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C. difficile – Are your guts ever normal again?
Digestive Health | Last Active: Jul 15 5:56pm | Replies (646)Comment receiving replies
Thank you again for your replies.
I sympathize with your situation. That is most difficult. I have read about such cases and have been terrorized.
I only had a HUGE DIARRHEA, went to the hospital 3 days later and spent a week in a private room overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. I thought "And Medicare pays for this? They did and I have very good Medigap insurance also.
I know about fecal transplant. One needs a close relative???
I am wondering if I had a different strain of C-diff.-perhaps weaker than today - so the ten days of Vancomycin did the trick, and I had no reoccurrences.
They now talk about how certain infections are more resistant to antibiotics because Doctors prescribed them unnecessarily. (How many people got it from Dentist prescription of antibiotics!!!!- My dentist sent me flowers after).
But I have googled and googled and not found any reporting on probability of having a C-diff outbreak when taking an antibiotic many years after the last outbreak. One would think someone is collecting such data. A life without antibiotics could be a problem. Of course, I am now almost 12 years older and have lung cancer which means my immune system is also weaker. So now my risk is greater.
Replies to "Thank you again for your replies. I sympathize with your situation. That is most difficult. I..."
At one time is a company open biome used to allow people who had suffered C. difficile infection’s to bank their stool with open biome, so that they could receive their own healthy stool in FMT. The next best thing is to use a close blood relative, preferably one who lives with you, because you know their health habits, their standard of living, and any health problems they may have. You share their genes. The chance of successful FMT is much greater. However, open biome decided that this was no longer a practice that was economically sensible for them. It was far more efficient to use donors, even though that was far more dangerous to the recipient. If I had to have FMT because Zinplava failed, I would use my daughter a healthy 42-year-old whose grandparents on both sides lived into their 90s. She also eats all organic and has made responsible life choices. Interestingly, since open biome discontinued, their practice of stool banking and allowing family members to be their stool donor, FMT is often performed at home as a do it yourself procedure. It’s an enema, which is not as effective as doing it via colonoscopy, but it is reportedly very successful. There are apparently a lot of videos out there that explain how to do FMT at home. I haven’t looked at them yet because I am hoping Zinplava works for me again. It’s been a little over two weeks and so far so good. My recurrence was the result of my dentist, using an antiseptic to fill the canal. After a root canal and to control the swelling, he gave me a steroid. Avoid steroids they suppress your immune system. Between the two of them I was back in the soup of CDI.
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Yea that must have been a pretty sweet gig in a private room overlooking the Gulf of Mexico! lol!
My transplant wasn't from a Relative but was (hopefully) screened carefully by the Hospital.
That's what they told me anyway! Its great you have had no reoccurrences in 12 years! you may well be in the clear to take Antibiotics. I'm very sorry to hear about your lung cancer. I wish you all the best!
I had a LOT of Upper Respiratory Infections growing up and all the Doctors around here anyway would give a Shot of Abx and writr a RX for you to take at home. I wish now I had toughed it out on a lot of sore throats, etc, knowing what I know now!! But, as you said, a life without any antibiotics at all would be a tough road to travel.