My Story

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CDiffaware
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Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2014 12:05 am

My Story

Postby CDiffaware » Thu May 01, 2014 10:44 pm

Hello, I am Shannon 45yr. old female from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I want to share my story with C-Diff and the past 6 months that have changed my reason for living. In October 2013 I was hospitalized close to death from a superbug caused by antibiotics prescribed to me by my dentist. I had never heard of C-Diff (which is amazing considering the extent of exposure I have had to hospitals, surgeons, heart, lung, too many others to list and repeated extended hospital stays of my step father in the past 4 years). It is now April of 2014 and I have seen this HORRIBLE PREVENTABLE SUPERBUG attack 3 friends, and just this month killing my best friend's mother.
My Story: In August 2013 I had an upper back molar start hurting but our insurance didn't kick in until the first of September. I HATE THE DENTIST! lol Well I couldn't wait because of the pain and called to see how much it would cost to see the Doctor. First visit and x-rays free! Awesome, so I went in August 22 the Dentist said we need to pull the tooth but first let's clean them. Well truth be known it had been over 10 years since I set foot in a Dentist office so they could use a cleaning. He said we will set that up for the first week in September when my insurance kicked in then after the cleaning we will pull the tooth. Until then take these antibiotics and here's some pain meds. 8/22/13 I was given 28 Clindamycin HCL 300mg & 10 Hydrocodone 10/325 I made my appointment for the cleaning Sept. 6th I went back in and the cleaning went great! Much better than I had feared. The Doctor stopped by and looked in my mouth and said see ya next week and we will pull that tooth. Then he gave me two more prescriptions of the same thing he gave me the last time. 28 Clindamycin & 10 Hydrocodone I wasn't finished with the last script he gave me but who am I to question he is the one with the degree right.... Sept. 12th I went back and had the tooth extracted at that point the dentist sent me home with more pain pills and something new 28 Amoxicillin 500 mg. When I left I was much too goofy (thank goodness) to ask any questions but my mom was there and there were no unusual instructions. Just oral maintenance for tooth extraction. Yeah infection gone tooth gone(won't miss it was too hard to get to anyway...lol). Now back to planning our 11th anniversary at the Fabulous Tulsa Rose Garden's An Evening of Wine & Roses Sept. 27th. It was about the 25th when I was getting my hair done for the event that I noticed I wasn't feeling quite right. I brushed it off and dared not to mention it or even think about getting sick before this amazing evening. My husband and myself rarely go to such a special event and let's just say we went all out for the evening. We had a good time at the event but I was ready to go home early still not willing to admit I was not feeling right. I stayed in bed most of the next day claiming all the preparation wore me out it was our official Anniversary so my dear hubby decided to surprise me and take me out to dinner. Not knowing that my stomach was not feeling well at all. No problem put on that happy face and let's celebrate! The next week I was feeling worse every day. Unfortunately I have dealt with GI or intestinal issues for the past 18 years of my life and the only answer after countless test, scopes and pokes I have been given was "stress" related diarrhea so issues with my stomach & intestinal pains were nothing new for me. By the time the weekend hit I was convinced that I had contracted the flu at the Gala from the previous weekend, oh boy here we go. I was in (on) the bathroom all Friday and Saturday with waste basket in hand. My husband and step daughter were afraid of getting the flu from me so I was basically quarantined. He would bring soup and drinks to the door but I hadn't been able to keep anything down since Thursday. When Sunday rolled around I called my mom and she came over to help me get a bath and said I needed to make an appointment with the doctor first thing in the morning and she would take me. Sunday night I started to become delirious I was unable to sleep, yell or get out of bed so I just laid there starting to think this is one bad flu! When my husband came in to get his clothes for work I had him help me out of bed and called the doctor. I have seen my Dr. for 18 years and he got me right in. I was so sure I had the flu when I got to the doctor's office I asked for a mask to protect everyone else. My Doc walked into the office and took one look at me and said get her to the ER RIGHT NOW OR I AM CALLING AN AMBULANCE! He wasn't sure what was wrong but he knew me well enough to see that I needed emergency attention. I was in and out of a foggy haze having a difficult time even walking. My mom took me to the ER and they were waiting for me. They started asking me all kinds of questions but my mind just wasn't working right. They were trying to take blood and start and IV but I was so dehydrated it was a next to impossible task. I think they stuck me 8 times to get the IV to hold but I knew that it was the only way I was going to get any pain relief because I couldn't keep even a sip of water down. My stomach looked like I was 7 months pregnant and was EXTREEMLY tender. I had assumed Saturday and Sunday it was from being violently ill. Once they got blood they saw there was some sort of infection because of my white count was through the roof. The ER doctor came back in and asked me questions again. Are you sure you haven't taken any antibiotics in the past month? I said no so he said he wants a stool test and was going to order a CT scan. Soon there after a nurse came in and added an antibiotic piggy back to my IV. Cipro the antibiotic used for Anthrax. Yes some seriously strong stuff! After 3 increases of morphine didn't help the pain the doc gave me dilaudid. I was starting to get some pain relief for the first time in a week. The radiologist showed up to take me to CT and it hit me now that the pain was not the only thing running through my head. I asked the nurse if when I went to the Dentist and he gave me antibiotics does that matter any? The nurse stopped me from going to the CT and said she would be right back. The doctor was there in less than a minute and asked what did the dentist give you. I said some antibiotic that started with a C was all I could remember. Could that be it? He said the CT and stool test will confirm but yes he thinks that is it. I said sorry I just didn't think of a Dentist as a Doctor. Almost immediately the nurse was taking away my piggy back of antibiotics before it was empty. She said the doctor has changed your meds. The next 3 weeks were a haze. I don't remember much other than every time they gave me these new antibiotics it would burn like crazy going into my veins. But thank you Lord they caught it in the ER. the rest of that bag of Cypro could have done me in. It was a long and very intense recovery. I didn't even start feeling close to normal for a month after the Hospital. Thankfully I have not had to deal with another round of C Diff at this point but I fear the thought that sometime in my future I will be faced with the choice of being sick and needing antibiotics, will I force myself to take them? C Diff is the worst thing I have ever had and it kills someone in this world every 19 minutes. I will have to be deathly ill before I ever take another antibiotic again. I have had natural childbirth twice. That was a party compared to C Diff.

I did a little reading up on C Diff while at home recovering and saw that most information showed that the elderly and people with long term illness in the hospitals get it. I didn't fall into either of those so I brushed it off at that point. While wasting time on Social media I noticed a co-worker of mine start to say she wasn't feeling well. I watched her comments for a few days and started to see similarities in her decline and I couldn't help myself I had to send her a private message and tell her what I had been through and asked her if she had taken antibiotics lately? She replied yes, so I said just to be on the safe side mention C Diff to your doctor when you see him tomorrow. I know I am probably obsessed with it at this time but NO ONE deserves to go through that pain! Four days later I received an email thanking me for telling her, she was positive for C Diff!!!! The doctor put her on the right meds right away and she avoided the hospital. I was on top of the world!!! I could have saved a life!! But wait she is younger than me, healthy and not the "normal" patient that gets C Diff. I share her story with my family and find out that my son's friend just got out of a month long stay at the hospital for C Diff! She is only 22!!!!! At this point it is time for me to open my mouth and tell everyone I know about C Diff. I even tell my best friends mom {Anita} and dad about the horrible risk of antibiotics. February 23, 2014 Anita was taken by ambulance to the hospital because she fell and went unconscious. Anita (61yr old) had been fighting many health issues in the past 10 years and was 20 pounds away from the doctor doing much needed hip & knee surgery so everyone thought she had been starving herself. The hospital decided that her kidneys were shutting down and they had to do dialysis on her. They had a horrible time getting an IV in her because she was so very dehydrated. After days of fighting with IV'S and ports they were able to do dialysis and get her kidneys working again. She was in the hospital at that time for three weeks. I didn't say much other than to offer support in however the family needed it. I was excited to hear that they had finally released Anita and she was at home. I assumed she was doing better if the hospital let her go. Not so quick...they were calling the ambulance in less than 36 hours to readmit Anita because she was lethargic from uncontrollable diarrhea and vomiting she had for weeks. The hospital had released her with it!!! That's when I started asking questions! I found out that Anita had been off and on antibiotics for 4 years for bladder infections I immediately instructed Junette (Anita's daughter) ask doctor about C Diff!!!! Well the doctors knowing everything assumed it was from her kidney issues. They waited another week before testing for C Diff. During all this time they are pumping her full of (the wrong kind of) antibiotics. You see there are only 3 antibiotics that work with C Diff any other antibiotic given to a patient only feeds the C Diff. The last two weeks of Anita's life were agony. Knowing that she could have beat this if the origin of the kidney failure was discovered. You see C Diff if left to grow will infect your blood and cause organ failure. It also causes toxic mega colon and can rupture or leak poison into your body. On April 6th the doctors were forced to do an emergency colostomy to try and save her life. It was a failure. Anita left this earth to be with her Lord April 7th 2014.

Junette and myself have decided that this killer needs to be known! We have created CDiffAware.com and are working to spread the word about this horrific killer. No one should lose a family member to the very thing that is given to heal us! Feel free to contact us with questions at CDiffAware@aol.com

We are not medical doctors, just sharing our story about this killer!

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