Tell me about C Diff Infection

[bisous]

My dad is in the hospital right now and was diagnosed with C Diff infection. He looks BAD. He's in a ton of pain, loopy from the medications, super extended belly, having trouble making it even to the modified and nearby toilet.

Yikes. When I first heard about this I thought I was going to do some research about how to bounce back from a C Diff infection but honestly my question right now is how much of a chance has he got?

I did not anticipate this from my Dad. YES, he is 70 years old. YES, he has type 2 diabetes (recently diagnosed) but he still fixes everything in my house and takes my two older kids on bike rides a couple of times a week.

I'd love to hear any BDTD!

[jren]

My son had c diff when he was in Kindergarten. He bounced back pretty quickly (within days) once he was on the right antibiotic. We caught it early and he didn't need to be hospitalized. Was your dad already in the hospital? I know it's much more common to get in a hospital setting.


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[ArizonaGirl]

It kind of depends on the person's general health and what other conditions they have as well as whether they are immuno-compromised.

It is VERY contagious, so use precautions.

Sometimes the antibiotics are enough, sometimes they can do a fecal transplant, if the hospital is equipped for it.

Please keep us posted.

[mom2binsd]

My best friends dad who is 78 was in the hospital for 3 weeks with c diff, it went diagnosed for about a month and by the time they diagnosed him his other organs were failing. He's OK now, has a diagnosis of colitis. C diff is pretty common in a lot of the patients we get admitted from a hospital to the nursing home. Outcomes vary based on other health conditions. If possible, keep asking questions and when he's a home keep a close eye on him. Watch for dehydration as well, older people don't drink enough water and dehydrate easily, especially with c diff.

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[bisous]

Thank you all.

Yeah, his health is just globally bad since about April of this year when he caught a really bad infection. He told me that he had a UTI this summer that required two courses of antibiotics to treat so they think that the antibiotics taken recently might have contributed to the C diff.

He's at the hospital right now. He probably should have gone in way earlier but he is stubborn!

An older friend of mine's DH had C Diff and was in the hospital for 17 days. While he was there another man actually died of it.

The protocols at the hospital are pretty intense. I had to wear a gown and gloves to go an visit with him!

[bisous]

I guess I'd really truly be interested, if anyone here is good about these things, about how he can eat going forward to help maximize gut health.

Full disclosure: prior to his diabetes diagnosis earlier this year he had the worst diet of anyone I've ever met. He lived off of Pepsi and milk shakes!

[jren]

My understanding of C-diff is that if it's from antibiotic use, there's really nothing to eat to avoid it. Even probiotic use was not shown to affect outcome. He will need to be careful with antibiotic use in the future, some are worse than others. To that end, a healthy diet may improve his immune system and reduce overall chance of coming down with something that he'd need an antibiotic for.

My DS ended up with C-diff after a round of antibiotics to treat an ear infection.


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[essnce629]

My understanding of C-diff is that if it's from antibiotic use, there's really nothing to eat to avoid it. Even probiotic use was not shown to affect outcome. He will need to be careful with antibiotic use in the future, some are worse than others. To that end, a healthy diet may improve his immune system and reduce overall chance of coming down with something that he'd need an antibiotic for.

My DS ended up with C-diff after a round of antibiotics to treat an ear infection.


Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkYes, this is what I've read as well although there's one extremely high dose probiotic that is commonly used in people with ulcerative colitis/crohns (VSL#3) that has been shown to help C-diff. It's $100 for a month supply.

Common C-diff risk factors are having inflammatory bowel disease, antibiotic use, and having recently been in a hospital.

DS1 has ulcerative colitis and had a pretty bad arm injury back in May. He ended up on several high doses of antibiotics including amoxicillin, keflex, and rocephin and also had multiple trips to the ER and several urgent cares. As soon as he finished all the antibiotics his ulcerative colitis started flaring. His GI doctor was worried about C-diff because of all the antibiotics, hospital visits, and the fact that C-diff and ulcerative colitis flare symptoms are similar. Luckily DS's cultures for C-diff came back negative.

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[catsnkid]

My boyfriend had it in May. He has kidney cancer and had several rounds of antibiotics. He was in the hospital as he couldn't eat by mouth at the time and ended up with a feeding tube, shortly after it was inserted he was dx with the C-diff while in the hospital. Lots of fluids, but the diarrhea is really bad, continued to be bad for a few days after he got home. The other issue is that he was also adjusting to tube feeding. He had to take vancomycin when he got home and was prescribed the liquid, which took 2 days to get and insurance refused to cover, but it worked. He is doing much better now.

[Smillow]

My MIL had stage iv cervical cancer, but it was c diff that killed her in the end. An unethical (imo) surgeon decided to remove something in her gi tract and that introduced the c diff. She never came home from surgery. I hope your dad has a quick recovery!