How I won battle with clostridum - my story and tips

We spend a lot of time talking about the bad news in this discussion group - here's the spot for the good news. If you've had c-diff and are now well, please tell us about it here.
tomekw
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Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2016 6:04 pm

How I won battle with clostridum - my story and tips

Postby tomekw » Wed Nov 09, 2016 10:10 pm

Hi!

My name is Tomek, I'm 28, live in Poland.

I hope my story will help you to fight with this awful bacteria. I cannot promise or tell it gonna help You, it just helped me.

I - Story:
My story starts at December 2014. I got to hospital with stomach aches and inability to eat which were persisting more than 1 or 2 weeks.
I got to hospital seriously dehydrated. They ( doctors ) did basic survey, and decided to give me 2 antibiotics (not related to clostridum), and they gave me this antibiotics without really know what was root cause of my stomach pain an inability to eat.
After about 8-10 days I was stable, so they let me leave the hospital, giving prescription for medicines and tip for eating easily digestible diet.
Week later I was again ( fortunately in other town ) in hospital with terrible stomach pain, and loosening ( about 40 times a day in toilet ). - 7 kilo in 2 days. I felt reluctance to food, because every time i eat something less than 10 minutes I was in pain and sitting in the toilet. It was like this in every attack of bacteria. In second hospital doctors did more survey and found clostridum difficile bacteria. They started to give me Metronidazol, 2 tables x 3 times per day. At the beginning my state was really bad, I could not eat, I was ( in summary with 1 hospital treatment ) about -15 kilo. Antibiotics was helping but only till I was taking it. I was in hospital about 2 weeks. I got prescription for Metronidazol after living the hospital for next 2 weeks. I was also taking some weak probiotic. Very weak I was mostly sleeping in home, eating delicate food, and taking antibiotic. Of course with end of antibiotic bacteria has returned. So I asap went to internist to prescription for Metronidazol. I was really scary that I won't get out of this. I started to read about this bacteria to help myself as much as possible. After while studying materials I had access to, I planed extra additional steps to prevent next recurrence. I started to took a lot of probiotics ( please see under written noticed facts and tips ). This was what helped me.
But after two weeks I had to do colonoscopy. Once again I had to go to hospital (I have planned 2 days with survey of colonoscopy, but finally I stayed there for almost next 2 weeks). This third stay at hospital and leaving hospital was taking still Metronidazol for 2 weeks. After month-two living after hospital I was stable and I think cured. OK, let's go to my noticed facts. I hope it will bring some light and knowledge to help You cure yourself.

II - Noticed things:
1. Before illness i was:
- overweight
- abusing hard painkillers ( with codeine )
- eating too much of roughage, before first hospitalization I had strong need for sweets
- I had extremely stressful life ( what was strongly affecting my stomach - abdominal neurosis ), and also I felt unhappy in my life
- constantly exhausted, sleeping to less
2. During first hospitalization I was:
- without proper survey given 2 antibiotics
- wasn't eat almost at all, as I mentioned in story - taking about 10 - 12 drips per day, finally I got acute inflammation of the veins, so I could not moving arm ( so I got injections from Clexane )
- taking ( drinking ) Smecta for preventing loosening. Taking it, or Stoperan or any cure that is stopping loosening I think is really BAD IDEA, it gonna just worst things up. Even if it somehow help, it will be for a moment, and pain will be too big
- after several days from hospitalization i becoming to feel worse and worse
3. During second hospitalization I was:
- properly diagnosed and given proper antibiotics
- was taking small (to weak) probiotics
- had literally wasted bacterial flora (this positive for organism) with colon and intestines. That is the reason why clostridum bacteria could attack my organism, and return over and over again.
4. After hospital:
- bacteria was recurrencing during second day without Metronidazol
- started to take as much probiotics as possible to rebuild my natural stomach bacterial flora, and take special care of myself (see last point 'Fight')
- was eating extremely limited diet food (point 'Fight')
- after while it was fine, but...
5. Third hospitalization:
- prepare for colonoscopy is to drink syrup which is cleaning colon for survey. After survey I had recurrence.
- all points from 4. point was repeated, and after about month I was stable without Metronidazol

III - Facts:
- most people are infected with clostridum in hospital
- reason of infection is weak natural flora, and weak organism
- clostridum is malicious bacteria, which creates so called 'spores', it 'hides' when have bad conditions for herself. You start antibiotic, then You fine after day-two, You end taking antibiotic, and immidietly it returns


IV - Fight:
- hospitalization in first step, I think it is impossible without hospitalization at the beginning
- taking a lot of probiotics everyday. My main goal was to rebuild natural bacterial flora, so positive bacteria would naturally 'take over' control within intestines. I was taking during antibiotic 4 pills of Enterol 250 mg ( Saccharomyces boulardii ) 4 times a day, before eating + 4 pills of any strong synbiotic (probiotic consist at least of 9 types of positive bacteria - for me it was Multilac or Biopron)
- when I had last day of antibiotic (when I should end taking it) I increased 4 pills of Enterol and Multilac/Biopron to 6 pills per day. And I did it for next 3 days after ending with antibiotic. Then back to 4 pills per day of each probiotic, and week by week I was decreasing quantity by one. So first week was 4 pills of Enterol + 4 pills of synbiotic, after week 3 pills of both, after week 2 pills of both. One pills of both probiotics I was taking at least for next month, to be sure I have strong flora. Most unpleasant side effect was white tongue, and constant smell and smell of mushrooms.
- additional Metronidazol for emergency. As I wrote in 'Facts' clostridum is malicious bacteria - it activate when You are ending antibiotic. It needs about 2 days to recurrence. First sign of recurrence for me was this characteristic, disgusting smell from stomach, and characteristic pain in stomach, like near to loosening. When I had first symptoms of recurrence, I was immediately taking Metronidazol 2 pills 3 times a day, but only for 1 - 2 day. During month after living hospital, I did 'one-day antibiotic' several times, at least 3 - 4 times. PS. I think it is good idea to repeat such step of 'one-day antibiotic' at least 4 times, with gap between steps about 1 week.
- extremely limited diet. As I know, sugar is responsible for multiplication of bacteria. I excluded all type of sugar TOTALLY: in drinks, sweets, chocolate, fruits, bread, just everything, even potatoes. Second was excluded everything what can irritates digestive system: coffee, acids, milk. Everything that accelerates work of digestive system: roughage, vegetables. So my diet for first 2 months was consist only from: rice cakes, boiled race flakes, rice cakes with boiled eggs, rice cakes with white cheese (cottage cheese - this with no sugar or sour cream). I was drinking only boiled water, but also about 1 liter per day of light black tee (was tolerating it better than water - and also black tee in antiseptic. Please be aware that green tea for example is rather bad idea - it stimulates digestive system. After about 2 months I could slowy return to ordinary diet - excluding fast foods, and food which contains too much of roughage, or fat. I also for first 3 months wasn't use sugar, or any type of sweets at all. Also it is bad idea for 6 months to even year to eat food with lot of acid - kiwis, citrons, oranges, berries, apples. After this I was every time feeling worse
- not going outside, especially when it is cold. I noticing that during first month, even one and a half, when I was going outside I immidietly feeling worse, and at least once it was reason of recurrence. It was good for me to lie or sit in worm place, I was not saving on heating. I had at least 22-25 C degree in room. My organism could not heat itself, because it have no caloric fuel ( food ). It is very good, if someone can take care of You, do a shopping, and so on.
- rest most of the time I was extremly weak and have very low level of energy. Any effort was bad for me. Most of time was sleeping. After about 3 weeks from hospital I started slowly to training yoga, but it was very light training, not to effort myself too much. After about 1,5 month I could start jogging, about 20 minutes. If doctor won't give You at least month of sick leave for resting, I think that bacteria will be attacking your weak organism time after time. I left my JOB for 2 reasons: 1. I was wanting to rest, 2. I was burned up with this job, it was one of things that was making me unhappy.
- I left stressful, miserable life. Before illness I was living in toxic relationship, which was cause of literally dreadful life. Everyday I was in nerves. Nerves were cause me stomach aches, and finally stomach neurosis. I decide, as with job to leave this this relationship to eliminate source of 95% of stress in my life. Both of this leaves ( girlfriend and job ) from the present perspective was one of the smartest decisions in my life. I do not regret them, because as final result I have now 10 times greater life, and got out of illness - what I think would not be possible with my previous life. I do not want to bring too much philosophy into it - just want you to ask yourself - is anybody in your life, even your mother, wife, husband, , I mean really anyone that is important to you - is this person worth to sacrifice your life or happiness or calmness for this person?
- also for first year without recurrence I was avoiding any antibiotics. To be honest, if it possible, avoid it at all.

One more tip: for the present moment if I would get once again clostridum bacteria, I would at the beginning try with fecal transplant. I heard that this is very effective method for treatment, but I did not tried. If it is effective as it is promoted, it should be also cheaper than what I did. Because all money that I spend on treatment ( excluding hospitalization, which is covered by social hospitals in Poland ), was 4-6 times more, that I would pay for fecal transplant.

I hope my story has given you tips, and will help you to return to health.
Sorry if this text have any grammatical mistakes, English is not my native language.

If You have any questions, or just want to contact me, please write an e-mail.

Have a good health, and happy life.

Cheers,
Tomek

Lisa33
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Posts: 2430
Joined: Mon Sep 29, 2014 1:45 pm

Re: How I won battle with clostridum - my story and tips

Postby Lisa33 » Thu Nov 10, 2016 11:57 am

Hello Tomek. Welcome to the site, and thank you so much for sharing your story. Please read the first forum for all new users. It sounds like you are in a very good place in your life now, and doing very well Gastro wise now. It sounds like you had a very tough time, but you got yourself through it. A couple of things that stood out for me in your story was the fact that you were initially put on antibiotics at your first hospital stay without even being diagnosed on the cause of your symptoms. This in itself makes me so frustrated, as this is the case with many people who get c-diff. A lot of the times, it stems from unnecessary antibiotic use. You also said that you were put on the metronidazole several times to fight the c-diff. Is vanco or dificid not available to you in Poland. They are way better meds to treat c-diff than the metro. Dificid is probably the best one as it doesn't kill any good gut bacteria. Vanco kills a small percentage, but still is better for treating c-diff than the metro. They are both way easier to tolerate as well. Unfortunately, they are also very expensive. It sounds like you really educated yourself on the illness and how to defend your gut against it. I commend you for that. You took a lot of probiotics though. For many people, probiotics, especially in large doses cannot be tolerated and will cause gastro symptoms. But as you did, you went with the strongest, most beneficial types of probiotics and took what you were able to tolerate. I am one that believes that probiotics help to replenish good gut bacteria and ward off the c-diff.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and trying to help others on this site. I wish you health and happiness as well.
Lisa

Bobbie
Administrator
Posts: 12688
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2005 8:00 pm

Re: How I won battle with clostridum - my story and tips

Postby Bobbie » Fri Nov 11, 2016 3:18 am

Hi, Tomek,
Thank you for posting your story. I am glad you are now doing well after suffering for so,long.

My main comment is the same as Lisa's. Why were you given all the antibiotics? Please be careful in the futur. Make a doctor PROVE you need an antibiotics through tests or anything else.Almost every time i have had to take an antibiotic (pneumonia 8 times). UTIs, I developed c diff again. And I made the doctor do every test possible - sometimes twice. I have tolerated a z pak several times.

Your English is excellent. Best to you.


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