Stephanie-24yr (antibiotic Omnicef)

[Guest]

May 2005- <BR> <BR>I am writing this as I am waiting to see if the Phantom Devil will reappear... AKA C.Diff. But I must start at the beginning. <BR>December 2005- after battling chronic migraines everyday for a year, and being on heavy narcotics to function, I went to visit my parents for the holidays. Everyone was sick and knowing my immune system was down I decided to go see my old script happy PCP for treatment of some mild flu-like symptoms I was having. He sent me home with 5 days worth of Omnicef. ( See list of bad antibiotics... it is not listed by name but research revealed that it is a cephalosporin. Death to them all!) 5 days worth of samples to be exact. I took all but two... Migraine trouble prevented me from remembering to take those two doses. And then a couple of weeks later I woke up and felt like I had been beaten all nite. Flu-like body aches dominated my being. But I was able to get into to see the great Doctor immediatly. ( My sweet mother drove me.) I kind of laugh now, but as soon as the Doctor walked in the door I began vomiting violently. This went on for a minute or two while he talked with my mother and she told him my symptoms. "I think your throat is going to be too raw from throwing up for me to do a strep test, so let me give you something for pain and an antibiotic because it sounds to me like you have strep." Home I went with Amox. and the usual advice... liquids, rest, and Tylenol for fever. I don't remember much from those three days. My head killed.. sound made it worse so people had to whisper to talk to me. I don't think I drank or ate much because everytime I saw my mother she was trying to get me to eat or drink something. I started to have hallucinations. On the morning of the third day she called the Doctor's office and told them that I was actually getting worse.. some watery stools had begun to plague me. His nurse advised my mother that I could come back in or go to the hospital.. What could the hospital do for me I asked my mom? Evidentially she thought more than the Doctor's office and away we went. I was in a lot of pain at this point and still hallucinating, actually continued to do so for 3 days into the stay. They saw that my white cell count was 16 ( normal is 4-6 they said ) and put me on IV Levaquin. Until they tested my stool and found that I had C.Diff.. They switched me to IV Flagyl and after a couple rough days the nausia, vomiting, running to the bathroom 7 or more times a day and hallucinations went away. They released me after I was able to keep down my first solid meal. I was given two weeks worth of Flagyl and told that I would feel better in no time. But during that time my energy never came back as I have heard since coming to this site is common with that drug. <BR> <BR>I finished on a Wednesday, felt OK Thursday and was feeling terrible by friday. I finally went to the ER again on Sunday because it said on the discharge notes to come back if you have a high fever. Doc said no loose watery stools yet, so here is some Ibprophen for your body pain and come back if it gets worse. $50 dollars for an IB script. I must note however that they did give me IV fluids because I was dehydrated and that the nurse told me that when I sat up I might have the urge to pee. But I did not and called my sweet mother to come and get me. She lives about seven minutes from the hospital. I got up out of the car seat went straight into the bathroom and out came the water.. from the wrong end. We called, they said to see how it went. It want badly until 9 pm that night when I decided to give them another visit. They ran some more tests and wow..I had some kind of infectious stool and they were just going to write me a script and send me home. But for good measure he would start me out on some IV antibiotics to give me a head start. Again the irony of violent vomiting at this point was not lost on me. And up to be admitted I went. Another week. But this time with Vanco and Flagyl. Home with 9 days worth of meds. <BR> <BR>O.K. for almost two weeks and then one Friday I felt a little feverish while running errands. Came home ( still have not left parents home yet) and one trip to the bathroom was all it took to have me back to ER. At this point I was not having accidents on myself yet and my fever was low grade so I had to beg the ER doc to admit me. I told him look, you have my stool sample, if it comes back negative send me home. No harm no fowl. He agreed and thank God for it. Within 24 hours it got ugly. And the test was negative, but I was soo sick they kept me and did another one. Second round was positive and the colonscopy that followed showed those little hills called something-membrane colitis. Another week. And a month of Vanco and Flagyl. <BR> <BR>Toward the tail end of the taper I smelt the smell and the stools were loose with lots of abdominal pain. But this time I was in my new home state with my hubby and did not want to wait to get sick, so I freaked out and went the second my temp went over 100. When I got to the ER no temp, lost my first sample, started me back on antibiotics right away and all tests were negative. I went home and found this site. Obsessed for a couple of days and let it go. <BR> <BR>Om the 20th I had a fever of 101.9 and the 21st brought on the quintessential C.Diff smell and mucus and yucky watery stool that haunts the C.Diff suvivor. My new doc suggested Immodium. I told him I didn't think it was a good idea if it was C.Diff again but he doesn't think it could be C.Diff because well.. I was wrong last time. <BR>May 31st- <BR>Last week my stool sample came back positive for C.Diff with both toxins A and B present. The Immodium has been discontiued and I am on Vanco until I meet with the Infectious Disease doctor to make a game plan. I would like to look into the fecal infustions and hope she is open to the idea. Thanks to anyone who has taken the time to read this and I hope you are healed soon!! <BR><BR>[Guest Posted by: 'Stephanie']

[stephine]

Last July I contacted Dr. Borody's office ( Sharyn) via email for a telephone conference. Sharyn is wonderful. She took a brief case history and then told me about the fecal infusion treatment for C.Diff. It sounded like something I wanted to do, so I bought the protocol, the price of which included calls and emails whenever I had qestions... which turned out to be a few along the way. I then asked a few doctors here in CA if they were willing to oversee the procedure.. as in ordering the testes for the potential donor. No one here wanted to touch it with a ten foot pole. And seeing as I don't know very many people here I decided to contact my old PCP in AZ and see if he would be willing to help out. Another advantage to my going to AZ is that my donor pool would be much larger. Amazingly he said he would. ( I have not talked to him about putting his name on here for reference.) So in late July I went to AZ. I thought I would be there for 14 days or so. HAHAHA!!!

The first person I had tested had CMV and Epstein Bar. And the tested took about two weeks to get back. Thank God I was staying with my parents and they were happy to have me. A little note on the testing: Understand that if you have to pay out of pocket for each person to be tested its $2200 each.. or at least with the labs I asked. From then on we decided that in case their insurance would not pay for the tests we would have them blood tested first for the CMV and Epstein Bar, then if they passed we would go on with the rest of the blood tests and then the stool tests if all went well. The next person tested about a week later had CMV as well and the next had received a HEP B vaccine. The next person I asked to get tested had a lot of scheduling conflicts and while we were waiting for the right time to come around someone else volunteered to be tested. By this time it was November. I still remember the day we got her tests results back. SHE PASSED EVERYTHING! We decided to wait until after the holidays to start. I was on Vancomycin the entire time. ( Sometime in August or September I went to see a Gastro doc who told me that he could not believe I was still on Vanco and said I was probably cured and should get off... so I stopped and started to get sick again and went right back on. I called his office to let him know what happened and never heard from them again. So typical.)

I went home to see my husband in Dec. and the second week of Jan. we started. I don't know about most people but I needed someone there to help make sure the tube was staying in and flowing well. ( In October I went to stay with a family that is very close to my husband and I and the mom is a stay at home mom. I could not have done the infusion without her help.) I was able to keep the infusion in everyday. I had some cramping and one day of loose stool after I finished the infusion, but I called and talked with Dr. Borody who said what I was having was normal. Everyone is different. If you decide to do this and something weird happens please call them. They are more than willing to answer all your questions.

So, in a nutshell it totally worked for me. It is March 1st and I have not had any C.Diff symptoms. I still have some pain when I have gas, but am told that IBS is common after C.diff. The procedure was much easier than I ever thought it was going to be. If you are considering doing the fecal infusion... don't wait. Email them ASAP and start looking for a donor or planning your trip to Australia. ( We just could not afford to go to Australia, but if you can, do it... they have donors already lined up.) I was sick for over a year and in the hospital 4 times with really bad bouts of psudomembrane colitis. The fifth time I tested positive I just took care of it at home... took the antibiotics before I got super sick like the other four times. If it can help me I think there is hope for anyone. Take care!!