On day four of a five day rx of erythromicin and it says "may cause diarrhea. Well, there's no may about it. Immodium says ask a doctor if taking an antibiotic, so I am asking. Oh and you know a medical question from me wouldn't be complete without that bit of additional info:
Posting with my Droid.
Antibiotics, even "narrow spectrum" ones have the tendency of killing off good bacteria as well as the bad ones causing infection.
In this case, it can kill off the good bacteria that lives in your gut, and allow not so good ones to take over. The diarrhea can result with or without the takeover.
The reason for the warning on the immodium label is that one particular kind of bad bacteria, C-Diff (clostridium difficile) can cause REALLY BAD THINGS if not treated, including a nasty thing called a toxic megacolon, which can be fatal. Different antibiotics are used to treat C-Diff.
If you are only having diarhhea (and perhaps gas), not bloody diarrhea, not major abdominal pain, and not some sort of ghastly unbelievably foul output, you likely dont have to worry about this.
Immodium slows the gut, so if the diarrhea is infectious or germ related, you are literally slowing the expulsion of the causing agent from the body, making things potentially worse/longer lasting. I'd use it as a last resort. We typically do not treat the diarhhea in the ER or ICU where I work with those agents, and prefer to treat the underlying cause instead.
You can use a skin protectant or vaseline if the diarhhea is causing things to be red/raw and use baby wipes instead of dry tp.
Over the counter things you can do for simple antibiotic induced diarrhea (or to PREVENT IT in the first place)- eat live culture yogurt several helpings a day. Or go to the pharmacy and get lactobacilli tabs (kept refrigerated behind the counter, yet non prescription) and take as the label directs. These repopulate the colon with good bacteria again, and suppress the bad ones.
And dont be afraid to call your doc who gave you the erythromycin in the first place. They might wanna know, and depending on how cautious they are, may even want a specimen.
