Did anyone get C. Diff from surgery?

[kdosreis 1]

Did anyone get C. Diff from surgery? I am 7 days out and was feeling great until yesterday when I woke up with a horrible fever, chills, weakness, fatigue and diarrhea. I went to the Er and after countless blood drawings, a CAT scan and a chest x-ray I was told I got colitis (c. Diff) from the surgery. Anybody else have this happen??? The er doc made it sound like this is really uncommon and it's freaking me out.

[Fiddleman 4,376]

I believe the only member I read that had c diff is Kindle (required a fecal transplant). Do a search under this member and you can read all about their experience.

[Jennifer2575 55]

Did anyone get C. Diff from surgery? I am 7 days out and was feeling great until yesterday when I woke up with a horrible fever, chills, weakness, fatigue and diarrhea. I went to the Er and after countless blood drawings, a CAT scan and a chest x-ray I was told I got colitis (c. Diff) from the surgery. Anybody else have this happen??? The er doc made it sound like this is really uncommon and it's freaking me out.

. I'm 5 weeks out- at 3 weeks I had really bad nausea and diahreah bad. I made appt with surgeon and they did a stool sample and it confirmed difficile c. I was told it's just a reaction to an antibiotic they give you during surgery. The funny thing is they gave me another antibiotic to cure it. It's called metronizadole. After about 3 days on it I felt so much better. The pill is huge and I have to cut up in 7 pieces to get down and I take nausea meds with it cause it causes nausea and bitter taste. I was miserable for about 3 days but myself now- I lost 10 pounds in 4 days. I'm sorry you have this- I was do upset but once I got the meds things were back to normal. I have to take the antibiotics 14 days. Let me know how your doing.

[kdosreis 1]

Thank you for responding!! That makes me feel a little better that someone else went through the same thing. I was reading stuff online and it freaked me out. I am as we speak sitting in the ER waiting room, my surgeon told me to get there ASAP since it seems I'm dehydrated. I've been on the Flagyl for a couple days now but it hasn't done much for me. Hopefully I will feel better soon without need for anything other than the antibiotics I will keep you posted

[Jennifer2575 55]

Thank you for responding!! That makes me feel a little better that someone else went through the same thing. I was reading stuff online and it freaked me out. I am as we speak sitting in the ER waiting room, my surgeon told me to get there ASAP since it seems I'm dehydrated. I've been on the Flagyl for a couple days now but it hasn't done much for me. Hopefully I will feel better soon without need for anything other than the antibiotics I will keep you posted

. Yeah the dehydration freaked me out too so I drank as much as I could. If they hook you up on iv you will feel so much better. Your case sounds a bit worse then mine but I'm sure you will be on the mend.

[Kindle 8,667]

I got C. diff 5weeks postop. Gastroenterologist and infectious disease doctor both felt I got it as a result of the clindamycin I was on for a tooth root abscess rather than a direct result of my VSG surgery. Multiple rounds of two different antibiotics did not work. Diarrhea would stop while on the Meds, but would come back within a week of stopping. I chose to get a fecal transplant rather than continue with the antibiotic treatments. Ended up costing me over $2000 but it was well worth it to finally be cured (I had been sick for over 2 months and ended up needing IV fluids for dehydration 3 times)

You can read more details here...

www.bariatricpal.com/topic/303173-fecal-transplant-scheduled/

Good luck. I sure hope the antibiotic treatment works for you. And make sure you talk to your doctor carefully about any future antibiotic regimens. My gastro told me to avoid antibiotics unless ABSOLUTELY necessary.... I even have it on my medical alert necklace.

Edited May 16, 2014 by Kindle

[DaddyMarie 291]

What's C Diff?

[Kindle 8,667]

Clostridium difficile...a bacterial infection in your colon. It's not so much the Clostridial bug that's the problem, but the toxins it releases. They destroy the lining of your colon and can actually cause perforation of the colon.

I'm a vet tech and see dogs and cats with Clostridial diarrhea all the time. In fact, this is where I probably picked it up in the first place since they can carry the same strain that infects people. It was the antibiotic I was on that killed off my normal good gut flora and allowed the C. Diff to take over.

Ironically, cattle and other ruminants can get this same thing (it's actually a slightly different strain...C. Perfringens) and it can kill them within hours. There has been an antitoxin vaccine available for them for decades. Pharmaceutical companies are just now getting around to researching a similar vaccine for people.

[Sister#2 2]

I also got C Diff after my VSG. For me, it was 1 week Post Op. I was so relieved to see that others had the same issue and that it was the antibiotics and not a complication from the surgery. I lost 20lbs in 3 weeks while I was sick. Initially I was prescribed Flagyl, it was horrible. It made me so nauseous. I was heaving all the time and my urine was the color of Pepsi! After 5 days my doctor told me to stop taking it since it was making me sick and the diarrhea was gone. It was risky and sure enough, 3 days later I had a relapse. I was then prescribed Vancomycin. It was $1100 for a 10 supply but it was so worth it! Within a few days I was feeling so much better. The worse thing now is that I feel set back with my sleeve progress. Once the diarrhea stopped and I started keeping food down I guess my body wanted to just grab on to it and I have gained back 2lbs in the last 2 weeks. I'm sure things will level out soon. I'm still trying to regain enough energy to finally start exercising. When I was sick it took all my strength to have a shower. One thing that I thought I would mention in case anyone is reading this pre-op is that you might have warning signs even before your surgery. For me, I always develop a yeast infection when I take antibiotics. Had I known I would be given so much antibiotic after my surgery, I would have discussed this with my surgeon before hand. I know they are trying to prevent infection but the antibiotic overkill which caused the c diff was just as dangerous.

[Kindle 8,667]

So sorry you had to go through that, but glad the vanco worked for you! After two rounds of flagyl (that made me incredibly sick, too ) and two rounds of vanco I finally had to have a fecal transplant. And don't worry, your body will recover and get back on track. I've done great since recovering.

And yes, it's the antibiotics, not the surgery that causes C. diff. After going through all that I actually had "no antibiotics" added to my medical alert necklace. Of course the surgery didn't help because I couldn't drink enough to keep up with the diarrhea and needed IV fluids for dehydration 3 times. The infectious disease dr I saw said she sees 10 new cases a week and many of them had never even been hospitalized before. The CDC had issued warnings about C. diff and antibiotic use. They are calling it the new MRSA. And it's finally killed enough people that they are finally researching better preventative and treatment options.

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

Gosh! Learned a lot from this thread. Thanks to the OP (sorry about your infection -- very best to you!). And thanks to Kindle and others who shared their experiences and so much info.

So much I don't know.

[draytonp 6]

Going through it right now. I am on both Flagyl and Vanc. Getting the Flagyl down is the worst. I am almost always nauseous. I know I will get through this, I am just concerned about getting enough fluids to keep up.

[Kindle 8,667]

The Fluid thing was definitely hard for me and seems like Flagyl hits everyone the same way....I could barely eat/drink for almost a month. Just FYI, I was also advised to take Saccharomyces Boulardii and Probiotics. I ordered the Saccharomyces online and the best Probiotics will be something multi-strain and found in the refrigerated section of a good health food or whole food store. Garden of Life has several products that are 30+ strains and over 50billion CFU. The only problem is, the vanco and flagyl will kill them like they are killing everything else in your GI tract. To save money, I'd start taking them a couple days before you end the antibiotics and continue for several weeks.

Good luck!

Edited August 17, 2014 by Kindle

[draytonp 6]

I have the probiotics on hand, I have a while before I reach that point. I am still not able to eat much. Sad when a solid bowel movement is on my list of things to pray for.

[Kindle 8,667]

Oh, I feel you! I was making "deals" with the GI gods that I would be happy to never lose another pound if the infection would just go away.