nothin but mucus

[jjglad]

Well, I have hit an all time high in the miserable post CDiff recovery...nothing but mucus. I am not sure what in the world I am doing wrong. But I have not had this much trouble with mucus since active CDiff. It can't be!?!!! :(:(:( I just got tested a couple weeks ago and all still continues to be negative as it has for the last 5months.

I have been trying the calcium supplement route and wonder if that is causing issues? I doubt it as it really helped me get firmed up, but now it is nothing but yellow mucus today. I give up! I can't eat anything anymore...

guess it is time for the colonoscopy. I literally don't know what else to try...

[jjglad]

Does the mucus overload mean cdiff is back? I don't know what to think anymore. Doesn't seem "normal" for recovery though?

[georgina]

For me when I had mucus attack it means that Cdiff is back , but that is just for me. Others had mucus attacks and it Cdiff was not involved . I belive Carol had mucous colitis and she did well with Metamucil.

[getwellsoon]

Yes, I developed mucous colitis post Cdiff. I would have clear mucous not yellow so please discuss with Dr. That said I went to colo rectal specialist and he scoped me in office and said he could see the mucous and also hemmorrhoids but not to worry about the mucous. Said it was another gift from the Cdiff and it would go away. I know it is very frightening. Told me to use Metamucil but you can check with Doc and see hwat they recommend for you. It went away after a few months completely so try not to worry too much but I know how awful this is to see just pure mucous come out. I would go a few times like that and then have a bowel movement and sometimes a few days in between attacks. Speak with Dr. and hope you can get some good advice and try to calm down. Best of luck to you.

[jjglad]

Recovery, which is hopefully where I still am, is such a horrible roller coaster. As soon as you get one step forward, something flares up and I get thrown back again!
Anyone else's recovery been this bad? Esp. 5 months out? Seems like I should really be turning a corner at this point?!
I will certainly be checking in with GI today and probably getting retested...again.
Thank you.

[jjglad]

Mostly normal RR visit this AM, so who knows. The calcium certainly helps that though. I assume it wouldn't be helping if cdiff was coming back?!?

[NanciT]

Hi JJ

Recovery is different for all of us. Mine has taken a very long time. I was on treatment for 10 months and will soon be two years since I took my last Dificid pill. I still have IBS, not much but a day here or there. I still watch what I eat and last time I tried a steak, I was ill for 3 days with D. So, right now no meat for me.
My diet seems to play a BIG role in the Post IBS. If I stick to the regular bland foods.....I now feel fine. Nearly normal other than the bladder issues I developed from Vanco.
We have some who are here and gone quickly, than others like me where it takes time.
If you have any question about the M, call your GI. They have been following you through this, may recommend something for IBS.
Feel better soon
NanciT

[jjglad]

Thank you, Nanci! I did speak with GI office this morning, they still just recommend colonoscopy. She did send in a script for Welchol, but I am so leary about those cholesterol, etc. meds...they make me nervous. My cholesterol is fine, it is probably really low now that I have hardly eaten the last 10 months. It does not seem to matter what I eat or don't eat anymore...some days are fine, some days are bad. I can't win. The colonoscopy now has an easier prep they will let me use at least. Ducolax, miralax and then the magnesium citrate at night...so here's hoping that will less invasive of a prep and not clear out all that I have worked to replace the last 5 months. Have to wait 3 weeks to get to that point though. :(

They did not seem phased by mucus excess, just to try the Welchol and see if it will help bind me up. I have already been taking calcium for that, so who knows...
I think I have tried it all at this point.
Thank you for your information.

[tessa63]

J

At this point, your life is already miserable with your current GI situation. A scope is not going to make it any worse. The best thing I ever did was get scoped ( I had a colo and a sigmoidscope) and I did not relapse. The sigmoidoscope was a piece of cake with barely any prep. I know some people suffer for months after C diff but I was having pure mucous and then other times with B and went for a sigmoidoscope. I was diagnosed with a very mild proctitis related to very mild UC. This very mild thing was causing me hell. It is easily treated with suppositories and I am eating everything but salad, beans and milk so far. I feel so much better and am 8 months out in recovery. I went to a very brilliant ID doc at U of Penn and he said that 3 months into recovery is enough time to build your GI flora to handle a colonoscopy (I even had a +PCR). I had mine in early April which was starting my 4th month off Dificid. This is just my opinion based on my own experience and your colon may be perfect, but at least you would know it's just IBS at that point. I'm not sure if you have tried any fiber to bulk things up, but thats another option. If it makes you crampy and bloated then that could be a sign of some kind of inflammatory bowel disease.

T

[georgina]

I had a rectosigmoidoscopy done a week ago , and my doctor didn't ask me to prep with anything , he just wanted me not to eat in the morning of the procedure. It really easy to do and doesn't take longer then 5 minutes. You can ask your doctor about that if you fear the colonoscopy.

[Rockstar]

Hi, I've been CDiff free for 14 months. I took Flagyl and relapsed. I took Vanco and relapsed. I took Dificid and relapsed. I did a Vanco taper and relapsed. I had to have a FMT via capsules to be cured. I relate with you because I pass solely mucus and passing only mucus was my tell tale sign that I had CDiff. I can't figure out anything that triggers these episodes, they come out of the blue and often. I've been tested with the PCR test almost monthly for the past 14 months because my symptoms still persist and they've all been negative. I've had my blood work done many times and it has been normal. I've had stool analysis' and they've all come back normal. I did have a Comprehensive Stool Analysis through Doctor's Data which shows you all the beneficial bacteria you have in your GI. My results showed high for yeast - assuming that's from all the antibiotics I took to get rid of CDiff. It also showed that I had a high amount of the Clostridium species in my GI, but not specifically Clostridium Difficile. My GI, PCP and Infectious Disease doctors must think I'm crazy! Part of me wants to chalk the mucus up to having an abundance of yeast or that I have a super low grade infection that isn't being detected by the PCR? (Even though I've talked to the lab techs and they assure me that the PCR is the very best to detect this disease.)

[roy]

I don't think the stool analysis is of much use.
You pay your money and they send you back a partial list of what your gut flora is made up of.
There's plenty of clostridia species that are harmless and probably part of the good flora, they might even prevent c.diff!
Then there's the hundreds of species that are still unidentified by scientists but are normal residents.
To say "high for yeasts" is very misleading.
Who knows what is normal for you and what yeasts were found!
There's a lot still to learned about the gut flora and these labs that offer an analysis are just making money out of people's fears.