Dr Coleen Kellys advice to one of our posters

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roy
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Dr Coleen Kellys advice to one of our posters

Postby roy » Fri Jul 22, 2016 4:34 am

To review, I am a 52 year old professional female who received a CDiff diagnosis on July 2 after taking Clindimycin and Levoquin for cellulitis in May. Today is day 14 of Vanco. I've lost 15 lbs in 20 days and am eating carefully and having some anxiety, depression and insomnia. It's been hell. My GP over prescribed Vanco (500 x 4) so I was desperate to see someone who knew how to treat CDiff. I was all alone but then because of you, I found this doctor. You guys literally saved my life.

Everyone I called was booking in September and October but by some miracle from the good Lord above, I got an appointment with Dr. Coleen Kelly in Providence, RI two days after my phone call. Perhaps my sobbing over the phone was a factor and telling them about what my doctor did? And even more good news. I was told she was not in my network but I was going to just pay out of pocket and then my insurance called and said they made a mistake. She is in network so I won't be paying out of pocket. I could cry for joy.

She is everything you described and better. Compassionate, caring, a listener, thorough and humble. She spent 45 minutes with me. Below are her recommendations. I brought the CDiff discussion printout and read all your comments to her telling her what a privilege it was to just get in to see her. She said, "You have no idea who nice that makes me feel. Some patients have left me very nasty reviews. This is wonderful". So she heard everything you all wrote about her and it made her smile.

Here are her suggestions

1) First you do two weeks of Vanco 125 mg 4 x a day. I'm done that. Now I do a Vapor Taper for week 3 & 4 which is 375 mg Vanco at once every 3 days for 2 weeks. Then 250 mg at once for 2 weeks. Then 125 mg all taken at once for one week. That is a full 8 week taper and different from other tapers I have read here. She said it allows the spores which are hiding to come out and get hammered.

2) She said is is very important I do the Kefir at the same time. She said there was a study that Kefir is as good at eliminating CDiff as Vanco. The study said 5 oz 3 X a day one hour before meals or 30 minutes after. I'm doing way more than that but Kefir is one of the few things that works for me so it keeps my weight up. This makes sense. Fill the gut with good bacteria throughout the day.

3) No PCR stool testing. She said it is useless and flawed and the diagnosis for her is made based on how the patient responds. Given I have fairly formed stools, a significant decline which includes very WD, mucus, temperature and feeling very sick means I call her. Based on that conversation, she will decide next steps. She actually ripped up my CDiff stool paperwork in front of me. To her, it's about how the patient responds during the taper.

4) Take Culturelle and Florastor daily not near the Vanco. She did not recommend other probiotics but was very emphatic about Kephir. To her, that is the more important thing for people to drink throughout the day.

5) If this fails, then we go right to a Fecal Transplant. She is booking them a week out or so. A week? Are you kidding me? I figured 6 months. How is this even possible?

6) If all goes well, I see her in mid September and then do a colonoscopy in 6 months with her. Ha! I'd love to get there. Some days I thought I was going to die.

I cried in the car on the way home with tears of joy. CDiff makes you want to kill yourself but now I have hope. I have a doctor who knows what she's doing and who cares. I have a plan so that even if I fail and regress (and I'm very prone to infections so very worried), I have someone who is so incredibly knowledgeable and caring to guide me.

Many thanks to all of you for directing me to her. I just love her. She's not like most doctors. She's like a friend you want to spend the day with!!!




I told her of my GP having another patient now with CDiff and she said, "Send them to me". She wants to help others. We talked about her children.
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