Crystal's case

[Guest]

Hi there. i am 19 and currently reside in Anchorage Alaska. Upon reading many of your cases here, i to would like to share my story with you. i just got married July 19th and on August 6th i was diagnosed with a urinary track infection; put on Cipro and flew out of A.K. that evening to my home state Florida. This was a vacation i'd been planning for over 6 months and i wasn't going to let my first u.t.i. stop me from seeing all my family and friends down south. Well, first i must tell you i have never had health problems, so what i was about to experience were totally unexpected. i had flown up to Tennessee to visit my grandparents and then onto Ohio to see more family. While in Ohio, diarrhea and severe stomach cramps began. It was within my last 3 days of taking the antibiotics for my u.t.i. i didn't think much of it because i had been traveling allot and ate at many places. Just assumed it was food poising or stress. Well, my symptoms progressed and i downed 24 pepto bissmo tablets in a 3-day period, which didn't affect me one bit. After returning back to Florida and of course on the go constantly seeing family and pasting a smile on my face...trying to ignore the symptoms etc. the pain and diarrhea worsened. i began to feel nausea, weak and dizzy; i got to the point where all i would eat is one piece of toast a day. My family began to realize something was wrong with me and the questions came, i spilled about being sick but was totally paranoid to go to the hospital. <BR> <BR>My mom insisted when i told her my stool was bloody and i had a 103.6 temp. So, i ended up in the emergency room with severe chills due to a high fever; extremely low blood pressure and white cells soaring up to 38,000 instead of their normal count at 4,000 to 11,000. i was admitted for my first time in the hospital for 6 days. Which were the most miserable 6 days in my life...many blood cultures and tests, cat scans, x-rays, stool samples etc. After two days of residing in this lovely place where they seem amused to poke you with needles and iv.'s are specialties the disease specialists finally diagnosed me with Clostridium Difficile. i was pumped with over 15 i.v.'s because of the severe dehydration and put immediately on Flagyl through an i.v. Because i was unable to eat anything for the first 5 days of my stay let alone keep oral meds down. i began to vomit bile, and practically lived in the bathroom. The cat scan showed that my colon and intestines were inflamed and later on i experienced "mega colon". Once discharged from the hospital, i was re-admitted a day later with severe Peripheral Edema and put on a diuretic known as Lozol along with the oral Flagyl they had given me. The next morning was my return date to Alaska, and i insisted on coming back home against my family's wishes. So, September 3rd i flew 12 hours back home; i knew upon the doctor's request i could follow up here. Well, i procrastinated for a week because the edema went completely down as did the mega colon. Resulting in my weight being 116 as where it was 132 before my sickness, my height is 5 8". <BR> <BR>A day after my last dose of Flagyl and with 5 diuretics still left to take i began to experience SEVERE pain in my wrists, elbows, knees and ankles. The pain moves from one joint to another and usually is worse at night, waking me up around 3 a.m. sobbing and almost in a state of shock. i did research and thought it was just a potassium deficiency due to the diuretic so i stopped taking the Lozol and i began taking potassium supplements. 4 days of this had no effect and the pain progressed to the point where i was unable to hold a glass in my hand or even walk at times. Once again i was afraid to go to the hospital but my husband insisted, i ended up back in the emergency room where they ran more blood tests and everything as far as my white cells, electrolytes, and potassium levels were normal. The doctors were astonished with what i told them about my sickness and they all just assumed this joint pain is related to C-DIF. The odd thing is, i have no apparent physical defects...no swelling nor redness in my joints. The doctor i seen didn't want to mis-diagnose me so he has referred me to an internal medicine specialist on September 25th. In the mean time he prescribed me vicodin es for the pain. <BR> <BR>My stomach has felt fine since taking the Flagyl and being discharged until 2 days ago. i've been weak, tired, lightheaded and experiencing stomach cramps and diarrhea once again. As of the moment my family is out and i am too sick to leave the house, instead i'm doing research on Clostridium Difficile. As where i have found your site, read many stories and now i am afraid it's reoccurring. i feel bad for all of you and at the same time i think we all share in the feelings of it not being fair. As for me, just being married and anxious to walk a whole new avenue in my life and yet i am unable to do so. i know things could be much worse but i also know things were once much better, i pray daily for my sickness to go away completely and be the energetic happy gal i once was. This so called "disease" totally depletes you and robs all your strength, leaving you to feel drained and honestly depressed at times. Not that many people understand and i guess they can't if they have never experienced it before...but i thank you for letting me share my story and i will continue to update. <BR><BR>[Guest Posted by: 'crystal']

[Guest]

i went to the internal med. doc this past wednesday. i was relieved to find out he has had experience with c-diff patients; yet a little concerned when he said i was the most exciting patient that has walked in his office in the past month. <BR> <BR>i felt great that day (for once) and under the circumstances, i was anxious to leave the place! yet, i knew come the evening i would be in pain again. so, he took two pages of notes and did a full exam. i believe he's just as perplexed over the situation as i am. they took more blood and sent away for lupus and arthritis test. he's going to consult his colleagues concerning the whole matter and i will speak with him again on monday of next week. <BR> <BR>as far as my health currently, i haven't had stomach cramps and my bm's have been normal. but the joint pain is still excruciating. the doc gave me "celebrex" for the pain...and i'm hoping it will diminish like the c-diff. <BR> <BR>i just don't understand how i can have this "arthritis pain" when i have been completely healthy before c-diff. i still think it has to be related somehow...like maybe c-diff triggers this pain in some patients. and many doctors diagnose c-diff patients that experience this "arthritis" with "reactive" or "rheumatoid"..."chrones" or whatever else they think it maybe. <BR> <BR>my sister and i have come to the conclusion that it's all the same pain and the doctors don't have a diagnosed name for it...maybe not enough research has been invested. just a thought... <BR><BR>[Guest Posted by: 'crystal']