Praying for a miracle

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jtriv001
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Praying for a miracle

Postby jtriv001 » Mon Sep 11, 2017 2:35 pm

Hi,
I am a 58 year old female and have been fighting this horrible disease since January. I was prescribed clindamycin by my dentist for an abscessed tooth and about a month later I was diagnosed with c diff. I have taken flagyl, dificid, vancomycin and had a fecal transplant July 19 and it still came back. My doctor wants to try another antibiotic (rifaximin) before doing another transplant. I have lost 20 pounds. I thought it was gone after the fecal transplant. I felt good for a month then had a bout of d and he tested me and the results came back negative for toxin A and B but positive for an antigen and further testing showed toxin B was positive. I never heard of this illness until I got it. If I would have know clindamycin could cause this, I would have never taken it. As far as taking vanco, I have taken it like 4 times. It lessens the d and I seem to tolerate it the best, but as soon as I stop taking it it comes back. The second time I took it my doctor tested me and the test came back negative, but a couple weeks later it was back. I did the taper of vanco and it didn't work. That's when I had the fecal transplant, but as I said it didn't work either. Flagyl made me too sick to take. I felt like I was dying when taking it. Dificid didn't have any effect. I can't believe this is happening to me.

Davidtm
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Re: Praying for a miracle

Postby Davidtm » Mon Sep 11, 2017 6:29 pm

Sorry to hear that you are going through this. The winning combination of beating this will happen for you!
You mentioned you had an fmt. Did you have a course of antibiotics leading up to the fmt? I took vanco until a few days before the procedure. Sometimes it can take more than one fmt for a cure. Hopefully the treatment plan your dr has in mind means you won't need another. I know all too well the feeling that you can't believe it is happening and can sympathize. But eventually you will get there and beat this. I wish you wellness and good things. I'm sure someone will come along to welcome you.
All the best

beth22
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Re: Praying for a miracle

Postby beth22 » Mon Sep 11, 2017 9:15 pm

Hi jtriv001 and welcome to the site. Please read the first forum for new posters.

I am one that had to have more than one FMT. Xifaxan would be a good choice to take before doing FMT because it works quite well in the small intestine, helps IBS. SIBO, as well as c difficile. That might be your winning combination. Are you having symptoms or just a positive antigen test?

jtriv001
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Re: Praying for a miracle

Postby jtriv001 » Mon Sep 11, 2017 11:06 pm

beth22 wrote:
> Hi jtriv001 and welcome to the site. Please read the first forum for new
> posters.
>
> I am one that had to have more than one FMT. Xifaxan would be a good
> choice to take before doing FMT because it works quite well in the small
> intestine, helps IBS. SIBO, as well as c difficile. That might be your
> winning combination. Are you having symptoms or just a positive antigen
> test?

Hi beth22: I started having symptoms about a month after my fmt. I was feeling nauseated and going 6 times a day. So he tested me. That's when I had the positive antigen test and the the Toxin B detected result. Since I have been on the rifaximin I am feeling better and going twice a day, but I always feel better once I'm on an antibiotic. I've taken it 4 days now.

jtriv001
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Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Aug 02, 2017 4:03 pm

Re: Praying for a miracle

Postby jtriv001 » Mon Sep 11, 2017 11:11 pm

Davidtm wrote:
> Sorry to hear that you are going through this. The winning combination of
> beating this will happen for you!
> You mentioned you had an fmt. Did you have a course of antibiotics leading
> up to the fmt? I took vanco until a few days before the procedure.
> Sometimes it can take more than one fmt for a cure. Hopefully the treatment
> plan your dr has in mind means you won't need another. I know all too well
> the feeling that you can't believe it is happening and can sympathize. But
> eventually you will get there and beat this. I wish you wellness and good
> things. I'm sure someone will come along to welcome you.
> All the best
Yes, I took vanco until a couple days before the FMT. I felt great for about a month. Then I started having symptoms again.

georgina
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Re: Praying for a miracle

Postby georgina » Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:19 am

Xifaxin is definitely a good treatment to consider but it should be used as a chaser to Vanco or Dificid.

beth22
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Re: Praying for a miracle

Postby beth22 » Tue Sep 12, 2017 2:05 am

Xifaxan is used alone if you have IBS or SIBO. It is one of the main treatments for SIBO, but it also works for about 70% of c diff strains. That is why it is usually not used on its own for c difficile. If it is helping you, that is great. It was hard for me to take, but after I was finished, I did feel better.

Lisa33
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Re: Praying for a miracle

Postby Lisa33 » Tue Sep 12, 2017 8:55 am

jtriv001 - So sorry you are dealing with symptoms again post FMT. Hopefully the Xifaxan continues to work. As Beth said, there are some who need a second FMT for the cure. Hopefully, you won't need to get to that point and symptoms start to resolve. Feel better.

PS. You don't need to use the quote feature as it makes the post very lengthy and hard to follow. I am not sure why it's an option. :-)

jtriv001
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Joined: Wed Aug 02, 2017 4:03 pm

Re: Praying for a miracle

Postby jtriv001 » Wed Sep 13, 2017 7:09 pm

Thanks for all the kind words. I'm still feeling better. Have 9 more days on the rifaximin. Praying it works.

Ril
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Re: Praying for a miracle

Postby Ril » Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:58 am

Hopefully it will work.
Be careful with your diet also.
Stick to a bland diet. Try to eat grilled or roasted fish or poultry, baked potatoes, bananas, toast, rice, etc and avoid high fiber raw vegetables and fruit, fried foods, dairy, sweets, etc.

Rita

MKW
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Posts: 392
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2016 9:49 am

Re: Praying for a miracle

Postby MKW » Sun Sep 17, 2017 8:48 pm

Hi, I am a 46 year old female that developed C Diff about a month after taking Clindamycin from my dentist for a gum infection. I was perfectly healthy beforehand. I had never heard of C Diff before I developed it. I read on the Clindamycin paperwork the warning that diarrhea could develop that could be fatal if untreated. It should say you may develop an "incurable" infection. If I had read that, I would not have taken it.... So I took Flagyl twice, and Vanco with a taper, and Vanco again with a taper and FMT at the end of that. The FMT was in March, and I have been OK since other than IBS. Each time the antibiotics quickly worked for me. After my 2nd round of Flagyl I didn't relapse until a month later. Tested negative during that time even. After my first Vanco taper I was perfectly fine for a month, then suddenly relapsed. Each of us are somewhat different with how this infection presents and how we relapse. I want to tell you there have been several posters on here since I have been posting for about a year that have required 2 FMT's. The point is, it eventually works. You will eventually get better. I have seen older posts from people who required 3 or 4 FMT's or the top/down bottom up procedure, but they were eventually cured. ...I still have IBS resulting from all of this, and it's rough living with GI problems especially through the work day, but I am so thankful for my FMT. Alot of us are intolerant of vegetables after this illness, but it's very important after an FMT to eat pre-biotic foods to nourish the donor bacteria. Also, have a low sugar diet because bad bacteria love it evidently. I did drink kefir and eat yogurt but my doctor did not recommend taking a probiotic after FMT. - Melanie


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