Mandy's case history

[mrowland06]

Hi. My name is Mandy and I am 32 years old. On March 24, 2011, I went to my family physician for abdominal pain. She did a urine test and said that it looked like it could be a UTI. So she put me on Cipro and that is what started my c-diff journey. In the end the urine culture came back negative for a UTI.

After 2 days of Cipro I started having a lot of abdominal pain along with a lot of gassy noises in my intestines. The 2nd night of Cipro I started having severe vomiting and diarrhea. By 3 a.m. I had lost all bowel control and was going to the bathroom every 20 minutes. At 5 a.m. the next day I was taken to the hospital by ambulance. I had become so dehydrated that the EMT couldn't even get a vein for an IV. I arrived at the hospital having even more diarrhea and once they started the IV with fluids the diarrhea and vomiting got worse. An abdominal CT scan was ordered along with blood work. The CT scan showed that my bowel was irritated. And the blood work showed that my white blood count was very low and I was extremely dehydrated. The doctor's original diagnosis was gastroenteritis. I was started on IV Flagyl and IV Cipro. 2 days later the stool sample test came back and showed positive for c-diff. The Cipro was stopped and I was only on Flagyl and IV fluids. After 48 hours of vomiting and diarrhea I started to feel better. Still had loose stools and was very weak, but not as bad as before. I was in the hospital 5 days for that visit. I was sent home with oral Flagyl.

2 days of being at home and no matter how much I drank I still couldn't stay hydrated. My mouth felt fuzzy and dry from the Flagyl, which caused my appetite to be gone. That night I got weak, dizzy, speech was slowed, and I could barely stand. I was taken to the hospital again. This time I was there for 4 days. I was switched from Flagyl to oral Vancomycin. The Vancomycin didn't give me any of the side effects that Flagyl gave me. I was given fluids and my BP was checked a lot. I had orthostatic hypotension. My BP would bottom out when I stood up.

I have been home from the hospital for 1 week now and am finishing the last dose of the vancomycin on Saturday. I still have 2-3 loose BM's a day and have not tried dairy or spicy foods. The good thing is that I have most of my energy back and have about 95% bowel control. I had the stool test and blood work done yesterday at my follow-up visit. Blood work showed potassium levels slightly high and we're still waiting for the stool test to come back. I am currently taking Align probiotic and will continue to take one every day for the rest of my life.

I am hoping that I am beating this terrible c-diff and that I can go back to normal soon!