My name is Sonia and I’m 29 years old, and a mother of 3 kids. I would love to share my story and give hope to everyone that may think it’s hopeless to fight this horrible disease – C. diff. Since I was a little girl I never had any issues taking antibiotics when I needed them to fight infection. I have never heard about C.diff I had always been a healthy girl, thank God.

Everything started in January 2019 just by taking a trip to the Dentist and I needed minor oral surgery. The Dentist prescribed me clindamycin to prevent any infection. The worst mistake I made was not paying attention to the type of antibiotic I was putting in my body, or at least research if it’s harmful to take, and the fact that we should only be taking antibiotics if it’s really necessary.

On February 13th is when my symptoms started, and I will never forget about this date. It was early morning and I was drinking coffee, I didn’t know my coffee creamer was expired for almost one month. One hour later after drinking my coffee, I started with the runs to the bathroom. I checked and realize my coffee creamer was expired and ignored the runs to the bathroom because I thought I caught a stomach bug. To be honest I had never experienced the stomach flu so I thought I had one because of the expired coffee creamer, lol!

Four days passed and it wasn’t going away, I was going to the bathroom 5-7 times. I was definitely taking plenty of liquids. I ended up in urgent care to figure out why I was still having a lot of diarrhea and I explained to the doctor about the expired coffee creamer. They didn’t think the coffee creamer can make you that sick for an entire week, but a stomach bug can last 5-10 days. The doctor asked me if I had any pain on my tummy and I said not at all, But the next day I started having stomach cramps and it concerned me, so I went back to urgent care and told the doctor about my recent pain, and how I was still with the runs to the bathroom. He told me it’s IBS and asked if I have been stressing, then prescribed probiotics.

I had no appetite whatsoever and lost 12 pounds, I looked so thin :/ I started seeing a lot of pus mucus on my stool and tiny red spots of blood on the mucus and I got concerned that it wasn’t IBS. I just waited to see if it would go away but it didn’t. Sometimes instead of pooping, it was just chunks of mucus with blood. I had a feeling something else was going on so I took a trip to the ER and they did a lot of blood testing on me, and everything came out good. I explained everything to the ER doctor and she just told me the blood work came back great and keep an eye on your bowel movements, so I went home.

On March 3rd I got to see my primary care doctor and I explained everything that has been going on with me, and she also told me that I had IBS, and prescribed me Imodium for diarrhea. I honestly could only take it twice because it made me feel nauseous and weaker. One week later I went back to see my primary doctor and told her there was more mucus and blood. This is not normal, I know my body and I been a healthy girl all my life and I know something is going on with my gut, and I that wanted stool testing because this is not right! So she finally sent my stool for testing and prescribed me Flagyl without telling me why! I told her I wanted to see a GI and she referred me to a GI.

My primary care doctor called me six days later, that I tested positive for C. diff, and gave me more Flagyl without explaining what is C. diff, or how to care for myself, or what kind of diet I needed to do. I figured it all out by myself and researched how to save my life because I was feeling hopeless, depressed and scared. Plus I have three little ones that need me. I finished Flagyl and one week later I started with the C. diff symptoms again, and I tested positive again.

I finally saw a GI doctor and got straight to the point that I didn’t want Flagyl and I wanted him to prescribe me Dificid, but he told me I can’t take Dificid because we have to try Vancomycin for 14 days. If Vancomycin didn’t do the job, Dificid will be next, and if Dificid doesn’t do the job either, I would be sent for a fecal transplant. I made him write that on his notes in case he forgets (lol). He prescribed Vancomycin for 14 days and on my 3rd week, I was relapsing again. Vancomycin also gave me a UTI.

I went back to my GI with symptoms coming back again and he prescribed Dificid for 10 days. Dificid did the job, and I was done with Dificid. Almost 3 months since I’ve been clear from C. diff. Sometimes I still have a bad day, it’s a long process to heal. I was taking probiotics while I was on C. diff antibiotics treatment, and I still take a lot of probiotics which have been helping me a lot. I take Florastor and Bio-k, and a lot of live culture yogurts and kefir, no dairy. And of course, eating healthy to heal faster. For people who are dealing with C. diff make sure you research before taking any type of medication.

This is my story and there is hope to fight this horrible disease. I hope all this can help someone else.