# C. Diff



## Yellowroses (Apr 3, 2012)

Does anyone have any personal experience with c diff (Clostridium difficile)? My husband has had IBS now for a few years, only recently diagnosed, or should I say more like ruled everything else out with every test possible only to have all of the doctors throw their hands up and say "it must be IBS" He's on Gabapentin which does seem to cut down on his flare ups but he still ends up in the ER at least one a month, sometimes more. He's had it real bad on and off for the past month again, was in the ER and admitted last week only to be released the next day with a "we can't do anything else for you" then again this week he went to the ER, due to extreme pain and diarrhea. Sent home again only to have to go back the next day after spending the night throwing up. They admitted him because he was so sick and having dizzy spells. That was yesterday. Today he was diagnosed with C Diff after a stool test. I'm getting totally mixed instructions on what to do. He's in the hospital in isolation. But they said being I've been around him I've already been exposed. They didn't say not to come to the hospital anymore, just said while everyone else has to wear gowns, gloves and masks, I don't need to since I've been exposed already. Now the doctor told me to just make sure I wash the entire bathroom with soap and water. And wash the bed linens. The pamphlet the nurse gave me on it said to use either bleach or Clorox Clean Up spray (which says it's been approved for killing the germs, I also looked it up and found the same info on using that) Now the doctor didn't say to clean anything else in the house. But friends who work in nursing homes and do personal care said I have to clean every single thing in my house that he touched lately with bleach. I sat here looking around wondering how that is even possible being he touches everything in the house. And much of it you can't use bleach on like the couch, and electronics. One of them also said if he wore any piece of clothing, and put it back in the drawer or closet, everything in that drawer or closet is now infected and has to be washed. This sounds like an impossible challenge and I can't figure out why the doctor only said the bathroom and bedding if everything needs cleaned. We don't have any children in the house, just my husband and I who are both in our early 50's. Is this extreme cleaning really necessary? Also if you're fairly healthy what are the chances of catching it? Or if you've had it has anyone in your family caught it from you? When the doctor told me about it I didn't think it was all that bad from how she was talking but after reading online and talking to friends, I'm totally freaked out. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm used to dealing with his IBS, but this is a whole new thing for us.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

It isn't the easiest thing to catch, but you do want to make sure he doesn't get reinfected and I don't know if he may be susceptible afterward.They usually have to be way more careful when someone is sick (like in a hospital or nursing home) as it can be spread to people likely to get it. When people are on antibiotics (like after surgery) they are much more likely to get it than healthy people.Personally I would clean all the door knobs, light switches, phones and those kinds of surfaces that tend to be germy anyway (in addition to the doctor's suggestions), but I don't know if you have to go to the fully sterilize the entire house like you would if there was an outbreak in a hospital or nursing home.I would wash clothes to make sure what he wears and what he sleeps on has been cleaned while he was away.


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

Yeah I would really try to stop freaking out about it....you do not need any more stress than you already have right now! I agree with what your Dr said and what Kathleen has told you. Just a common sense cleaning is fine. You can try also using the Clorox wipes too ... just go over the common things...and just wash the bedding, bathtowels & face cloths etc.I would also buy him a new toothbrush.







Hope he is able to feel better and come home real soon!


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## Yellowroses (Apr 3, 2012)

Thanks. I did finally get to talk to the Infectious Disease nurse about it and she gave me a phone number to call them if I have any other questions. She said don't use wipes, but do use Clorox Clean Up Spray, she said that besides just using bleach is the only thing that'll really kill the germs on surfaces which can live for up to 30 days. She said basically what you did about cleaning phones, light switches, etc, things we touch most often plus the bathroom and wash the bedding and his clothes but they don't have to be washed separately from my clothes. I keep a bottle of Clorox Clean Up and paper towels in the bathroom for him to clean up with after he uses it until he's past the contagious part. He's not allowed to go back to work until he's better, because they have a public bathroom, but she said it's ok for him to go out in public, as long as he doesn't use the bathroom. Believe me after going through this I don't think either of us will be using a public bathroom if we can help it. But the infectious disease nurse did say she thinks he picked it up at the hospital in the ER being we've been there quite a bit. I just wish they would of tested him for this the week before when we were in for the same thing, might of caught it sooner. He was released on Thursday, this is Sunday and he's feeling no better at all. How long does it usually take for someone to feel better? I'm hoping he's not getting worse.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I think it took my brother a couple of weeks to feel better when he came home from the hospital with it.


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## ryan750 (Apr 11, 2012)

Hi All, I absolutely felt compelled to sign up here and to share with you my story, but also a strategy i have found that WORKS! My illness began in february 2011 when my mother (who was away at her sister's deathbed in a Scottish hospital) called me to tell me she was suffering from diahrea but would be home soon. When she returned home i also began getting severe diahrea and then began researching online. I was aware of the disease C.Diff, also since i had just been trained about it the past month since starting a new job at a nursing home. We also got word from my mother's other sister that the hospital she visited was known for c.diff outbreaks. So i went to the doctor and mum and i were given metronidazole for a week which cured my mum but i was not cured. I tried again, which was hell since the medication is totally psychotic, but still had pain, frequent bowel movement, foul smelling stool, lots of mucous on the stool, weakness and fatigue. When i went to the doctor he basically said there was nothing he could do further until c.diff is confirmed by stool but i had already tried 4 times to have my stool cultured but each time the sample was mishandled, rejected on grounds of unsuitability or because no name was on sample etc. So i researched what to do and then i found probiotics.. which helped somewhat but were too expensive for me. THEN i read about the best natural probiotic which is HOME CULTURED YOGHURT.The reason why home cultured yoghurt is the perfect probiotic is because of the massive number of bacteria. The probiotics you buy in pills are in the region of 5 billion to 100 billion culture bacteria per pill, but these can be very expensive. Plain yogurt you buy from the store is low on bacteria culture levels because it is treated like a production line, they want these products shipped out fast so no time to allow for culturing, they leave it typically 4-6 hours to culture at body temperature. Whereas if you culture your own yoghurt you can have many TRILLIONS of cultures which absolutely blow out of the water anything you could buy in pill or sachet and its waaay cheaper. SOOOO i tried it and it REALLY helps me, but there is strict guidelines to follow which i will describe to help you maximise this potential benefit.First i should tell you my theory and why you should try this. My problem appears to be of a bacterial one, most likely c.diff (although not officially confirmed) but it could be some other pathogen in the digestive tract which the yoghurt bacteria is forcing to retreat and starve due to competition for resources. Any of you could possibly have an undiagnosed bacterial pathogen causing you the problem and you should definitely try this to see if you notice any improvement.I will now explain how i make my yoghurt, which is very simple and easy. Firstly i did some research and found that a very important probiotic bacteria is Bifidobacterium Longum which i deduced was very important because it is found in incredibly high numbers in infants. So, i went to my local supermarket and began checking labels of all the NATURAL YOGHURT or PLAIN YOGHURTS which might have mention of their probiotic culture content. It must be natural and you will know because the label will say its ingredient: MILK - and that is it, plus the bacteria species too. Luckily i found one which contains lactobacillus but crucially (i think) was this Bifidobacterium Longum and the brand is called Onken Biopot (UK). If you can't find the yoghurt with it in you can order a culture online or at a healthfood store you might get one... OR you can just culture from ANY natural yoghurt and i suspect you will gain much benefit. So, now you have the culture you will need a large vacuum flask or thermos flask (i use a 1 litre one) and either a food or body thermometer. I just use a cheap body thermometer meant for the mouth. What you do is fill a pan with some (preferably) store bought ORGANIC whole fat milk to the amount which will fill your thermos flask ( i go a little under to make sure there is room). Then put in a good couple large tablespoons of your natural yogurt or the starter culture you have and STIR WELL to make sure it incorporates and doesn't get heated at the bottom of the pan. So, you want to GENTLY heat the milk and culture together slowly and regularly check the temperature until it reaches 37 degrees or so (body temperature). Whilst you are heating you should fill your waitng thermos flask with hot or recently boiled water and let it sit for a few minutes to warm through. Once your milk has reached at least 37 degrees (i have let it go up to 40 degrees by accident and it has been fine, dont be too worried about it) then transfer the milk and culture into the thermos flask and put it in a place which is not drafty or cold. You want to leave this to culture for at LEAST 30 hours, 36 is better i find and especially for your very first culture i would recommend 36 hours at least. I will warn you that your very first culture might not be that strong because you are starting from scratch.. it is your next batch which will get you going, so don't be discouraged from first try. Once you have allowed your own HOMEMADE yoghurt to culture for the period you wanted you should transfer it to a sealable container - I use the yoghurt pot i bought which is 1kg=1ltr. I rewash this pot after each batch and it holds my next batch in full, so is handy. Put the batch into the fridge so that it will stay fresh and i find that it develops in flavour and gets stronger as the days go on. In fact, something i would suggest is in fact to have a good few mouthfuls of your yoghurt before you put it in the fridge to cool down. This is good because the bacteria are fully ready to work at body temperature but the only thing is that warm yoghurt isnt that pleasant but it will help. Or you can wait till it cools and is more pallatable.NOW, there are strict rules i have learned to abide by upon taking this yoghurt for it to work, believe me its been crazy what i have noticed through trial and error. The first thing i found was that i have to have the yoghurt BEFORE anything else enters my mouth in the morning, including water. I REALLY recommend this. As soon as you wake up, go to the fridge and have at least 2 mouthfuls of the yogurt before anything else, i would suggest 4 or as many as you can stomach (more than 6 is unnecessary) for those who are very ill and just starting out. I thought this might have been important because by making the yogurt the first thing the bacteria in your gut come into contact with each day.. it helps fight them because they are hungry in the morning like we all are and are at their weakest. I just drink the yogurt straight out of the container because im lazy and i have become so sick of this illness that i just want that yogurt to make me better. Then after you have had the yogurt have whatever food you usually eat for breakfast, but i did notice that leaving the yogurt to work for 5 minutes by itself helped too in the early stages. For those starting out i would then recommend you eat some of this yogurt about 4-5 times a day, now i only need it 2-3 times a day after a year of it. The next CRUCIAL tip is that when you come to make your next batch of yogurt, which will be 3-5 days since you last made some, you MUST use some of your old batch as your culture. This is because it is potent with bacteria unlike the starter culture from the yogurt you bought in the supermarket. If you try, like i recently have been doing, to make your yogurt from scratch each time it will always fall short. I would recommend starting from scratch at least once every few months though, maybe even once a couple months because the bacteria you have created might now have become changed, for instance through heating too high you encourage a heat resistance strain that isnt so good at its job etc. So yeh, use a couple spoonfuls again from your batch and remake some yogurt. This is where scheduling gets important, you are going to need to save some yogurt for your next batch and you will have to wait at least 30-36 hours for the next batch to be ready (plus cooling time), so i now try to make a new batch when im about halfway done with the current one. The way i tend to have my yogurt is before i eat something like lunch or dinner, ill quickly gulp a couple mouthfuls whilst im cooking in the kitchen, just because its handy.What i have found is that it drastically reduces the amount of pain, fatigue, weakness and foulness in my stools. I noticed when i was culturing from scratch or i miss a dosing in the morning OR i use up all my yogurt and have none left, i would get all these symptoms back and i would be miserable. Even with the yogurt i still get milder symptoms and i am now going to go to a new doctor to explain what i am going through for the past year. It is absolutely insane i have to make this yogurt but honestly it isnt any trouble, i can make a new batch in 10 minutes, its so simple. PLEASE try this, all who are having gastro trouble. The taste of the yogurt isnt very appetising really because it is just a bit sour BUT i see it as my medicine, and actually it is really healthy because it is full of metabolites, calcium, protein so it is all good. JUST get that yogurt down, even pinch your now if you have to. I plead with you that you try this because it really works, the science is there. The only alternative for me is a fecal transplant which is hard to get doctors to do. Im going to the doctor soon, will let you know, ANYWAY - please email me (removed) with questions, updates, things you want to know. I would be most happy to help and hear from you. Best of luck everyone, we can get through this!Also, a couple other things. Clostridia seem to get worse with meat and fish and in particular PORK. I would say to eliminate pork from your diet because this always makes it worse for me. Also, Salmon isnt doing well with me either. SO yeh, no pork or salmon. But chicken is fine, beef is okay too but dont go wild with red meats, every now and then.. especially if you need iron make sure u get red meat regularly. Oh the other thing is, the reason why my mum was cured but i wasnt was because she had a backup of good bacteria whereas i had been on several courses of antiobiotics for the previous 2 years and WIPED OUT MY GUT flora. SO, AVOID antibiotics at all costs, unless you absolutely have to take them for a specific known infection, and try narrow spectrum ones to keep your good bacteria. The other thing is that the reason we have to keep taking the yogurt and probiotics is because these bacteria wont stay in the gut and colonise permanantly (it is theorised) because it is only our original gut flora from birth which can maintain themselves in our guts because our immune system was PRIMED to them. So is why probiotic cultures do not stick around. But they go a hell of a long way to balancing things out and i read that C.Diff can live in the guts for up to 2 years, so plausibly i only have 10 months more to go with the yogurt till im totally better?? who knows. Hope this helpsEmail to a sufferer:Hi Joann, there are many things that the doctors are STILL unable to fully detect like unkown or tricky pathogens. One such pathogen called Clostridium Difficile is running rampant in hospitals and now spreading in the community creating so called "community acquired infections". The name of this clostridia is latin for "difficult" because it is incredibly difficult to isolate it, for example if you put some of it in a petri dish you would find it hard to culture them, grow them and study them. Therefore instead of looking directly for the clostridia the doctors look for the TOXINS that they create which are what make people feel ill. The problem is that the tests they use HALF of the time create FALSE negatives, meaning they are unable to detect the toxin. This is because the toxin begins to DEGRADE immediately a it leaves the body and cools down from body temperature. Therefore Thousands of people are being misdiagnosed as having this chronic, untreatable and PHANTOM condition the doctors like to call IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME. Now, im sure some patients do have normal IBS, but some have C. Diff. JOANN - what you MUST do, is follow the instructions i have for creating the most powerful treatment for this disease yourself in HOME CULTURED YOGHURT. You must leave it to culture for at least 36 hours at body temperature in a thermos flash and then you must eat a few spoonfuls of it BEFORE EVERY MEAL. I absolutely promise you that you will be fine if you do this. ALL of you please do this. Look above for my VERY long post detailing the process. Good luck everyone, i can't eblieve how much better i am feeling now that i UST LAST WEEK realised that for the past year i haven't been culturing my yogurt for long enough and that i had to use some from the old batch as a starter culture each time. 36 hours, old batch culture starter, 2 mouthfuls before every meal.. most importantly, it has to be the VERY FIRST THING that enters your stomach in the morning. TRY it, email me [email protected] xxxFollow up:First you have to understand what is going on. The fact that dairy products are making you feel worse is probably because bacteria can use the sugars in dairy to multiply with. BUT if you eat the home cultured yoghurt which contains ITS own colony of GOOD bacteria, the bad bacteria in your guts will fight with the good bacteria to eat up the sugars in the yoghurt but because there will be soooo many trillions of GOOD bacteria in the home cultured yoghurt, the bad bacteria will die off because they can't fight all of the good bacteria. TRUST me joann, dont think of this as dairy, it is a medicine and it is nature's very own and very powerful. Please try this and ask your parents what they think. I have struggled through this since february 2011 and only now have gotten the hang of it. You should try this method to see if it helps and persevere with it too, give it a chance to work, like a few weeks making the yogurt every 3 or 4 days. Plain yoghurt like the one i describe how to make is also known to decrease the impact of other pathogens like Heliobacter Pylori and such, so it could fix your problem. Let me know if you have any success.


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## ryan750 (Apr 11, 2012)

It turns out, through my own discovery without help from a doctor as they have been useless this whole time.. 3 and a half years.... that i have a STOMACH ULCER. I did have C diff but i think the metronidazole caused the ulcer. Not sure. But anyway.. Ulcers are almost as untreatable as recurrent C.diff.. but the only cure is cabbage juice 3/4 times a day 200 mls for 7/10 days. So there it is folks. Finally i have found answers. Just beginning my cabbage juice cleanse now. I recommend a slow juicer like hurom. I also have a recipe, half a red cabbage, a whole green cabbage, a few handfuls of kale leaves and a tub of black grapes. The grapes really help with the flavour. Try it people whether u think uve got ulcers or not. Its VERY healing.


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