C. Diff vs MC
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C. Diff vs MC
I was diagnosed earlier this year with MC and after initial treatment with Asacol for 6 weeks went into remission. I was recently hospitalized with pneumonia twice and put on 3 diferent rounds of antibiotics, both oral and IV. On my second hospitalization I developed D and tested positive for C. Diff. I am on Vancomycin X 21 days and started back on Asacol. From everything I read the D was supossed to stop in 4-5 days with Vancomycin but I am going on 2 weeks. Am I dealing with a relapse of MC or C. Diff? It feels like MC to me and I just happened to test positive for C. Diff due to the multiple antibiotics.
Hi Mimic,
I'm sorry to hear of all the problems you're having. C. diff can be very difficult to treat. It's becoming a bigger problem every day. If you tested positive for a C. diff infection, in a properly done culture test, then you almost certainly did/do have C. diff. False negatives are quite common with a culture test for C. diff, but I believe that false positives are rather rare. Extended treatments with an antibiotic are the most common cause of C. diff infections, of course, so you were certainly a candidate for C. diff, from that perspective. Treatment responses vary, but Vancomycin is the most effective antibiotic currently available for treating the more resistant forms of C. diff, so if it doesn't work, there's not much else to fall back on.
You certainly could be right, that your current symptoms are from MC, rather than C. diff, but it can take more than a few days to totally erradicate a C. diff infection, so be sure to continue the treatment with Vancomycin for the full 21 days. After that, if you still have D, then you should have additional culture tests done. Since false negatives are so common, you should have at least 2, and preferably 3, tests done, to be sure that the C. diff is gone.
Asacol is not a very effective treatment for MC, especially if you happen to be sensitive to dairy products, (since it contains lactose), and most of us with MC, react to dairy products. It usually works better as a maintenance treatment, after a patient is already in remission. Your doctor should have prescribed Entocort EC for your MC, because it will control the MC symptoms much faster than Asacol, and that would have helped to clarify whether MC is causing your symptoms, or whether you still have a C. diff infection. A culture test would tell you which is the problem, but, of course, it takes about 4 days to get the results from a C. diff culture test. As you end the Vancomycin treatment, be sure to begin taking a good probiotic, (in case your doctors didn't already advise you to do so), otherwise, you run a significant risk of a C. diff reinfection.
Harma,
C. diff stands for Clostridium difficile
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/c-difficile/DS00736
Tex
I'm sorry to hear of all the problems you're having. C. diff can be very difficult to treat. It's becoming a bigger problem every day. If you tested positive for a C. diff infection, in a properly done culture test, then you almost certainly did/do have C. diff. False negatives are quite common with a culture test for C. diff, but I believe that false positives are rather rare. Extended treatments with an antibiotic are the most common cause of C. diff infections, of course, so you were certainly a candidate for C. diff, from that perspective. Treatment responses vary, but Vancomycin is the most effective antibiotic currently available for treating the more resistant forms of C. diff, so if it doesn't work, there's not much else to fall back on.
You certainly could be right, that your current symptoms are from MC, rather than C. diff, but it can take more than a few days to totally erradicate a C. diff infection, so be sure to continue the treatment with Vancomycin for the full 21 days. After that, if you still have D, then you should have additional culture tests done. Since false negatives are so common, you should have at least 2, and preferably 3, tests done, to be sure that the C. diff is gone.
Asacol is not a very effective treatment for MC, especially if you happen to be sensitive to dairy products, (since it contains lactose), and most of us with MC, react to dairy products. It usually works better as a maintenance treatment, after a patient is already in remission. Your doctor should have prescribed Entocort EC for your MC, because it will control the MC symptoms much faster than Asacol, and that would have helped to clarify whether MC is causing your symptoms, or whether you still have a C. diff infection. A culture test would tell you which is the problem, but, of course, it takes about 4 days to get the results from a C. diff culture test. As you end the Vancomycin treatment, be sure to begin taking a good probiotic, (in case your doctors didn't already advise you to do so), otherwise, you run a significant risk of a C. diff reinfection.
Harma,
C. diff stands for Clostridium difficile
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/c-difficile/DS00736
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
The C stands for Clostridium.
C Diff is nasty - my aged MIL had it, caused by antibiotic use over an extended period.
When I first started to be really bad with my MC, I thought I'd caught the C Diff from her as it is very infectious. Tests showed I hadn't but it was a logical idea.
We also learned that the antibiotics kill good flora in the gut and the C Diff takes advantage of this and reproduces like crazy. It's hard to be rid of it - MIL had vancomycin I believe.
We were also told that C Diff is resistant to many antibiotics and also to some disinfectants that hospitals use so it can hang around a long time after the infected patient is gone. Toilets should be well scrubbed and if physically handling a C Diff patient, gloves and gown should be worn. Soiled linen/clothing should be washed separately and disinfected to avoid contamination.
It can be so severe it can cause colitis and colon damage.
C Diff is nasty - my aged MIL had it, caused by antibiotic use over an extended period.
When I first started to be really bad with my MC, I thought I'd caught the C Diff from her as it is very infectious. Tests showed I hadn't but it was a logical idea.
We also learned that the antibiotics kill good flora in the gut and the C Diff takes advantage of this and reproduces like crazy. It's hard to be rid of it - MIL had vancomycin I believe.
We were also told that C Diff is resistant to many antibiotics and also to some disinfectants that hospitals use so it can hang around a long time after the infected patient is gone. Toilets should be well scrubbed and if physically handling a C Diff patient, gloves and gown should be worn. Soiled linen/clothing should be washed separately and disinfected to avoid contamination.
It can be so severe it can cause colitis and colon damage.
Maxine