Skip to main content
International

Megan


Last year, just as the COVID pandemic started to break out, I felt pains in my head, I felt dizzy and I was tired. I went to see the doctor and I was told to go and get some blood tests done. They found out I had glandular fever. This was bizarre, as I have had the same boyfriend for the past 5 years. My immune system was weakened by this infection. A couple of weeks later, I got bitten by a spider. The bite caused lymphangitis (inflammation under the lymph glands under the skin), and as the venom spread from my wrist to up to my armpit I was told to take antibiotics. I took amoxicillin for 8 days, and then when the bite didn’t go away, I had 8 more days of pristinamycin.

After this, I went to eat at a restaurant a couple of weeks to a month later, and in the following days, I couldn’t get off the toilet. I spent 10-14 days with severe diarrhea, unable to work. I went to do a stool test, only to find out I had the dreaded C. difficile. I was given metronidazole for about a week and hoped this would go away. It caused severe acid reflux, to the point where I was sick, unable to keep any food down, fainting, and I ended up hospitalized. I had to have an endoscopy and, even after not eating or drinking anything for 12 hours, they found enormous amounts of acid in my stomach. I was put on an antacid treatment.

I thought that was the end of C. difficile; however, a month or two later, I was back on the toilet again despite my efforts of cleaning my house with every single antibacterial product under the sun. I read up and found that apparently, antacid reflux medicine can cause you to relapse.

This time they didn’t diagnose it straight away. I was put on ciprofloxacin until I ended up keeling over again and back in the hospital.

I then was put back on metronidazole. A couple of days later, I had a severe reaction to the medicine, I couldn’t keep anything inside of me (both ways), and I ended up back in the hospital.

At this point, I had lost 6 kilograms. I couldn’t stand, and I most certainly couldn’t work. This was during the COVID pandemic when everyone was confined in their homes. I ended up going to the hospital to get a 10-day treatment of vancomycin. They gave me 40 injection bottles that I had to mix with water (as the nurses weren’t available during COVID to inject me). After those 10 days, I was cured but was still very tired and very fragile from the whole previous couple of months.

I was off sick for a total of 2 months last year. As you can imagine, this isn’t something that my boss took lightly. The relationship deteriorated and so did my health. I was never told about post-infectious IBS after my C. difficile episodes, and since then, my stomach/gut/intestines have never fully recovered (it is now about a year later). I struggle with food, keeping it inside me. I struggle with pain in my abdomen and intestines, and I have chronic issues with diarrhea.

This is one of the reasons I left my job and decided to work from home.

You are never fully warned about the long-term damage that antibiotics can cause to the gut flora or the traumatic experience of C. difficile. What they don’t tell you about is the emotional trauma (it’s true, we all stress we are going to have a relapse), the financial loss or the stress of managing a job whilst being severely ill, and the long term lasting effects that you have to deal with after.

Age


26

Gender


Female

Length


161

Source


Community Acquired

Other Stories


  • Mira

    In December of 2019, my husband got sick with C. diff. It was after he was prescribed antibiotics for what they thought was a case of diverticulitis. In hindsight, it’s clear he may have simply had c-diff all along. He was treated with vancomycin …
  • Length: ON AND OFF FOR 5 YEARS

    Beth W.

    My story began in 2018 when I went to see a colorectal surgeon for the incision of a thrombosed hemorrhoid. In order to ‘prevent’ an infection, the surgeon prescribed me both Amoxicillin 800mg 2x daily and Vancomycin 500mg 3x daily. Upon completio…
  • Length: 1 YEAR

    Mollie Lauck

    My Husband and I were expecting our first child. We were so very excited. My Pregnancy was complicated to begin with- I was considered “Advanced Maternal Age” and had Hypertension and Gestational Diabetes. Though it was a labor of love, Pregnancy …
  • Length: 5 MONTHS

    Ken Fredrickson

    I’m 62 and generally healthy, I’ve never had an intestinal issue. I went to the ER on Jan 2, 2023 and a CT scan revealed Diverticulitis. They sent me home with a 2 week course of antibiotics. Four days after completing the antibiotics, I developed…
  • Length: 8 MONTHS

    Jan

    I am a healthy active older woman. On March 1, 2019 I had an explosive episode of diarrhea, out of the blue, no idea what caused it. The smell was indescribable, like nothing I had ever experienced in my long life. That was the beginning of a long…
  • Dr. Melissa Geraghty, Psy.D.

    At the start of 2018 I was diagnosed with C. diff. I never really heard much about C. diff outside of people acquiring it in a hospital setting or people of advanced age contracting it. Oh, was I wrong. After being sick for about 8 weeks with w…
  • Length: 19 MONTHS

    Cassie Padilla

    As a nurse for 35 years I thought I knew a lot about C. diff but as a patient I’ve discovered I knew NOTHING about C. diff. I have had 2 episodes of C. diff in my life. The first was in 2017 following (prophylactic) antibiotics after surgery. That…
  • Length: 3 YEARS

    Julia

    I’ve been suffering from this infection for the past few years. When I was first diagnosed, I was shocked and thought this was something that only the elderly suffered from. It’s been 3 years since my first infection, and I still suffer daily. I’v…
  • Length: 4 MONTHS

    Sue

    I had emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix and was given SO MANY antibiotics in the hospital. I was also given Protonix for the acid reflux that resulted from all the antibiotics. Looking at the list of risk factors for C. diff, I fit every o…
  • Howard

    While many of us who battle C diff have quick success with the usual antibiotics, the purpose of my entry here is to emphasize the high rate of success of the Fecal Microbiota Transplant. My C diff experience was such that A) a lengthy course of V…