You have been so helpful!

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.
PamO
New User
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2020 12:14 am

You have been so helpful!

Postby PamO » Sun Oct 25, 2020 1:07 am

Hi Everyone!
I have registered and am posting to thank everyone here on this forum for sharing their stories, emotions, and learning. This helped me a great deal when I was sick and I have visited this forum very often.

I am a 51 year old woman and came down with Cdiff In December of 2019. It was, as with so many of you, very unnecessary and the antibiotics were unnecessary! I struggled with this aspect for a long time, and sometimes still do. Although I believe myself to be a well informed person, I had no prior knowledge of CDiff.

I had been unwell for a number of months, on and off, nothing major but it had begun to wear me down. I usually avoid doctors unless absolutely necessary, and last year at the end of November I was experiencing odd symptoms that caused me to seek care. The doc didn't seem sure what he was looking at, and I was feeling so lousy that my guards were down and I picked up the antibiotics he had prescribed, against my gut feeling (pun intended). A few days after starting the antibiotics (Augmentin) I went to the ER due to repeated heart pounding that felt concerning. I wonder if I contracted Cdiff there (?)

Approximately a week after the antibiotics I still had diarrhea, but it was different. One day during work I experienced intense abdominal pain and intense pain in my rectal area. At home that evening I had diarrhea about 6-7 times within 2-3 hours. I called a friend who is an internist, he suggested I get tested...the PCR test was positive for Cdiff, Toxin B. Oddly, the diarrhea did not continue as it had that one everning, but things were not normal. I was prescribed Flagyl, and my diagnosis was confirmed on a Sunday. It's never good when a doctor calls you on a Sunday!! My husband had left on a trip to Asia the day before, and one of my sons had arrived from Europe to spend Christmas with his brother and me. We spent the days with them worrying about me, and me trying to even walk straight and eat anything beyond a few cashews, or a boiled egg, and some oatmeal. The Flagyl was not good! The following week I was prescribed Vanco. Not great either, but was definitely better. Meanwhile I was able to get an appointment with a doctor of Naturopathy and with my Chinese doctor...which is what I should have done instead of the Augmentin! I developed a tinnitus while on Flagyl and was quite anxious about what other damage was being done to my body by the Vanco, and of course the anxiety about relapse after stopping the meds.

Long story short, I am certain that the naturopath and the Chinese medicine and acupuncture helped. I did a ton of research myself, was prescribed Berberine (some good research on that), grapefruit seed extract, and S. Boulardii. In addition the decoction of Chinese herbs. I did finish the course of Vanco. After that I added probiotics and black seed oil capsules in the hope that all of this would ward off a relapse. My bowel movements were never formed throughout the Vanco and right after that, but I also never had more frequent movements than 1-2x per day. I also began taking activated charcoal which firmed things up. I had lost a lot of weight and by day 5 after the antibiotics I had an appointment with a Cdiff specialist at Mayo Clinic...I had made that before hand, soon after I was diagnosed. I essentially learned that the antibiotics had literally caused genocide of my microbiota...Dificid would have possibly spared some of them and would have been a better choice. And I was told to liberalize my diet and eat normally in order for the microbiome to recover quickly. I guess the race between the good and bad bacteria had begun! The first weeks were not pretty and I had on and off pain, noticed that my gut mucosa was being shed, my skin was peeling, and my hair falling out...all of that has improved or recovered.

I still have "episodes" during which things are not normal and I experience some pain and strange bowel movements, which I believe are related to food, and strangely enough to drinking any kind of herbal tea. I have been very conscious about what I eat, only clean food, no refined products and all home cooked. Lots of veggies, nuts, oat meal, fruits, quinoa. I have given up eating meat, it was hard to digest and I have actually wanted to give it up for a long time already. I have begun to add in goat's cheese, which tastes heavenly to me after so many months.

This has been a long account, and basically what I wanted to say is "Thank you" to all of you who have posted here, and especially to those who have posted their success stories and words of encouragement. It was scary, especially after reading up on cdiff and by reading your words here I felt that this is something that I could get through...everything else I read on the internet was pretty discouraging.

beth22
Long Time Contributor
Posts: 10852
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 2:23 pm

Re: You have been so helpful!

Postby beth22 » Tue Oct 27, 2020 1:12 am

Thank you for posting and giving hope to others. I'm glad that you are feeling better and hopefully as time goes by, your GI tract will calm down completely.

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

Re: You have been so helpful!

Postby Bobbie » Tue Oct 27, 2020 1:35 pm

PamO,
Glad the site helped you and happy u are doing better.


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