Overwhelmed

[Whyme1]

I’ve always had bowel ‘issues’ and been under the care of a good gastro group....have been diagnosed with diverticulitis and come thru that fine with good colonoscopy results. Last month I started with unusual D first thing in the morning....different than other times. I was on vacation so tried different things...bottled water, no alcohol, no spicy food..nothing helped. After a month, went to dr and was tested and positive for CDiff....I’m 4 days into Flagyl and so sick I can hardly function and the D is no better....do I ‘tough’ it out to day 10 and hope it subsides? Anyone else out there?

[beth22]

Hi Whyme1 - Welcome to the site. You can find more information for new posters in the first forum. I'm sorry that you feel so bad on the Flagyl. Many people do and it is no longer recommended as a first line treatment. Was the doctor who prescribed this a GI? The new guidelines are to take vancomycin or Dificid, not Flagyl. It has a lot of side effects and is not that effective of a treatment. If you feel unwell on it, I would call and talk to your doctor about switching medications.

[Whyme1]

This forum is so large it’s hard to follow some of the info....I had read there are 3 different drugs for this...Dr is a GI.....When Flagyl was prescribed, I balked but was told it was the first drug to try because of insurance.....I have a call in and expect to hear fr dr this morning...

[Machaon]

Hi Whyme1, sorry about your C-Diff struggles.

Flagyl also made me very sick. It made me weak and after about ten days it caused my legs, ankles and feet to swell up badly.

It's a shame when our health insurance bases our care on what is least expensive and not what is most effective. I hope you can convince your GI to switch over to a more effective and recommended antibiotic like Vancomycin.

Best of luck fighting C-Diff! Hope you have a speedy and full recovery.

Regards, Bob

[roy]

Unfortunately some Drs are still unaware that the treatment changed and insurance can no longer insist on flagyl being tried first.
Actually flagyl has never been FDA approved for c.diff!

Here's the correct guidlines issued 2 years ago and your Dr should be up to date with them.
Print them out and show your Dr if you need to.

https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/66/7/e1/4855916

Lots of info there.
Scroll down to treatments.

[Whyme1]

Just got my script for Vancomycin.....hopefully will get some relief soon. Txs all

[Bobbie]

Whyne1,

Another welcome to the site.

Did u take an antibiotic prior to the diagnosis of c diff or were u otherwise exposed?

[Whyme1]

Well, that’s just it....I don’t know where or how I picked it up...like i said, I had D for 6 weeks before I actually got a diagnosis....thought about it a lot and the only thing I can figure is I was in a clinic at a hospital about 5 days before the first the first major bout of D...could that have been the initial exposure? I will probably never know....however, my husband has had no symptoms and again, it has been 6 weeks before I got any meds....

[D1dad]

I too was prescribed flagyl for 10 days, relapsed after 2 and then prescribed another 7. Knock on wood it’s been over 5 months so it worked. By the time I got in to an ID and GI they were upset about the flagyl script but at the same time somewhat happy that it worked without having to use the big guns.

[Bobbie]

Whyme1,

Could be reason. Difficult to know.

If u are still having problems on Flagyl, contact your GI.

[Whyme1]

Coming up on day 10 of vancomycin.....feeling much better....hoping to stay that way...no follow up w/GI for a month. Guess I’ll know for sure by then! Thankful for support

[Bobbie]

Glad u are doing well. Hang on.