Sicker After Vacomycin

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Sherr
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Sicker After Vacomycin

Postby Sherr » Sun Aug 05, 2018 3:33 pm

Hi, I just finished 10 days of Vacomycin and I feel terrible. My stomach and head are really hurting. Is this normal? I am taking probiotics suggested by my RD. I had C diff with constipation and my stools became loose with the use of Vacomycin. My doctor told me there is no point in retesting for 3 months. Is this real? I wont know if I am well for months? I have many other health issues and have been on liquids for 10 weeks. I am terrified because I am a graduate student and I was working with cancer patients when this happened to me.

OCmama
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Re: Sicker After Vacomycin

Postby OCmama » Sun Aug 05, 2018 3:50 pm

3 months is not right; someone on here will know better than me. But I think it is 2-3 weeks?

roy
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Re: Sicker After Vacomycin

Postby roy » Sun Aug 05, 2018 4:48 pm

Get a new Dr!
Solid stool should not be tested for c.diff.
Drs are not supposed to order a test and labs are supposed to reject a test on solid stool.
Reason is that c.diff can be a normal gut inhabitant and trying to eradicate it can actually create the environment it likes and cause it to become a disease.
After treatment a Dr is not supposed to test to see if it's gone but some Drs will wrongly test after 2 weeks even if theres no symptoms.
Drs that treat just because of the test result are not following the experts instructions.
Quite a few posters ended up with full on relapsing c.diff because their Dr treated them when they did not have D.

Ajs
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Re: Sicker After Vacomycin

Postby Ajs » Sun Aug 05, 2018 5:20 pm

I am one that this has happened to. I was initially tested for cdiff when I mentioned that I had noticed a small amount of blood in my stool. This was after several courses of antibiotics for severe sinusitis as well as pneumonia. My stools were somewhat formed when I tested and it came back positive. I knew nothing of cdiff. The ENT doctor started me on Vanco. After the Vanco my symptoms got worse. I went to a primary care physician who then prescribed me Flagyl. A couple weeks afterward symptoms returned so he referred me to a GI who tested me and it came back positive. He prescribed Dificid. I went 4 weeks symptom free when it came back worse than ever! I am now on a Vanco taper awaiting an FMT. I wish so badly that I had not taken that first dose of Vanco. I didn’t have D at the time. Now I will never know if I would have really needed it, and I’m still fighting this beast.

beth22
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Re: Sicker After Vacomycin

Postby beth22 » Sun Aug 05, 2018 5:34 pm

The same thing happened to me, although I did have a lot of M and some B. But, I wish that I had never taken that first dose of vanco. My stools got much looser and the medication erradicated any stool smell, so I know it messed up my flora. I just had this medicinal type of odor which is not normal. After that it was one relapse after another and I finally wound up with FMT. The year before I treated I had a bout of it I am fairly positive, but I did not test and did not know what it was. I ate a lot of yogurt and it went away on its own. It did not re-surface until I took Cipro and got some D that came and went and then the M and B and was tested and treated with vanco.

If you get symptoms and your doctor won't test, go to an Urgent care. Unless you get D though, I would not test or treat.

Mindy
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Re: Sicker After Vacomycin

Postby Mindy » Sun Aug 05, 2018 10:41 pm

All I can tell you is after testing positive for c-diff on PCR and having both toxin A and B, I was put on Flagyl. I was so constipated, I didn't go for five days! I was deadly sick because I feel the toxins just built up. I had chills, weakness, fever, so so sick. They assumed I didn't have it because of no diarrhea. Wrong! I relapsed after three weeks. This time going 18 times in one day. Needless to say I was hospitalized. On Vanco my stools we're always loose.

beth22
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Re: Sicker After Vacomycin

Postby beth22 » Mon Aug 06, 2018 1:22 am

It's all very individual and hindsight is always 20/20. Had I known then what I know now, I would have waited to treat, but sometimes you have to treat. That is why it is important to go to a doctor who has had experience with CDI patients. You can't just treat on test results alone. You have to take symptoms into consideration as well.

georgina
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Re: Sicker After Vacomycin

Postby georgina » Mon Aug 06, 2018 1:40 am

For me Vanco usually firmed up the stool by the third day and it was kept firm until i started to taper it to 125 mg / 2 times per day , then stools were becoming loose and more frequent but not watery.
Why were you tested in the first place ? Because you were constipated? Have you had other symptoms along with the constipation , like abdominal pain , fever , trapped gas ?

Ajs
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Re: Sicker After Vacomycin

Postby Ajs » Mon Aug 06, 2018 10:46 am

Georgina, not to get off topic, but did things eventually firm back up on the taper, or did you have to go back up on the dose?

And Sherr, I am so sorry for your ordeal. I too had really odd symptoms that didn’t seem to be text book. Who knows, had I not gotten treatment early on, my situation may have been much worse.

georgina
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Re: Sicker After Vacomycin

Postby georgina » Tue Aug 07, 2018 1:03 am

No i wasn't increasing the dosage , i was just hanging in there and dealing with the looser stools (that was when i was taking 125 mg 3 times/day and two times/day). However when i got down to 125 mg / day i started to have WD and also tested positive and had to take the full dosage all over again.


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