Clostridium difficile

[Guest guest]

Forgive the length of this post beforehand...

A relative asked me if I had ever heard of c diff and how it might

pertain to my condition. I did some reading online and realised how

it sounded like me. Here's some background. About 4 years ago I went

to a dermatologist for acne. I'm 35, but have had bad skin since i

was a teenager. Anyway, at the time I had eczema, acne, and psoriasis

in my scalp. The doctor prescribed some topical cream and

clandomycyn. Almost immediately, my skin cleared up. After a few

weeks though, the acne came back. I went back to see him and he put

me on amoxicillin (250 mg). I ended up taking the amoxicillin for

about a year. All the while my skin stayed clear. I got busy with my

life and not having time to go to the doctor, I ended up not going

back. Eventually my skin began to have problems, but I basically

ignored it. Over the next year and a half to two years I began having

mild UC symptoms that became increasingly more severe. By early 2008

I knew something was wrong as I was bleeding almost daily and having

cramps and the tremors in my stomach. I had a colonoscopy in March of

08 and was diagnosed with UC. I was prescribed Lialda and Asacol. I

found out about SCD a short time later and became a strict SCDer in

early April. I stopped taking the meds after a few weeks and have

made some improvements thanks to the diet. One interesting thing is

that after a few weeks of improvement I basically plateaued and

didn't really see any more results to this day. SCD helped some of

the bleeding, but since I read Klein's book (Self Healing

Crohn's and Colitis) I have brought in more fresh fruits into my

diet. Klein's approach is similar to SCD but he is also strictly

vegan which means no meat, eggs, or even honey. with regard to my

symptoms I have noticed that whenever I eat only fresh fruits and no

meat at all I have no bleeding. When I eat baked chicken or even

sometimes with chicken soup I eventually do have a little blood.

Regardless of what I eat, I almost always have an enormous amount of

gas. Often I'll have a " BM " that will be only a lot of gas with a

little fluid/paste. About every other day I'll have a more normal BM

with several small stools. I can tell that evacuation is better than

last April, but I'm wondering if mine is a case of c diff because of

my antibiotic use a few years ago. My typical diet consists of

canteloupe, papaya, bananas, and chicken soup. here are my

questions...

1. Based on what I've said here does it sound like c diff? (The

doctor I went to did not test for it, only did the colonoscopy.)The

doctor I went to was basically worthless from what I can tell.

2. If I go to a naturopathic doctor and they give me a c diff test

and it comes back positive, will they be able to prescribe flagyl or

give me an herbal?

3. If I were to take a c diff test by mail then what good would that

do if only an antibiotic can knock it out.

4. I did do the homemade yogurt religiously for several months but

haven't done that in a couple months. It would seem that 6 months or

more would be enough time to give the good bacteria a foothold.

Thanks to anyone in advance who may have some insight. If it seems

like I have a c diff case I want to proceed in the best way possible

without wasting thousands of dollars.

[Guest guest]

Hi

1. Based on what I've said here does it sound like c diff? (The

doctor I went to did not test for it, only did the colonoscopy.)The

doctor I went to was basically worthless from what I can tell.

It could be C. Diff. but without a test it’s hard to say.

2. If I go to a naturopathic doctor and they give me a c diff test

and it comes back positive, will they be able to prescribe flagyl or

give me an herbal?

There is a lot of controversy on what eradicates C. Diff. If you take

antibiotics you may kill some, but C. Diff has spores that “hook into” your

colon. So now you have an even more compromised immune system and still some C.

Diff and it just takes the upper hand again. You may want to sign up at www.cdiffsupport.com. A lot of people

there have spent lots of money on Vancomycin, have taken several rounds and

still had C. diff. One guy emailed me privately and said he spent $60K on

Vancomycin and still had diarrhea. So finally he did fecal implants at home

with his wife as a donor. To my knowledge the only doctors doing fecal implants

are at a clinic in Duluth. You can get details on the site I mentioned above.

3. If I were to take a c diff test by mail then what good would that

do if only an antibiotic can knock it out.

You could choose to take S. boulardii which can help. Someone on

the c diff forum said she knocked hers out with Oil of Oregano and HCl on an

empty stomach for 4 weeks I believe. You could choose to do fecal implants at

home – somewhat controversy though and I would make sure your donor is healthy!

My husband is not willing to do it without a doctor (give me his feces I

mean!).

4. I did do the homemade yogurt religiously for several months but

haven't done that in a couple months. It would seem that 6 months or

more would be enough time to give the good bacteria a foothold.

I am not sure that yogurt alone would do it.

I hope you will get some more answers. All I can

say is do your research before you take antibiotics.

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