Son has bloody stool after 10 day Vanco

[ShortMom]

Hello,

It has been very helpful reading all your experiences here. My 9 year old son was diagnosed Cdiff positive (PCR) testing 2 weeks ago after having bloody diarrhea and poop for a week, and was prescribed liquid Vanco 4x a day. He finished his 10 day course last Tuesday the 13th. We’ve been careful about giving him dairy, giving him Kefir and Florastor poll 2x a day. He was also given iron pills since h he has anemia (hemoglobin was at 7.2). Other than the bloody poop, stomach aches and bouts of tiredness from anemia he was fine, no fever and even kept up his appetite.

Throughout the antibiotic course his BM would vary from formed to loose and greenish, black and brownish. That is until today. He was complaining of stomach aches during and after the antibiotics. He first had formed poop with blood and in a span of 3 hours went from formed to bloody bright red D. But overall, he hasn’t onstomachaches today his symptoms have been consistent (no fever, has energy and appetite) aside from bloody BM and D.

The GI doctor is getting in touch with us soon, and I have a sinking feeling that he has it again and will go thru Vanco. I’m wondering if we should apply the 3 day rule to him but seeing how bright red it is made me really scared. I’m also on my 1st trimester of pregnancy and this is definitely not helping my stress levels.

EDIT: To be clear, he was done taking antibiotics 3 days ago. Today was the first bloody BM/D after antibiotics and prior to diagnosis

[beth22]

Hello ShortMom and welcome to the site. Please read the first forum that has information for new posters.

Blood is always concerning and you definitely need to follow your doctor's advice here. I know there are other pathogens that can give D and blood - campylobacter is one of them and there are others. I would ask the doctor about testing him for other bacteria as well as parasites. It is always possible that he had c difficile along with something else. There have been a few posters like that.

Taking iron can also be hard on the GI tract for some people. Not sure if it can cause bleeding, but that is something to ask the doctor as well.

[Bobbie]

Shortmom,
Another welcome to the site.

Aageee with Beth. Probably just a "scare" but do call your son's GI re the blood.

Let us know what happens. Keep posting. We care.

[roy]

If your concerned take him to ER today, dont wait for a GI appointment.

[ShortMom]

Thank you for your responses. We got in touch with the Pediatric GI team at Lucille Packard (Stanford) and they decided to take him in. He ended up testing NEGATIVE for c-diff this time (2 weeks exact from his initial cdiff positive test) and for other bacteria as well, his CBC's look normal except for the hemoglobin which was at 9.3. A definite improvement, since his anemia was at 7.2, 2 weeks prior when he was diagnosed with c.diff, but the anemia was still a concern since he measured much higher from the previous year. We ended up staying at the hospital for a couple of days as they decided to "clean him out" and perform both endoscopy/biopsy and colonoscopy on Monday.

They did not find any active bleeding inside on both upper and lower GI, although they found that his stomach is inflamed and has a tear on his rectum (!!). the scans did not find any ulcers, polyps or active bleeding, and the biopsy to rule out crohn's/IBS was negative. Since he has severe allergies/eczema and asthma, they did a biopsy as well to rule out allergy levels and engaged the Ped allergy department to work with his case. The pathologist was "unimpressed" with the preliminary results for the allergies according to the doctor. That said, the complete report will not available to us possibly until next week, but his official diagnosis for now is gastritis and constipation. We eventually were released Tuesday evening since there was no significant findings at that time, and he was given Zantac and Miralax. We will be coming back for a Meckel's scan to rule out if he has Meckel's Diverticulum.

We were relieved at the findings, but at the same time it felt a little bit anti-climactic since we thought there was going to be a more definite answer. In the meantime, we made adjustments to his diet since it was very poor to begin with, even if he was cleared to go back to his regular diet. We went back to his diet while he had cdiff, eating more fruit and veggies, fiber, probiotics/kefir and eliminated dairy for now. We are still constantly checking on his BM to see if there's any improvement and to check for bleeding. At this point, i'm still concerned about the cdiff coming back, and anxious about the final results of the scan and biopsy.

[Bobbie]

Afraid c diff is like most health problems, Docs can tell more what is NOT wrong with patients rather than what IS. Frustrating for the patient and his/her loved ones.

Sounds as tho u and his docs have a good,plan with more fiber, etc. and does sound like blood is related to constipation.

I emphasize with u. My now adult son had c diff at the age of 4 (1979' - one of the first and the youngest person treated with oral Vanco). He has had multiple problems. - a worry, (I, too, had 3 bouts of c diff. - 1st 4 years). Docs know a lot more now - but not enough.

Hang in there, Mom. Things sound promising to me. Keep posting