Crohn's or Candidiasis

[Seth]

Has anyone here received either of those diagnoses after recovering from c. diff infection?

To give some background, I posted this success story back in March:
http://cdiffsupport.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6636

My GI has never fully recovered from the infections, but in the early summer I started having pain in my abdomen, blood and mucous in my stool, etc. I also had several nasty bouts of diarrhea that seemed different from giardia and c. diff. July 1 I went in for a colonoscopy. The letter I received from my GI doc after the procedure mentions mild to moderate active inflammation throughout my lower intestine. His office scheduled a follow-up appointment for September 1, so I figured this was residual damage from c. diff or at least nothing of great concern.

When I met with the doc this week he suggested that this may actually be Crohn's disease and that infection can unmask an IBD in certain people. Believe me, I've researched Crohn's numerous times over the past year. But the symptoms have seemed to match, and I don't fit the typical profile of a Crohn's sufferer.

A few weeks back after a particularly bad flare up, and due to my frustration with my PCP, I switched to a Functional Medicine doctor. After our first meeting he prescribed a medical food detox, different probiotics, mastica, acupuncture, and chiropractic. That was step one, to get me out of the acute phase of whatever was and is happening.

Blood tests showed a marked candida overgrowth and poor liver function, presumably from all of the antibiotics. (My bad cholesterol and triglycerides were high as well compared to tests taken in December?!) Now I am on a mess of supplements, diflucan, and a candida diet. My new doc is not one for diagnosis, but it's clear he suspects Candidiasis. So far I haven't seen a great deal of improvement but supposedly you feel a bit lousy while the candida is dying and releasing toxins into the body.

This is all quite frustrating. Has anyone else had a similar experience after c. diff and multiple rounds of antibiotics? Oh I should mention that the fur on the back of my tongue has never fully receded, and at this point it has been at least five months since I was on an antibiotic.

[cindym]

Diflucan can also do your gut in if you have had cdiff so I would be careful taking it! Doctors do not take yeast infections or overgrowths seriously enough. I would personally be tested to rule out the possibility that I was not dealing with previous problems.

[cindym]

I forgot to say that I have dealt with thrush on numerous occasions and found that the nystatin swish and swallow helped but it always came back. The doctors finally told me that unless the thrush got to where it was painful to ignore it and that when my dosage of antibiotics was lowered it would subside on its own. So now I just deal with it and use grapefruit seed extract mixed with water to rinse my mouth out (you can get it at natural food store) and it pretty much stays controlled. It sounds like you might need to get second opinion on whats going on with your system. I continually had relapse after relapse until which time they figured I was colonized and stopped playing games THANK GOD.

[Seth]

Thanks Cindy. Grapeseed seed extract may be the ticket. I have used a Tetracycline and Nystatin rinse, but it did little to eradicate tongue fur. One of the urgent care doctors I saw at some point during the winter told me it was definitely not thrush, and my original PCP refused to even look at my tongue!

So far the Diflucan has been fine, though I have heard that it can be rough for a number of different reasons.

I should note that in my first post, when referring to Crohn's I should have written "the symptoms have never seemed to match."