UC Remission for 12 years, now C DIFF? help

So this past month has been absolutely exhausting, and, though my doctor is good at handing out treatments, no one is good at explaining to me what is ACTUALLY going on inside of my body.

I am a Junior in college, and am 20 years old. I was initially diagnosed with UC when I was only 8. After fighting to get off of steroids and no luck with enemas, I saw a holistic doctor who determined a gluten sensitivity. By going off of gluten, I was able to taper off of my steroids. After this experience, my colitis was in complete remission. Until now.

This all began around the 3rd of December. I had been noticing tiny streaks of blood in my stool randomly over the weeks prior, but thought nothing of it. However, on the 3rd, I saw blood in the toilet. Trying not to freak out, I called my mom and she reassured me it was probably just a hemorrhoid. Though I disagreed, I tried to stay calm and ignore the fact that my stomach was aching pretty bad. For the next week I experienced small amounts of blood, and my GI (who is new to me - only have had one appt with her) said it was probably just a small flare since I had been sick recently and my immune system was down.

This continued for about two weeks with little improvement. However, I ended up coming down with walking pneumonia on top of this, and was given a z-pack, which obviously made my symptoms worse. There was a little diarrhea at this point, bleeding, and now mucus and pressure as well.

Upon finishing the z-pack, my symptoms did not let up, so I was put on Uceris for the "flare" and told to do a stool test for C-Diff. It was now around Christmas and New Years, so it took me about a week to do so. I also was POSITIVE that wasn't it, especially since I had A. very minimal diarrhea and B. the Uceris gave me relief within just a few days.

This morning, a week after starting Uceris, I get a call that I tested positive for C-Diff, and am told to start Flagyl ontop of the steroid. First of all, I have heard horrible things about Flagyl and am nervous to take it. Secondly, now that I am researching C-Diff, everyone seems to be saying that it's super horrible and I will have to deal with it FOREVER it seems. I am a college student who really enjoys going out to bars, hanging out with friends, and just living a normal life. I may be being over dramatic, but it seems life all of this is now going to be taken away from me.

Just feeling very lost, hopeless, and alone. Any words of wisdom or advice would be helpful. I have been on Lialda for years and still am, and also take three capsules of VSL3 every evening. Thank you.

Hey! I am currently dealing with a second c-diff infection and just met my hollistic doctor about that yesterday.
So, from my point of view,
- It seems you had a flare and you had to take antibiotics, it's the kind of situation where c-diff thrive very well.
- It's true that your C-diff symptoms are mild (low diarrhea), but this can be explain by the use of VSL3, but also the use of steroid that can hide infection's symptoms.
- I'm confident you can go through this infection and not get c-diff again. You read stories about people struggling with it on the web, but a lot of UCers only get it one time.

I would recommand you to take flagyl as prescribed and continue VSL3 (have to be taking 2 hrs after and before flagyl). I would also recommend adding boulardii saccharomyces, it doesn't interact with flagyl. (My hollistic doctor recommended me 10 billion 3x day).

I think you do the right thing to take it seriously right away (I did not the first time I got c-diff). Maybe you should go see holistic dr again to make shure you do everything right to get rid of it and get back to normal life