Potential pneumonia/7months post C Diff

[deb30]

I took my last vancomycin May 18, 2023 and have been fine since. Started the vanco in Dec. of 2022, so a long haul to recovery. I have had 4 weeks of a bad bronchitis now-- wheezing, hissing and coughing up mucus. I also have asthma, so that complicates things. My PCP knows that I have had C Diff and believes the viral bronchitis will eventually go away. He does not hear pneumonia sounds, but scheduled me for a chest CT- first opening, Dec. 12---2 weeks away. My concern is that it may have progressed to pneumonia, in which case I'll probably need antibiotics. I'm terrified the C Diff will return. If any of you have had to take an antibiotic for a lower respiratory infection, like pneumonia, how did you fare? Did you take anything else besides the antibiotic to help prevent recurrence? I have an email in to my gastroenterologist from the University of Chicago to ask her if we have a plan for potentially dealing with this. I'm just so scared it'll come back. This has been the year from hell and I just want it to be over.

[beth22]

I know of another poster who took doxycycline for pneumonia and although her doctor did not think it would work, it did and she did not relapse. I am presently on Bactrim for a bacterial infection that was cultured out. Ask your doctor if you can do a sputum sample from what you cough up to see if they can culture it so that at least you will know which bacteria you are dealing with and which antibiotics would work for it. Nothing worse than taking one and finding out it was the wrong one. That happened to me before. I was treated with doxycycline for bronchitis, but it was really whooping cough that I got from a student and doxy does not work for it. So, I had to take a Zpak after finishing 10 days of doxy. You want to avoid that scenario.

[deb30]

Thanks, Beth. I finished the doxycycline yesterday morning and so far no return C Diff symptoms, but the bronchitis is really no better. Going on 5 1/2 weeks now of coughing up yellow gunk and wheezing. I saw my PCP on Monday and he just said that the viral swabs they ran showed nothing and the chest CT just showed irritated bronchial tubes. I had the TDAP vaccine a few years back, so I'm guessing it's not whooping cough, but what the heck is it? I know my underlying asthma complicates things. Told me to ride it out... I'm very grateful that I don't have C Diff symptoms returning, but frustrated beyond belief that this bronchitis isn't improving. If it continues, I'll ask to have the sputum cultured. There's so much bronchitis going on here (Chicago area) right now; it seems like everyone I talk to has or knows of someone else who has. It's that happy holiday season!

[beth22]

I remember having pneumonia as a teen and even after I finished the antibiotics, I was coughing up ugly looking phlegm for weeks. I think that is not unusual. You could ask for a sputum test. I just had one that showed a bacteria and I had to take antibiotics for 5 days. So far no c diff for me either. You need to wait a week or more though to make sure the antibiotic is out of your system so the test result will be accurate. Ask your doctor how long.