Clostridium difficile Support

[hhutter7273]

I'm a 35 year old female and had c-diff for about 8 months in 2008. My bowel movements have been back to normal for about 5 months now. I am left though with daily aura's (headaches), extreme fatigue, muscle twitching in fingers at night and extreme low back pain which all of my MRI's are coming back normal. I also was left with gastroperises. Before being diagnosed with c-diff I never got headaches and had no back issues. I was extremely healthy. Now I feel like my immune system is shot!!

Is it normal to have long-term effects like this from c-diff?

[poppysmum]

Hi there,

We're a similar age (I'm 33) and I too had c diff back in 2008 for approx 6 weeks. I would say in my experience that yes c diff does leave you with long term after effects such as this. I too suffer regularly with headaches and was never prone to them prior to having c diff. I have also suffered with the lower back pain that you describe and was told that muscular aches and pains are symptomatic of post infectious IBS. The back ache has settled recently but it has taken 6-7 months. I was told by a couple of doctors it is not unusual to take a year or so to recover from something like this, which is the equivalent recovery time for someone who has undergone bowel surgery, which I guess highlights the serious battering our bowels and our immune system has taken.

I'm sorry but I have no idea what gastroperises is???

I hope you start to feel better soon and if you want to chat anytime please don't hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes, Claire

[roy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastroparesis
_________________
GETTING THERE !!
I am not a medic anything in my posts is my own opinion and from what I have learnt. A doctors advice should always be sought before following any advice.

[krl88]

I'm 19 years old.
I don't know how I got c.diff in the first place but I in my first month back at college I became sick all of the time and after two months of doctors insisting that I had everything from anxiety disorders, eating disorders or "just IBS" I was finally diagnosed.

I managed not to miss too much of school and was put on flagyl for two weeks. I started feeling better but a few weeks after stopping the flagyl I started getting sick again. The c.diff test came back negative so I went along with supposedly pretty bad IBS for three months.

Then I got a horrible sinus infection I just couldn't kick. My doctor prescribed me some antibiotic after INSISTING that it does NOT cause c.diff. Well low and behold I had c.diff again a week and a half later. The pharmacist said I had been prescribed one of the "worst medication to give someone with a history of c.diff." Gee, thanks doc.

So I started another round of flagyl (this time a higher dose) It made me sick to my stomach for two weeks because of the dosage, I couldn't eat or drink for several days and almost landed in the hospital for dehydration. I lost ten pounds (which is terrible, but particularly terrible for me because I'm short and tiny to begin with, I was down to 83 pounds)

I had to go back to college late and missed over a week of classes. Thanks to my mother though she found something that really worked. Obviously probiotics are a must with c.diff, and I had tried three or four different kinds at this point. If you think your probiotic can be doing more for you, you MUST MUST MUST get FLORASTOR.

Florastor probably saved my life. In all of my days I have never ever been so miserable as those six months of my life. Not to mention, being three hours away from home and sharing a bathroom with roommates who don't know why I'm all of sudden sick constantly. Since taking my Florastor regimen religiously (250mg twice a day absolutely everyday!) If I have any IBS cramp-ups I take some doctor-prescribed Levsin (another lifesaver, as it let's me still make it to class) I'm eating almost whatever I want again (everything but tacos and ice cream!) I'm 92.5 pounds, almost my normal weight. And I'm trying my very best to stay healthy and away from any antibiotics with a lot of vitamins.

So, if you're young like me, or you're not, and you've never been legitimately sick like this before, like me, I hope you get better very soon. I have been c.diff free for just about two months now, and I'm really hoping to stay that way, I'll take Florastor the rest of my life if I have to. So stay happy, because that was probably the worst part of this whole thing, being so unbelievably miserable all the time and feeling like I've missed a full year of college, even though I've been here. Good Luck!

[roy]

Thanks for posting your success story all the way from the US! (how did I know that?)
Slight language differance
Theres also a US site www.cdiffsupport.com that you might want to post on.
Contact from people who beat this is always very welcome on both sites

Roy