C-Diff

Kari..
What is C-diff? Not familiar with this term but understand from your description what it does....I'm in the constipation/ diarrhea phase...Miralax/Immodium....can't win....

So glad you're on the "tail" end of this.....and I didn't spit my Krispi Cream glazed donuts....lol
Hugs, Nancy

ps...I just looked it up on the.Mayo Clinic website...yikes! Had no idea it was so contagious...but it mainly said it's caused by antibiotics....but treated by two others...Flagyl and another...this website really explains it well....I just googled c.diff....

Kari, I hate, hate that you
Kari, I hate, hate that you are going through this and I'm sending positive healing energy and hugs your way!

Clostridium difficile is a bacteria that may or may not reside in a healthy colon. The problem comes when the c diff takes over the good bacteria in your intestine. This usually occurs after a course of antibiotics. Why? Antibiotics "sterilize" your colon. They wipe out good and bad bacteria in your colon and can cause a super growth of bad bacteria.

Once you have the c diff, you must, must follow medical advice carefully as it is a potentially very dangerous diarrhea. This usually means taking flagyl plus another antibiotic such as vancomycin. Follow carefully any other medical advice. Make sure you wash, wash, wash your hands after every bm as you can reinfect yourself.

The flagyl may make your feel pretty cruddy as, as my gi doc said, "flagyl is not a walk in the park." Eat what you can tolerate: clear liquids until the diarrhea subsides, then soups, potatoes, ginger ale, boiled eggs--whatever you can tolerate. Concentrate on replacing fluids and electrolytes more than solid food until you are better.

Just as important...when you are at the end of treatment and able to tolerate it, you need to reestablish the good bacteria in your gut. Really begin to eat yogurt with active cultures then. Also, your pharmacist can direct you to probiotic capsules to take with meals.

Hope this helps! I just did a great deal of reading on c diff, because I just got over a nasty bacterial gut infection. My c diff screen was negative and my physician thinks I may have had salmonella as we have had a community outbreak.

A heads up to all of you out there. We are immunocompromised--a fact that I personally like to deny ;-) Be careful with what you eat: wash your produce and avoid raw sprouts. Always wash your hands after going to the bathroom and keep hand sanitizer with you. Use it often. If you take antibiotics, ask about a probiotic and notify your health care provider immediately if you are having diarrhea.

Now enough with my lecturing. I just can't help myself. With a neurology professor father and being an NNP, I just grew up this way ;-)

Please get better soon Kari. I so sympathize with you right now. And pm me if I can help in any way.

See: http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/organisms/cdiff/Cdiff_infect.html

eihtak said:

pinkkari09
Hi, I truely hope you are on the mend now, but know that you made me smile. It takes a great deal to gross me out as I am not only recovering from BC, but also Anal Cancer. If you want to feel comfortable talking discusting side effects, thats a cancer to have!!! Any how, I have heard of C-Diff and believe it is just treated with time and a new antibiotic, just remember fluids so as not to get dehydrated. Feel better!

I am so sorry Kari. I am
I am so sorry Kari. I am praying for you every day!


Hugs, Megan

Bella Luna said:

Hugs
Miles of Love back at you sweet Kari. I am sorry to hear about the infection. So glad they diagnosed what the problem is and are quick about correcting it. Hang in there, keep going! Don't be a stranger. Drop a line and let us know how you are doing from time to time.

Hugs.

I am sending lots of love,
I am sending lots of love, hugs and prayers to you Kari. I am so sorry to read that you got this horrible infection. I pray that you will feel better soon. Thanks for posting Kari as we all love you.


Hugs,

Angie

C.Diff is a serious health threat
I contracted C.Diff from hospital. Their lack of sterile technique was the cause. I was bed bound for almost 4 mnths and lost 92 pounds before finally it was stopped by a second course of Vancomycin. That followed 2 courses of Flagyl which did nothing. I had diarrhea 45 times a day. It was horrible. You must really take this disease seriously, as the CDC says 14,000 people died from it in the USA last year. I think many more died and went unreported. It is a worldwide plague, causing deaths in all countries. The United States medical system wants no one to know about it, because the main cause is them and their lack of sterile technique.
The doctors will lie to you about it, or avoid saying anything, as they gave it to you, and do not want to be sued.

I finally got it under control after 4 months, but many others never do. The antibiotics kill all the flora that do all the body's work digesting and breaking down things in the intestines. Those flora must be replaced as quickly as possible before the C.Diff, the drug resistant strain picked up in the hospital, takes over. It pushes all the good flora out of the intestines by releasing two kinds of toxins. Then the toxins just continue to cause diarrhea. You must aggressively treat this disease. It can be beaten. Find a doctor who knows about it.

I used Probiotics in massive dosages. WHOLE FOODS has a cooler just for this live flora, probiotic. Use Critical Care Probiotic or one of the others with 50 Billion organisms per dosage. It will take a while for the flora to be replaced in the intestines. Continue taking Probiotics.

If you have C.Diff, go to a doctor not connected to your original doctor. That way you are not having a doctor shield himself from litigation, in case you blame him for having a not clean operation. Just in case. Mine took two months before finally telling me it was C.Diff. He never told me about how contagious it was, or warn me not to cook for people as it could be spread this way. Older people and children are the usual victims, but anyone with a suppressed immune system can easily catch it, if the come in contact with it. The CDC monitors it as a Hospital Acquired Infection. They regard it as highly contagious and dangerous.

The thing you need most is BLEACH, which should be used to kill C.Diff on any surface touched. I use Clorox Wipes for this. Bleach is the only thing that will kill the C.Diff spores, which can live for up to a year on any surface,including soap. Hot soap and water do not kill C.Diff. Only bleach will kill it.

This page was printed from www.familypracticenews.com

"When somebody tells you a patient has a positive C. difficile test, or a negative C. difficile test, your
next question is ‘what test,’ " Dr. Bartlett said.
About half of U.S. hospitals use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to diagnose C. diff., the other half,
enzyme immunoassay (EIA), he said.
"PCR is exquisitely sensitive. It is very good for ruling it out, but there [are] false positives. EIA goes
in the opposite direction. It’s not sensitive; it’s pretty good for specificity, [but] remember that if it’s a
negative EIA, you have not excluded the diagnosis. EIA rules it in, PCR rules it out."
Increasingly, patients are colonized with C. diff. before they reach the hospital, probably from
previous health care contact. Avoiding proton-pump inhibitors and antibiotics associated with C. diff.
infection – cephalosporins, clindamycin, and fluoroquinolones – are wise moves for high-risk patients.
Opiates should be avoided, too, because they cause intestinal stasis, he said.
It might take a while for the infection to respond to antibiotics; fecal transplantation is quicker.
"Fecal transplant is hot," Dr. Bartlett said. "The aesthetics" are lacking, but "it really works. Take a
patient who has 10 relapses of C. diff., put in somebody else’s stool" – often delivered as a slurry
through a nasogastric tube – "and the next bowel movement is normal. The biologic response is
fantastic. It’s mostly done for patients who have multiple relapses, but it’s also been done in very
refractory patients and those who are seriously ill," Dr. Bartlett said (Anaerobe 2009;15:285-9).
There’s a new colon-sparing surgical option for critically ill patients, diverting loop ileostomy with
colonic lavage. Mortality rates are substantially lower, compared with traditional colon resection
(Ann. Surg. 2011;254:423-7).
"You look at it and you say, ‘My God, why didn’t they think of this before?" Dr. Bartlett said.
There’s a new antibiotic choice, as well, after the Food and Drug Administration approved
fidaxomicin for C. diff. in 2011. It has about the same cure rate as oral vancomycin, but fewer
relapses, which may be "where this drug plays an important role," Dr. Bartlett said (N. Engl. J. Med.
2011;364:422-31).

Bella Luna said:

Hugs
Miles of Love back at you sweet Kari. I am sorry to hear about the infection. So glad they diagnosed what the problem is and are quick about correcting it. Hang in there, keep going! Don't be a stranger. Drop a line and let us know how you are doing from time to time.

Hugs.

Kari I am very sorry that you got this nasty organism
C. Difficile is closely related to my job. Eileen give a pretty good guidance, however I can add a little bit.
If antibiotics will not work, there are experimental procedures to help with C Difficile, gross but very effective.
Disinfection of your bathroom is critical to success as it is possible to recontaminate and re-inoculate your body. C.difficile spores are very resistant and very infectios, which means a very few is enough for making immunocompromised patient sick. Please use household bleach diluted to 1:10 around your house to disinfect your bathroom, counter, and floors.
It is my understanding that until you are free from C. Difficile, you should NOT receive any Chemo infusions, as chemo affects stomach  and C difficile can be deadly.
Wishing you good weekend and pray for quick victory over this bug
Hugs

camul said:

Glad you are at the tail end of this.
Kari you have been through so much. Thank you for sharing this. Didn't make me sick, just more education. I have been on 4- 10 day antibiotics in less than 5 months and my onc and nurse kept asking about diarrhea. Now I know why they keep monitoring me so closely.

Have never heard of C-Diff, but it is really scary! Eileen, I am so glad you are back to educate. Any of our fellow pinks who can educate us, please continue to do so. I was advised by onco at the beginning of this journey how important it is to disinfect. Have the Clorox wipes and baby wipes in purse for use in public places, use them constantly at home.

Kari, I am so glad that you are getting better. Not grossed out, just feel so bad that you had to endure more misery!

Hugs and prayers,
Carol

No idea this was out there!
I am so grateful for the info passed along here. Kari, your willingness to post has helped many now! Hope you are now past it all. I volunteer at 2 hospitals with 3 therapy dogs, and asked my Oncologist if it were safe to continue to do so during chemotherapy. She said as long as I am getting the Neulasta shot it would be ok. Now I am seriously wondering about that! Couldn't I get C-diff that way? Scared. Maybe I should start the probiotics anyway just for safety?

grams2jc said:

Oh no Kari!
I had a week long bout of something a few years ago. Since I work in a medical lab (billing) my PCP just assumed it was c-diff and treated it as such. Meds worked. There were times I thought, I really need to go to the hospital, but how will I get there call an ambulance and as them to bring a port-a-pot? Thankfully I called in my symptoms and it is the one and only time since I have been seeing this doc that he didn't make me come in.

You will feel better once the meds and fluids kick in and you can stay out of the bathroom for more than 15 minutes.

Hang in there, good to see you posting,

Jennifer

So sorry kari. We have
So sorry kari. We have patients who have it . When we have them , the precautions include washing vigorously with soap and water. purell is not effective. need to kill the spores. I have heard it is painful. I hope you feel better soon.

C diff
Hi,
I had C diff last year after lots of antibiotics. Luckily, the Flagil got rid of it pretty quickly.

Hugs & Prayers

Hi Kari,

I am sorry to hear what you are going through. Lots of Hugs & will keep you in my prayers. Thank you for posting about your illness. I hope the medication works quickly for you. Get lots of rest when you can. Please let us know how you are doing when you feel better.

Miles of Love Right Back At You!!!,
Stacey