Flagyl question about strength and duration.

I had been having a really rough time last few months with gas, etc.  No matter what I ate my body turned it into gas!  

When I saw my Doc he gave me an Rx for Flagyl, 500mgs., 1x a day for 30 days.  That seems like an awful long time to me.  Anyone else had to take it this long?  And did it help?  It's helping, but I am still having symptoms.

Thanks for your help!
Anne

I take it all the time but only 250mg doses.  You might try a 500mg dose in the AM and PM and see if it knocks out your symptoms better.

--g

Dr. Keshishan gave me a prescription as well for 30 days, with refills.  I contacted him & asked........... he said when my symptoms went away, to stop taking the flagyl........ I did as told, (symptoms went away in under a week, and I stopped the flagyl) and have not had another overgrowth as of yet.......... I also started up my probiotics at the same time, to re-populate the GOOD gut bacteria, and all is well. 

The directions were 3 times a day (500mg)..... That was the end of July.

Good Luck!!!!!!

Was that 500mgs 3x a day (1,500 total?) or Adding up to 500?

My Rx is 500mgs 1x a day.

Taking a low dose, like 250mg or 500mg once a day for a long period is sometimes referred to as a maintenance dose. It is dangerous and a very bad idea. The reason is that these low doses kill off the weak bacteria in the gut, but not the strongest ones, and those strongest ones become immune to the antibiotics from their exposure to them. A shorter course of a higher dose is much more likely to be effective at completely wiping out the bad bacteria, and then you can repopulate with probiotics to get the good ones in there. I would take 500mg 3x/day for 10 days instead, which is the standard dose for an infection causing dysentery.

I, too, had Dr. Greenbaum and he wrote for 250mg 3x a day. I ended up taking only 8 pills. After the first pill I ended up with diarrhea, but I must say it was worth it! I haven't had a problem since. 

Erin

Consider informing your doctor that the prescribed medicine isn't working so that s/he will know and can change the prescription to an amount that works or to a different medicine. There used to be a nurse practitioner on this site who did research about this and said that a maintenance dose of 250mg flagyl every day did not increase risks of problems. The use of flagyl is controversial amongst DSers, but accepted convention is that you ought to take probiotics.  Be wary of getting medical advice about prescription medications from strangers on the internet - that's what you have a doctor for.

The advice I relayed comes from a research doctor with significant research experience in antibiotic resistance - I should have specified that.