★★★★★
After 6 days, I still had fevers, no appetite, some nausea, and extreme tiredness. I went back to in and saw the on-call doctor, she ordered urine and blood cultures, and gave me a shot of ceftriaxone, and changed the antibiotic to 5 days of ciprofloxacin. The cultures came back clean. I requested they continue to grow out the cultures to see if it was a fungal infection, since they hadn't found any bacteria yet. But that message must have not gone through, because they disposed of my samples. 5 days after finishing the Ciprofloxacin, I went back in for having diarrhea and generally not feeling like I was "better". The on-call doctor (doctor #3) ordered another urinalysis and a stool sample. The next day, the clinic notified me that I had C. diff and that they had called in a prescription for 10 days of oral vancomycin. I thought about it and decided I would get the script as a backup and go all out on trying to heal myself. I have insurance so the script was only $15.
I bought kefir, barley (for barley water), kombucha, sauerkraut, 3 types of chewable probiotics, another big bottle of Asprega probiotics, garlic pills, oil of oregano, beet juice, carrot juice, and organic Miso. The previous day I had also ordered probiotics online, nascent iodine, magnesium chloride cream, iron, calcium, vitamin C and D, and a book by John Brisson titled "Fix Your Gut", which I highly recommend. What a wealth of information. The last day I saw the doctor, let's call it
Day 1, I had 12 bowel movements.
The next day I started my treatment,
Day 2: 8 bowel movements,
Day 3: 7,
Day 4: 4,
Day 5: 3.
Day 6 is today and I'm on 0 at 8am, have been up since 5:30. I have no more cramping unless I eat something I shouldn't. I have now figured out, I take 1 bite and wait. I will get cramps within 15 minutes. I have only tried this on a couple foods, but it works. Eat slow. The first day I drank barley water (quite soothing and not bad at all although it sounds gross), I ate the barley with flavored kefir on it for breakfast and miso for lunch. Lots of water. I continued this diet and am still on it while introducing new foods and liquids like kombucha, carrot juice, beet juice. I am also consuming all of the things I mentioned earlier. I am overdosing on probiotics.
Every 3 hours I take double a full day's dose of each kind that I have. Every morning on an empty stomach, a shot of water with 2 drops of oregano and iodine in it. Plenty of rest and naps. I still have the antibiotics just in case. But I now realize that they should be a backup plan and not the first line of defense. Our medical system is ridiculous. Why was I not warned of this when I started 3 different types of antibiotics in a week? Why was I not given advice from my doctor on dietary changes that could have helped prevent this from happening? It really is a shame. Why was I not warned that this could come back even after taking dangerous antibiotics? Everything I have found out about C diff, I researched and found out myself.
You will beat this! You are your best advocate. You don't have to do everything a doctor tells you. Listen to your body. Take it slow. Do what is making you feel better. Try the barley water. You have to take care of this all day and be on top of it, but you will win.
