I contracted C. diff after taking antibiotics that I was prescribed to kill a parasite I picked up in Cancun, Mexico while on vacation with my hubby. I returned from Mexico with diarrhea, nausea, and horrible pain. I was prescribed Flagyl. Then my symptoms got worse, and I was prescribed Xifaxan. I was then hospitalized and diagnosed with C. diff. Then I was put on Cipro. Things got worse: I had diarrhea up to 30 times a day, I was so dehydrated that my face started to sink in. I had no control of my bowels. I pooped everywhere: in the shower, while driving, while sleeping…I then started to wear diapers so I could actually leave the house.

Then, as if I wasn’t sick enough, I broke my foot getting out of my car at a gas station. While I was on crutches and the C. diff was rapidly worsening, my doctors put me on Vanco for fourteen days (four times a day). This exacerbated things until I was at my rock bottom sitting in diapers in my house for four days.

I was hospitalized for the fourth time for six days begging for a fecal transplant. My doctors found an infectious disease doctor to do the transplant, which was very archaic. My ten-year-old daughter was my donor. She was not screened or tested at all. We had to buy and bring in a blender and metal strainer. The doctor mixed the fecal matter and saline in the bathroom of my hospital room. It was delivered via NG tube up my nose—and I was completely awake for this procedure horrible!

My next three months were pure hell with more trips to the ER thinking it was back. Turns out it was just the recovery process. Other illnesses I have include Panic Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome from my foot break—which I need to get regular spinal lumbar nerve blocks for—and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from childhood and adult sexual, physical, and mental abuse. I currently have a Urinary Tract Infection and tested positive for E. coli. I am on an antibiotic.

It has been the worst year of my life. Luckily, no one else in my family has gotten C. diff from when I was sick. It completely changed me, and I am not the same person I was before this happened. I have been so sick that I prayed to be hospitalized and put on morphine so I would not have to deal with the pain and would have a nurse right there to take care of me. I am a stay at home mom of two and have missed out on the last year of their lives being so ill.