Probiotic Craze

The pain in my stomach at times was unbearable. I felt like my stomach was going to pop from all the air that was inside of it. I hated when this feeling would come across me because I thought that having a J-Pouch was better.

Extreme pains

I couldn’t figure out why I would have to leave my classroom, run to my car to find a safe way release gas without anybody hearing or seeing me. This feeling would come across me a few times a month. The pain would get so bad, that I would actually get nausea. The best, and only thing, I could do to alleviate the pain was to lay down and pass gas. My doctor at the time said that it was a symptom of my chronic pouchitis that caused me to get these extreme gas pains. When I would get the gas pains, I had to take a triple amount of my antibiotic that treated the pouchitis. The pain would go away in a few hours.

Starting a Probiotic

When I went in for my annual sigmoidoscope, I brought it to my attention to my GI doctor. He just about laughed when I answered him “no,” when he asked me if I was on a probiotic. He said, “go to the store and get a probiotic. I had no idea how this was going to change my life for the positive.

Almost instantly, I started to feel better. I was becoming more regular when using the bathroom. Most importantly, I was not getting those horrible gas pains that I was getting before.

I immediately saw a change when not taking it

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Let it be known that I have been taking the same brand of probiotic for the last four years. I went to go take it and I realized that there was no more in the bottle. No worries. I’ll stop at CVS on the way home from work to pick it up. I went in, and they did not have the same blend of probiotics that I was taking. They also didn’t have the same brand.

I spent about an hour in the store reading bottles to find the one that matched the most. I called my mother who works at a pharmacy in the city, and she was able to order it for me. But I was not going to be able to go pick it up until the middle of next week. I bought the probiotic from CVS to hold me over. Wow, how things changed.

A few days into the probiotic, I found myself with more urgency and cramps. I contacted my doctor to tell him what was going on. He asked me the basic questions. I told him what had changed and he immediately said to go back to my other probiotic. He said that it would take a few weeks for my body to recognize that the “good bacteria” was not in your GI tract anymore. It was like my body was dependent on it. I made sure to make my hour drive to my parent's house a day later. I would start to feel better by the end of the week. I will tell you, I sure felt crazy without that probiotic.  Funny how things work out right...