Cassidy's Case

Guest · Postby **Guest** » Fri Jan 24, 2003 2:50 am

Hi, My name is Stacy and my daughter Cassidy is 4 yrs old. I had never in my life heard of Colstridium Difficile prior to December 2002. My daughter was diagnosed with an ear infection and put on Augmenten (an antibiotic she had taken before - with no problems I should add). About 3 days into the meds she developed severe diarrhea and a severe yeast infection. I immediately stopped the antibiotic as I knew from past experience that Aug. will have that effect. She is potty trained and has been for several years, but went through an entire bag of 32 pullups within a 12 hour period the diarrhea came so often and so fast! I called the Pediatrician and he replaced the aug with cefzil (another antibiotic she had taken in the past with no problems) - that did nothing more than start up the diarrhea. In the meantime her bottom had become so raw from the yeast infection the skin was actually blistering and peeling which the diarrhea did not help either! I had to call 4 times to get the nurses to finally call in a prescript for nystatin oinment to get rid of the yeast infection. Needless to say my daughter was miserable. Then we noticed a change in the stools - the stench was unbearable, even causing my little girl to gag, shortly after the mucus and blood started coming - I immediately called the Dr. and they tested for the C Diff - it came back positive. He called in the prescript for the generic flaygl *metro* which Walgreens filled for us by crushing up pills and putting them into a suspension fluid and telling me to give this to a 4 yr old who was already miserable! Needless to say she wouldn't take it - I tasted it and wouldn't even give this to our dog!!! I took it back to Walgreens and told them to re-do it so I could give this to my daughter without a fight and they basically told me they could not do anything as they don't "specialize" in flavorings (we found out later that there are two types of the generic flaygl and Walgreens gave us the cheap one - the one that Scientists won't even give lab animals!) We no longer do any business with this store, but that's a whole other story.....Thank God I started calling around and found a wonderful Pharmacy in our area that specializes in compound medications and flavorings for children, we took the rest of the "Crap" walgreens had done to them and they were able to make magic with it and Cassidy took the rest with no problem. We thought we were clear and that would be the end of this nasty little bugger! BOY were we wrong! She just finished her 2nd round of the compound formula on the 16th and I'll be darned if the damn bug didn't re-appear just yesterday! She is now starting her 3rd round of the same meds this afternoon with a slight increase in dosage to at least get the stools to stop until she can see the Peds GI on the 5th. I feel so bad for her as I know the cramping alone is painful - you can see it on her face when they start. I bought some GasX for her today and that seems to be helping with the cramping. I just wanted to thank the creators of this site! If this was not available I would've never known about this disease as not alot of information is out there concerning it - in fact at one point Cassidy's Dr. had to go online with the AMA to verify the correct treatment for her. I don't want to mislead anyone either as I love her Dr. - he is a wonderful man that really cares about his patients - he has called at least 2 days a week since all this started to check up on Sissy's progress. I have learned alot from this site and wanted to share our experience with others who have Toddlers dealing with this disease. From what we have learned, read, and been informed of - this normally happens to infants and the elderly - even on this site there are only a few cases on Toddlers. I am concerned for Cassidy's future battling this and am really hoping the Peds GI will have some good advice or treatment options available for her on the 5th. If you are one such as myself who has just been exposed to this and have a toddler my daughter's age, please feel free to email me - I have gotten tons of useful, friendly, and welcome information and advice myself from others on this site. It makes all the difference in the world to have someone to talk to who is experiencing the same thing. Thanks again to all of you! [Guest Posted by: 'Stacy']

Guest · Postby **Guest** » Mon Jan 27, 2003 11:27 pm

1-27-03 Update: Well, Cass came down with a really bad case of the flu complimants of her older brother and we ended up in the ER last night. She just couldn't stop coughing long enough to even catch her breath so I took her in. Needless to say she threw up all her meds the entire evening so no flaygl doses until today when she could finally take a breather from the coughing. Here is the part I found just flabberghasting last night: The peds doc on call wanted a chest x-ray to rule out pnuemonia so they shot them, the Radiologist found the distended loops in her stomach and colon on these x-rays and "flipped out"! Now, I told them all from the very start she had C Diff and was currently taking her 3rd of Flagyl for it - but this Radiologist had never actually personally seen the effects of this disease in a patient so young and was not aware she had it - he thought he had made a medical discovery in this little girl and wanted us to stick around until he could tell her real Peds Dr. about his findings. If my little girl had not been so miserable and way past her meds time I would have found this amusing, but as this was not the case I became very annoyed with this Radiologist. It floored me to think that no-one caring for her last night was concerned to the fact that she couldn't quit coughing and at least offer some cough syrup or something - instead they wanted to "marvel" at my little girl's "distended & looped" stomach and intestines. As you all already know and as I am finding out more and more of the medical community is totally unaware of this disease - last night was living proof. Today she is doing much better as we have kept up with the meds so the coughing fits don't have a chance to get her again. Just thought I would pass along this information to future new comers to the disease. [Guest Posted by: 'Stacy']

Guest · Postby **Guest** » Sat Feb 08, 2003 1:38 am

2-7-03 Well, we went to see the Peds GI on the 5th. Cass finished the last dose of the 3rd round of Flagyl on the 3rd so she had been off of it for 2 days on the visit to the GI. He did a quick stool sample in the office for blood and found none, then ordered a complete stool sample as well as a CBC to rule out Crohn's Disease. We had that done today (it went really well considering Cassidy has never had her blood taken - she had a GREAT nurse who made it very easy for her - no tears or fights!) Anyway, so far 5 days off the 3 rd round of meds and no return of the C Diff - really keeping my fingers crossed this time it does not come back! Dr. Misra wants to wait this out for now until the results of the CBC and the Stool Culture / Test come back as well as if the C DIFF returns he ordered another stool sample to test for IDB. IF the C Diff returns he wants to scope her at that point to see what is causing the C Diff to remain in her little system. Like i said so far - 5 days and no re-occurrence - keeping the fingers crossed!!!! [Guest Posted by: 'Stacy']

Guest · Postby **Guest** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 5:08 pm

2-10-03 YEAH!!!! I just received a phone call from Dr. Misra (Peds GI) with the results of Cassidy's stool sample and blood work we had done on the 7th. Both came back perfectly normal with only the c-tera(hope that's right) count being elavated in her blood, but they feel it is from the flu she battled and not from the C Diff as the stools show absolutely no blood or C Diff toxins. He wants us to continue with the Probiotic maintenance to keep the flora intact and suggested using Acidophilius capsules and sprinkle that in the cereal and yogurt instead of the florasource. I want to dance around the room with her, but am too scared to just yet as it has only been 7 days since she stopped the 3rd of Flagyl. Oh, I am so wanting this to be the end of this for her!!!! We are praying and crossing our fingers it is over for her and want to THANK eveyone on this site for all the great information and helpful advice they offered us during this time. I really hope it is over! :o) [Guest Posted by: 'Stacy']

Guest · Postby **Guest** » Sat Apr 05, 2003 2:04 pm

4-4-03 Well, Cassidy is C DIFF free!!!! Another test showed negative to both toxin A & B - BUT now we have problems with BM's. She has gone from one extreme to the next and has become constipated due to the Irregular pattern of her colon due to the C Diff. She has some areas that are the size of a pinhead and some that are the size of a quarter which is making it hard for backed up stool to get through. We have tried colace for a week, but it tasted so bad I finally just went and bought the Senokot for Children Syrup (chocolate flavor). Gave it to her yesterday and no problems today - she is pain free and cleaned out! Thanks again to everyone on this board and please don't take offense to this statement, but I sincerely hope that the next time I log on here it is just to chat with all the friends I have made here and not because the C Diff has returned!!!!! Thanks again

Cassidy's Case

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