need help

[Mary IL]

This is my first time on this site. My husband has had C-Diff for the past 2 months and been in the hospital twice becasue of it. It seems like our Dr is not much help. He has him on Vancocin he was on 250 mg than he droped him down to 125 mg and his white blood count keeps going up. He is very frustrated by it all and Is driving me nut. It seems like the Dr don't know how to treat this, and they try and push it on someone else. He has another appointment on Tuesday and we are hoping for some better answers. Right now all he can say is that it takes time. I am glad I found this site. I could not beleive how many people out there are suffering from the same thing. And when the Dr said it would take time We had no idea that he was taking months or years until we read some stuff on this site. Any tips would be greatly apprecitated. Thanks for listening.

[Bobbie]

MaryIL,
Many docs. don't appear to know much about C. diff. altho. it's becoming more prevelant.

Read PLS READ BEFORE YOU POST to help guide you through the site. Dr. Borody's and Dr. McDonald's articles both have a lot of info. FAQ has info. about hygiene (proper handwashing is very important), nutrition, dehydration (the reason most people are hospitalized with C. diff.), etc.

Most people recover with one to two rounds of Flagyl or Vanco. The unlucky 20% can have multiple episodes, but the odds are in your husband's favor.

I hope he is seeing a GI. You might ask him/her about a longer round of the 250mg. regime of Vanco. before backing down to 125 mg. Other people have good luck seeing an ID (infectious disease) doc.

Go to the appointment Tuesday armed with a double set of questions. Keep one and give the doc. one and write down his/her answers. If you aren't happy with his/her treatment, find another doc. One good question is "How many cases of recurrent C. diff. have you treated."

Good luck. Keep us posted on how he is doing. C. diff. can be a frustrating (and it's certainly a disgusting) disease, but he will recover.