Drew's Case History (aka mugyver)

[mugyver]

march 1st emergency dental visit after being up all night in horrible pain (dental insurance had just kicked in that day as well though medical hadn't because of some clerical errors and so paid for all meds out of pocket)

Took 500mg azithromycin to premed due to mitrol and tricusbid valve prolapses with regurgitation.

The dentist through a fit and wouldn't work on me unless I took clindamycin as they had never heard of azithromycin being used for endocarditis prophylaxis. (althought its in the American Heart Association book and is approved by the ADA)

Took 600mg of clindamycin.

Found infection and so I was placed on 150mg of clindamycin 4 times a day. Thus, I took it twice more that day for a total of

900mg clindamycin
500mg azithromycin

During the week of clindamycin, I believe I started going to the bathroom allot and I was having stomach cramps which were pretty bad at times, but I figured it was just a side effect of the clindamycin.

The dentist had also given me Tylenol #3 with codeine of which I had only 1 (thank god) I had also continued to drink as it seemed to make the pain and urgency subside a bit.

march 8th second dental visit

finished the clindamycin and then premed another 600mg with no azithromycin.

a few days later I started going to the bathroom quite frequently. At first it was regular stool and then when there was nothing left, it was just bloody mucus. The urgency continued and so I had another drink or so.

Later into the evening I began to have the big D and horrible cramping. I went maybe every 3 minutes or less for about 5 or 6 hours. There was nothing left to come out but I was in terrible pain everytime with the wateryness and wiping causing it to burn.

Called my doctor and he got back to me and told me to take immodium. I had to have my girlfriend run accross to cvs at 5:30 in the morning as I could not leave the bathroom. She was up all night and needed sleep and I felt horrible.

The immodium helped and after a second dose, I was finally able to get some sleep.

I then went on the BRAT diet and became slightly constipated for a day and attempting to reverse that. During that I gave my doctor a stool sample.

I had another dental visit and premed with azithromycin instead of the clindamycin after a battle with the dentis and dr.

I was feeling a little better, but still had this urgency feeling but was constipated, so I just dealt with it.

A day or two later I was no longer as constipated, but wasn't feeling great.

I had to cancel on my girlfriend and her friend for st. pattys day, for fear of the worst.

I ate 2 hotdogs that night and stupidly put ketchup, relish, and mustard on them. I think I had a glass of wine.

Didn't really sleep and my girlfriend got back at 8am. Thats when I started to go again, didn't start as D, but got quite frequest after and hour or so and by 10:30 am, my doctor was notified and told me to get to the hospital.

Luckily my Dr. is a family friend and his nurse is his wife. She contacted my parents as I wasn't about to do that. My girlfriend was way to tired to drive me to the hospital and so my mother came and picked me up.

By that time I could barely get out of the bathroom let alone the apartment. I had to make a makeshift diaper out of a few puppy pads and some how made it to the car. We went to the closest ER possible (ER my butt I must have waited 2 hours)

During the wait I went to the bathroom atleast 3 or 4 times in the waiting room (bad Idea I know now).

Finally I got in the ER. At this point, I had not eaten since the night before and had not had anything to drink and was dehydrated.

They gave me IV's and took blood and waited quite a while before getting a stool sample even though I was up and in the bathroom every 5 minutes.

Finally they took one and said it would be back in a few hours.

I kept going and going and at one point I just stood near the bathroom because I didn't want to get up and lay down anymore.

I stayed at the ER late into the night and finally they gave me immodium and 500mg of flagyl.

During all of this I kept saying I had cdiff, but people kept saying they weren't sure.

The immodium helped me a bit, but I was still going. Then I had a flash rash reaction to the flagyl. my entire neck got bright red and then my chest and quickly before the eyes my entire torso and I was all hot, then all of the sudden it was gone.

I attempted to sleep.

I was admited to the ER at about 12pm and they were trying to get me a room and I was still in the ER uncomfy bed at 12am. I still had not eaten or drank anything, but was on my 4th IV and they could finally switch arms because my veins weren't as collapsed. The IV had also made my hands swell and my hands were so tight and dry from washing my hands everytime I went to the bathroom.

2am roles around and the night nurses were finally able to get me blankets but I was using my shirt as a pillow (which ended up getting lost and was my favorite shirt). The night nurse attempted to get me crackers and failed. Then attempted to get me gingerale and again failed, but was able to get me some ice water. Ahh finally at 4am over 30 hours since my last drink.

Sleep was rare maybe 5 minutes at a time before the shivering and neck pain got to me. Then I started getting up and going to the bathroom again, not as often though.

The following day I'm still in the ER waiting for a room.

At that point they had said no more immodium because it was keeping everything in my system. Finally someone got me a liquid meal of which I couldn't really finish anything, but it was great anyway.

Finally they realized that I shouldn't be using the public restroom and they brought me a commode.

At 23 with my mother there I was pretty embarassed and forced everyone to leave and close the curtains as much as possible for me to go.

My gf finally made it in etc...

MY stool was no longer as watery, but was more like, well i'm not getting into it here.

Basically, it was better and they took another sample.

The first sample had still not come back over 24 hours later.

Eventually I got a room after being in the ER for over 30 hours.

still on liquid diet, I was quarantined and hjad my own bathroom which was comforting. A nicer bed helped as well.

The D had gotten better as they had me on flagyl 4 times daily.

I still wasn't ready to come home though as I could barely stand.

Another night, the D getting better.

That morning I got the full liquid diet with some ice cream, but I left the coffe and milk alone, ate the jello and asked for some decaf tea.

Eventually I was seen by the Infectious disease people and the doctor etc. They told me everything I already knew, and they still hadn't gotten the results back but assumed I had cdiff and put me on the Flagyl.

When I left the hospital I felt much better but no where near 100%, I was told not to return to work for abit more than a week, during which I rested a bit and took the flagyl which tastes horrible.

Went out for a bit to help build strength, and then went back to work.

Kept on the BRAT diet for a while, still kinda on it.

my stool was never solid, always kinda soft, but thats better than D.

Finally, the other day I finished the flagyl. within 24 hours I wasn't feeling as well anymore and when I went to the bathroom, I notice mucus still and in the mucus was a little blood. I contacted my dr and had a fight with the hospital.

the nurse (dr.s wife) finally called a different hospital and had me call them. I couldn't get an apointment until may 5th.

Way to long to wait. She called them back and spoke with the GI there.

He said that if it was working then I would no longer have blood and mucus and that it probably didn't work. So he put me on Vanco 125mg 4 times a day for 14 days.

I'm currently on day 3 and I'm having sharp pains and gas. Not sure if this is normal, but I'm thinking it is.

I'm really hoping this works.

I thank you all for your support.

now I need to get back to work.

It is April 6th 4:34am

[mugyver]

APRIL 24th 12:49AM

I have been off the Vanco since 6PM last Tuesday, and speak of the devil, I went to the bathroom when I got in at 12AM and there was allot and it was loosely formed. Then about 2 minutes ago, I went again. This time it wasn't as much, but I know I should have gone so soon afterwards.

This time, loosely formed again, but now theres blood in it. So I'm guessing it's back. Whats worse is theres nothing I can do about it at this very moment because its almost 1am and I'm at work. I'll have to hang on until 8am and wake my doctor up and find out what he plans to do.

I don't want to wait until I am having D before going on vanco.

I don't have time for this, I had to miss a job interview yesterday morning because of this and I'm supposed to be moving in to my new apartment on saturday.

Anyway, I need to get back to work I guess.

I'll update again tomorrow with what my doctor wants me to do.

It's a bit late, but I guess I'll call my mom and let her know whats going on.

This sucks.

[mugyver]

APRIL 26th 1:17AM

Ok, soooo...My father flipped out at me all that morning. We were arguing because he was trying to force me to call the GI and make an appointment and I was angry because I had just gotten done work and wanted to sleep.

Anyway, he ended up making the appointment for me for the 25th at 8am.

SOOO...Went to the GI and explained everything. I explained this website and that I had learned allot and I definitely showed her that.

I felt kinda like an ass about it, but I wanted her to know that I was well versed on the subject by now.

I did the same thing when I was dx with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (any questions, feel free to ask).

Anyway, so the GI discussed much with me, even discussed the Vaccine hemaglobin and said that if we were in boston she'd have put me right on it.

So , with that said, she put me back on vanco 125x4 for 21 days and florastor 250x2 for 30 days. Once the vanco is done on the 15th I have a follow-up appointment at which time she is going to put me on vanco taper/pulse dose. I was so impressed with this because of all the horror stories I've read and because I didn't even have to mention it to her and she already knew about it.

I also brought up the xifaxin, but she said there were other side effects that weren't worth it at the moment (I'm thinking she meant the way you can become immune so fast).

She also had me get a stool sample and bring it to my doctor to be tested.

This might be TMI, but I'm not going into to much detail.

What I noticed, was that it was mushy/almost peanut buttery which I had not remembered seeing atleast not since the beginning. So I'm glad i caught this as quickly as I did.

She said that if the test comes up negative, then I am to finish out the perscription because although it may be negative, i had only finished the last round of vanco a week earlier and false negatives blah blah blah.

Anyway, if this round of vanco and then the pulse/taper doesn't work, thats when I am getting a colonoscopy.

On a side note, one thing that bothers me is that everyone keeps writing down that I have D, but thats not true. I have the big D (20-40 times) only on two occassions. The first one was stopped by immodium and the second one put me in the hospital for 4 days. But I have never actually had it on a daily basis. Its just always kinda formed but off colors and with either mucus or blood or both. Gradually since being off vanco it had gotten less formed, but back on vanco now hopefully that'll fix it.

I dunno. SHould this be concern though?

Anyway, I'll know about the test results in the next few days and I'll update here.

I think this GI is going to be good because of her knowledge of the vaccine and the pulse dosing and the florastor (funny story, she had said "I'm putting you on 21 days of vanco with pulse/taper at the end and i also want to put you on another thing called" and thats when we both said florastor at the same time.)

ANYWAY...I still have yet to even really begin packing and I move on the 28th.

[mugyver]

APRIL 28th 12:05AM

Well My doc got some results back and it was negative, but I'm still not so sure because I had only been off vanco for maybe 7 days.

Anyway, they faxed it over to the GI and I called the GI to find out whats going on since I only just started a 21+ day course of vanco and if I don't have cdiff, I'm not sure if I should continue.

The GI wont be in until monday, so I guess I'm atleast going to be taking the vanco until then.

My doctors wife (who is usually who I talk to, shes also a nurse and close family friend) is convinced that I don't have cdiff anymore, but that I may just have colitis.

But if thats the case, why would the vanco make me feel so much better.

Ugh, I'm tired. I only got 3 hours of sleep since yesterday and I just got to work and I am moving in the morning when I get off work.

I also start night school again on monday and have a follow up job interview on tuesday at 9am.

All of that combined with the cdiff etc is driving me crazy, especially without a good vice to take over my mind..ohwell...I'll update once I hear from my GI on monday. I hope everythings goes smoothly tomorrow ...err today.

[mugyver]

MAY 1ST, 6:17AM

Well the move went horribly, but its over now.

Anyway, My GI called me but I wasn't able to get to the phone. She said that from my test results, she doesn't think I have cdiff anymore. She said a false negative is always possible, but that its highly unlikely or something. Don't know whether to believe her on this. Anyway, so she said that I should stop the vanco and just observe. Then if the symptoms continue, she'll do more tests I guess.

She said she would call me today, so I'll just wait for that. I stopped taking the vanco, but am continuing to take the florastor twice a day.

I'll update again once I get more info.

[mugyver]

MAY 24TH, 12:11AM

OK, so its been a while.

What with the move and my new hours and the new puppy and all its been quite crazy.

But, I thought I'd give you guys an update.

Had my follow up visit with the GI on the 15th and everything seemed to go well.

I've been off tha vanco since the 30th or the 1st. (can't remember). And so far so good I think. My stomach hasn't been 100%, but I haven't had D really.

I've had days where my stomach gets icky feeling, and days where I've gone numerous times, but I'm really trying not to jumpt to any conclusions.

I carry pepto and immodium with me every where I go just in case, and I still have 4 boxes of Vanco left over, so I'm ready to tackle this thing if it decides to immerge its ugly head once again.

I appologize for not being around and talking on the forum, but I'm still trying to finish unpacking and stuff (hehe I'm really slow).

Anyway, I need to get back to work. I'll try to pop on every so often and keep everyone updated until I actually have some free time.

I hope everyone is doing alright.

Oh, and I found something that seems to settle my stomach. It's called metromint. It's an organic bottled water infused with peppermint. They also have spearmint, lemonmint and orangemint. It seems to have a soothing effect.

Ok gotta run.