cdiffdiscuss.org

Hi, I had c-diff for about 8 months, finally had fecal transplants, twice. Now I find out I need eye surgery and would have to have ophthalmic antibiotics, and the surgeon says ophthalmic antibiotics are NOT any danger to a c-diff recurrence. Is that true? I surely don't want to go through another year of c-diff! I got c-diff originally from antibiotics after having Whooping Cough.

Just make sure that the ophthalmic antibiotics are not with Clindamycin, and you should be fine.

One of our administrators recently had cataract surgery and had to use antibiotic eye drops and she had no issues.

I had cataract surgery in both eyes and had to use the antibiotic eye drops. To be cautious there is a way to just pinch off at the upper bridge of the nose for a few minutes after administration of the drops so they don’t flow anywhere out of the eye. Because I am neurotic I did this although it might not even be necessary.

Thank you for your help, I should have also said that the eye surgery is conjuctivoplasty - where there are wrinkles inside on the eyeball.
And does anyone know if it is safe to be vaccinated for the new Shingles, or for Whooping Cough? My Dr. doesn't know if these are safe or not, or could cause C-Diff again!

Vaccines do not cause C. diff. I recently had the two-dose series of Shingrix (the new shingles vaccine) myself. There are risks (though not for C. diff) with any vaccine, as with any medication -- but the risk from shingles far outweighs any time-limited unpleasantness that the vaccine may cause.

As Allison said, vaccines do not cause c difficile. However, they can cause other problems depending on your medical history. For example, if you have had Guillain Barre, you should not get certain shots. I do know of one woman who got very sick after the two dose shingles vaccine, but not with GI issues. I would talk to your PCP about risks and your own medical history to make sure you are a candidate for these vaccines and do not have any medical history that would contraindicate getting them.

Thanks to all for the input, I find it difficult to get factual information from pharmacists and my Doctors.