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Can someone please describe their diarrhea symptoms?

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 1:15 am
by dignan
What is so crazy about C diff is that there are very general descriptions of symptoms. At this point I have had every one, and been living through the discomfort since last November.

While my watery diarrhea is semi in control(2-4x per day and not 10x+ like initial), I wish it would go away completely. It makes me have to trap gas throughout the day etc.

The one thing I cannot find online or through searches is other peoples description of their watery diarrhea. I know it's gross, so please don't read the replies if people are willing to share their descriptions.

I'd appreciate anyone who has tested positive for C diff to describe the look of their watery diarrhea. Prior to my symptoms I would have guessed something completely different then what i currently have, and while I know symptoms vary a great deal I feel like I am alone in my suffering and frustrated by the oddity that the diarrhea appears as. I would have expected more stool, more color, and less clear tinged water, with brown or yellow sediment. Does this describe anyone else's situation?

I'm not looking for a diagnosis as much as company in my plight.

Re: Can someone please describe their diarrhea symptoms?

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:55 am
by georgina
You can check for that in TMI section , it's loaded with descriptions of consistency/frequency! Also there is a facebook site for patients with Cdiff where a few months ago I actually saw that they posted pictures of their stool appearance.

Re: Can someone please describe their diarrhea symptoms?

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 9:08 am
by Machaon
Since last November? Goodness! In my case, within two weeks of C-diff symptoms, I got and felt deathly ill, and my condition continued to worsen! I got so weak that it was quite an effort to walk. Feet, ankles and lower legs painfully bloated and stretched out. I know that we are all different, but I can not imagine anyone with C-diff going 12+ months without effective treatment.

There are all kinds of parasites that can cause diarrhea. For instance: Enterobius vermicularis, Giardia lamblia, Ancylostoma duodenale, Necator americanus, and Entamoeba histolytica. Giardiasis, caused by Giardia lamblia is the most frequently diagnosed intestinal, diarrheal parasitic disease.

I've been watching the TV series, "Monsters Inside me". Very well done and "entertaining" show. Still waiting to see if they do a show about C-diff. Watching the show could make someone paranoid. There are all kinds of "monsters", in our environment all the time, that can attack us. A common thread among the shows is, how often patients are misdiagnosed, causing needless suffering, sometimes over a long period of time!

Anyway... it might be in your best interest, to go thru significant testing and evaluation, before your symptoms turn into something a lot worse.

Regards, Bob

Re: Can someone please describe their diarrhea symptoms?

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 2:05 pm
by roy
See this link to the Bristol stool chart.
Number 6 or 7 three times a day or more for 3 days or longer might indicate c.diff and a test should be done to confirm.
We discourage graphic descriptions.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_stool_scale

Re: Can someone please describe their diarrhea symptoms?

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 2:30 pm
by dignan
No doubt. I was hit with the major symptoms about 2 weeks after a round of antibiotics for a tooth. I just thought I ate something bad due to the bloating and all the normal c diff symptoms.

Next game the unbearable smell of gas/fermentation etc.

I cleaned up my diet, changed my diet, took a wholistic approach. The diarrhea symptoms for me(altho most of the time it is clear/water with a tinge of yellow/brown) has lessened to 3-6x per day.

I have another fecal test coming up to see if it comes back positive, and I've been warned I likely have IBS-PI.

However, a recent blood test showed my ferritin levels as being extremely low, but my iron was still within the normal range. That tells me my energy and cell levels have been depleted and likely couldn't fight the infection so hopefully the increase in iron and all that helps my body recover.


Machaon wrote:
> Since last November? Goodness! In my case, within two weeks of C-diff
> symptoms, I got and felt deathly ill, and my condition continued to worsen!
> I got so weak that it was quite an effort to walk. Feet, ankles and lower
> legs painfully bloated and stretched out. I know that we are all different,
> but I can not imagine anyone with C-diff going 12+ months without effective
> treatment.
>
> There are all kinds of parasites that can cause diarrhea. For instance:
> Enterobius vermicularis, Giardia lamblia, Ancylostoma duodenale, Necator
> americanus, and Entamoeba histolytica. Giardiasis, caused by Giardia
> lamblia is the most frequently diagnosed intestinal, diarrheal parasitic
> disease.
>
> I've been watching the TV series, "Monsters Inside me". Very well
> done and "entertaining" show. Still waiting to see if they do a
> show about C-diff. Watching the show could make someone paranoid. There are
> all kinds of "monsters", in our environment all the time, that
> can attack us. A common thread among the shows is, how often patients are
> misdiagnosed, causing needless suffering, sometimes over a long period of
> time!
>
> Anyway... it might be in your best interest, to go thru significant testing
> and evaluation, before your symptoms turn into something a lot worse.
>
> Regards, Bob

Re: Can someone please describe their diarrhea symptoms?

Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:42 am
by Machaon
C-diff infection can cause all kinds of damage to one's intestines. The longer that it is allowed to fester and infect, the more damage results. This is true with any infection. It is extremely important to overall good health and quality of life to maintain healthy bowels.

Besides your holistic approach have you tried anything more conventional like dificid, fmt, probiotics and/or saccharomyces boulardii?

I hope that you are feeling better and doing better today!

Regards, Bob

Re: Can someone please describe their diarrhea symptoms?

Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:01 pm
by Zapper
The TMI board is good for all the nitty gritty details about bms. I would take a look there.