Hello,
I am a 23 year old female who has been diagnosed with C. Diff a couple of days ago. I’m not sure where I contracted it from, given that I don’t meet any of the requirements of common reasons why, such as recent antibiotic use and being around/in a hospital or care facility. It started 3 weeks ago all of a sudden early Sunday morning and continued for 3 days before I decided to contact my doctor. Took a week for the results to come back and was immediately placed on flagyl, before that, my doctor prescribed another antibiotic because she thought I had something else before the test results finally came back. I have been on flagyl for 5.5 days now and I’m not seeing any relief with my symptoms. In fact, I’ve began to experience more symptoms, maybe even side effects of the medication including painful migraines, dehydration no matter how much water and Gatorade I’ve been consuming, being lightheaded, occasional vertigo, fatigue, and weakness along with still having diarrhea. Has anyone else experienced what I have and have any suggestions on what I could do about this? I just recently started a new job and now I cannot work until I’m not contagious anymore says my doctor, which resulted in me losing my job already. How will I know if I’m getting better and that the antibiotic is working or not because I know there’s a chance it may not work? If anyone has had the same experience as I or has any advice, please let me know! I’m miserable and so upset and confused on how to get better, why I got sick in the first place, and some relief on these terrible symptoms I’m experiencing.
Thanks in advance,
Katdog
Young and confused
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Re: Young and confused
Hey Katdog,
Sorry to hear you're sick, but know that you'll be OK. I know that's hard to accept when it's so upsetting right now.
My diagnosis was under similar circumstances. I was diagnosed early February, just after my 33rd birthday. Could've picked up a spore visiting my mom in the hospital a year or two prior, or my grandmother in a nursing home a bit further back than that. Or, it may be that I just touched a contaminated surface. I'll never know, so I try not to dwell on how it happened, honestly (though I still wonder at times).
You'll know you're improving basically as with any other illness: when your symptoms begin to improve, especially when the D begins to slow down. Flagyl is an old drug which tends to cause some pretty terrible side effects in some people, so you could ask them to go ahead and switch you to Vancomycin. If you can't afford it in pill form, then ask them to write it as liquid. It's a lot cheaper. Vanco works far better and usually has few, if any, side effects for most people.
This isn't something you'll tend to recover from overnight, but know that 80% of people (that's 4 out of 5) are cured in 1-2 rounds of meds. Most of the posts on this board are from people who've had a harder time, so the odds are with you! Hang in there and try to stay hydrated. If you can't and you really start to feel awful, don't hesitate to go to the ER. Otherwise, push your doctor to get on it.
Sorry to hear you're sick, but know that you'll be OK. I know that's hard to accept when it's so upsetting right now.
My diagnosis was under similar circumstances. I was diagnosed early February, just after my 33rd birthday. Could've picked up a spore visiting my mom in the hospital a year or two prior, or my grandmother in a nursing home a bit further back than that. Or, it may be that I just touched a contaminated surface. I'll never know, so I try not to dwell on how it happened, honestly (though I still wonder at times).
You'll know you're improving basically as with any other illness: when your symptoms begin to improve, especially when the D begins to slow down. Flagyl is an old drug which tends to cause some pretty terrible side effects in some people, so you could ask them to go ahead and switch you to Vancomycin. If you can't afford it in pill form, then ask them to write it as liquid. It's a lot cheaper. Vanco works far better and usually has few, if any, side effects for most people.
This isn't something you'll tend to recover from overnight, but know that 80% of people (that's 4 out of 5) are cured in 1-2 rounds of meds. Most of the posts on this board are from people who've had a harder time, so the odds are with you! Hang in there and try to stay hydrated. If you can't and you really start to feel awful, don't hesitate to go to the ER. Otherwise, push your doctor to get on it.
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Re: Young and confused
Hello and Welcome to the site Please read the first thread for all new poster
Please call your doctor and let them know you are getting worse, Flagyl is very difficult to take for alot of people and is no longer the standard for initial treatment. Request the medication Vancomycin which is now the standard of care to start with.
If you find yourself getting lightheaded and weak, get to the ED and explain the situation, You don't mention if you are seeing a GI(Gastroenterologist) but if not ask your MD to refer you.
Go very slow with your diet and stick with bland foods like Toast, crackers broth,chicken, baked potatoes, ,rice, Kefir if you can tolerate it and go easy on the gut. Add a probiotic that you would take hours after the antibiotic, there are two we post about either Florester or VSL#3. Speak with your MD about adding one of these. Stay away from dairy.
These are just some tips, make sure to call your MD and get the medication changed. Flagyl made me very sick and also did nothing for my symptoms, as I moved to Vancomycin my symptoms improved about the 3rd day.
Don't hesitate to go to the ED if you do not get response from your MD
Sorry you are going through this
NanciT
Please call your doctor and let them know you are getting worse, Flagyl is very difficult to take for alot of people and is no longer the standard for initial treatment. Request the medication Vancomycin which is now the standard of care to start with.
If you find yourself getting lightheaded and weak, get to the ED and explain the situation, You don't mention if you are seeing a GI(Gastroenterologist) but if not ask your MD to refer you.
Go very slow with your diet and stick with bland foods like Toast, crackers broth,chicken, baked potatoes, ,rice, Kefir if you can tolerate it and go easy on the gut. Add a probiotic that you would take hours after the antibiotic, there are two we post about either Florester or VSL#3. Speak with your MD about adding one of these. Stay away from dairy.
These are just some tips, make sure to call your MD and get the medication changed. Flagyl made me very sick and also did nothing for my symptoms, as I moved to Vancomycin my symptoms improved about the 3rd day.
Don't hesitate to go to the ED if you do not get response from your MD
Sorry you are going through this
NanciT
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Re: Young and confused
Thank you everyone for your support so far, I spoke with my doctor and she put me on vanocin and some probiotic, so we are hoping that this will help get rid of it once and for all. If not, the next step would be visiting my GI. Does anyone know what they would do if the antibiotics wouldn’t work a third time?
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Re: Young and confused
There is another antibiotic called Dificid and there is also FMT.
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Re: Young and confused
If symptoms don't start to improve, you can talk to your doctor about tapering/pulsing the vanco. This gives a higher chance of cure. However, I am one that was cured by a 14 day regimen of Vanco after Flagyl failed. The least amount of meds to be cured the better as the meds come with their own set of side effects sometimes. Flagyl is the worst though. It made me sicker than the c-diff. Glad you were switched to vanco.
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Re: Young and confused
Hey Katdog
So sorry to hear you are experiencing c diff. Very similar instance happened to me as well. I’m 29 years old, female, and contracted c diff this past April when traveling and had no idea when and where I got it from... most likely it was from something I ate (I’m thinking someone may have had it and prepared food without washing their hands or something) anyway, I came back to the US and immediately went to the doctors. I was c diff positive so they put me on a 10 day course of Vanco right away. After the 10 days, it went away... and then came back! They put me on another 10-days of Vanco, and after researching what else would help with recovery, I came across Kefir, the probiotic drink, Lifeway brand to be exact. So after 2 courses of Vanco, I drank 1 qt of Kefir a day for a couple days, and then eased off to about 1/2 qt. And so on and so forth. It’s been 4 months and free of c diff. with the help of 1 cup of Kefir a day.
Hope this helps!!! It will get better. Do lots of research and keep your head up.
So sorry to hear you are experiencing c diff. Very similar instance happened to me as well. I’m 29 years old, female, and contracted c diff this past April when traveling and had no idea when and where I got it from... most likely it was from something I ate (I’m thinking someone may have had it and prepared food without washing their hands or something) anyway, I came back to the US and immediately went to the doctors. I was c diff positive so they put me on a 10 day course of Vanco right away. After the 10 days, it went away... and then came back! They put me on another 10-days of Vanco, and after researching what else would help with recovery, I came across Kefir, the probiotic drink, Lifeway brand to be exact. So after 2 courses of Vanco, I drank 1 qt of Kefir a day for a couple days, and then eased off to about 1/2 qt. And so on and so forth. It’s been 4 months and free of c diff. with the help of 1 cup of Kefir a day.
Hope this helps!!! It will get better. Do lots of research and keep your head up.
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