In May 2020 I got strep throat.  So I was prescribed antibiotics.  After 10 days, my strep seemed to have cleared up.  While on the antibiotics, I started to develop diarrhea.  I wasn’t too concerned because this had happened to me before.  Usually, once I finished the medicine, it would go away.  However, 3 weeks went by and it hadn’t stopped. I was thinking perhaps I had an allergy to something like lactose. So I started cutting dairy out.

This next part may sound crazy, but a few days later I was watching Grey’s Anatomy, an episode about a woman contracting C. diff and eventually dying.  It had mentioned that she developed Toxic Megacolon, which sounded really bad! I was simply curious as to what C. diff was. After a Google search, I suspected I might just have this.  So I went to the doctor, did a stool sample, and within a couple days found out I did indeed have C. diff. The doctor was surprised, he wasn’t even going to do a stool sample because he figured that wasn’t the issue.  Thank goodness I pushed it further and directly asked him to still check. (Always advocate for yourself!)

The next 5 months were the worst months of my life.  I was so sick.  I was hospitalized many times and visited the emergency room for IV hydration on many occasions.  I lost about 25 lbs because I couldn’t keep anything in me.  I was constantly in pain.  I felt so hopeless.  Thankfully that season did pass but now I have IBS as a result.  I’m honestly grateful that is all that happened.  It was a traumatic time.  I wouldn’t wish that on ANYONE.