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Hello! I’ve been on vanco for a month following my last relapse. I am to stay on the vanco until my scheduled FMT on Friday. So far, usually being on the vanco gets rid of my c diff symptoms, I just relapse shortly after coming off of the vanco. About 2 weeks ago though I came down with a terrible upper respiratory infection. On the 9th day of the URI I had to go to the ER because I was having a hard time breathing. They heard wheezing and gave me an inhaler and a steroid dose. That seemed to do the trick in getting over the worst of it. I was also taking mucinex dm and sudafed. I’ve been off of those for about a week now and am mostly recovered from the URI but the day after Christmas, I started to have some urgency and some mushy stools. This hasn’t stopped since then. I am still having the same bowel movements but I am on the vanco still. I’m just trying to figure out why my bowel movements suddenly changed. I want my FMT to work so bad but I’m scared now that it won’t if I’m having some sort of cdiff breakthrough on the vanco. I can’t figure out it it’s cdiff or if it’s some sort of IBS symptom after the URI and the medications I had to take for that. I’m so worried all the time, I hate Cdiff!!

MrsM25, you've been through a lot. Hopefully the FMT will bring an end to your misery with C-diff!

Did you receive antibiotics for the URI? Since the inhaler and the steroid dose relieved the URI symptoms, could your breathing problems be asthma?

If you can keep your C-diff without symptoms by using vanco, until your FMT, there is a good chance that FMT will restore enough protective gut bacteria to rid your system of C-diff!

Do you have any confidence about Friday's FMT? Are you still planning to do it?

Regards, and best wishes, Bob

I did not take antibiotics for the URI. They wanted me to take amoxicillin but I didn’t take it. However, I did take a one time dose of dexamethasone at the hospital and used the proair inhaler a few times along with the over the counter medications. It seemed to ease my URI which is almost completely gone now after 17 days. They questioned the asthma thing. I’m just concerned because now I am having the mushy/grainy stools and some abdominal discomfort and I’m worried that maybe the steroid or something could cause a cdiff breakthrough even though I’m still on the vanco?

Still having the FMT on Friday and praying that it works!

Some people get looser stools when they have been on vanco for a while. I know I did. But, also the Musinex and the other meds could possibly be doing it too. Not causing c difficile, just loose stools. What dose of vanco are you taking?

I’m taking 250mg of vanco 4x a day. I’m scared too because they gave me that steroid and I had no idea that it was an issue until reading on here about steroids and cdiff. They even knew in the ER that I was on vanco for cdiff.

That's a high dose of vanco. I took it too and the longer I took it, the worse I felt. After my FMT things got better. Just try to hang in there. What day do you stop the vanco? You might have a virus causing the loose stools too. But steroids can do it too. Long before I had C difficile, I was supposed to take a dose pack of steroids and I had to stop because of D.

have you been instructed to stop vanco on wednesday and start a colon prep laxative on thursday?

Vanco deals with active c.diff while you take it so c.diff can not "breakthrough" but taking other meds can still cause damage to be done to the good flora that needs to be in place to effect a cure after you stop vanco.
FMT will reseed a tiny amount of that bacteria and then it has to multiply.
It's not an instant cure and it might take many weeks before your back to a new normal.
You might think it's back many times and might even test positive.
That's where the 3 day rule comed in.
3 days of worsening symptoms that include copious watery D might need testing but off days, minor cramps, nausea, and the "feeling like it's back" are all part of recovery.

Ok, you all are making me feel a lot better. Yesterday was a bad day, I’m sure everyone on here has those. I just panicked, I think I’ve been so stressed with the thought of the FMT not working possibly and some days cdiff just feels so overwhelming. Other days I feel like I can tackle it. I’m sure that the loose bm is just IBS symptoms, symptoms from the long use of the vanco or from the meds I had to take when I was sick. I still have a tiny lingering bit of the URI so there’s that too. Hoping for a better day today. It’s a new year, haha!

I believe my paperwork does say to stop the vanco 24 hours before. I’ll double check that, thanks! I suppose this is preparing me to not freak out with recovery after the FMT.

The colon prep will give you the worst case of D that you have ever experienced, that is what it is supposed to do so don't freak out.

Thanks Roy! I actually had a colonoscopy in 2012 for some issues I was having and I kind of remember it. Definitely not looking forward to the prep but certainly thankful to be getting the FMT!