As if Carmen isn’t going through enough, she continues to battle C-diff (Clostridium difficile). I wasn’t familiar with this lovely condition so I will give you a brief description, in case you are ever unfortunate enough to have it! Thank you to my sister-in-law for giving me a first-hand experience account! If you don’t wish to read this, then skip down below!
C. difficile bacteria are everywhere — in soil, air, water, human and animal feces, and on most surfaces. The bacteria don’t create problems until they grow in abnormally large numbers in the intestinal tract of people taking antibiotics. Then, C. difficile can cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammations of the colon.
Signs and symptoms of this potentially life-threatening illness include: profuse and watery diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, blood or pus in the stool, nausea, and dehydration. In severe cases (which we pray Carmen does not develop), C-diff can cause kidney failure, a hole in the bowel, a ruptured colon and death.
There are three treatment options: antibiotics- metronidazole (Flagyl) or vancomycin, probiotics and in severe cases surgery to remove the diseased portion of the bowel. Often, several months of treatment are required.
So, how do you avoid this vile disease? Avoid antibiotics unless you have to have them. Take probiotics. Wash, wash, wash, wash, wash your hands! If you are in the hospital, be a pain and make sure the staff is practicing excellent hygiene too! But, sometimes this condition is inevitable.
I’ve been cleaning everything in our house the best I can and we are on triple-hand-washing duty! Bleach is supposed to be good at killing C-diff spores but anti-bacterial cleaners supposedly do nothing. PLEASE pray that Carmen gets over this ASAP. PLEASE pray that Dave, Lauren and I and Carmen’s night nurses do not get C-diff.
Oh, and Carmen now has thrush and a diaper area yeast infection. I think I am going to go insane! I have been giving Carmen a super strong probiotic recommended for chemotherapy patients and I think I am going to add Saccharomyces boulardii probioic. I read that S. boulardii is specifically recommended for C-diff. Hopefully this probiotic combined with Flagyl will knock this stuff out.
Happy Birthday to sweet Amelia! Amelia turned 2 on Monday and has Tay Sachs. Her mom, Sarah, often leaves messages on our site. You can read more about this beautiful little girl here, http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ameliaalford.
Big thanks to Tatiana for picking up Carmen’s prescription on Monday and Karen for dinner! Thank you Karen for taking Lauren to school this week and for all of you who so kindly bring Lauren home. And thanks to the lawn mower/weeding fairy! We will have to take a look at our security cameras so we can see what all you do out there! Ha!
Since I am a total nerd, here are a couple of pictures of C-diff.
What an education you just gave us! Wow! This info is totally new to me, but I’m really glad to have it!
Thanks!
Sandi
Hi, I will be praying for you all. God bless. In Christ, Joe
Sorry to hear about the C-diff. It’s a nasty bug – Elise had it a few years back after a hospitalization. Carmen is strong and she will fight this off too. It sounds like you are taking all of the necessary precautions to take C-diff down. I hope that Carmen starts to feel better soon. Diarreah is not fun for anyone! Love, Laurie (Big Elise’s mommy)
Hang in there!!! My husband, baby and I were all sick over the weekend and I was so sick of being hemmed in by it. I thought of you guys numerous times and my heart really went out to you thinking about how you deal with that daily. Praying the c-diff doesn’t last long – Sarah M.
Something I learned, that you already commented on, but I will reinforce – - spore bacteria like this MUST be physically washed off – - i.e. those waterless hand cleaners will not work. One of my parents who is a nurse in a local hospital shared this with me when Sarah was dealing with this for months (while she was pregnant!) – just think SPORES and how they fly around and hang out on everything!
Hi Carmen,
I’m so sorry to read about your nasty bug. It sounds very unpleasant. But your parents are so loving and devoted they’ll have the house disinfected and you better in no time!
Hugs and prayers,
Kim
My Prayers are with this little girl so much right now, especially because the reason I am on here is to find out what C-Diff is…Why? because my husband just called me from his hospital room where we have been for 2 days and told me the doctors just told him they finally found out with all the testing that he has C-Diff. Im so scared and he is so sick when I left his temperature went down to 99.8 so that is a good sign I guess. Please add my husband to your prayers, as we shall add your family to ours.
Thank you,
Leigh
I too have a child suffering with C-DIFF. This is his second round and this time the doctor wants to keep him on Vanco for TEN WEEKS! The pharmacy told me the medicine would cost $20,000. With insurance, my part would go down to $5,000. Thank goodness for insurance, but wow?!? My son is having terrible cramping and pain with this, as well as the nausea. Has anyone figured out something to do for nausea while on the meds, since the doctor says not to take anything? Hard to tell your child he has to suffer, isn’t it?
It just sickens me that hospitals are not doing anything to prevent this virus from spreading. In most cases, elderly patients that go in the hospital with another ailment eventually catch the c-diff virus and more than likely it will kill them. The same thing happened to my father. Even though he was a long-time cancer patient with multiple health problems, I feel the c-diff he was infected with killed him. What is the point of going to the hospital? Especially, when we are seeking care and help. Instead, we go to the hospital only to get even sicker, not better! This is a major concern and I think the government should get involved by ending this outbreak in hospitals. Someone must manage and observe how these hospitals operate and how they care for their patients with the disease. This virus should not be in the hospitals. It must be stopped!
I hope everyone is found better, I just got a c-diff diagnosis and started on flagyl. All because of a urinary tract infection! Anyone know of the best probiotic to use while being treated? Have a great day, best wishes!
Hey guys I’m back! I think its getting a tiny bit better. Seems a little better! I have been hearing a lot about florastor, has anyone tried it? It seems hard to find, I went to a few places their website suggested and nothing!
Thank you for this info my grandmother has c-diff really bad. I really needed to find out more about it so i could help her though this. the antibiotic (Flagyl) has done nothing for her. It seems like every antibiotic she takes nothing seems to work.
I hate waiting for test results! I hope you’re all doing well, if you want to chat you can email me @ sweetlittlesunshine@gmail.com. Hugs for your grandmother kayla!