C diff and newly sleeved:( TMI and lengthy. ..

[Staycee Vanshel 8]

Hey everyone. I was sleeved on Veteran's Day and have had a fairly blessed recovery for the most part. The only pain and issue am having now is an active c diff infection, which I assume arose as a result of my post surgery IV antibiotics.

For those of you who do not know what c diff is...this an intestinal bacteria is carried around by some people...I was a cna for years so I probably picked it up there despite following universal precautions. It is a very stubborn spore bacteria that can live on surfaces for a long time and can only be killed with bleach. Normally the good bacteria in the gut keep it at bay but antibiotics can kill all the good bacteria and this awful bug can take over.it gives bowel movement an awful, very distinct smell. It makes for frequent diarrhea and the toxins given off irritate thw colon...it can get very severe if untreated. This is what I have gathered from googling...so if there are any healt professionals out there that need to correct me feel free:)

Anyway, I had c diff once a couple years ago after 3 weeks of clindamyacin from a bad tooth..and it was bad...there was so much irritation that I guess it pressed on my nerves and my legs would go numb every time I had and episode of cramping from it. I was constantly running to the bathroom and the pain was horrible. I couldn't sleep or eat. It took over a month for me to get ot under control and when I thought it was leaving me it would seem to relapse. When I started eating brown rice it seemed to soak it up and get it out of there...I started taking Probiotics and eating yogurt to get things straight again.

This time I started out with a swollen abdomen. I had just figured out that I became lactose intolerant from my sleeve and the gas left but the swelling didn't. When I smelled the smell I knew! Yuck! Thank God I had my post op around then and started flagyl and Probiotics right away. I am on my 2nd day of flagyl (which ironically is an antibiotic). I only wish I had been on probiotics since before the surgery. I really should have known better! I also battled thrush before the c diff showed up..blech!

As awful as all this sounds I don't feel horrible....just very very uncomfortable:( Emotionally I feel the best I have since surgery...I am back to work, though very very part time..and I still have an appetite. Its uncomfortable because my poor swollen colon (lol) is pressing my tiny stomach and its even harder to get food in now...though I am still being vigilant about getting in fluids and protien. Flagyl is a yucky antibiotic...I can feel the irritation building up in my still healing sleeve:( It makes me a bit queasy at times but I have heard worst horror srories about these meds so I still consider myself blessed! Its very strange watching my weight come down as my jeans get tighter!

I am not having bad diarhea episodes now...but I believe all the swelling has my poop stuck! Very litle has happened at that end for 2 days.

Ok let me get to my point..anyone else out there going through or have gone through this? What helped? Outnof despiration I started eating small amounts of brown rice (chewed to death) before I was really supposed to..thank God it went down!..it has yet to come out! I also read that protien hinders the process..so I am going to try eating a bit of oatmean and unsweetwned apple sauce and drop down a little on protien shakes for a couple days. I also have been having Smooth Move tea every other day through this and prune juice on the opposite days. I think I need to have a diet that moves things along but not hard on my sleeve..any ideas out there? This is a very crazy thing to deal with at this stage of the game and I want it nipped in the bud! I know it will take time.

Prayers and suggestions are welcome and I hope this may have educated someone and I hope I didn't scare anybody. Probiotics are important!!!

[wannaBthinsoon 1,634]

WOW! I do have an acquaintance who has had C-Diff and has yet to be cured of it, even though she has had several fecal transplants. But. fecal transplants are the only "cure" I am aware of. Good luck to you.

[Staycee Vanshel 8]

There are different strains...some more resistant than others....scary what is out there to be caught...I know of someone who had to have a colonectomy over it:(

[Kindle 8,667]

I feel your pain. I got a C. diff infection, also from clindamycin for a tooth infection. It just so happened to be 6 weeks after my VSG. Uncontrollable diarrhea with about a 10 second warning via severe cramping. No stopping it, no preventing it. At first they put me on metronidazole for 10 days, diarrhea cleared up, all was fine but then came back within 2 days of stopping meds. Another two weeks of metronidazole. Same thing, cleared up but came back as soon as I stopped. The worst part was that the metronidazole made me extremely nauseous and I could barely eat or drink anything....I was seriously having to spit out my own saliva cause swallowing it made me gag. I ended up needing IV fluids for dehydration 3 times.

Plan B....vancomycin for three weeks. This is normally insanely expensive. $800-$1000 for the course but my gastroenterologist has a pharmacy that makes a vancomycin elixir for like $150. Vanco worked great....cleared up the diarrhea and didn't make me sick. But once again, 5 days after stopping the diarrhea came back.

Oh, BTW, I had been drinking/eating yogurt and taking OTC probiotics since day 3 postop. I was also taking a 22 strain 50,000CFU probiotic and Sacromyces supplements once I was diagnosed with C.diff. Obviously didn't matter.

So restarted Vanco and made plans for a fecal transplant. My insurance insurance wouldn't pay for it but I wasn't about to go through months and months of an ineffective antibiotIc regimen. Normal poop was worth the $$$ I had to pay. My gastroenterologist had done about 35 of them with a 100% cure rate. So I recruited a friend to be my donor.( my PCP's wife, actually), we went through all the blood and fecal tests to make sure she wasn't going to give me any other transmissible diseases and went ahead with the fecal transplant. It was super easy...just a glorified colonoscopy and it was an INSTANT CURE! Never had an issue since, and that was 20 months ago.

BTW, I now list all of the C diff risk antibiotics as allergies so no one ever administers them again. In fact, I don't plan on ever taking any antibiotics ever again unless it's life or death. I just had my gallbladder removed and I let them give me ONE injection of ampicillin periop but refused the postop prophylaxis.

Good luck!

Edited November 26, 2015 by Kindle

[Staycee Vanshel 8]

OMG. I had read some of your earlier posts before I put this up. You really went through it! Thank you for responding!

Since I had this before and managed to get free of it I am hoping this means I carry one of the less resistant strains.

That is a great idea listing antibiotics as allergies. I will be doing that. I have been fine with amoxicillin. I need to find out what they put in my IV.

Feeling a little better and less swollen today. Going to pray it goes away! Thank yiu so much for your input. There definitely needs to be more research done on this nasty stuff!!