Ah Ha moment!!

Upon reading several more posts tonight I read the post from Austin regarding his condition..I have never heard of C-Diff. But after reading his post I starting researching the disease and tracing back to when my symptoms started. First of all let me say I have NEVER been asked for a stool sample. Is this a comon test for people that have UC?? Maybe I am crazy but let me give you all a little history about myself and how my mess started. I am a Police Officer and March of 2008 my City was hit with a flood. I swam,walked in and boated on the nasty contaminated water for nearly 18 hours helping people off cars,rooftops or light poles. I distincly remember the water in some area's smelling like raw sewage mixed with kerosene. After the flood waters receded they gave us all Tetnus shots and sent us on our way. Well In Septemeber of last I year I got an infection and was prescribed an antibiotic. I only took the antibiotic for a week or so before I started having some problems. I went to New York for vacation in early October and it hit hard..Nausea,alot of "D" and couldnt eat, no appetite,urgency,weight loss, the whole mess. I went until March of this year and finally went to my Family Doc. He gave me Bentyl to control the urgency but it made me sick so he switched it to Librax. It seemed to help somewhat but started having more problems left sided pain,severe cramps..  Now looking back I wonder if I contracted something from the nasty flood waters and it flared up when I took the antibiotic. I have never explained it to my GI as I just did to you all because I never thought it was connected. This might also explain why more of my co wrokers are experiencing similar problems as well. Mostly they are complaining about having terrible "D" and urgency after they eat. I should also say that truly until I started taking the probiotics nothing seemed to be helping. I also checked my lab results from the biopsies taken during my colonoscopy. It states in the report that the inflammation appears to be an "infectious type". Is that a common statement for anyone else with UC? I might be grasping at straws but there does seem to be a pattern. Sorry to burst in here with this but my wife is fast asleep and I needed to get this off my chest..Anyone have any thoughts or you can just tell me I am plain crazy too..I have an appointment with my GI later this month and see what he thinks. Thanks

I had stool examinations for parasites and bacteria when I first went to the GI, and again periodically as I worked my way through an extended (years) flare. Sherry is right, ask your doctor to do cultures and check for parasites. It's important to rule out infections before diagnosing IBD, because the symptoms can be similar.