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Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,394
Registered: ‎06-10-2010

I am trying to find imformation on the bacteria C-diff

My dad is in the hospital again.  This is about the 4th time in just a few months.  He just got over 2 uti's and Sepsis. He is 88 and physically quite feeble.  I just got a phone call from my sister and he now has a bacterial infection called C-diff.  To make matters worse he has an absessed tooth that has to come out tomorrow.  The hospital is sending him back to the nursing at this very moment and tomorrow the nursing home is taking him to a different facility to have his tooth pulled.  Couldn't that have been done in the hospital?   My main question that I have is....if lots of anitbiotics have caused it.....how do you cure it with antibiotics?

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 16,132
Registered: ‎03-11-2010

Re: I am trying to find imformation on the bacteria C-diff

[ Edited ]

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Honored Contributor
Posts: 16,132
Registered: ‎03-11-2010

Re: I am trying to find imformation on the bacteria C-diff


@Nightowlz wrote:

I don't know anything about C-Diff except what I have read on these forums. I copy & pasted this info so I could read it before a doctor prescribes me an antibiotic. Maybe this will help you a little. I don't know who posted the below but Thank you.

Once you have c-diff, you have c-diff; you either have an active, or inactive infection. An active infection means your intestines are shedding many spores, which requires using antibiotics to clear up. When you test negative, it only means no live spores are detected in the stool sample at that particular time. You must be proactive with c-diff; take the Vancomycin without question and do what you can to keep this infection dormant. Do not risk compromising your health to this super bug. Just like MRSA infections, c-diff will re-colonize and show itself over and over, and you must treat each infection aggressively to prevent permanent damage to the body

 

You can get C. diff. from being in the hospital. A hospital-acquired infection is also referred to as a nosocomial infection. C. diff. can be transferred by unhygienic practices by hospital personnel (hand-washing in between patients) or an unhygienic hospital environment. The bacteria can live on unclean surfaces for a very long time. All it takes is hand-to-mouth contact.

A C. diff. infection can also occur as a result of taking antibiotics. Antibiotics work by killing the offending bacteria in the gut for any particular infection. However, at the same time, they can kill off good bacteria in the gut, thereby upsetting the balance of good:bad flora in the gut. When this balance is upset, bad bacteria can be allowed to proliferate. C. diff. is a bad bacteria normally present in small amounts in the gut, and normally presents no problem whatsoever because the good bacteria keep it in check, but it can proliferate if the good bacteria are not present to keep it in check. Once C. diff. is allowed to proliferate, they produce toxins that basically eat away at the intestinal wall.

[As an aside, broad-spectrum antibiotics kill off more good bacteria than narrow-spectrum antibiotics, so it's always best to have any bacterial infection cultured and identified so that a person can take the latter and not risk killing off more good bacteria. If a person absolutely has to take an antibiotic, they should ask their doc if it's broad or narrow spectrum and opt for narrow spectrum.]

Ironically, it takes a course of an antibiotic to "cure" a C. difficile infection. The standard protocol includes one of two antibiotics, either Flagyl (metronidazole) or Vancocin (vancomycin). There are other more natural methods which I'm not familiar with. There is also fecal transplant which, literally, places the stool of a healthy person into the gut of an infected person with the goal being to restore normal, healthy flora in the gut.

Finally, the more global problem affecting ALL of us vis-a-vis use of antibiotics is that widespread antibiotic use in the general population can cause bad bacteria to mutate and become resistant to the treatments used to eradicate them. So think about it...if too many people in our country (or world) use Flagyl or Vancocin, eventually, the C. diff. bacteria, for example, will mutate and become resistant to these drugs. These drugs are the first line of defense against C. diff. Once they become ineffective, due to resistant bacteria, we are all in a lot of trouble.


 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,394
Registered: ‎06-10-2010

Re: I am trying to find imformation on the bacteria C-diff

[ Edited ]

Thank you so much for this.  I have been trying to research the web but what you gave me here is the most detailed. I really appreciate it. One of the websites I was just on said it is "on the rise" and there is a new strain out now that is resistant to the antibiotics. I do know it's contagious, too. Since the diagnosis at the hospital was postive all the nurses are wearing robes now...yet my mother and sister have been in the hospital room all day with him and they haven't been given robes??????

Your info was so informative.....thank you!  And thanks to the person who posted it before!

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Registered: ‎03-11-2010

Re: I am trying to find imformation on the bacteria C-diff


@jubilant wrote:

Thank you so much for this.  I have been trying to research the web but what you gave me here is the most detailed. I really appreciate it. One of the websites I was just on said it is "on the rise" and there is a new strain out now that is resistant to the antibiotics. I do know it's contagious, too. Since the diagnosis at the hospital was postive all the nurses are wearing robes now...yet my mother and sister have been in the hospital room all day with him and they haven't been given robes??????

Your info was so informative.....thank you!  And thanks to the person who posted it before!


@jubilant I had never heard of it before reading about it here on the forums from some that have dealt with it. Maybe they will see your post & reply. Sounds really scary to deal with.

Glad it helped.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 8,420
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: I am trying to find imformation on the bacteria C-diff

Last winter and spring (for almost 6 months) I was on some pretty potent antibiotics. (on and off)  I ended up with C-diff and it was awful.  After 2 weeks on the suggested protocol  I was no better.  I was hospitalized until it was under control.

 

Not fun. Good luck to your father.

Respected Contributor
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Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: I am trying to find imformation on the bacteria C-diff

C diff is a very serious infection. Im surprised they are taking him back to the nursing home.  

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,241
Registered: ‎01-09-2011

Re: I am trying to find imformation on the bacteria C-diff

[ Edited ]

Oh my. I just brought my Mom home from the hospital on Sunday after a 3 day stay. It was discovered that it was C Diff. I had no clue what it was and now I know way more than I wanted to! Spent Sunday night santizing her 3 bathrooms.

 

What a nasty bug. Her's was from another medication that she'd taken for a long time. The MD surmised that it changed the acidity level in her gut, allowing the C Diff spores to "bloom". She is taking heavy duty antibiotics and is feeling quite good now.

 

She too had recently had a UTI, I was schooled by the nurses that seniors can harbor these infections and they "just can happen". Aging is not for the faint of heart!

 

Hope your Father is doing well and I am keeping fingers crossed that he comes out healthy and feeling good!

 

 

 

 

"Cats are poetry in motion. Dogs are gibberish in neutral." -Garfield
Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,394
Registered: ‎06-10-2010

Re: I am trying to find imformation on the bacteria C-diff


@meem120 wrote:

C diff is a very serious infection. Im surprised they are taking him back to the nursing home.  


I was surprised to.  The nursing home they are sending him back to has a rehab facility. He has lived in longterm care for 4 yrs. there so they know him well.  Also he lost his room mate so he does have a room and a bathroom to himself.  I wonder if they will quarantine him???? 

 I just got a call from my sister again and she said he is showing a symptom the hospital is concerned about so they are going to keep him a few hours more to see what happens.  I hope they keep him overnight.  My poor sister and mom are exhausted. Usually I am able to come in and help but I have been sick the last couple of days.

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,394
Registered: ‎06-10-2010

Re: I am trying to find imformation on the bacteria C-diff

[ Edited ]

@Jaci  Thanks so much for your kind words. I am glad your mother is better.  Hopefully, Dad will overcome this like he did the Sepsis a couple of months ago.

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