DONOR QUESTION!

[Macy88]

I have been using a healthy donor, a young male family member. It's a bit of a long story, but the first few FMT's didn't work, likely due to some error on my part. That's just a background before I ask the question:

This donor got food poisoning last week. It was a 24 hour thing of diarrhea & sweats & he recovered quickly and has been on high doses of probiotics for the last week since then. My question is, how long do I need to wait now to use him as a donor? Is something like 24 hour food poisoning something that I need to be mindful of? Does it no longer make him a suitable donor? I'm unsure how that works or if it would even have any negative effect on me.

Thanks for your alls feedback & help!

[georgina]

According to my doctor he can no longer qualify as a suitable donor.

[roy]

I think the doner has to be disease free for 6 months and then retested.
Whatever bug he had could, and probably is, still be there but not giving symptoms.
I have never heard of FMT working without trying mainstream meds or treating to kill the c.diff first.
You need to seek expert advice on both the doner and advisability of continuing with FMTs that are not working.

[Macy88]

Thanks for the feedback! If I run a full stool analysis on him now to see if anything is amiss, would that be suitable? That should show if anything bad is still there, right? Especially a food borne illness would be one of the main culprits such as E. coli, salmonella, etc. Which should get picked up.

[roy]

Doners history has to be taken into account as well.
If they had gut problems recently the Dr probably would not even consider testing them as thats a waste of money.
Your asking medical advice and none of us can give that.
Consult your Dr about this for accurate advice.

[Bobbie]

Donor should not have taken antibiotics for six months - not sure about waiting after short illnesses like food poisoning. Check with your D doc.

Agree - recipient usually on c diff meds before FMT.

See FMT Discussion.

[Macy88]

My doctor is working with me in a capacity that he is helping me order tests and other things I need, but he isn't he most well versed in FMT. He felt that something like food poisoning should be just fine, but I'm unsure. And that's why I am asking here if anyone has any more feedback or better ideas. I know that no one here is a Doctor, I fully understand that. I'm simply a scared person like most of you were or once were & am just asking for some peace of mind. This donor is my only option I have available to me & I have been battling this thing for months and I'm quite afraid. If he can no longer be a donor to me because of this then I feel really helpless & lost. I was simply hoping for some reassurance or suggestions on how I can make sure he is or isn't okay now.

[roy]

My concern is that the new IBScheck blood test looks for antibodies that are causing problems because of a previous bout of food poisoning.
I think its fair to assume that if a blood test can detect a previous case of food poisoning then it must leave a residue behind.
The way that the blood test works is described here
http://ibschek.com/patient/faq/

The part that says the following would concern me.

"IBSchek was developed based on a recent discovery that IBS can result from a previous episode of food poisoning. IBSchek tests for the presence of antibodies that are a result of food poisoning".

No one here can say yes or no, you should get expert advice on treating c.diff.
Left untreated c.diff can become a very serious disease and diy Fmt without trying to eradicate the active infection first is unlikley to be a cure.
Would the reaction your worried about if you took meds be deadly?
Untreated or inapropriatley treated c.diff most definatley can be.
It killed my mom in a few weeks.

[Macy88]

Hi Roy,
I am treating the c diff. In fact I have been on the roller coaster of trying to eradicate it for months now. I do not tolerate Flagyl at all, it almost hospitalized me. I tolerated vanco & then also stopped tolerating it. I have a very sensitive body which left me in a bind. I have been working closely with my doctor to alternate things & I am doing my due diligence. I never said that I was leaving it untreated at all. But my options are limited & it's quite a scary position to be in. I'm aware that c diff can be fatal, hence my worry.

Thank you for that link, it makes lots of sense to me. This person has otherwise a very healthy stomach with never having any IBS or belly issues in his life. It might be worth it to run that blood panel on him as well. Thank you again.

[NikaNik]

Hi, Macy - so sorry you didn't do well on Flagyl or Vanco. Have you tried Dificid?

[Macy88]

NikaNik wrote:
> Hi, Macy - so sorry you didn't do well on Flagyl or Vanco. Have you tried
> Dificid?

I have not yet! My insurance won't approve it, I have been fighting it and hope I can give it a try. I tend to be very sensitive to all kinds of antibiotics, my body doesn't tolerate them well so it's a huge worry of mine.

[beth22]

Macy88 - The same thing happened to me before when I wanted to use my daughter as a donor and she got food poisoning. She was fine in a day or so, but my GI said that he had attended a conference for GI and ID doctors and someone gave a talk about FMT and donors and said that you had to wait at least two months before the donor could donate after having D and that all the stool tests needed to be run to make sure that the donor was good to donate. Remember that your intestines are not healthy, so if you put in someone else's stool, even if that person is no longer having symptoms, it could cause symptoms in you. Best to be cautious on this one.

[Macy88]

beth22 wrote:
> Macy88 - The same thing happened to me before when I wanted to use my
> daughter as a donor and she got food poisoning. She was fine in a day or
> so, but my GI said that he had attended a conference for GI and ID doctors
> and someone gave a talk about FMT and donors and said that you had to wait
> at least two months before the donor could donate after having D and that
> all the stool tests needed to be run to make sure that the donor was good
> to donate. Remember that your intestines are not healthy, so if you put in
> someone else's stool, even if that person is no longer having symptoms, it
> could cause symptoms in you. Best to be cautious on this one.


Thank you SO much Beth for your first hand info that is incredibly helpful! In that case I will give him some time & do the full test to check for anything. How long did you end up waiting to use your daughter for the FMT? Was it the 2 months? I'm going to ask him to take probiotics at some higher doses from now until then to help repopulate the good stuff!

[richlin]

@macy88

Not sure if you'll see this but I wouldn't risk it. I used my brother on a DIY FMT and I got c-diff from it. I was trying to cure my IBS.

Thankfully, Flagyl kill the bugger and I had a FMT in the hospital using openbiome. I'm c-diff negative and probably will stay this way unless I take antibiotics. I have a lot of butyrate producing bacteria in my system now (that acid keeps c-diff from germinating).

However, I am left with IBS and it sucks. Actually my IBS now is worse than my previous IBS before the DIY FMT.

Use my life as a lesson to not toy with a donor unless you are 100% sure after all the test that they are healthy.

[ghk]

I had FMT last year in August after root canal antibiotics. On 05/16/16 I had rotator cuff surgery and got C Diff again from the antibiotics used during surgery. Since then I have relapsed on Vanco and it feels like i'm relapsing on Dificid which I finished on 06/19/16. My GI doc says the next step is another FMT. I don't have a problem with that since it worked before. My question if anyone knows, instead of using one healthy donor (My daughter) would it work better if I mixed two healthy donor's being my daughter and my wife?