Not always chemo

Hi all -- Mark had his fourth chemo on Monday, but had started having diarrhea on Sunday. We figured it wasn't chemo related, but always the suspect! When immodium, lomotil and tincture of opium did nothing to stem the tide, and he was getting daily fluids via his port, they did a stool sample. He has c. diff -- they figure the antibiotics he had prior to surgery in Augst and all the subsequent 'stuff' just messed with the flora and fauna. Even the probiotic he's on hadn't helped. He's on Questran now, and finally got to start Flagyl, which we hope will knock it back. Because he'd had tincture of opium, which is alcohol based, he couldn't start the Flagyl for 24 hours, as the combination makes antibuse -- and profuse vomiting was NOT what the guy needed. I'm glad he's generally held on to his weight during chemo as he's now lost 10 pounds in the last week. Lean and mean this guy is going to be (well, not really mean!). So, I guess my point is that as easy as it is to blame all of one's ills on treatment, it just t'aint so. And frankly, it was me who realized that a tincture of anything probably had alcohol -- prescribing doc had mentioned no alcohol with the Flagyl, but had prescribed the opium the day before, and the phrmacist had to go look at the bottle when I asked! So, we also must be ever vigilant and try to remember all this '_hit' in times of duress! May you all have happy holidays -- one day at a time!