possibly bad doctor advice/recurrence?

[jennnny]

Hi again,

So I did 14 days of vanco first and it came back worse after 6 days off. I did 14 days of vanco and started the taper/pulse. I did one week at 2x a day and on the 7th day of that (yesterday) the pain/pressure came back in my lower left quadrant. The pain continued today and I am still having some slight m in my stool but they are formed so I called my doctor. I saw a different doctor at the office than I normally do and he did an exam of my stomach and told me to get blood work and do a stool sample for c diff before restarting the vanco 4x a day. I have an appointment with a GI assistant on Monday so I don't know if the doctor wants to do this as a stop gap until then? I am in pain but I also don't want to restart the high dose of vanco if I am not having a recurrence. I asked him about the stool sample being a false negative or positive because I am under treatment with vanco and he said that's not a problem anymore (what!). Thanks so much!

[Ril]

At the risk of contradicting a dr since we can’t give medical advice, I can only tell you usual protocol is to treat based on symptoms, not to test formed stool, mucous does not by itself mean c diff ( it signifies irritation), you do not test for cure or when on medication or too close to having taken medication....shall I go on?

If it were me, I would insist on seeing a GI before I made treatment decisions and would continue the treatment regime/taper. Should the GI believe the taper is not working for some reason it should be based on symptoms, not test, and I would then request Difficid and failing that, pulse dosing....but definitely Difficid.

[jennnny]

Thanks for your reply! I do know the protocol and other drs at that practice follow that (don't test that close to or during treatment, treat based on symptoms). My stool was probably loose enough to get accepted by the lab (it looked exactly like my original sample when I was positive) and it had a lot more m when I sent it out this afternoon. I am on the fence because I don't want the infection to come roaring back before Monday but it does feel like it is back based on the pain and mucus. I've also had the chills but no fever. I've had ibs m many times in my life and it's always different with cdiff but I do realize this could still be PI-IBS. I will probably go up to 4x a day if I continue to feel worse just until Monday and hopefully they will give me difficid and information about FMT. The dr did want me to start the 4x a day before the stool sample result comes in, not that it is worth anything in this situation. Thanks again and I will update once I see the GI.

[jennnny]

Just to update, the doctor I saw told me to go back to the taper as planned because my stool test was negative (I know it could be a false negative still) and my bloodwork looked good (which I know also doesn't rule out the taper failing). My platelets are slightly high probably from my body recovering from the recurrence at the beginning of the month. I am so glad my potassium is back to normal, the vanco and d had it slightly low and I felt awful prior. Fingers crossed my GI appointment is helpful on Monday.

[NanciT]

Glad you are seeing the GI on Monday, not sure why the MD has you back on a taper with a negative test unless symptoms have returned completely. If you look up Vanco on Drugs.com Vanco can cause low potassium. It was a big issues for me while I was on it, they list it as a "rare" side effect but I know several who have had the same issues.
Talk with your GI about it
Hope you feel better soon
NanciT

[jennnny]

Thank you, NanciT! I did read that vanco can cause low potassium in about 13% of people in the paperwork so I was mindful about trying to eat a lot of potassium during both rounds. My body tends to show symptoms even when I am borderline normal so I could tell it was low the first time. The doctor had me restart the taper/pulse because I never finished it, I only started the 1 pill per day regiment when I saw him for the lower left quadrant pain and he said to go back up to 4x a day until he received the test results. I am still having a lot of LLQ pain and some mucus in my stool but thankfully so far no D on the 1 pill per day taper. Have a nice night!