Beth75:
C-diff is clostridium difficile. It is also known as antibiotic-associated colitis. The long/short of c-diff is after taking antibioitics, all the good germs are killed in your gut, allowing all the bad germs (c-diff) to proliferate, and they produce a toxin that attacks the lining of the colon. There's A and B c-diff bacteria.
The other problem with c-diff is it can be a devil to get rid of. It's a spore-forming bacteria, so that means when you try to treat it with Flagyl or even vancomycin, the spores can survive the onslaught of antibiotics designed to kill it, and after you are done with the Flagyl or vancomycin (the standard treatment for c-diff), the spores then sprout and repopulate your colon.
I can't impress upon you enough to take your probiotics. I was prescribed Cipro for a nonexistent bladder infection on a preliminary diagnosis that turned out to be wrong. I took three days of them. Six weeks later, I was so very, very sick. Two courses of Flagyl and one of vancomycin, and three or four months after that, I was finally better. Less than a year later, I was diagnosed with left-sided UC. Before that, I had asymptomatic proctitis.
Be careful with EVERYTHING you put in your body. And if your doc actually prescribed these antibiotics without having any finding that you had an infection, he ought to be fired. Today. No, make that yesterday, before he did such a bonehead move at your health's expense.
Mitz
Good luck
Sporadic proctitis since about
1985. Mother had UC, then J-pouch surgery 1983.
DX'd with clostridium difficile in 2000. Prednisone, two courses of Flagyl, then Vancomycin finally got rid of it. Symptomatic with UC after that.
Colonoscopy in 2001 dx'd left-sided UC. Was pretty darn ill at that time. Treated with prednisone, Rowasa, Asacol. Asacol not working so switched to Imuran. Three small flares since in 2002, 2005, and 2007.
Gall bladder attack 6/13; ultrasound showed stones; surgery before end of 2007.
100 mg Azathioprine and 225 mg Effexor XR (for chronic, longstanding depression) daily.
Post Edited (MitzMN) : 10/4/2007 8:52:21 AM (GMT-6)