All those in the know have observed that I have been sick for several months. Things just haven’t been right “South of My Border.” Last week I had a colonoscopy. After it was over, the doctor sadly told me that we couldn’t find anything wrong. The next day I was deeply depressed. When the phone rang I didn’t expect the doctor to be at the other end. He was calling to tell me that a lab result showed that I tested positive for a parasitic bacteria called “Clostridium Difficile” or C-Diff for short. It’s caused as the end result of taking antibiotics. When the antibiotics kill the desired targets, it also kills the intestinal flora that we need to fully dispose of waste from our bodies.
I wanted to tell everyone that a “bug had crawled up my butt.”
My darling wife convinced me that I should more properly say that I had a “Parasitic infestation in my Sigmoid colon.”
PS…Idea for title accidentally stolen from “Dave The Man, Myth, Legend.” Sorry Dave, I’ll try harder next time.
If you’re gonna steal Dave’s comment, you should at least credit him with it!
Woo! I’m glad I can post comments now
I found this blog entry when i typed in “c diff surivors” in a search engine. I myself was recently diagnosed with c diff. (i got in from taking clandamycin) it’s NOT fun and is already frustrating the hell out of me! My diarrhea stopped but shit still isn’t 100% right. I have been in and out of my doc’s office all week, blood drawn 3 times, given countless stool samples, had a allergic reaction to the metronidazole so will possibly be precribed vancomycin when I see my doc tomorrow. I also have an appointment with a G.I. specialist on Monday so we’ll see.
My apologies for the long comment…LOL!
haha. shit isn’t right.
Christine
Thank you for the note. Although it may not seem like it will ever happen, life will get better for you soon.
I went through life with my big toe in one of the seven circles of Hell for 17 months. It started a year ago March as bad hemorrhoids …four surgeries ((1 major and 3 “minor” but still under general anesthesia)…and five different doctors) I was really beginning to wonder if I had a tattoo on my rear-end that said, “INSERT FINGER HERE —>”. After the hemorrhoids were removed last October (and my rectal canal was two inches shorter) I still had extreme pain and HORRIBLE diarrhea. When I begged the surgeon to fix me or give me stronger pain pills… she accused me of faking the pain so I could get drugs…I dropped her in a heartbeat. In March I got the mumps (I’m 55 and I learned after I was looking like a chipmunk that the MMR shot I got when I was 10 was only good for 10 years). In April I finally went to a colorectal specialist. I kept getting sicker and sicker. In June I pretty much lost control of my bowls. In July I spent days in bed…only getting up to hobble down the hall. One time I sneezed half way there… NOT a pretty sight. In August the colo doctor decided to do a full colonoscopy. I had had 10 stool series up to that point and the could never find the C. Diff bug. While the doctor was WAY up there looking around he good lots of samples. The next day was a horrible day. I sunk about as close to the bottom of the “pit” as a person can go. Then the doctor called to say that lab found lots of C. Diff. He called in an Rx and two days later I got the meds. Four days later I started started feeling better. Six days later I felt much better and I finished the meds. Five and a half weeks later I feel like the “poster boy” for C. Diff survivors.
If the doctor orders vancomycin for you be prepared for two big surprises…The first will be when you pick up the vancomycin from the pharmacy and you find out how much you have to pay. My 40 pills (4 times a day for 10 days) cost me $149. I called the insurance compay yesterday to “fix the mistake the pharmacy had made” and I was told that the retail cost was actually $1800 and that the $149 was my copay. YIKES
The next big surprise awaiting you will be the day you wake up in the morning and realize, “WOW…I feel normal again!!!!!” The day it happened to me I just lay in bed, next to my darling wife, and relished in the eupoia. I haven’t had a pain pill in over three and a half weeks (except for 800mg of Ibuprofen in the evening after work). and I can actually sit in a chair like a normal person and pass gas without fear of humiliating myself.
I went through my pharmacy records yesterday and figured it all out. Starting with the hemorrhoids through the surgery and then the mumps and the colo doctor trying to figure it out, I was given eight different kinds of antibiotics. In the beginning the pills would make the C. Diff worse and the Flagyl (metronidazole) made me violently sick. But once I took the vancomycin I started getting better.
On my final visit with colo doctor, I asked him, “How would you rate the severity of my C. Diff Colitis?” He answered, “Probably a mild to medium case.” I was surprised and said, “If I had a mild to medium case, what’s a severe case like?” Without even blinking he answered, “I take your colon out.”
I religiously eat a container of yogurt and two acidophilious pills a day….and I’m not taking any more antibiotics until I fully understand what it will do to my entire system!!!!!
Good luck to you…and remember…as bad as it is…it could be MUCH worse.
God bless you Christine.
Bob Boisvert
have you added the product Florastor for c diff relapse I have used it results were very beneficial