As usual, back when things get bad and question about Donnatal.

[guest 8791]

I'm back again. A couple of weeks ago, I started having pain in my lower right quadrant all day every day. I made an appointment with the doctor for today, and the news was disheartening. Several months ago, after a hospitalization for a very inflamed small intestine, and several more weeks of testing and treatments, the doctors guessed that I had post infectious IBS. I'm still having daily pain and discomfort, which, as I said, got worse a couple of weeks ago.

So today the doctor told me that my small intestine again feels quite swollen to the touch. They're sending me to get blood work again, and if my inflammation markers are up, away I go again with more testing. In the mean time, they've given me several meds to try, the first being Donnatal. Anyone have any experiences with Donnatal to share?

I'll try to stick around this time, and not just pop back in when I'm panicking

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Hi, theseithakas. I don't have any experience with Donnatal but wanted to say hi and welcome back to the forum. I hope the Donnatal helps and that you feel better soon. Have your doctors mentioned anything about Xifaxan/Rifamaxan? (I'm not sure if I spelled those right!) I can recall another person on the forum awhile ago had suspected post-infectious IBS, and she did pretty well with Rifamaxan. I don't know much about it except that it's a fairly new thing being used for IBS and seems to help a fair amount of people who try it. Anyway, just a thought for you if the Donnatal doesn't help. Good luck and don't be a stranger!

 

[guest 8791]

Thanks Cat. Good to see everyone again. I have not yet explored those two medications that you mentioned, but I'll be sure to bring it up with my doctor next time I see her. My problem has always been that I don't really display enough symptoms for any diagnosis, so anything that they've told me I might have seems mostly like guesswork to me. Even the idea that this was all caused by an "infection" seems questionable, given that the only symptoms I ever had were stomach pain and an inflamed small intestine. No diarrhea, no vomiting...blah!

Sorry, this is just incredibly annoying and frustrating. The Donnatal seems to not be doing much, but it's only been a couple of days, so I'll keep trucking. Thanks for your support!

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

I hear you, I wish I had some answers for you. I'm a bit skeptical on IBS being a thing anyway (a lot of doctors either think IBS isn't real, or that it's a myriad of other things that have been misdiagnosed as IBS and lumped into that category). And with inflammation as bad as you've described, I would wager you have something more than IBS or an infection going on. I hope you can get some answers soon. What tests did they run on you when you were hospitalized? Did they take any biopsies from the inflamed areas?

 

[guest 8791]

Cat - back in the fall, I had two CT scans, a colonoscopy, and an MRE of my intestines. My understanding was that they did take biopsies during the colonoscopy and everything came out normal. My first CT scan, which revealed the inflammation, was the day I got to the hospital. My blood work for that day also showed elevated inflammation markers. After four days in the hospital if a liquid diet, painkillers, and antibiotics, my next CT scan showed reduced inflammation. Same for blood work. Colonoscopy was a couple of weeks later, and was normal. MRE was about two months later and was normal. Ugh. So frustrating. Donnatal still seems to not be doing much.