Tag: c diff Posts

Rebooting The Gut With A FMT

Health

Back in roughly 2007, I managed to acquire a clostridium difficile infection. It’s a really serious infection, usually preceded by antibiotic exposure, and it can often can lead to death if not treated. In my case, it mostly started out with flu symptoms, but gradually led to me being hospitalized for a few days due to loss of fluids. Once being discharged from the hospital, I was prescribed flagyl to combat the c. diff infection. I did one or two rounds of that over a month or two, but unfortunately still tested positive for c. diff. at the end of it. Since the c. diff wasn’t really responding to flagyl, I was prescribed vancomycin, which at the time was one of the last lines of defence for most bacterial infections. I did several rounds of that over the course of a few more months, and thankfully eventually tested negative for […]

The Start Of A New Year

 Journal

Today was an odd day. It was the first day back to work in about two weeks now, which in itself was a lot of fun, given what we have on our plate. Prior to that though I had to go a few tests down at Chilliwack General Hospital as a final follow-up to all that garbage I went through with my c. diff. infection years ago. Thankfully everything checked out ok, and I think I can finally put that whole health saga finally behind me. That said, I got nothing but sympathy for anyone who acquires c. diff in a hospital setting like I did. After work today I went out and made a run to all of my favourite grocery stores. I’m planning on eating as healthy as I can this year, so I stocked up on veggies, meats, and pretty much everything else I was short of. […]

The Splenda Experiment

 Journal

As I mentioned a few days ago, I decided to try giving up Splenda to see if that helps my stomach out at all. Splenda is a sugar substitute (technically called Sucralose), and it’s chemically similar to sugar, although it has a few chlorine atoms added on which makes it mostly indigestible. Unfortunately, since most sugar substitutes essentially can’t be processed by the body, they can sometimes cause some distress as they pass through. At the top of that list are certain sugar alcohols (which are used in gum and lots of chocolates), which sometimes have a strong laxative affect. I came up with two working theories to my own stomach problems — one was that they may be caused by carbonated beverages (such as diet pepsi), and the other involves Splenda. My main reasoning was that in periods of time where both of those were reduced (such as when […]

Changing My Diet A Bit

 Journal

With regards to my post from yesterday regarding c. diff. First, I want to thank my mom for the eighty or so phone calls and emails she’s sent me regarding the subject since that blog entry went up: thanks for caring, mom. Don’t worry, I’m ok. Second, I’ve decided to change my diet in the short term to see if I can find a food trigger. Pretty much the only time I’ve felt normal again for a period of time was actually when I was in Cancun in March. For basically a whole week, my stomach problems went away and I felt pretty much 100% for a while. I spent about 30 minutes today making a mental list of probable causes. Sure, it could be stress, but it’s pretty hard to stress me out so I don’t think it’s that. In terms of diet, what I ate in Cancun was […]

Recovering From A Clostridium Difficile (C. Diff.) Infection

Health

Almost two years ago, I was at work one day, banging on the keys and writing some code. Suddenly, I felt cold, and realized that my hands and my fingers were shaking. I tried to stay at work as long as I could, but after a while my hands were shaking so bad I could hardly function at my job, so I went home. I curled into bed, and wrapped my duvet as tightly as it would go around myself. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t stop shivering. I ended up eventually falling asleep, and slept most of the night away. When I woke up, I was drenched in sweat, feeling like absolute garbage. Six days later I wound up in the emergency room at St. Paul’s hospital, hooked up to an oxygen mask with my finger in a pulse-oxymeter. An hour before, I was at home, […]

A Year After My C. Diff. Infection

Health

About a year ago, I was admitted to St. Paul’s hospital for what would later turn out to be a rather severe pneumonia. I don’t really get sick very often, so for me to suddenly be bed ridden after only two days of feeling bad was a very strange event. In fact, looking back I sometimes wonder if what I really had was pneumonia, or if that was just a symptom of what I actually had. I was going over my medical records a few months ago, and found all the reports from St. Paul’s. When they admitted me I was in pretty rough shape. I had a massive fever, low oxygen in my blood, and I was so dehydrated that my blood was taking up far less volume than it normally should have. I also could hardly breathe, which turns out was due to half of my left lung […]

Score A Big Zero For Canadian Medical

 Journal

Here comes another rant: As most of you know, back in November I was in the hospital with pneumonia. While there, I picked up a hospital acquired infection known as c. diff. It’s unfortunately rather common these days mainly due to the lack of cleanliness in hospitals (and also due to the abuse of broad-spectrum anti-biotics in hospitals). But without a doubt, it’s a serious infection, and is responsible for many deaths. The superbug the media focuses on is MRSA, but in terms of fatalities, c. diff kills about twice as many people. Just last month it claimed the life of a mother who went to the UBC hospital to deliver twins. I spent a few months battling it with my family doctor, and eventually he referred me to a specialist at St. Paul’s hospital. I went through a few runs of anti-biotics, and for the most part felt ok […]

Wow, Maybe I'm Not That Weak After All – Adenovirus 14

 Journal

I stumbled upon this article about killer viruses this morning, and it pretty much echos exactly everything that happened to me. I had a nap a few months ago, only to wake up with severe fever and chills. I thought I was battling the flu, and couldn’t understand why I wasn’t getting better. Six days later I was in the ICU at St. Paul’s with a 104 degree F fever, and my left lung had partially collapsed due to pneumonia. A high school varsity athlete, a sturdy guy with a health history blissfully free of blips, 18-year-old Joseph Spencer had little reason to think anything was seriously wrong when he got sick last April. Doctors say Joseph Spencer could have died from adenovirus, a virus that usually just causes a cold. The vomiting, chills, fever — “It must be the flu,” he thought. Within hours, Spencer’s fever was 104 degrees. […]

Being Diagnosed With A Clostridium Difficile Infection

Health

I finally got a hold of my doctor back in Vancouver today to try to figure out what’s wrong with me and what I can do about it. It turns out that I have a fairly serious infection caused by a bacteria called “clostridium difficile.” C. Difficile sometimes lives in the intestines and is normally kept in check by a range of good bacteria that also live there. Unfortunately, as a result of the antibiotic treament I had in the hospital (which was clindamycin I believe), a large portion of the good bacteria have died off, leaving a pile of bad stuff to proliferate: Clostridium Difficile Infection (CDI), can range in severity from asymptomatic to severe and life threatening, and many deaths have been reported, especially amongst the aged. People are most often infected in hospitals, nursing homes, or institutions, although C. difficile infection in the community, outpatient setting is […]

Back From The Dead

 Journal

Last night I was released from St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver to continue the healing process at home. I won’t make this a long entry becuase frankly, I find it physically rather hard to type and concentate for writing emails and things right now. The whole episode that led me to head to the hospital is as follows. On Saturday night I was finding myself really short of breath at home. Plus, no matter what medication I took, I just couldn’t seem to get my fever to come down. I hit a point when it hit 39C and my heart rate wouldn’t settle down and I thought to myself that something was very, very wrong. I called St. Paul’s Hospital and asked them if I should come in, and they said yes. So I grabbed a taxi and went over there. When I walked up to the ER desk and […]