cdiffsupport.com

[anlockwood]

So my story began like many others has, with the use of clindamycin. I had a sore on my leg that wasn't clearing up and it kept getting bigger and more painful and didn't look like any other sore I had ever seen. So finally I go to the dr. He doesn't culture it but says it is CA-MRSA and puts me on clindamycin. Mistake number one, if I knew then what I know now I would have insisted on a culture. I actually did fine on the clindamycin, had soft stools but nothing bad. I had a 3 month old at this time. Fast forward a month I decided to return to work and put my son in daycare. He was 4 months old, I believe. He picks up a nasty cold and shares it with me. I felt like death warmed over. I could barely breathe. Went to the dr and they put me on Biaxin and Steroids. Immediately I get so sick to my stomach I feel like I could die and start having some D. I call the dr and tell them what is going on and I am concerned about c diff(thats right I said c diff to them) and they said nope wasn't that not to worry and instead start taking amoxicillan. Well I get even sicker so next day I go into the dr and tell them once again I think it may be c diff. He insists no way refuses to do a stool test and tells me to take the antibiotic. So I do. By 1 am the next day I have D so bad I am in the bathroom 7 times in less then an hour. I go to the er. He assures me he is 100% sure I have c diff based on symtpoms and on the antibiotics I had been on. Puts me on a 7 day course of Flagyl(not nearly long enough) and sends me home. Please also know my husband was deployed during this time and I had no help so I literally was up the whole night at the er went home and got my older son to school and took the baby to daycare. Was so sick and went back to the er. Here they give me lomotil. Thats right, lomotil. I even said to the PA I thought you aren't supposed to take anything like that with c diff and she says no its fine. So that completely stops the D for 2 days. I didn't go at all. I didn't think anything of it because the PA said it was fine. So here comes Wednesday night and I get terrible terrible abdominal pain. I felt like I was going to die. I decided to drive myself to the er with my two boys. I got about 2 miles down the road and had to call an ambulance. The pain was beyond excruitating and my heart was out of whack and I had an extremely dry mouth. I had to leave my 4 month old and my 8 yr old in a parking lot with police to wait for my mother in law while they rushed me to the er. By the time I got there I think all the jumbling around in the ambulance got things moving again and I was able to have a bm and pass some gas. I think had this not had happened I would have had toxic megacolon. So anyways things were ok and I went home. Once again night from hell. During all of this my 4 month old was still sick. At this point I was so sick my brother came to stay with me. He helped alot. My 4 month old was then diagnosed with an ear infection and put on antibiotics. No one told me I could give it to him. No one ever said anything about reinfecting myself or someone else. His ear infection would not clear up so the put him on another antibiotic and it would still not clear so they did rocef(sp?) shots. Sure enough he started with the D. By this time I was educating myself. I pushed for a test to be done. It came back positive and he was started on Flagyl too. Horrible horrible medicine to give to a baby. Causes an automatic gag reflux. He would throw it all up. Ended up in the hospital for 2 days with him. They wouldn't let me hubby come home so I juggled this and being sick myself and caring for my 8 year old. It was pretty close to hell. We both started Florastor and he came home and started to improve. I was done with my flagyl and was left with IBS. He came off of his and did great. I hit my 70 day mark and so did he. Unfortunately at 73 days he got a stomach flu. The D started that same day. We did another test for C diff and it came back positive. The stomach flu caused vomitting and the flagyl was so terrible anyways he did not keep it down. So drs said no meds for 5 days. He went untreated with c diff for 5 days. He was 8 months old at this point. We ended up in the er to get fluids and are sent home. We try flagyl again and he vomits immediatly. I insist we try vanco and finally dr agrees. He loved it. Went down like a charm. He looked at us like thats it?? Thank the lord for this med. Within 3 days stools look good. We are doing a slight taper of 100 mg/4 a day for 2 weeks, then 3 times a day for a week and then 2 times a day for a week and hopefully it will be gone this time. It has been along road but we made it through by the grace of god. I believe all of this has happened to draw me closer to God and it was a definite test of my faith. I hope we will all beat this and it will become a distant memory. My guilt through all of this is that I passed something so horrific onto my baby and he will have to deal with this the rest of his life. It really tears at my heart. I will update how he does. We are shooting for the 90 day mark this time. 70 didn't mean much in his case so 90 sounds better!!
Amanda

[anlockwood]

Just wanted to update all the fun stuff that has been going on.

Bryton is doing great! He is now 18 months old and for the most part his stomach has returned to normal! He is a healthy happy toddler. We do our best to keep him away from other kids who may be sick and will continue to so that he has the best chances of never having to deal with this again. He is now 9 1/2 months post meds.

I myself have not been so lucky. I had multiple issues with my teeth in the past 2 1/2 months. At this time I have had 2 root canals and 3 teeth pulls. The last root canal started in with pain 24 hours afterwards. I tried to wait it out but it continued. I call the endo and he said I absolutely had to take antibiotics. I told him my history and he said there was no other option. I started with penvk which I hadn't had since a kid because I get extreme nausea with it. Sure enough after only a few pills severe nausea and then D set in. My dr switched me to z pack and said to start flagyl right away. At this point I was up to going 7 times a day. I started the Flagyl and continued the z pack but felt like complete death. It was like the past year had been completely undone. What a way to celebrate a year anniversary off meds. Anyways went back into dr because literally felt like I wasn't going to make it. She said I had to get iv fluids and toradoll(only safe med to use for pain with active D as she put it). I had to leave and go to endo first because tooth still hurt and then come back. Could have punched the endo in the face when he said stop the antibiotics I don't think you ever needed them! GRRRRR! Same day I had to go back and get the freakin IV. Dr switched me over to Vanco to see if that helped and it did. What a blessing. I went to my Gastro dr to see how she wanted to proceed as I am also scheduled to have my gallbladder out. She put me on a 6 week taper because this is a reoccurence she doesn't want to chance a relapse. She said I should be fine to have the gallbladder out. Well fast forward a week and the same root canal tooth and one I had done a few months earlier are both killing me. Yesterday I went back into the dentist and had them both pulled. I am done messing around with it. I will just get replacements. I am supposed to have my surgery this Thursday God willing. I hope my teeth do okay so that I can. Will let you know how it goes and how the taper goes.

[anlockwood]

Well I had my gallbladder removed as scheduled. The actual surgery went fine. The 3rd day afterwards I began with loose stools and the smell of c diff returned even though I was still on 4 125mg vanco a day. They didn't know if it was from c diff or from gallbladder removal so they tested stool. I turned in a stool sample the following evening. By the 3rd day I was so sick I couldn't function. Every sip of water I took in came out as D with in 15 mins. I ended up in the ER and then the hospital for 3 days. The stool sample was positive. They up'd the vanco to 250 mg. This got it under control within a few days. I went home and did well. My gastro has decided I should do the vanco for 2 weeks with a chaser of xifaxin. My husband is out of town this week so I will chase it next week starting Monday. I am not feeling well right now. The last couple of days I have had frequent BM's, terrible nausea and have ate nothing but rice. I will probably have to go in to see the physicians assistant at the gastro office tomorrow. I feel pretty miserable and can't figure out why. I just wish this rollar coaster would end and things could get back to normal. I keep telling myself the saying this too shall pass but on these bad days that seems inconceivable.