Caught CDiff w/o antibiotic use - what now?

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sammyp
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Caught CDiff w/o antibiotic use - what now?

Postby sammyp » Tue Nov 06, 2018 5:02 am

I am 11 weeks into recovery post Vanco taper pulse.

I caught CDiff without antibiotic use. I had severe shiga toxin producing Ecoli that wiped out my good gut flora and allowed CDiff to overgrow (my GIs best guess for my peculiar case). So I'm not antibiotic onset or community acquired.

I'm thinking about the future and having tons of anxiety about the future possibility of infection. The Ecoli was out of my control (local organic restaurant with perfect sanitation score some how managed to acquire tainted pesto from their supplier). I will avoid antibiotics even though they didn't play a role in my case. But I can't avoid food forever. I'm in therapy to work through this but was wondering if anyone else has any tips for not contracting future CDiff infections in extrenuating circumstances. I feel like the possibility of reinfection is imminent and I don't know how much of that is anxiety and how much of that is rational fear due to my circumstance.

roy
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Re: Caught CDiff w/o antibiotic use - what now?

Postby roy » Tue Nov 06, 2018 6:16 am

What was the treatment you were given for e.coli?
The highly detailed diagnosis probably means you would not have been given antibiotic treatment and it just burns itself out.


Community acquired c.diff is when you get it from a source other than during a hospital inpatient stay.
Theres only two catagorys, community acquired or hospital acquired.
You do fit in the "community acquired" catagory.

sammyp
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Re: Caught CDiff w/o antibiotic use - what now?

Postby sammyp » Tue Nov 06, 2018 1:07 pm

Okay so I am comment acquired.

I was not given antibiotics for my EColi. It was the type where antibiotics are actually dangerous for it and can make it life threatening. It did run its course in about 2 weeks but left me with CDiff almost immediately after.

For us who are community acquired what can we do to make sure this doesn't keep happening to us?

Believe
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Re: Caught CDiff w/o antibiotic use - what now?

Postby Believe » Sun Dec 02, 2018 9:17 am

Hi Sammy, I am so sorry for what you’ve been through with complications of food poisoning.

My c.diff was also community-acquired. I picked it up while spending a lot of time at a nursing home during my Pop’s final days. I thought I was being careful, but I had a bad, nervous, compulsive habit in those days of sneaking a finger in my mouth to scratch off a little natural sloughing skin on the insides of my cheeks, much like one who picks at their nails to “smooth” them. I always tried to wait until my hands were freshly-washed, but I definitely slipped up more than once.

I think hand-washing is key, along with keeping one’s fingers out of one’s mouth. And when it comes to restaurants or any food you don’t personally prepare and control, as a rule of thumb, perhaps try to stick with only cooked foods. I once read that hot soup is the safest food you can order in a restaurant. Nothing I like better than Caesar salad with grilled chicken, but I’ve sworn that off with the recent tainted Romaine problems.

I hope this is of some help.


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