Donna R's Case History

[Donna1967]

Hello, I'm new here! Freshly diagnosed with c. diff after a stool test was positive.

A little back history: had 'chronic fatigue' for many years, then diagnosed with adrenal exhaustion in 2001. Did not get on proper treatment until 2008, suffering many health (mostly exhaustion) setbacks in those 7 years. Finally got onto cortico and mineralcortical steroids in 2008 (Cortef and Florinef), and added Klor-Con, which is slow release potassium. Health improved immensely, although it did reveal an underlying hypothyroid issue. I take Armour thyroid for that and feel pretty good. Around 2006, I started developing food intolerances, mostly grains. Going gluten-free helped with that issue, and I found I had to be careful with dairy. Other than that, I ate mostly healthy whole foods, although I avoid red meat.

In February 2009, I began babysitting a young infant once a week on Wednesdays, and he was in daycare the other 4 weekdays. Everything was fine until he got a little older, maybe around 12 months old. I then noticed that I would be sick with colds the weekends following my babysitting him. This continued into the winter of 2010, and in January 2010, I got an intestinal bug from him. As I recall, the illness lasted a couple of days-- fever and diarrhea. Wow, TMI, but I could not make it to the bathroom a couple of times-- this was NOT normal for me. I recovered in a few days, and a few months later, I noticed that I needed to run to the bathroom more often in the mornings. This continued (and I continued babysitting) throughout the spring, and by the summer, I found that there were a lot more foods that I was unable to tolerate: most fructose and FODMAP-y foods. Eliminated those, and saw much improvement. By not tolerate, I mean: I'd have a glass of juice or piece of fruit, and I'd be in the bathroom withing an hour with watery diarrhea. I lost about 20 pounds that summer because the only food I could tolerate was cod fish and chicken.

By the summer, I'd consulted a GI doc, and he scheduled a stomach scope and colonoscopy. Stomach showed a gastric ulcer and a peptic ulcer, but no signs of H. Pylori. Colon/intestines were negative for Celiac, but did show some irritation. GI doc put me on 2 Prilosecs a day (I've never had heartburn/gerd/reflux a day in my life, even while pregnant), and sent me on my way. A follow-up stomach scope in November 2010 showed ulcers had healed, but doc told me to continue Prilosec.

Stayed on the FODMAP diet since summer 2010, and cannot tolerate any sort of those foods. My naturopath recommended that I stop babysitting, as the possibility of contracting something worse from my young charge was quite high. Stopped babysitting the boy in the October 2010. This year, the food issues got worse, and I was up and down with the severity of the gut issues. Sometimes I'd react to foods, sometimes not. This summer it got bad again, and I"m down to 5 things I can eat. I saw the boy I used to babysit a few weeks ago, and his mom had him 'give kisses' to me and my mother. Within 1-2 days, I had a fever, and diarrhea every morning for a week. This drove me to my acupuncturist, who treated me, and suggested that I follow-up with the GI doc and have a stool sample done. Long story short, the culture came back positive for c. diff., and the doc put me on Metronidazole.

More soon...

[Donna1967]

So I began the metronidazole (three 500 mg tablets for 14 days) on September 10th (took saccharomyces boulardii for 2 nights prior), with 1 saccharo during the day. Experienced gut pain for 1-3 hours abour 3 hours after taking each tablet. The gut pain post-pills lasted about 2 days, then I settled into the med. On day 4, I started having feverish (I don't spike fevers with the hypothyroid, for some reason) spells, and felt like I was coming down with something. BMs all fine during this time... Called the GI doc on Friday about the flu-like symptoms on Thursday, he said he didn't know what that was, and to continue taking the meds and if I didn't feel better by Monday, to call him, and we might consider switching meds. He said the gut pain wasn't from the med, but the pharmacist said that the gut pain probably was from the med.

Day 5 was better, day 6 the same.

Days 7, 8 and 9 have been a horror show of brownish/orangey jelly-like BMs that feel like pure acid coming out of me. Oh, and there are tiny bits of clear 'grit' that's the consistency of sugar, but feels like sandpaper. And this is with urgency/gas. Seriously, it feels like lava coming out. Having had 2 babies, the rear-end pain equals the episiotomies I had with each of my sons. My poor rear-end is so swollen and irritated and bloody (not leaking blood, but skin is so abraded that it's spotting on the TP), and something feels very WRONG about this.

On day 8 (yesterday) I called the GO doc back to report the new stools and how I felt. He said, "I don't know why you're having the pain, I don't know why you're having the sand things, I don't know why you're pain in your anus, maybe it's a fissure. That's the c. diff., not the med. Stay on the med for another week." What? If I've had c. diff. for god-knows-how-long, wouldn't the orange poops have reared their ugly head by now? In all my life, I've never experienced BMs like the past 3 days. No less than four runs to the bathroom this morning, each with pain so bad that my hands were shaking... Tucks, baby rash ointment, hydrocortisone cream and powder do not help. This was all before the morning dose. Today, I decided that another week on this is well-nigh impossible. No way can this be 'normal' for a mild c. diff infection. Ditched the metronidazole, the saccharo, and took an Imodium, and it's kicking in finally. Glad to not be excreting fire for several hours!!

Just got off the phone with the doc who is covering for my primary. She said that the Flagyl probably isn't my ideal med, and wants me off it (I agree!), and since I have little risk factors for contracting c. diff., to retest in case it was a false positive. That'll be Thursday. Pending those results, she suggests Vancomycin if that comes back positive. So hoepfully the next few days will be a nice respite. I will update soon!