Sandy's Success

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

Sandy's Success

Postby Bobbie » Wed May 31, 2006 5:00 pm

Sandy PM'd me today with her success story.

The cdiff is gone

Bobbie – I did a summary of what happened – you can put this in Success Stories if you would like to.

Over Christmas 2005 I got bronchitis so my doctor prescribed Augmentin. I had never taken it before and had no allergies to anti-b’s. I finished it, it cured the bronchitis. About a week or so later I had cramps, loose bowels and a very tender abdomen. So I went to the doctor and he did a stool test and put me on flagyl. It was positive for cdiff (which he thought it was right away.)

He said he saw it all the time in the hospital, but that he’s only seen about a dozen cases outside the hospital since he started his practice. Well the flagyl did nothing but make me feel worse, so he switched me to vanco 125 x 4 for 10 days. A week later I tested negative. But the cdiff came back 3 days after the test results. So another 10 day course of vanco. The relief came a lot quicker this time. Again it came back, so he put me on vanco 250 3x a day for 20 days (so that I wouldn’t have to get up at night to take pills).

I have never had stomach problems at all. My diarrhea was never watery and only once or twice a day, but it had a foul odor, was loose and looked orange to me. Yikes. (sorry) What made me know it had come back was cramps and more frequent trips to the bathroom.

We talked about diet and he said that if I had no food allergies or problems to just eat normally, which I have been doing, and that doesn’t seem to be a problem.

Some things have just shocked me. This vanco costs $25 a pill. And it took me a while to find a pharmacy where I could get it easily.

My doctor is very forthcoming and easy to work with. He’s not an alarmist. But he didn’t warn me that it was infectious (I googled it). I have been taking two Culturelles daily at his request. And Centrum and calcium. Both my husband and I are 70 years old and healthy.

I relapsed 6 days after the 20 day course of vanco.

6 days off my fourth round of vanco, I thought I had relapsed again. I had been feeling wonderful. But then I got stomach pain just like I had when I first got diagnosed. I saw my doctor again, he agreed to let me try the pulsing, and he gave me an Rx for 90 250's and said that he would give me more when I needed it.

But this time it didn't seem to work and the symptoms were different. I tested negative for cdiff, but we thought that was just a false negative. I had awful D, cramps, pain, couldn't eat anything and lost 15 pounds. Saw the doctor again and he said that there was a strange GI virus going around in the area - in fact 6 of his office staff came down with it, so he thinks that that was probably what I had, and not a relapse, but he’s not sure. (it's not even safe going to your doctor, lol).

Anyway, I finished the vanco (30 more days worth) just in case and started feeling NORMAL. Off the Vanco for 2 weeks and had a final negative test.

A week later I got a UTI. I hadn't had one of those in 12 years. I tried cranberry juice and Azotek, but it got pretty painful. My doc prescribed Macrobid saying that it was one of the less likely anti-bs to cause cdiff. (2 x day, 7 days.) The macrobid gave me no trouble, the UTI is gone and I have had three negative cdiff tests.

It took me 5 months, but I finally think it’s gone, and will be very cautious about antibiotics in the future.

tummy
Regular User
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon May 08, 2006 7:13 am

Postby tummy » Wed May 31, 2006 7:26 pm

I am thrilled for you! Congrats. Enjoy yourself!


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