast. I get mucus from eating too much lettuce and

strawberries, but otherwise tolerate everything on the diet. In general,

if I eat something questionable, I can usually recover in a manner of

days by upping my sulfasalazine, and going back to the beginner's diet.

I know traveling is stressful, my husband just arrived today, and I can

rest at the house and am not driving anymore. I'm just so disapointed

that eating out once could wreak such havoc on a stable gut, and I hate

wiping out everything I've worked for this last year with the Cipro. I

don't know what to do, and am just wondering if others have experienced

similar problems in traveling, with cipro, etc.

Sorry this is a novel, I just wanted to provide the background I'm

working with. Ugh!

Debora

adult with CD, 17 years

SCD 2 years

sulfasalazine

contemplating cipro