Michelle's story

[Guest]

Well I am 31 year old mother of 3 little girls who has been dealing with c diff for 3 months now. In late October I was prescribed Clindamycin for an abcessed tooth. I did the 10 day course and 2 weeks after finishing the course, I awoke to strange stomach gurglings. As the day progressed, the cramps came with the frequent bowel movements and lots of mucus. I let this go on for 2 days before seeing my dr. who thought I had salmonella and had me do a stool test. 4 days later, the test came back negative for salmonella and he then ordered another test, this time for c diff. 4 days later I was back in his office, he told me I was positive for c diff but that he wanted to see if my body could fight it on its own. And over the next 13 days, my body seemed to be doing a good job. The cramps stopped and the mucus stopped, the urgency was gone but the frequency was still there. On the 13th day I ended up in emergency with blood in my now runny stools. The ER doctor hydrated me through intravenous..(was down 12lbs at this point) and gave me a script for flagyl, 500mg, 3x's a day. The flagyl worked well, I thought I had kicked it, then 2 days before finishing the course, the symptoms returned, only not as bad. So I was given a second course of flagyl with the same results. Followed by a 3rd course of flagyl. When I finished the 3rd course, I thought I had it beat. For 5 days off the meds all was well. I had another stool test which was positive and shortly after, all the symptoms began to return, again, not as severe as the times before. So I thought this was progress. My doctor prescribed a 4th round of flagyl which I stopped after 2 days as I could no longer handle the side effects....dizziness, headaches, shoulder pain, heartburn, feeling of not being with it, and very tired. Came off the flagyl and my internist put me on vanco, 125mg 4x's a day for 14 days. Again, all went well. On around the 7th day I started to have diarrhea and mucus again...I thought, "great, the last resort medicine isn't working for me! Now what? " But the next day, I felt better again. I have now, just finished that first course of vanco and have upped my own dose to 250mg p/day to get the symptoms back under control and am slowly feeling better. <BR> <BR>I am starting Lauren's pulse-dosing regime (check with your doctor before doing this) today. I am hoping that this will help kick this c diff out of me. I have discovered, unlike others, that certain food really affects me in negative ways. The healthier the food, the worse I feel. Ironic. I am still losing weight at a slower pace though. <BR> <BR>Daily I am taking reuteri, probiotic acidophillus and yoghurt. <BR> <BR>Here's hoping this will be gone by the time I do my update.