Rifampin and headaches

Took rifampin with SMZ for an abscess and had terrible loose stool, gas, headaches, weak and unbalanced and made me OVEREAT because I felt so weak I needed food all the time! Gained weight, run the other way when they prescribe these two together for a bartholin gland that won't go away!

I started taking Rifampin 12/15/04 prescrribed by my hepatologist, for itching related to PBC. The next couple weeks, I had some nausea and loose stools, but attributed that to the high fat holiday eating. After the holidays I got a migraine that never stopped for 6 weeks. I also developed almost daily nausea, weekly vomitting, loose stools, lack of appetite, one cold after another and two abcessed teeth within one month. I had an endoscopy two weeks ago to try and determine the cause of vomitting blood and the GI upset. I tried many different prescriptions for migraines with minimal relief. I had two trips to the emergency room for GI and migraine pain. Finally my internist suggested I stop the Rifampin as headaches and GI upset were listed (not to mention 3 pages of other side-effects and problems). Within 4 days my headaches were gone and within a week my nausea and vomitting had stopped. My surgeon (who did the endoscopy) stated he had no doubt that the Rifampin was the cause of the GI upset and was glad I had stopped taking it. He said it would probably take a good month for my GI system to recover.