I am a disabled arthritic with reactive arthritis. I have been on prednisone (20mg a day) for about 5 years now. I have a repressed immune system from the prednisone which I must take because my arthritis attacked me everywhere, not just in my joints. I have lost 60% of the macula in my right eye.
As little as reducing my prednisone dosage to 15 mg a day results in the macula in both eyes flaring up with edemas. I've been told that I have a "soft tissue" arthritis. I am also HLB-B27 positive. That is a gene that indicates my skin type.
For pain, I‘ve been put on opiates because my kidneys and liver have sustained too much damage from NSAIDS.
A big side effect of opiates is constipation…SO - to get away from Metamucil everyday...
I studied the package carefully; there is no warning on the package for persons with impaired immunity. I started Activia on Feb 4th and consumed one serving a day, as directed, until Feb 9th 2006. That evening I had a case of diarrhea that smelled worse than anything I ever smelled before. I couldn't wait to get out of the bathroom! (Since then, I have learned that this smell is a known side effect.)
The next morning, Feb 10th,, 5:30 AM, I had severe pain across the bottom of my abdomen. I was convinced I had a bladder infection.
I called my primary physician, talked to his nurse who refused to give me antibiotics. Her words; “You need to go to the emergency room, you could have appendicitis.”
Up to that point (about 9:00 AM) I had NO INTENTION to go to a doctor, let alone a hospital! But the pain kept increasing.
So I called my wife (11 AM) to come home and drive me. I knew I couldn’t drive myself; I was too nauseated and dizzy. She got home from work about 12:30. We made up our collective mind that we’d put up with the wait in the emergency room instead of the walk in clinic and we drove to St Vincent’s in Bridgeport.
We didn’t leave right away; I’m still convinced it is a bladder infection. We left at about 1:30 pm.
Because we drove, not taking an ambulance, we got placed in the waiting room instead of going straight into the Emergency Room. After about 20 minutes I told my wife to tell the reception desk that if I didn’t get a place to lie down in the next 5 minutes, I would have to lie down on the floor, and I meant it.
SO… Five minutes later (about 2:30pm) the intern is checking me over and they were taking my vitals. My temperature was 100, blood pressure 100/60. Pushing and poking, looking in every nook and cranny, the intern says “Mr. P, we really can’t see anything wrong with you.”
…….The nurse takes my blood pressure one more time: 60/30! Bingo
My little room was invaded by 10 people. They started an IV. I am about passed out from the pain even though I am on an opiate patch for my arthritis. My temp went to 102 to 97 to 101 to 99. Blood pressure was as low as 50 / 20.
They RAN me down to a CAT scan, called the Chief Surgeon, pumped me up with antibiotics and something to increase my blood pressure, inserted a catheter. As soon as the got my BP over 100, they RAN me to the operating room.
I woke up at 1 AM with the last 8 inches of colon removed. The official diagnosis was diverticulitis. The doctors don’t believe that the yogurt did it. If you read the Activia web sites downloadable document for medical professional, it tells you that the lactic acid level increase by 29% and fecal matter flow increases by 100%.
They were very clear to me that if my wife got me there 20 minutes later I would probably have been dead from the bacteremia. The stool had also leaked into my pericardium. One of the interns said to me that a large percentage of people they see with my condition arrive to the emergency room already dead.
The Chief Surgeon tells my wife and daughter I'm in really bad shape and he can't promise anything. They had to wait 5 hour of surgery to find out I was going to be ok. They had a big section of my intestines pulled out of me so that they could get to the bottom section.
I wear a colostomy bag and will require 2 surgeries to be put back together again.
I believe that this is happening to other people who have impaired immune systems and try Activia. I keep reading about people that have tried Activia having extreme nausea and dizziness.
It makes me shake in memory of that day!
(I woke up in the ICU at 1:00 am of Feb 11th to a nurse saying “Happy Birthday, we gave you a nice bag to wear!”)
Dannon has created a product that may be fine for the vast majority of people. I would NOT have tried it if there was a warning about problems in people who have impaired immune systems.
Well, either I’m right and there will be a class action suit against Dannon, or I’m wrong and it was a coincidence. I really believe that my colon has a hole in it because I ate Activia yogurt. I really hate the fact that if I’m right I have to wait until other people lose their lives to be proved right. This is a case where I would get a hefty chunk of money if I’m right but very much hope I’m wrong because of the suffering being right would cause.
If anyone else has gone through an "Adverse Event",of any type, please post a comment or start a new blog.
This blog site should become a repository of information regarding any problems people have with Activia. I will try to post as much information as I can.
Make sure, if you have surgery like I did that they preserve the pieces taken out. My colon was about to be disposed of when I called and asked them to preserve it.
Check back soon!
Tom
ps: I sent that nurse flowers AND candy.
