Just before they called with the offer, I'd gotten an early call from the GI specialist I'd seen the day before.

Culture having just come back, she was giving me the definitive diagnosis of the plethora of my most unpleasant symptoms - "C. difficile, positive toxin". (Neither one of us was surprised - textbook case). I knew from extensive reading (and she concurred enthusiastically) that I am extremely contagious for the nonce. I didn't want to risk passing anything on til the Vancomycin kicks in. Only Clorox kills it and my hands are actually cracking and bleeding at this point from all the washing, what with Covid and now this.

You may remember my complaining that at the tented arrangement where I got my first Covid shot, all they had for amenities was a really nasty portapotty, with (get this!) NO SINK to wash up afterwards.

Given the nature of my present (though waning) symptoms, I knew it was most unlikely I could get to and from the vaccination center without needing to pay that booth a visit. Now I'd be putting many others at risk, though (however careful I tried to be), so sadly I declined. Too soon after beginning my antibiotic treatment.

I appreciate the helpers, of course, but I remain scandalized by the lack of adequate sanitation to protect all the people there. I wonder who came up with THAT doozy of bad planning.

As to the "C Diff" as it's affectionately [sic] called, I'll just say it's been an unforgettable experience. Like Montezuma's revenge without Montezuma. For anyone interested in this bacterial infection, there's plenty online! It's more prevalent than people realize - mine was clear cause and effect. (Taking a powerful antibiotic for a tooth infection caused it. ) Still now I'm registered with the CDC!

(Am I the only one who had never heard of it? )

Sorry to hear you’re having issues with this - good call on waiting for your next shot!

CDiff is no fun. Sending you healing vibes.

I hope you have a speedy recovery and are able to receive your second vaccine dose without too much delay.

Big Al

It can be a big deal. Please take care of yourself.

C-Diff sounds like no picnic. Thanks for thinking of others, and I hope you get through this flare up quickly and easily.

My wife's mother suffered repeated bouts for years. That's the "diff" part. It's damn difficult to get rid of.

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
My wife's mother suffered repeated bouts for years. That's the "diff" part. It's damn difficult to get rid of.

An aside, my Mom got it last year, then a recurrence as the dr. had warned. He recommended an infusion treatment. I checked it out with a Harvard infectious disease research Doc I know and she gave it high marks.

Mom got the one time treatment and it was paid for by Medicare. She has been healthy ever since.

Might be worth asking the doc.

Thank you all for your sympathy, good wishes and shared family experiences. Yes, BeeLady, those famous "fecal" transplants to help sufferers who don't otherwise get over C Diff through antibiotics, are a real breakthrough in treatment! (Can be administered in one of several possible modalities).

Meanwhile, I'm trying to "digest" all the information I'm finding - how I like to approach medical issues (especially ones in which ones personal behavior, food choices and hygiene, are so instrumental in outcomes. It is, of course, also a matter of community medicine.

Not just the number of CDiff patients but the virulence of the cases showing up have multipled ~ tenfold a decade since 2000. It's not just a matter of antibiotic overuse or misuse, but of other mechanisms they are only beginning to understand.

Meanwhile, I'm struggling to cope with what this means to me and what I should/ought/must do to care for myself and others. The greatest impact has been on my diet.

As you may know I've been following the Keto diet for over a year. That is, VERY painfully, but mostly with success - that means not only weight loss but maintenance (the hardest! Really more a matter of pivoting around a setpoint above my goal.) This goal is very important to my health, not just - uh, cosmesis. For unknown - downright strange - reasons, that weight loss somehow normalized my lipids for the first time since it was tested (revealing the hereditary disorder we three two siblings and I inherited. ).

Now, all that is out the window, at least for the foreseeable.
Carbs (refined) are in, fats - formerly ~75% of my daily caloric intake (!) are out. I have a fridge full of expensive cheese (had to spoil myself somehow Fer cryin out loud!), fresh vegetables - especially brocolli and salad mixes. The pantry contains tons of other "keto-friendly" foods and supplements. Almost most painful, is a two week supply of fabulous oyster mushrooms which had become a staple of my diet, some cooked, some fresh. Too bad I had just shopped! I even have a drawer full of very low carb (and high $) candy bars, sweetened with novelty artificial sweeteners - some, I think, invented for the purpose of marketing them (BIG business now. Check your grocery stores!)

In fact, I've been using a LOT of calorie-free sweeteners, favoring erythritol but some Splenda. The candy also uses other sweeteners some of which I'm sure are faked as healthy (maltodextrin?).

Well, today, my (formerly) keto- evangelist son informed me that SPLENDA is practically poison for a healthy gut biome (THE goal now!) and the others aren't much better.

To top it off, looking online for some tolerant words about artificial sweeteners and C Diff, I actually found something unimaginable. A very scholarly article discussing a breakthrough in finding a major cause of the dangerous new toxins CDiff produces. It's some esoteric sugar that feeds them, called trehalose - used to many ends in food prep.

It's mostly found in MUSHROOMS! (Shrimp too, but I can live without them.).

I was - am - so traumatised, I ate all three hamantaschen our synagogue sent me for Purim (NOT CDiff "friendly"). I hadn't even tasted refined sugar for over a year.

They were delicious but I'm waiting to see what the fallout may be. Last night was the first time in a good while I slept without my stomach bubbling like a cauldron.
...Tonight - who knows?

About how trehalose feeds most virulent CDiff toxins

It's these toxins that cause all the really serious C Diff outcomes (like death) by destroying the lining of the colon.

I love my mushrooms and I have $50 worth in the fridge. It's been really really hard to stay on that Keto diet, and they helped... These are heavy blows, and even though I love saltines (1 1/4 lb gone in two days) it's not the same.

Amanda, I feel so bad for you.

I hope everything gets resolved quickly!

Thanks so much, Steve! Helps.

I'm afraid speed in resolution of this malady is precisely what is lacking, though a very few do respond really well to the vancomycin the first time around. (We need a crossed fingers emoticon!).

What's kind of unnerving is the amount of uncertainty in it (at least that's how it's sounding to me). I mean, you can think you're cured by this antiobiotic only to have it recur again - and again - and again..

But as Beelady says, now there is that fecal transplant technique available which supposedly is very effective in restoring the gut biome to its normal status. (Wonder why they usually wait for a few antibiotic failures to go that route. Hmm. *Light bulb* . Might it be -- Price? Nah...)

And luckily I like yogurt too!

Forgot to add there's now a brand new antibiotic supposed to work really well - developed JUST for C Diff.

But that is super humongously expensive I heard.

That endodontist I went to Friday - to tinker with the root canal that seems to be infected. (Hence the first antibiotics that started this whole saga.) Anyhow HE had had CDiff and we exchanged war stories (to the utter disgust of his assistant).

He said after he had several recurrences a GI doctor friend came up with a different single pill option (made of what I don't know), but it cost $1500.

Endo said he was going to go for it (as well most endodontists could!) but his friend got it framed a certain way for insurance so it was almost a freebie. In fact that's how he finally got over it - after many rounds of other antibiotics followed by relapses.

(Wondering how he carried out his professional duties while this was going on. One of the things about this, you know, problem, is how impossible it is to plan things. I was late to my added-on appointment with him (which delayed the whole staff leaving for the weekend) and he COMPLETELY forgave me. )

EDIT!

No, I take back what I said about the endo's cure. I'd forgotten.

He did NOT take that pill, he was given an enema of his wife's - healthy contribution. That was what restored his normal biome.

I wonder if this was a DIY arrangement based on the up and coming research. If so, pretty ingenious. (It was at this point that his assistant said she couldn't take any more )

Hope you are better soon.
The delay of the second shot should not make it less effective.