C DIFF 2nd time?
Hello everyone, I had h pylori and took the quad therapy to eradicate it however, a few days after the therapy was finished I started having loose diarrhea multiple times a day so I got tested for cdiff and came back positive for both toxins.
I was out on dificid for 10 days. However after finishing the course I have still been having diarrhea which is yellow and grainy 4-5x times a day in small amounts.
The last 3 nights it has woken me up in the middle of the night with an urgency to go, leading to some gas and cramping as I emptied my bowels.
What do you think I should do? Get retested again? How do I fix this? Any advice would be appreciated
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I was prescribed Vancomycin for 10 days, but continued to have diarrhea 4-5 times a day after I finished the medicine. I asked my doctor if I could be re-tested and was told that I had to wait about 10 days after completion of the antibiotic to be re-tested. At that same time I started on a high potency probiotic (ProBioMed 250) and that drastically turned things around quickly for me. Stools firmed up, so I did not pursue re-testing. (If I had not seen this improvement I certainly would have retested after the waiting period). I noticed that any diarrhea I had happened within 20 minutes of eating, which eventually lead me to discover that I had developed post-infectious IBS as a consequence of the c diff toxins and antibiotics destroying the lining of my intestines. Certain foods triggered diarrhea during this time. I discovered the FODMAP diet (google it), which helped a great deal until I was able to eventually re-introduce all foods. This was a SLOW process to heal the lining of the gut. Also during this time I found a gastroenterologist who is an expert in C Diff who changed my probiotic to Visbiome (112.5) and Florastor. This was also a great help. Once my stools went back to normal I did not feel the need to re-test for C Diff. As soon as you are able to tolerate it - eating fermented foods are very good for repopulating your microbiome (yogurt, kimchi, raw, refrigerated - not heated -sauerkraut, kefir). Fast forward a few months, I became a patient of Dr. Sabine Hazan (ProgenaBiome.com) and have had my stool tested several times in an effort to fix my microbiome imbalance. Another great resource for C Diff is the Peggy Lillis Foundation at CDiff.org.
Just know that recovery can be a very slow process. It has been for me. It has been a little over 1 year since I got C Diff and I am finally back to eating all foods and have finally stopped losing weight. Be patient with yourself.
Wishing you all the best in your recovery…