Please share your experiences on rifampin

Hello. I'm about to go on rifampin. I'm wondering about the side effects people have experienced. Is diarrhea a common one?

Anxiety, orange pee, but oddly enough no herx. I kept waiting saying where is the herx?

After only 2 weeks of using Rifampin I noticed a dull and intermittent short pain in the spleen. Some believe this was die off of bacteria in my spleen but to me it did not feel like this.

I stayed on it for 6 weeks before I researched it closer and saw that in about one half of one percent of people (very small chance) Rifampin can cause an enlargement of the spleen.

I discontinued it and still experienced the pain on and off for a few months after but to a declining and lesser frequent degree.

I am happy to say what ever was happening there stopped and it seems to be fine now.

Yup, orange pee.

I started even lower 150 mg. I was given 300 mg caps...so I opened them up and poured the contents onto a piece of paper...and measured approximately half and put it in an empty capsule.

I think I did that for a week...then went to 300 mg once daily...for a couple of weeks...and finally 300 twice daily.

Interesting - it's supposed to be hard on the liver...but prior to the Rifampin when I was on lyme antibiotics, I had taken a 2 1/2 month break because my liver enzymes had climbed up out of range.

I was concerned the Rifampin would do the same...but it never did...I've to this date no had that happen again.

That was over 2 years ago now.

Yesterday was my first day on rifampin. Took 15 mg twice. Last night was up all night with gurgling stomach, gas pains, and the insides of my stomach literally feel hot and bubbly. Of course I'm always worried about c diff but I had no diarrhea. Thank goodness. Are these GI issues common with rifampin? Will they go away as my body gets used to it?
I also was up most of the night with waves of anxiety. Can that be from rifampin??

I'm scared to take it again today. Doing everything I can to prevent c diff with lots and lots of high strain berygood quality probiotics, other supplements for GI protection along with nightly probiotic enemas. It's a full time job 😉

Are you taking it with food? It is supposed to be on empty stomach...but if you can't tolerate it that way, you might need to eat something before you take it.

I didn't have GI issues with it so can't comment if that is something people have experienced.