cdfiff experts please.....

I think I know the answer to this already, but thought I would ask....Can you have cdiff that resolves itself and returns? I have had several years of 3 weeks of intolerable smelling (grandmas musty basement or rancid dead animal) loose stools, followed by a couple of weeks of formed then back to the stink. The only time my GI did a stool test, I happened to back up that day. I am thinking cdiff can't come and go like that (especially having heard what you folks go through). But I also know that my life gets so much better on antibiotics.

I have been doing some digging on my new autoimmune diagnoses and found that one is reported to cause D and gut pains. Maybe that's it. I just wondered if it was infectious because poor hubby seems to have it this time a week after I did. Blahhhhh. Wouldn't it be nice if this was like a math problem and I could solve for X.

Hi Habs,
My c.diff was very atypical....I've had it many times unfortunately, and it presents slightly differently each time. Stop wondering and call your doc for stool cultures. I agree with Scifi that it could be something else too. I also got Salmonella, and I didn't eat anything different than I normally do. With our abnormal gut mucosa, we are at higher risk for these bacterial infections. Just make sure that when you bring in the stool sample it is one of your foul smelling loose poops. They won't even test it if it is formed. And if you can, bring the sample directly to the lab after pooping for the most accurate results. Sorry you are going through this!

Your situation sounds like what I went thru when I had c-diff. I felt so much better on the vancomycin and when I finished a course, my symtoms returned worse than ever. My GI said she thought it was bc the Vanc has properties that actually help control crohns symptoms and that she has known of patients staying on Vanc long term as a form of treatment. I kept testing negative after the second round of vanc but felt like crap as soon as I went off the Vanc. Finally, I tried LDN and it resolved my post infectious colitis.
I hope you feel better soon.

Have you tried the new antibiotic (Dificid) for C.diff? Supposedly it is more effective at treating c.diff, especially in the reoccuring c.diff infections.

Hmmm. Well if you can get the order for the stool tests and then just keep it until you are having a day of foul smelling D, and test it then, it would be best. When I had c.difficile the first time around (2012) it took us forever to figure it out because I wasn't getting the classic D all the time. I just felt worse and worse and developed gastroparesis and could barely eat, and then I'd have days of very mushy, but not liquid D (sorry, TMI) My doc had me on prednisone because he thought it was a flare, and it only made everything worse. Finally I begged to be put in the hospital because I honestly felt like I was dying, and as a routine they tested my stool, and it was positive for c.diff. After that, my GI always started with stool cultures whenever I had symptoms. You could be suffering from SIBO and not c.diff, which is why you get better with antibiotics. Sorry for the long rant of suppositions, but I think it's time to get your GI to do something! Sorry, I know how frustrating it all is!!