Tag: tests Posts

Test Results Are Back

 Journal

A few weeks ago I went into the doctor’s office to get a pile of tests done on myself. For those of you that remember, last year I came down with a clostridium difficile infection, which is a superbug that typically only affects people who end up in hospitals on broad spectrum antibiotics. When I was in the hospital last year with pneumonia, I ended up getting it, and it was a very nasty experience that took three rounds of antibiotics to get rid of. That being said, my stomach has never really been the same, and I frequently have an upset stomach or cramps still. Since C. Diff. has about a 30% recurrence rate (that is, in 30% of people who are cured, it usually comes back), I wanted to get another round of tests to make sure it hadn’t returned. Also, since C. Diff typically only affects older […]

Oh you can poop, you just can't poop here

 Journal

Warning — you’re probably gonna hear far too much information in this post, but I need to vent a bit. Ever since being discharged from the hospital, I’ve had some pretty bad digestive problems. It started with just your run of the mill diarrhea, but has slowly gotten worse over the last month. Lately I’ve been waking up a bit crampy, and have to hit the bathroom fairly often during the day right now. I spent the other evening searching on the internet, and finally pinned it down to antibiotic associated diarrhea, due mainly to the IV and oral antibiotics I had while fighting pneumonia: Antibiotic-associated diarrhea occurs when antibiotics disturb the natural balance of “good” and “bad” bacteria in your intestinal tract, causing harmful bacteria to proliferate far beyond their normal numbers. The result is often frequent, watery bowel movements. Most often, antibiotic-associated diarrhea is fairly mild and clears […]