A lice scare on top of C Diff. Oh my!

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Kristin
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A lice scare on top of C Diff. Oh my!

Postby Kristin » Sun Jul 09, 2017 4:40 pm

Im a 28 year old female who just had a beautiful baby girl 2 months ago. I had a 39 hour labor, 4.5 of pushing (yes, I'm one tough cookie) and this too long of labor caused me to get a uterine infection where I was given clindamycin in the hospital. 3 weeks later I started the diarrhea. A few days later I was on vanco. I felt great and that the meds really did their job and took care of the infection! Relatively speaking I don't think I had that bad of a case since I was only have diarrhea about 4 times a day and they were still formed. 2 weeks after finishing vanco I got terrible mastitis with 103 temps. Which landed me in urgent care. The doctor there prescribed me cephalexin and I specifically asked if this would make me get c diff again. He did not seem concerned (what!?). He also did not have any sympathy for everything I'd already gone through.

I was only 6 days on the cephalexin meds when I got diarrhea 15 times that day. I immediately called my ob doc and I picked up a stool sample kit. It was a Friday and they said I wouldn't hear till Monday. Saturday came and I was so very sick so I called the on call doc who very luckily was my OB! She already knew my history and put me directly on vanco again this time for 14 days instead of 10 and told me to immediately get off the cephalexin. She was furious the urgent care put me on that knowing how much of a risk I was to get c diff again.

I've been on the vanco for 24 hours and already feeling a little better. Thank the good Lord!

I received a call today from family that I hung out with over the 4th that they all came down with lice. I was frantic. To say the least....I got in the shower to try and relax when some hair came out on my hand in the shower and there was a bug on the strand. I flipped a cow. Seriously. On top of having the worst 2 months of my life with currently having c diff and going to the bathroom 15 times a day I had a nervous breakdown so to speak. My husband immediately got in the shower and comforted me. As I proceeded to (through tears) angrily curse all the lice in the world. My husband couldn't help but chuckle. I started to laugh too. Then my husband asked what the bug looked like and I told him it had wings. And then he started laughing again and said lice don't have wings. Turns out it was some kind of gnat but I made him check my hair all over anyways.

I mean, can you imagine? Lice would have made my life a million times harder. So folks, it can always be worse haha. I was reminded of that today. And still trying to keep my sense of humor and stay strong through the hardest time of my life. Thank God for wonderful husbands, a beautiful baby, wonderful proactive doctors (who I get to see Tuesday and who is connecting me with the ID in town).

If there are any new moms on here who have gotten over c diff or who currently have it, please comment or message me your experience! I would love to chat. It will help my sanity and maybe yours.

beth22
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Re: A lice scare on top of C Diff. Oh my!

Postby beth22 » Sun Jul 09, 2017 5:39 pm

Kids get lice a lot in schools. The school nurses routinely check heads in elementary schools. I think all you would need to do is use a special shampoo, but I agree - the ICK factor. Hopefully, you won't have to deal with it!

Kristin
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Re: A lice scare on top of C Diff. Oh my!

Postby Kristin » Sun Jul 09, 2017 5:50 pm

Unfortunately, now there are superbug lice in Washington state that do not die with over the counter treatment. You have to go to a doctor and get a special prescribed shampoo, which I'm sure costs an arm and a leg.

And one of the hardest things about lice is washing every single thing in your house including couches, carpet, clothes, sheets and comforters, chairs. With c diff you can imagine how absolutely heartbreaking that would be haha!

Thank goodness we don't have it! And I'm definitely staying away from family until I'm sure they're completely cleared. For sure can't add another stressor to my life.

georgina
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Re: A lice scare on top of C Diff. Oh my!

Postby georgina » Mon Jul 10, 2017 12:49 am

I was the one that had lice in my childhood , it was awful , back then we didn't have special shampoos like the ones they make today so my mom cured me the old fashion way : with gasoline :)).

amg
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Re: A lice scare on top of C Diff. Oh my!

Postby amg » Mon Jul 10, 2017 2:33 am

Honestly, lice are not a big deal. (I thought they were until it hit our family) And you don't need harsh chemicals or pesticide shampoos. We went through this thanks to sharing softball helmets. Many lice have become resistant to the usual shampoo. Our area (Los Angeles County) has companies which remove lice - we used one called Hair Angels. The nicest lady came to our house and combed through section by section with a very fine comb and removed my daughter's lice. And then she combed through me, too, just to make sure I didn't have any. It wasn't cheap, but it was stress free and actually felt like a scalp massage. And she gave us an instruction list on what to do with bedding/combs/brushes, etc. It's not that bad. So if it happens, DON'T WORRY!

I'm glad you have your sense of humor and a wonderful husband and new baby! You will get through this.

Bobbie
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Re: A lice scare on top of C Diff. Oh my!

Postby Bobbie » Mon Jul 10, 2017 4:24 am

As a room mother for my younger son, I was a "lice picker" foe his class. Tedious and time consuming but not nearly as disgusting as c diff.

Kristin
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Re: A lice scare on top of C Diff. Oh my!

Postby Kristin » Mon Jul 10, 2017 2:18 pm

And I found a lice on my pillow this morming. Operation destroy all the lice is about to commence. This is the last thing i wanted to do while sick. Cue all the tears. The only time I ever wished I had blonde hair.

OCmama
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Re: A lice scare on top of C Diff. Oh my!

Postby OCmama » Mon Jul 10, 2017 3:11 pm

At least you will be taking care of any rouge C. diff spores at the same time? Pretty sure lice can't survive bleach!

DrMike
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Re: A lice scare on top of C Diff. Oh my!

Postby DrMike » Sat Jul 15, 2017 4:02 pm

So I'm a pediatrician and this is right up my alley. Of course: NOTHING I SAY HERE SHOULD BE TAKEN AS MEDICAL ADVICE; PLEASE TAKE YOUR KIDS TO YOUR PEDIATRICIAN FOR MEDICAL ADVICE.

First of all, none of the lice treatments will in any affect your C. diff carrier status, symptoms, or treatment.

In my state, about 60% of lice are now resistant to the over-the-counter "RID/NIX" permethrin 1% preparations. Different pediatricians have had different responses to this, but I'm in "no more Dr. Nice-Guy" mode; I'm using malathion (OVIDE). Most pediatricians are kind of hesitant about this product and so because of that the lice have not developed resistance and it works every. single. time.

You apply the lotion to the child's hair at night and leave it uncovered. It smells *NASTY* and it is *EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE,* so the child should go nowhere any candles, gas stoves, BBQ grills, etc. You should also of course not get it in the kid's mouth, although they used to spray malathion around neighborhoods (still do in some parts of the country) and it's not toxic to mammals (it's just that the inactive ingredients aren't the healthiest stuff to be swallowing). In the morning, you shampoo it out and then launder all bed clothes and bedding in hot water and dry on high heat.

Poster amg's method works, too, but I'd recommend not doing this yourself because you only have to miss two lice or nits (one male, one female) and then you're back at square one. So get a pro to do it if you're going to go the nit comb route. Most of my patients are really poor and can't afford that kind of service.

beth22
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Re: A lice scare on top of C Diff. Oh my!

Postby beth22 » Sun Jul 16, 2017 2:12 am

amg - I live near you I guess. If I had seen a "hair angels" sign, I would have thought it was a hairdresser that made house calls. I guess in a sense, it is similar. Good to know, although teaching high school, we don't get too many students with lice. Cases of mono usually.


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