C Diff Colitis

pamysue
pamysue Member Posts: 105
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
History-Stage 3 rectal cancer, surgery 5/08, Folfox chemo thru 11/08, illeostomy take down 12/08.

Was just diagnosed with C Diff on Tuesday by my surgeon after a sigmoid flex scope thingie. First time one of those hurt so bad I almost screamed. They are usually a breeze IMO. My guts hurt like hell and I have diarreha so bad. Every 10-15 minutes and just water and brown sand looking stuff in the toilet. I'm on 2 weeks of antibiotics.

Anyone else find this common after colorectal cancer surgery? I do NOT want to have to keep dealing with this. It's miserable. Have to have a pillow to sit in my office chair. Had not been on the computer since Monday, but had to do finances today, so took the Percocet, did that and came by here.

Interested in anyone else's dealings with this "crappy" illness.

Comments

  • drmrgirl47
    drmrgirl47 Member Posts: 129
    #2
    c-diff
    hi pamysue,
    I can't believe some else on here has this mess. I also have stage 3, rectal cancer. Have been for 5 years 6 months now. But in between I have suffered bowel obstructions and 2 resections for that. Recently, March 31, 2009, I had another bowel resection due to that and they also thought I had the c-diff. Constant diarrhea 24 - 7. Just awful. Sometimes no control at all. Anyway, they had me on the flagyl to try to kill the bacteria but to no avail. I actually go worse. So I had no choice but to purchase the $890.00 vancomycin. I have been on this vancomycin for 12 days and I am doing no better. I have 37-40 bowel movements per day. And there is always stool there. I weight 100 pounds. Ridiculous isn't it? My doctors are so frustrated. I take the Qestran 3 times a day which stops the diarrhea but I still go many, many times per day. I am housebound and cannot leave. I am also on Viocodin for the pain in a rectum I do not have. (I don ot have a colostyomy). Anyway, they want to put me in the hospital for tests. Upper gi, barium enema and whatever. Since I am so terrified of the hospital I am pleading for the doctor to let me take these tests as an outpatient. I will just have to wear depends or something. Everything I eat or drink comes out the other end. So yep, this is what I deal with. How do you manage to get to work? I can't even leave the house to walk my dogs. I can't eat if I want to go out. I am now waiting for my doctor to callme. I am pleading with them not to send me to the hospital. Anyway, I hope you don't suffer like this. I take lomotil, 4 pills 4 times a day, questran 3 times a day and the vancomycin 4 times a day. This is my regimen. I don't know what they are giving you. You can email me at anytime and we can discuss the **** illness. Be well. Annette
  • tiny one
    tiny one Member Posts: 465 Member
    #3
    scope
    My surgeon puts me under sedation when he does my scope. I have narrowed alot in te rectal area from the radiation I received. Even a digital exam is painful. I had my reversal Dec 21, 2007. I've had alot of problems from the reversal. After he does my scope I usually don't have any bathroom issues for a couple of days. I'm never sore after the procedure either. I think they should sedate when they do this procedure. It's miserable having to have these screenings done.
  • Julie 44
    Julie 44 Member Posts: 476 Member
    #4
    tiny one said:

    scope
    My surgeon puts me under sedation when he does my scope. I have narrowed alot in te rectal area from the radiation I received. Even a digital exam is painful. I had my reversal Dec 21, 2007. I've had alot of problems from the reversal. After he does my scope I usually don't have any bathroom issues for a couple of days. I'm never sore after the procedure either. I think they should sedate when they do this procedure. It's miserable having to have these screenings done.

    What is it
    Can you tell me what C Diff is?????? Thanks
  • pamysue
    pamysue Member Posts: 105
    #5
    drmrgirl47 said:

    c-diff
    hi pamysue,
    I can't believe some else on here has this mess. I also have stage 3, rectal cancer. Have been for 5 years 6 months now. But in between I have suffered bowel obstructions and 2 resections for that. Recently, March 31, 2009, I had another bowel resection due to that and they also thought I had the c-diff. Constant diarrhea 24 - 7. Just awful. Sometimes no control at all. Anyway, they had me on the flagyl to try to kill the bacteria but to no avail. I actually go worse. So I had no choice but to purchase the $890.00 vancomycin. I have been on this vancomycin for 12 days and I am doing no better. I have 37-40 bowel movements per day. And there is always stool there. I weight 100 pounds. Ridiculous isn't it? My doctors are so frustrated. I take the Qestran 3 times a day which stops the diarrhea but I still go many, many times per day. I am housebound and cannot leave. I am also on Viocodin for the pain in a rectum I do not have. (I don ot have a colostyomy). Anyway, they want to put me in the hospital for tests. Upper gi, barium enema and whatever. Since I am so terrified of the hospital I am pleading for the doctor to let me take these tests as an outpatient. I will just have to wear depends or something. Everything I eat or drink comes out the other end. So yep, this is what I deal with. How do you manage to get to work? I can't even leave the house to walk my dogs. I can't eat if I want to go out. I am now waiting for my doctor to callme. I am pleading with them not to send me to the hospital. Anyway, I hope you don't suffer like this. I take lomotil, 4 pills 4 times a day, questran 3 times a day and the vancomycin 4 times a day. This is my regimen. I don't know what they are giving you. You can email me at anytime and we can discuss the **** illness. Be well. Annette

    I don't believe it. This is
    I don't believe it. This is so familiar! I'm still going thru a roll of TP everyday and they still won't get me an appt with a GI dr. I am so, so sorry you have this too. It SUCKS! I went into the office today. Came home with three pair dirty drawers. :(
    I'm adding a probiotic to my regime (can't hurt).
    And believe it or not... there is a stool enema treatment for this. With a donor that is a close relative. Talked to nurse at Urgent Care who did this for her mother. Thought she was nuts. Then read about it on Mayo site...
    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/c-difficile/DS00736/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs
    down under Stool Transplant... ok, that even grosses me out a bit and after all this, I didn't think that could happen.
  • pamysue
    pamysue Member Posts: 105
    #6
    tiny one said:

    scope
    My surgeon puts me under sedation when he does my scope. I have narrowed alot in te rectal area from the radiation I received. Even a digital exam is painful. I had my reversal Dec 21, 2007. I've had alot of problems from the reversal. After he does my scope I usually don't have any bathroom issues for a couple of days. I'm never sore after the procedure either. I think they should sedate when they do this procedure. It's miserable having to have these screenings done.

    I usually can relax enough
    I usually can relax enough for the sigmoid after all this and he uses a lidocaine gel. But this time is was BAD. Would NOT allow it again right now either. My poor anus is shot.
  • pamysue
    pamysue Member Posts: 105
    #7
    Julie 44 said:

    What is it
    Can you tell me what C Diff is?????? Thanks

    http://www.mayoclinic.com/hea
    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/c-difficile/DS00736

    You will have to copy and paste that into your browser. And don't look too close. I don't want you to catch it!
  • drmrgirl47
    drmrgirl47 Member Posts: 129
    #8
    pamysue said:

    I don't believe it. This is
    I don't believe it. This is so familiar! I'm still going thru a roll of TP everyday and they still won't get me an appt with a GI dr. I am so, so sorry you have this too. It SUCKS! I went into the office today. Came home with three pair dirty drawers. :(
    I'm adding a probiotic to my regime (can't hurt).
    And believe it or not... there is a stool enema treatment for this. With a donor that is a close relative. Talked to nurse at Urgent Care who did this for her mother. Thought she was nuts. Then read about it on Mayo site...
    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/c-difficile/DS00736/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs
    down under Stool Transplant... ok, that even grosses me out a bit and after all this, I didn't think that could happen.

    c-diff sucks
    hi again. Well I have convinced my doctor to let me do this upper gi at the radiology office. No hospital thank God. I will bring depends and a change of clothes. I told them my predicament and they were very understanding. Still most embarrassing. Anyway. I forgot to tell you I do take a probiotic otherwise I develop a yeast infection. What is a stool enema. Willlook that up tomorrow. It is late and I have to go to bed now. I so hope you get better and don't suffer. this is a nightmare. Nite now. Talk to you tomorrow.
  • pamysue
    pamysue Member Posts: 105
    #9
    drmrgirl47 said:

    c-diff sucks
    hi again. Well I have convinced my doctor to let me do this upper gi at the radiology office. No hospital thank God. I will bring depends and a change of clothes. I told them my predicament and they were very understanding. Still most embarrassing. Anyway. I forgot to tell you I do take a probiotic otherwise I develop a yeast infection. What is a stool enema. Willlook that up tomorrow. It is late and I have to go to bed now. I so hope you get better and don't suffer. this is a nightmare. Nite now. Talk to you tomorrow.

    I just started a probiotic
    I just started a probiotic and I hope it will help some.

    I hope your procedure went well and wasn't too awfully painful for you. Don't bother being embarrassed. Everybody poops and for some reason all of us on this board were chosen to be put out there to poop all over the place with no control and now with this it's painful. The heck with embarrassment.

    I gave up yesterday and went to the ER. The place where my insurance covers, their GI people finally got back to my yesterday and said "since you are an emergency, we will work you in at the end of August". I told them to piss off.

    I got a good Dr in the ER. He talked with my PCP and they think my base problem is not diarreha but a spastic colon with diarreha as a sympton of the cause. So they have changed my meds. They tested my stool again and said the Flagyl is working and the count of 'evil' (my word) bacteria is decreasing. So, I'm lucky that the C Diff seems to be getting better and I need to continue my antibiotics. Which I will of course. And we will see if the new meds help with the years of diarreha.

    Regarding the stool enema (those were my words, now I see on the site it's a stool transplant... just as icky sounding if you ask me.) Here is the info from the Mayo site.

    "Stool transplant" to restore healthy intestinal bacteria by placing donor stool (usually from a relative) in your colon. Although this is rarely done in practice, research has shown stool transplant to be helpful."
  • Carla1121
    Carla1121 Member Posts: 12
    #10
    C-Diff
    Pamysue -

    My mom just had colon cancer surgery on 6/11. She was in the hospital for 18 days following the surgery with complication after complication. The last complication was the C-Diff and it was absolute misery for her. She was on antibiotics for two weeks and was discharged from the hospital with the infection still trying to work its way out. Boy if you're not sick going into the hospital, you can sure as hell get sick while there.....It should subside soon; hang in there.

    Carla

Discussion Boards