I wonder if I'm wasting my time writing this, so here goes nothing:
In 1997, I got sick from drinking stream water on a back-packing trip (I was desparately thirsty, and my so-called friend assured me it was safe to drink, but he did NOT tell me at the time that he himself was using iodine to treat the water that he collected for himself to drink). My GI specialist performed an upper endoscopy, in which a biopsy revealed that I was infected with the Giardia Lamblia parasite, which came from that water. Also important to mention is that same endoscopy also showed completely healthy tissue in my stomach and duodenum. My doctor prescribed Flagyl (21 x 250mg) to treat the Giardia. He said I was going to see improvement within 2 days of starting the drug. But instead, the drug itself was giving me a lot of indigestion (more specifically, wierd and unhealthy-looking stools). Because I was frightened at the time by my health situation, and I did NOT have the luxury of having an insurance that was willing to cover for a 2nd upper endoscopy to ensure whether or not the parasite was gone following the drug treatement, I felt like the only thing I could to is hang on my doctor's every word. I was NOT just going to automatically assume that it was a reaction to the drug, even though it really looked like one, and I was trying NOT to put words into my doctor's mouth. I wanted to first hear what my doctor had to say about those symptoms. He carelessly assumed that I must still have more parasites, so he prescribed a 2nd dose of Flagyl (42 x 500mg). That made me even more frantic. To complicate things further, between the time he made the decision to give me more drugs, and the time that I went to the pharmacy to pick up that 2nd dose, I finally started to notice gradual improvement in my bowel movements, apparently because my body was finally starting to recover from the harsh side effects of the drugs. But by then, it was too late for me to feel a sense of relief. My doctor already had me thinking I probably had more parasites, just because I had NOT seen improvement within the first 2 days of starting the 1st dose. Because he never suggested that this drug could cause a lot of indigestion (even though I myself had hinted to him that I did wonder whether or not it was a drug reaction), and I had lost over 30 pounds, and my employer was trying to kick me off its payroll while I was on sick leave, and one co-worker even called me at home during my treatment to tell me off (because she had to fill in for my absence), I felt very rushed, so I reluctantly decided to trust my doctor's judgement, and started that 2nd dose. Once I started it, I was afraid to stop, because the instructions warn against skipping or stopping the drug too soon. Throughout that 2nd dose, I had more of the same indigestion that I had from the 1st dose. Then, to make a long story short, about 3 or 4 days after finishing that 2nd dose, I suddenly spent an entire day having about 3 or 4 bowel movements an hour in which I observed large amounts of membrane tissue coming out of me, and of course, none of my food itself was digesting normally at all. It turns out, the overdose of Flagyl caused severe and permanent damage to the lining of my stomach and duodenum. A more recent upper endoscopy showed gastritis, duodenitis, and stomach ulcers, none of which were present at the time of my 1st upper endoscopy, when I was first tested for the Giardia parasite. This was NOT a coincidence. My current bowel disease was caused by the overdose of Flagyl. But not one doctor believes me on this matter. They keep saying that my bowel disease must have been caused by something else, like my so-called genetic predisposition (Seems as though doctors like to use that word a lot). Doctors admit that Flagyl has actually killed people, but yet they claim that it cannot cause any permanent damage (So, does that mean death is NOT considered permanent damage?). If my doctor would have at least warned me in advance that the Flagyl was capable of causing a lot of indigestion, then I would have been a lot less frantic, and I would have known better than to start the 2nd dose.
It is bad enough that I have to live the rest of my life with a chronic disease because the medical industry failed to warn me about the side effects of Flagyl. It makes it worse that I am NOT being compensated for my suffering (I never sued, because all I wanted was my health back, which money cannot buy). And it slaps me in the face when doctors continue to insist that Flagyl had nothing to do with it.
I'm telling you, it was the Flagyl.
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