Suggest Treatment For Weakness And Bowel Infections When Suffering From Chrons Disease

Posted on Sun, 9 Mar 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 9 Mar 2014 Answered on

Tue, 1 Apr 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : Hello Doctor,My wife suffers from IBD uc?chrons.Though the doctors are sure it is chrohns.She has been in and out of the hospital since 6 weeks getting relapses.She was administered remicade dose after which she got very weak etc and had to be re admitted due to low wbc and hemoglobin which might have been due to remicade or azoran.Now all hers levels are good and she has been discharged yesterday,She is still a liitle weak and her stool frquency is still 5.What should be done to get the stool frquency down.She is on vegaz 1 tablet. VSL 1 tablet x3,omnacortil 10mg 1 tab

Answered by Dr. Dr. Prasad J (2 days later)

Brief Answer: It may take coule of weeks more... Detailed Answer: Hi, I understand you are looking for a gastroenterologist opinion about your wife's concerns. I am a general physician working closely with gastroenterologist in a multidisciplinary hospital. As your query is unattended for long time, I'll take this opportunity to answer it here. Be rest assured that you will have a second opinion from a gastroenterologist too. From what I understand your wife is diagnosed to have inflammatory bowel disease and the doctors are trying hard to get her into remission. Unfortunately she couldn't tolerate the remicade well resulting in hematological and immune disturbances. Weakness and bowel infections are common during such moments; but generally they improve with time. I wouldn't be very concerned with her stool frequency if she is not losing lot of fluids in form of watery diarrhea and there is no abdominal cramps or blood. The probiotics should help her get over the minor infections. I would suggest you to include yoghurts and increase her fluid intake. You can also discuss about adding electrolyte rich solution and vitamin supplements with the treating doctor. As far as my knowledge, antimotility drugs and other medicines that are prescribed to stop diarrhea are contraindicated with her condition; so avoid antidiarrheal medicines which are available over the counter. Since she is off remicade and has shown good improvement during her course of stay at the hospital, I expect her to get well soon. The weakness and bowel frequency should improve say in the next couple of weeks with the above mentioned treatment, fluids, electrolyte rich solution and dietary support. So do not be worried. Hope this information suffices. You will have a formal reply from a gastroenterologist. You can discuss about it with me if needed. Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar