Recovery Symptoms & Duration?
Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 4:41 pm
I’m a 34 year old male, lurking here since November 2017, finally posting for the first time. I’ve searched the site with mixed results, so here I am with 3 questions for you all. First, allow me to give a brief overview of my pathology...
I presented to urgent care in late September 2017 with mild but distracting/ongoing lower abdominal discomfort/irritation, visible mucus (M) in stools, and increased frequency (3-5x/daily), though not full on diarrhea (D). Onsite blood work revealed white blood cell (WBC) count slightly elevated, but those symptoms alone were inconclusive. I was told to come back if it didn’t resolve in a week to 10 days. I randomly bought/tried one of the many probiotics from the grocery store, in which symptoms became worse during the first half of October, including increased M and frequent orange fluffy stool 8-10x/daily. As a result, I scheduled a Gastroenterologist appointment. He ordered a list of labs and a Colonoscopy. The Colonoscopy happened first (on Halloween with the staff in costume - not even kidding) which came back clear; but the lab came back positive for C Diff toxins A & B via PCR. I took generic Flagyl (Metronidazole) for 14 days and apparently tolerated it better than anyone else on the face of the planet (I was on it, with a cold, at Universal Studios in Orlando Florida, and the only symptom I had was discolored urine). I felt fine for the rest of November, but in December I started having ups and downs of colon irritation and malaise. I returned to the Gastroenterologist, in which he told me that if I wasn’t having D or consistent/visible/increased M, that I just needed to be patient; but that he’d give me a lab order for a C Diff stool test that I could use if I started having obvious symptoms again. He advised me to begin taking Florastor until everything calmed back down, and I have been 2x/daily ever since, but still have cycles of discomfort with varying stool consistency. I don’t have D per se, and only have bowel movements (BMs) once or twice a day, but during these distracting discomfort episodes, it ranges from ”softer than normal” to “normal formation with a small amount of M”. This leads me to my questions...
1. How long can bowel function be affected after being treated for CDI? I have two family members that are nurses, and both of them said back in December it can be a couple of months before you feel normal again. I took Metronidazole in November; it’s 4 months later now. Is this par for the course? Seems a bit longer than the 8 weeks I read about.
2. What symptoms are within the range of normal after treatment? I’m aware some have post infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI IBS), but my situation seems more like a mild version of a mucosal membrane infection; not unlike in your nose with minor inflammation, sensitivity, and increased mucous production. Is this perhaps an immune response to residual spores that my body still needs to kill off as they try to become “active”?
3. Is testing to confirm cure useful? Again, I have the lab order as backup, still, but I was told the PCR test is so sensitive/specific that if you still had any residual spores, or are colonized with C Diff in small amounts from the CDI, that there’s a good chance it would come back positive, regardless. Basically, don’t bother unless I have ongoing D or lots of M. If that’s the case, though, then any C Diff test after D would theoretically return positive, even if it was caused by something else, right? Then again, you all seem to test negative despite having symptoms during recovery, so, that’s why I’m here. It’s taken a toll on me psychologically and has been a lot of information to take in.
Thanks in advance!
I presented to urgent care in late September 2017 with mild but distracting/ongoing lower abdominal discomfort/irritation, visible mucus (M) in stools, and increased frequency (3-5x/daily), though not full on diarrhea (D). Onsite blood work revealed white blood cell (WBC) count slightly elevated, but those symptoms alone were inconclusive. I was told to come back if it didn’t resolve in a week to 10 days. I randomly bought/tried one of the many probiotics from the grocery store, in which symptoms became worse during the first half of October, including increased M and frequent orange fluffy stool 8-10x/daily. As a result, I scheduled a Gastroenterologist appointment. He ordered a list of labs and a Colonoscopy. The Colonoscopy happened first (on Halloween with the staff in costume - not even kidding) which came back clear; but the lab came back positive for C Diff toxins A & B via PCR. I took generic Flagyl (Metronidazole) for 14 days and apparently tolerated it better than anyone else on the face of the planet (I was on it, with a cold, at Universal Studios in Orlando Florida, and the only symptom I had was discolored urine). I felt fine for the rest of November, but in December I started having ups and downs of colon irritation and malaise. I returned to the Gastroenterologist, in which he told me that if I wasn’t having D or consistent/visible/increased M, that I just needed to be patient; but that he’d give me a lab order for a C Diff stool test that I could use if I started having obvious symptoms again. He advised me to begin taking Florastor until everything calmed back down, and I have been 2x/daily ever since, but still have cycles of discomfort with varying stool consistency. I don’t have D per se, and only have bowel movements (BMs) once or twice a day, but during these distracting discomfort episodes, it ranges from ”softer than normal” to “normal formation with a small amount of M”. This leads me to my questions...
1. How long can bowel function be affected after being treated for CDI? I have two family members that are nurses, and both of them said back in December it can be a couple of months before you feel normal again. I took Metronidazole in November; it’s 4 months later now. Is this par for the course? Seems a bit longer than the 8 weeks I read about.
2. What symptoms are within the range of normal after treatment? I’m aware some have post infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI IBS), but my situation seems more like a mild version of a mucosal membrane infection; not unlike in your nose with minor inflammation, sensitivity, and increased mucous production. Is this perhaps an immune response to residual spores that my body still needs to kill off as they try to become “active”?
3. Is testing to confirm cure useful? Again, I have the lab order as backup, still, but I was told the PCR test is so sensitive/specific that if you still had any residual spores, or are colonized with C Diff in small amounts from the CDI, that there’s a good chance it would come back positive, regardless. Basically, don’t bother unless I have ongoing D or lots of M. If that’s the case, though, then any C Diff test after D would theoretically return positive, even if it was caused by something else, right? Then again, you all seem to test negative despite having symptoms during recovery, so, that’s why I’m here. It’s taken a toll on me psychologically and has been a lot of information to take in.
Thanks in advance!