Medical indifferance

[Chairborne]

My wife just got out of the hospital for C diff. She was just in the same hospital a week prior for a septic blood infection were she was given several different antibiotics to stop the blood infection. She was given an antibiotic to take at home for ten days on release that had a list of "side effects" including diarrhea so when her runs started we both dismissed it as a side effect. Neither of us had ever heard of C diff before.

I waited for almost 48 hours to take her back to the hospital after heir first symptoms because we both thought the diarrhea was just a side effect. It was only when she started running a fever did I take her to the emergency room thinking her blood infection was coming back. It peaked at 103+ before they could get it under control.

My gripe is this: Why didnt the hospital, knowing her history, knowing how bad C diff is, warn us to seek medical help right away if diarrhea started?

If I had gotten her in two days earlier the damage to her GI system would have been far less!

It seems doctors and even nurses are really closed mouthed about lots of info pertaining to their patients care and conditions these days.

Perhaps they are afraid of lawsuits and have been advised by their professional orgs not to volunteer anything?

Anyway, she is staying at her daughters place trying to recover until I can get the house sanitized for her return.

Of course since we did not know it was C diff no extraordinary precautions were taken with soiled clothes, etc. And because we have two indoor cats the spores could be anywhere in the house.

Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated.

[beth22]

I wouldn't worry too much about the cats. The spores are spread from fecal to oral contact. So what you want to do is clean the bathroom thoroughly with one part bleach to 9 parts water. You have to spray it on the surface and let it sit for about 15 minutes before wiping it off. There is also a spray you can get online called Dispatch that is supposed to kill c diff more quickly and you don't need to mix anything. I probably would wash her dirty clothes separately just this time and wash the sheets with hot water.

I agree with you about not disclosing information. I caught c diff most likely from the rehab facility where my mother was for a year and I visited almost every day. She got it there too, as well as many patients on her floor. They would put patients with c diff together in the same room without even taking into consideration that they could have different strains. My mom had it about 3 times there, but she was luckier than I and got over it and could eat normally. The facility never warned me about it. They did have gloves and gowns in front of the rooms, but the nurses and aides would run in and out and not bother to put them on and told me that unless I came into contact with her diaper, that I was ok. In fact, one time, an aide was changing my mother (I don't think she had c diff at the time, but she had it previous) and answered her phone that ran with the dirty gloves. I could have picked it up anywhere there - off the phone, bedrail, etc.

When I went to the ER with a very bad relapse, I told them that I had a history of c diff, but they let me use the normal bathroom as the other people who were there.

There definitely needs to be more awareness on the part of the medical community - hospitals, doctors, nurses. I totally agree with you.

I hope your wife is better soon and is one of the lucky ones who won't need a lot of meds for it. Good luck.

[Chairborne]

Beth,

Thanks for your reply.

My wife returned to her home yesterday after spending ten days at her daughters place. She is on the F antibiotic for the C diff and taking a C brand probiotic( I cant remember their names off hand) She is doing a lot better but is not 100 percent.


I was concerned about the cats spreading the spores because they had the run of the bathroom because their litter box in the bathroom and the morning that I took her to the emergency room, not knowing she had C diff, I just cleaned up an accident on the bathroom floor with hand cleaner and left some soiled clothes on the floor. My fear is that the cats walked across this contaminated floor and could have spread some spores through out the house where they could reenfect her later

.However, I have not caught the C diff myself so it may not be a problem.

Anyway, I have washed all the exposed bedding, laundry,etc with a strong bleach mix, mopped the vinyl floors with bleach twice and sprayed all the chairs,grab bars, light switches and the countertops where the cats can get to, with a bleach spray.

At least she was greeted by a sparkling clean house when she returned home!

[beth22]

Glad to hear she is doing better. I think the most important thing is for HER to wash her hands really well before getting them into contact with her mouth as when eating, etc. It is a good idea to wash them after petting the cats too. I always had dogs, but even before c diff, I always washed my hands after petting them or playing with them. As for the bathroom floor, if you washed it with the bleach solution, that should be fine. Don't cats tend to lick their paws a lot? The cats probably licked up those c diff spores already if they had any. As far as spreading them elsewhere, that is possible of course, but you could run into the spores anywhere - public bathrooms, etc. I would not worry. My husband shared my bathroom the entire time I had c diff, which was quite a long time and he is fine. He has been tested and never showed positive. Just use good hygiene - you can see the info on that in the CDI section here. Good luck. I hope she is back to 100% soon and that you can post in the "success stories" here.