Getting ready to stop meds in 6 days!!

[Cocogirlie]

I am finishing up my taking my meds in 6 days. It feels like it was an eternity! I am really concerned how and if my body will come back to normal. My skin color got darker. The antibiotics reeked havoc on my gut even though I was a really health conscious person before this. I have terrible gut pain and gas and burping. I hope my anxiety go away and I have clear thinking again. I am clumsy and cannot remember how to say cook a recipe that I have cooked for years! Headaches bad long dreams. Also I think being in hospital isolation room this past June did a psychological number in me and people who said I use to smile all the time and help people I have lost my zest for life. I felt like prisoner in there! So I want to hear from folks that have recently come off the TB meds and how they are feeling and if they feel better. Did the color come back, etc. thank you

[HelenC Partner TB Alert]

Hi Cocogirlie,

I see you posted three days ago, so only three more to go! Well done on getting through the long months of treatment.

I can't respond with any comments from my own experience, as I am the moderator not a former TB patient. However, I am sure you will get some responses soon.

Best wishes,

Helen

[Alien41]

Hi cocogirlie, crongrats on getting to the end of treatment i sooo wish i could say everything returns to how it was before but i still suffer anxiety still struggle with my stomach, pains and gas, plus a year after completing the meds im being reassessed as a recent x ray has show growth in the scar tissue on my right lung, as you can imagine im terrified its all about to start again. I really hope that you will return to normal and appologise for not having something happier to tell you. Good luck.

[Cocogirlie in reply to Alien41]

Thank you Alien41 for answering. Today is my last day, it is over! Very excited but I am hoping that the anxiety gets better, my gut is ruined according to a friend who practices holistic. She said it can be fixed but it will take 6 mos. of slow rebuilding. I hope my bathroom issues get better. I am wondering how it was to re-introduce the food that we were restricted back into the diet. I am starting tomorrow gradually. That was really difficult to be that good restricted for me and my family! I am so sorry to hear that and I sure hope you don’t have to go back on the meds.

[Soul01 in reply to Cocogirlie]

Congratulations! I hope everything goes well and that you start to feel a lot better.

[Cocogirlie in reply to Soul01]

😉

[TBinTexas in reply to Cocogirlie]

Hi Cocogirlie,

How is it going now that your off the meds?

After about 6 months I feel like my brain is starting to be able to think again. I used to have an amazing memory recall ability, but TB meds definitely took all of that. It is slowly getting better so hopefully it comes back.

My stomach & skin were also ruined. I am very fair skinned, and the TB meds left me lots of brown spots all over my body. I have done 3 IPL treatments on my face and that has made a significant difference.

I am taking a LOT of different probiotics to help my stomach. I wish I had a way to make that better but I haven’t discovered it yet.

For increased anxiety, I started taking CBD and it’s really really helped. I like that it doesn’t put me in a drug fog.

I am also dealing with significant hair loss/breakage. I had thick long blonde hair down to my lower back before those meds. Then the majority of it broke off or fell out. I really really hope it will grow back like it was.

I dunno if any of this helps, but thought I would share just in case.

KD

[Cocogirlie in reply to TBinTexas]

Hi TBinTexas,

Sorry I have not had a chance to sign on I have been sick sir a few weeks.

Can I say that everything you have described and are going through except hair loss, I have experienced since stopping the TB meds on Dec. 11th!

The memory recall really bothers me! I like you use to have terrific memory recall. My husband and daughter watch Jeopardy every night and I get frustrated that they blurt out the answer and I know them but cannot seems to get my brain to fire up fast enough.

I too have started taking the CBD gummies at night to help anxiety and to sleep. I too don’t want to look at another medication!

I have a friend who practices holistic and she has me on sooo many supplements jand things to try and help bring my gut back to normal. She says unfortunately, because I was taking those terrible TB drugs and the antibiotics for 6 months it has ruined my stomach! She said that it will take another 6 months to try and get it back to normal.

My coloring is also tanned and it makes me mad!!!! I look at pictures of me before this and I am so much lighter. I too have dark spots all over my legs especially.

What is are the IPL treatments you did??!? I am interested in trying it. I am very frustrated

That these drugs I feel ruined me. I wake up with headaches and I never had headaches before. Even though I went through a double lung transplant (7 years on 1/25) I have never experienced anything like being on these meds. I feel like I have to get back to the land of the living and it has been over a month now i have been off.