C -Diff sucks!

This has been the month from hell.

A week after John came home from the hospital, he started having major tummy issues. And they weren't at all normal. And being the typical man that he is, getting him to go to the dr again was nearly impossible. Especially since they couldn't find the source of the fever and Euclid Hospital.

After about day 5, things seemed to improve. But that was short lived and the tummy issues started up again. Finally about the 10th day, he admitted that this wasn't going away and it was time to call the dr. We found him a new dr at the Clinic. I called at 7:30 in the morning and we got a 9:00 appointment. I was so happy about that.

We got there and since Euclid Hospital is a Cleveland Clinic hospital, she already knew that he has spent time on a couple of different antibiotics. She also knew why he was there.

She was pretty quick to say that she thought that he had Antibiotic Associated C Diff. She sent him off to the lab to give samples and would let us know the next day. That was the 1st.

So late Friday afternoon, we got the confirmation that it was and put him on another round of antibiotics to get the infection under control.

So what is C Diff you ask? Well, thanks to Wikipedia, here's what it is:

Clostridium difficile (Greek kloster (κλωστήρ), spindle, and Latin difficile,[1] difficult), also known as "CDF/cdf", or "C. diff", is a species of Gram-positive bacteria of the genus Clostridium. Clostridia are anaerobic, spore-forming rods (bacillus).[2] C. difficile is the most serious cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) and can lead to pseudomembranous colitis, a severe infection of the colon, often resulting from eradication of the normal gut flora by antibiotics.[3] The C. difficile bacteria, which naturally reside in the body, become overgrown: The overgrowth is harmful because the bacterium releases toxins that can cause bloating, constipation, and diarrhea with abdominal pain, which may become severe. Latent symptoms often mimic some flu-like symptoms. Discontinuation of causative antibiotic treatment is often curative.[2] In more serious cases, oral administration of metronidazole or vancomycin is the treatment of choice. Relapses of C. difficile AAD have been reported in up to 20% of cases.[2]

Ok so that was pretty much a very medical definition.

Anyway he gets on the medicine, which by the way is the only one that works, but it causes loss of appetite, upset stomach and some others. Well didn't John go and lose his appetite and get an upset tummy...so bad that he pretty much stopped eating which led to him not drinking enough fluids. Which isn't a good mix when you are going to the bathroom every hour.

I could tell he was getting dehydrated and pretty much feeling miserable. He even asked me to stay home from work on Monday. Which I did and by Monday night he seemed to be doing fine and did a 6 hour stint of not going to the bathroom. Then it started again at about midnight.

I went to work Tuesday morning, he wasn't feeling all that great, but he wanted me to go. I called my mom to tell her I was at work and told her that within 24 hours we were going to be in the ER because he was really getting dehydrated.

We were in the ER 2 hours after that phone call. He called to tell me he was getting worse and wanted to go in.

Yep, he was dehydrated. They gave him a huge bag of fluids and we figured we be on our way once it was done. Wrong. John is a cardiac patient, so they wanted to monitor his heart and were keeping him over night. OH MY GOSH, the last time that was told to us, he spent a week in the hospital. Amazingly, when they told us he was staying the first thing out of his month was ok, but is it too late to order dinner, because I feel like eating. I wanted to do cartwheels. He hadn't asked for food in days. He did get dinner, but since it's not a normal hospital room, he got a Lean Cuisine dinner, which was mashed potatoes and chicken. So he was happy.

But never fear, he was out before noon today. Feeling and looking alot better. Now I just have to keep him eating and drinking.

Right now, he sleeping, actually has been since about 3:30. Which is a good thing, because in the last 72 hours he figured he's only gotten about 2 to 2 1/2 hours of sleep. And the tummy issues seem to have subsided. At least for now. I don't want to get overly excited as this is a pretty stubborn thing and it can take 10 to 30 days to clear up.

And a word to the wise...really think twice about going on any type of penicillin antibiotic because this is high risk antibiotic to bring this on.