Cdiff?

wintersocks

I have been in and out of hospital my last time in Dec and have been on tons of antibiotics. I have now developed serious diarrhea (over 10 days duration) and I am wondering if this is what I have now.

I have asked the doctor to consider this and he has sent a note to the lab for when they check my sample....

Has anyone else had this?

Thanks

Skittlegirl

I had it on round 3 of chemo. Spent 2 days in the hospital while it got under control and I got fluids. Long anti-biotic course and hubby had to use a different bathroom.

starwoman

Hi Wintersocks - I had over a year of almost constant antibiotics, iv and oral in 2011/2012. A few months after stopping, I developed severe ongoing diarrhoea - stool tests did not show any standard nasty bugs and colonoscopy was clear for coeliac disease.

So I worked with a nutritionist and paid for a private lab stool test which showed overgrowth of some non-standard (i.e. not tested for by hospital) nasty bacteria and zero good bacteria, despite taking probiotics throughout the antibiotic saga. Omitting wheat and dairy immediately helped with diarrhoea symptoms and then we worked for several months to rebuild my digestive system. Still take a daily probiotic and am fine tolerating wheat and dairy again (though try to limit them).

Hope it's not C Diff and you can get your digestion back to normal soon.

wintersocks

Hi Starwoman,

Thanks for your response. I am actually Coeliac already. My results say negative for (Cdiff thank heavens) I do sound similar to you in what has happened. I cannot even begin to tell you of all the abx's I have been on, including for cellulitis. The doc has referred me back to my gastro who looks after my Coeliac as I have significant weight loss now.

I have started with probiotics too, Is there anything else you think might be good to take?

Are you better now on the digestive front? How long did it take for you to recover?

wintersocks

Skittlegirl,

Oh, you sound to have been really ill, I hope you are better now.

starwoman

Thank goodness no CDiff Wintersocks. I can relate on the variety of abx, sometimes 2 together - I was wiped out and really hope you're through that particular wood now. You'll be quite tuned in to digestive matters being coeliac I am sure.

Just pulled out the old file - diarrhea started in November 2012, followed by clear hospital stool test/colonoscopy. I had 3 consults with a nutritionist during 2013, first one preceded by a big questionnaire - cost was 60euro per consult (I'm in Ireland). The test she suggested was Genova Diagnostics Comprehensive Stool test - in 2013, it was about 300 sterling.

She recommended a high strength Biocare probiotic which I took for a few months, then put myself on cheaper ones. Also put me on a short course (few months) of digestive enzymes, multivitamins, vitamin B, A and trace minerals and, among other things, she strongly recommended non-starchy meals and fermented foods. I even did 3 x 5 days of no carbs in the summer of 2013 (that was as much as I could manage). She was keen on the quality of Biocare products and I did buy them for the first few months but they are an expensive brand. She gave me lots of recipes and small suggestions (like always carrying a snack with protein with you when you're out - oatcakes and nut butter are often in my bag to this day) and I found her support/encouragement helpful. Everything slowly settled down over the year.

The probiotic I now take is usually BioKult - 1 a day, sometimes 2. I currently also take Vit D, fish oil, magnesium, biotin, biosil, strontium citrate (some of these for hair and bones). I have also been swallowing ibuprofen for AI-related joint pain for nearly 2 years and I know my gut does not like it - currently using more organic turmeric with food to see if that makes any difference.

My diet had always been pretty good and the hospital dietician I was referred to while going through the abx/cellulitis/non-healing wounds saga could find nothing wrong with it - they put me on ghastly 'ensure' (or something similarly appalling, full of piles of corn sugar etc) when I was losing weight. I think the bad bacteria eventually took over (had zero lactobacillus and high levels of weird things like klebsiella and morganella according to the Genova test).

That's good you're going to see your gastro. Best of luck rebuilding your digestion - will you let us know how it goes? And if I can give any more detail from my own programme, please let me know.

Quirky74747

I'm glad the C diff was negative. I had C diff for over a year when I had to take back-to-back antibiotics for mastitis, back when I was breastfeeding my first child. It was horrible. I took multiple antibiotic (the right kind) regimens only for it to return every time. It's very persistent.

Maybe the 2 probiotics that my dr. recommended to me could help your situation too, even if it's not C diff. It's Lactobacillus GG made by Culturelle. Don't bother with any other kind...it's the GG kind that was tested. My Costco carries it and it's the best price there. Also, Florastor (Saccharomyces boulardii), which is expensive. I used to buy it online., I still take the Lactobacillus every day as it keeps me regulated. Even after getting rid of the C diff I was never really the same, digestive-wise (lactose intolerant, etc.).

One reason I freaked out when I had to get surgery for BC was I knew I couldn't take antibiotics without getting C diff again, even 13 years later. Luckily, I just had a lumpectomy and my BS said I could do it without antibiotics and I had no problems.

If I ever got C diff again, I would not rest until I got a dr. to prescribe a fecal transplant. They have a wonderful success rate at treating C diff with no terrible side effects (except having to go through it ;-))

Good luck!

wintersocks

Starwoman

This is really good information and I am going to look into it. I hope that 2016 will be the year I have no abx's. I am sure they have ruined my GI system. For now the diarrhea has ceased, but my tum is very sore, it feels like it is stinging. I am waiting for an appointment to see the GI specialist. He is not very nice, so I don't have great faith in him. It is around 4 weeks now since this all started. I will indeed let you know how I go on, You sound to be much improved which is great.

Quirky, wow you have had a really tough time. Cdiff, certainly sounds so awful...I too had mastitis with my first one and had abx for that too..many years ago. I watched a tv show about fecal transplants and thought it was really amazing. Thanks for all the suggestions about pro biotics I will look into these suggestions too and talk about it with my (horrid) GI consultant. Do you always get Cdiff every time you get anti biotics?

I am worried about having to get more too, as I am due the second stage of my recon some time this year and I think we might get prophylactic abx. Do we only get at risk from GI problems when we take abx orally or is it the case with IV too? (of which I have had so many,).

Thanks everyone for your help, as usual being able to talk about this has made me feel less alone here.

leaf

Wintersocks wrote: Do we only get at risk from GI problems when we take abx orally or is it the case with IV too?

Unfortunately, C diff can happen with both oral and IV antibiotics. But there are a lot of unknowns.

Exposure to specific antimicrobial drugs, notably fluoroquinolones, clindamycin, and cephalosporins,has been associated with severe CDAD in some studies(2,14) but not others (13). http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/15/3/pdfs/08-0312...

.... In this study of hospitalized patients, looking at the risk factors for severe disease,

Regression modeling showed the following to be significantly associated with severe CDAD (p<0.05): age >70 years(odds ratio [OR] 3.35), maximum leukocyte count >20,000 cells/mL (OR 2.77), minimum albumin level <2.5 g/dL (OR3.44), maximum creatinine level >2 mg/dL (OR 2.47), small bowel obstruction or ileus (OR 3.06), and computed tomography scan showing colorectal inflammation (OR 13.54)

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/15/3/pdfs/08-0312...