survived 2 courses of Z-pak

[paulah]

I am 4 1/2 years post cdiff- Last month I had to have sinus surgery because of large nasal polyps, talked dr out of putting an anitbioitic in the IV but he insisted I take a Z-pak after the operation. He was right about that, nasal surgery is very messy for about a week. I took 2 culturelle a day, one primal defense and activia yogurt while I was on the Z-pak, and had no problem. But taking that first antibiotic pill after having cdiff, I felt like I was putting a gun to my head. After two days off the Z-pak, I started a fever and some nasal swelling and tried to battle it on my own. I kept taking one culturelle a day in case I had to go back on an antibiotic. After 3 weeks the swelling was too bad and had to go on another course of Z-pak, and again I had no problems.
I stopped probiotics a few months before this surgery and just ate yogurt. But after starting the culturelle for this operation, my gut feels alot better...no gas, no nausia, the IBS is alot better, I can even eat a bowl of cereal where before the milk upset my stomach. I am going to stick with one culturelle every other day for now.
bobbie - thanks for telling us to be assertive about our health care! I asked the dr if he could cancel the AB in the IV, he said OK, he prescribed a topical AB the nurses rubbed on my face after the operation.
All the nurses give you that "what's up with no AB?" speech, I just gave them them the standard "after cdiff one must be very careful about taking AB" line.

[Bobbie]

paulah,
Glad you took the Z-pak w/o a problem. I've had 3 sinus surgeries (same thing you had -- nasal polyps that were blocking the sinus openings) w/o an antibiotic during or afterwards, but everyone is different. If you had swelling, you could have had an infection.

Sometimes we are the only one who can help ourselves. Docs. don't always "know best." If only a few of them could develop C. diff.! There would be more caution re. antibiotics.

Glad you are feeling better.