Question about tapering vanco

[jenkelly15]

Hi everyone -

Just had a quick question that I thought some of you might know through your doctors or doing research on the subject. See my GI doctor really won't tell me anything to do with the c-diff because she thinks I have too much anxiety and this shouldn't affect my every day life. Easy for her to say she isn't dealing with c-diff for the past 4 months and a newborn but that's besides the point. I was just wondering when you are tapering the vanco at the end is it still killing the c-diff when you are taking it every 4th day or should it already be killed by then? I guess I'm just wondering if it is still working to kill the c-diff bacteria at the end of your taper, so if there is any c-diff left maybe those last pills will get rid of it. Thanks so much to anyone who can help me with this question.

[Jan]

Hi Jen. Hoping you are feeling better. To my knowledge vanco will kill the spores that hatch so that is why it is good to taper or pulse vanco. Not taking the vanco for a couple of days lets any spores hatch then the vanco has a chance to go back and kill what remains. And I know about the anxiety that happens with C Diff. I think we all have it when contending with this nasty bug. Take Care.
Jan

[fire7163]

Jen:

According to my Doctor(s), you are absolutely right the Vanco keeps killing so long as you take it even if it's days between doseages. The theory being the longer you take Vanco on the pulse dosing the few C-diff bugs that are left to be dealt with, so the less Vanco. It seems to work for a lot of folks, myself included. Hang in there. You will get better

[jenkelly15]

Thanks so much guys for all your helpful advice. I was pretty sure that's how it worked, but I wanted to see if that's the way you guys heard it from your doctors. Thanks again so much!!! Hopefully, these last 3 pills will kill off any left over c-diff and I can be over it. Of course, I'm still paranoid it's not working, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. Thanks again so much.