C. difficile – Are your guts ever normal again?

Pines@pines, thank you for remembering me. I did beautifully in Thailand, loved every day my time away...did great on the long flights. I arrived home on the 23rd, and had mild diarrhea the last two days, once a day. I am monitoring it, terrified it may be back. I am seeing Dr on Wednesday...scary, but I know I am not alone...

@sakota Cdiff spores can live for months on things. You could have picked it up in a doctors office, nursing home or hospital while visiting someone. It's hard to tell. It is not airborne though. Hand washing is key to an infected person. I'm happy to hear that you have not relapsed. Stay well and yes, keep the faith as you battle lung cancer.

@serenityva So happy to hear you were healthy on your trip. Now let's hope you are well. Are you taking Florastor or some type of probiotic with S. Boulardii in it? I think that's really helping me.

THank you @pines for your response to my posting. I am taking vancomyacin . I am washing my hands constantly. What has surprised me is how little information there is about how to protect other people from catching it. I have a nurse practitioner friend who has worked with thousands of hospitalized patients with C.Diff. she says what you said about counters and light switches and washig hands. She also added that from now going forward I should never let a person eat from my plate or use my utensil (I guess because the spores can lie dormant in a host). Did you know that the EPA has a list of products that they approve as effective against C.Diff? I believe they work faster than bleach and water. Again thank you for your response.

I am feeling discouraged. I have been on a taper dose of vancomycin for over a months and a half. I start to feel better and then my stomach starts going crazy. I find I can not eat meat except chicken or fish. I am lactose intolerant. Can you share your food choices. I have read so much and tried to watch what I eat but nothing seems to help. Did this medication seem to be the one that helped or has it been long enough to say one way or the other. I have looked into the fecal transplant because I can not gain any weight and it has really taken a tole on my life. I am happy for you that you are getting better. I think clindamycin should have a warning due to cdiff. I work in a pharmacy and I talk to the doctors a lot and they say it should only be used as a last resort and cautiously. Thanks for listening. Merry Christmas. May the new year be better🙏🏻

I'm suffered for 7 days with what I thought was a bad case of the stomach flu until I went to my family doctor and they requested a stool sample and found from that that I had c-diff I believe this is the sickest I've ever been in my entire life

@bluebananna. How did they treat you & how are you doing now ? When I presented with my horrible diarrhea I thought I might have Cdiff because I had taken a round of antibiotics for a sinus infection. I don’t take antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. I had taken clindamycin before so I wasn’t to worried. Then I got this horrible Cdiff. I’m like you, I’ve never been so sick. Mine happened on the weekend so I waited until Monday morning to call my dr. They sent me to the ER because I needed fluids. I was started on Flagyl initially. I got better but as soon as 3 days off I was sick again. This happened 3 times & my GII changed me to vancomycin. I had 2 weeks of it. I’ve been off now for 7 days & I’m definitely better, but not ok. I have a loose stool in the morning & maybe one more later, but I always feel like I need to go. Almost everything I eat hurts my stomach except very soft things like cream potatoes, eggs etc. I’m lactose intolerant so I have to be careful with yogurts & things like that. I stay afraid all the time that it’s coming bsck. My GI dr said my next step if it does is a FMT. I’m terrified. This stuff is a nightmare. I hope you can overcome yours. Some do with just one treatment. Just stay on top of it because most have reoccurrence.

I have been reading for days all of your bouts of infections and treatment plans and have to give you all some information to help you along. The c.diff bug is a sinister bug that always lives in your gut. It is an opportunistic little bug that takes advantage of times when your good bacteria in your gut are not at their best. Meaning, there are not enough of them to fight the c diff bugs to keep them at bay. When you take ANTIBIOTICS...they wipe out ALL OF YOUR good biotics (your microbe) that keeps you healthy and well. The area of 32 feet of gut is a lot of space to cover and your c diff loves to live in it and rule it. The rule of the game then must be finding how to change the game so the the c diff doesn't like to live in this environment. Putting good things in your mouth and stomach begins in learning about what is clean and wholesome for you. First step - learn about your diseases so that you know what is the cause and how you can minimize the effects of them in whatever way that you can. Minimize the use of process foods, dirty foods, fatty foods and soda. Water is essential for your body since it is 80% of what you are made of. Prebiotics and Probiotics can be found in clean foods. Look that up on google or read about it in Anthony William's Book - Medical Medium Life-Changing Foods. I have a c.diff gut and will always have one but I don't let it rule my life. I rarely take my refrigerated probiotics but have them when I need them. I have yogurt on standby. I use lactaid milk because I can't tolerate milk products. Two meals a day for only fruits and vegetables. I start out my day with the celery juice that may seem like a waste and I can't see what it does for me on the outside but boy does it show in the lab values for my diabetes, weight management, and immune systems. I have included cucumbers and parley in my morning drink to jazz it up! My warm water has lemon slices in it that I sip throughout the day. In the morning I have an 1/8 tsp of Metamucil in my tea cup since the bowel are sluggish but the stools are working dandy after years of constipation and GERD. There is a starting point and an end point for everyone but it begins with the first step. Research your journey and find what works and doesn't work - keep track with your GI doc/NP so that you can find the path that will help you look at food as being helpful and not a hindrance to you health.