Initial success with trimethoprim, now on Cipro

[easytiger]

First Occurrence

The day following a particularly heavy drinking session (primarily lager) I experienced a problem knowing when I needed to urinate, occasional soreness of the tip of the penis, and frequent voiding at night. This was accompanied by pain between my testicles and anus. I treated this with Ibuprofen and abstention from alcohol for a few days and the symptoms disappeared.

Subsequent occurrences

Over the next six weeks I had two more alcohol related incidents, each one treated the same (abstention and ibuprofen), however each lasted longer than the previous one. I did not seem to get affected by wine or Gin, just lager.

Major occurrence

Approximately two months after the first occurrence I experienced a deep pelvic pain which would not go. This pain was constant and extremely uncomfortable. I also was getting up once / twice a night to urinate. I also did not know when I needed to urinate. This caused me to visit my GP who, following a normal prostate exam (no problems there) and a bacterial test (negative), prescribed 200mg of trimethoprim twice a day for 4 weeks. I combined this with:

1 Jointcare tablet (Cod liver oil 615 mg, omega 3 nutrients 200mg, Glucosamine Sulphate 100mg)
4 Echinacea 400mg a day
1 Multibionta (Multivitamin including probiotic nutrients and Zinc)

Almost immediately I got flatulence problems and bad breath. To counter this I started retaking my hiatus hernia drugs Lansoprazole (30mg a day). I also stopped drinking all alcohol, tea and coffee.

After 3 weeks on the antibiotics the pain was gone. I was sleeping through the night and did not have any tingling feeling on the end of penis. One other side effect of taking the antibiotic was that my orgasms were considerably stronger.

After another 3 weeks (2 weeks after the end of my antibiotics) the deep pain came back. This was accompanied by joint ache and very oily skin. This occurred over a 2 day period. This pain is extremely uncomfortable and I feel an almost small vibrating feeling in my pelvic muscle. I do not have any other symptoms (except a dulled orgasm again).

I have now been referred to a Urologist and prescribed:

Ciprofloxacin 500mg twice a day.

Following internet research I have also put myself on:

Saw Palmetto 800mg twice a day
Quercetin 1000mg once a day
Multibionta + Echinacea
Yeast Raiders (Acidophilus + Herbs + vitamins & minerals)

I have stopped the Jointcare due to the oily skin / joint ache (I tried oil supplements once a couple of years ago and they gave me joint pains within a couple of days of using them). Within three days of stopping these my joint pains have gone.

Initially (24 hours) the Saw Palmetto and Quercetin made a 70% improvement in pain, however 72 hours later I am getting the full amount of pain back.

Having done a lot of research on chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome I have also made a connection to Candida. My wife has suffered from this for many years and she has often said that I have a lot of symptoms:
-- Susceptible to Joint pain, often moving from joint to joint
-- Sugar craving
-- Binging on sweet foods
-- Rectal itching
-- Belching, bloating, stomach-ache, bad breath
-- Pain near right hip/appendix area
-- Mouth ulcers
-- Acid regurgitation
-- Sinusitis

I also developed an allergic reaction to hair shampoo and care products (Gel, mouse etc) about three years ago.

After just two days of taking the yeast raiders my sinusitis has almost completely cleared up and I am getting a lot less acid regurgitation.

The issue for me is that I know that antibiotics are not very good for me (having read the many posts here about the lack of a effectiveness on chronic cases), especially for problems like Candida, however they completely worked the first time and I am inclined to give them another 2 months to work. This combined with an anti-Candida regime seems sensible.

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BTW I found this http://www.uroweb.org/files/uploaded_fi ... icpain.pdf link which may or may not have been highlighted here before.

[chrisjiujitsu]

Just wanted to add my experience. I was on these antibiotics for months when there was no infection detected. I thought they were definitely helping. After many months I realized there was a limit to their help and they would cure me, but was afraid to get off them.

In the end I had come to the conclusion that the help was mostly placebo or the anti-inflammatory affects of antibiotics. I stopped taking them and get better results with anti-inflammatories.