fecal enemas worked for me

[jules]

I live in BC Canada who got c-diff in May 07 after an appendectomy and a course of antibiotics following the appendectomy to treat a bout of diverticulitis. 3 days after coming off the antibiotics I developed severe diarrhea - 30 times/day. I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and put on flagyl. 3 days after finishing the flagyl I developed the severe diarrhea again. I felt really sick with fever, abdominal pain and terrible urgency to have all those bowel movements. I had stool samples done and asked my Dr if perhaps I had c-diff. He said my c-diff sample was negative. He didn't order any more stool samples. He put me back on flagyl. 3 days after finishing the flagyl all those gross symptoms came back again. By now my Dr wanted to put me on prednisone for ulcerative colitis. I didn't think I had ulcerative colitis as a colonoscopy I had done in June showed I likely had an infectious colitis. I refused the prednisone and went to emergency on the day I knew the gastroenterologist I wanted to see was going to be on call. This was the end of June. Had I waited to get into her office it would have been September for the earliest appointment. I was admited to hospital. The GI specialist saw me and I was diagnosed with c-diff. I had another colonoscopy and again, no ulcerative colitis but likely infectious colitis. This time I was put on Vancomycin for 10 days. 3 days after the vanco was finished all the gross symptoms came back again. By this time I was taking florastor as well. I was put back on Vancomycin for 14 days but it didn't work. I stayed on florastor and actually increased my dose. I tried all sorts of probiotics; VSL3, HMF replete and another I can't remember the name of - none worked. I got really sick again 7 days after finishing the vancomycin. I was so sick of being sick that I asked my GI DR about fecal enemas as I had read about them on this site. She said she wasn't adverse to me doing that but she didn't know what to tell me regarding how to do it. A few weeks later she did find a protocol for me but I didn't feel comfortable with the info, I had too many questions which she couldn't answer. I found out that a doctor Calgary had provided 40 patients with fecal enemas from a healthy donor and had cured all 40 of them. I was excited, I was going to go to Calgary to get well. Trouble was by now I had developed a lowish white blood cell count which my specialist thought could be related to the Vancomycin so I was switched to Flagyl again. On flagyl I developed peripheral neuropathy which showed up as pain and tingling in my toes and the ball of my right foot. I didn't know how long it would take to get into to see the doctor as he was away. My GI specilaist wanted me to go ahead with the fecal eneams at home. I ended up getting the information I needed from The Center of Digestive Disease in Australia. I did the fecal eneamas for 4 days in a row and noticed a difference right away. The urgency to get to the bathroom went away as did anal fissure pain which I had developed months ago. i was to do 5 days in a row but my donor couldn't produce on the 5th day. We had a good laugh about that. I could have done another enema on the 6th day but I didn't. All was well until day 12 when I developed really watery diarrhea. I wasn't sure if it was from all the dried mangoes I had eaten ( I ate a lot of them), or if it was the c-diff coming back. Sharyn, the nurse from Australia had told me if I thought perhaps the c-diff was coming back to just do another enema, and that is what I did. It is Nov 28 today and I feel great. The last time I took antibiotics was Oct 30. It took about 2 weeks before I felt really good but I did notice a difference right from that first day. I am going back to work soon and am doing all my pre illness activities like skate skiing and mountain bikeing. I would really reccomend fecal enemas from a healthy donor as a form of treatment. The idea that makes it work and what made sense to me is that when we are on antibiotics to knock out the c-diff we are also knocking out most of the "good" bacteria in our colon. When we come off the antibiotics there could be c-diff spores left behind and only good healthy bacteria will be able to keep c-diff at bay. If there aren't any good bacteria present in the colon, then c-diff comes back with a vengence. Healthy, donor stool is full of good bacteria. Put in an enema bag and given to the c-diff patient rectally, introduces the good bacteria back into the colon and allows it to multiply and recolonate the unhealthy bowel to make it healthy again. The healthy bacteria then fights off the c-diff and voila you are well again. I don't believe all the probiotics in the world taken by mouth will give you the same recolonization of healthy bacteria. A lot of the probotics taken by mouth are destroyed by stomach acids. I am now having about 300mls of a probiotic yogurt a day mixed with a femented yogurt type mixture called Bio-K. I found the Bio-K at 2 of my local helath food stores. Here is info you might find useful if you are considering fecal eneamas;

- www.cdd.com - this site will give you info about the center of digestive diseases in Australia - there are publications on this site which are scientific based research about fecal eneamas to treat c-diff. The address and contact info is also available on this site. Sharyn, the clinical coordinator RN there will do phone consultations - there may be a charge so check it out but she is very knowledgeable and it is worth it. I couldn't have done the fecal enemas nearly as effectivley if I didn't have her help over the phone. The e-mail address there is info@cdd.com.au

- Dr Thomas Louie in Calgary, Alberta has treated 40 pts with a one time eneama for each patient collected from 3-5 days worth of healthy donor stool mixed together to give one large ammount. If you are in Canada, your provincial medical will cover this cost. His web site is www.med.ucalgary.ca

- There are Dr's in the USA - they can be found else where on this support site.

- If you are having trouble with your Dr accepting fecal eneamas as a form of treatment, get another Dr.

I likely won't be back on this site as my work keeps me pretty busy but if anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer if you e-mail me at jdhamilton04@yahoo.ca

[whitepine]

Excellent advice and guidance.
I totally agree and 100% support the fecal enemas, I swear by them and they have gotten me well before, and will hopefully again in a week or so!

[Bobbie]

jules,
You are fortunate you knew enough to question the medical opinions.

I didn't think the clinic in Austrlia was taking calls from overseas anymore as theystopped for quite awhile.

Thx. for the info. on the doc. in Canda. Would you get his permission to list his info. on the site? We aren't supposed to do so without permisssion. If you get it, would you add it to the Doctors forum? Thanks in advance.

Glad you are better.