I went to the doctor in the first week of September 2024, my only symptom was diarrhea. The doctor did a test and it was positive for C. diff. They gave me vancomycin for 10 days. After I completed it, one week later, I had symptoms again. I got Dificid the second time and I made it 4 weeks before I had symptoms again. I first went to the urgent care because I did not have a regular doctor. After the second occurrence, I setup an appointment with a GI doctor. They said if it came back, they would do the antibiotics for 10 days again and then recommend a fecal pill called Vowst. After the 3rd occurrence I took Dificid again and during this time I got denied by the insurance to get Vowst.

I’m not really sure the whole reason why but I believe the GI doctor did not provide very good service for me and drug their feet and submitted the paperwork wrong to the insurance. The Dificid antibiotic and the Vowst required pre approvals from my insurance. I had not had to deal with pre approvals before but it is a hassle to deal with and paperwork involved. The urgent care also does not want to do it. So a primary care Dr is the best bet. I ended up getting Vowst directly by them assisting me with it. (Very lucky or God took care of it). I was really frustrated when the doctor told me the insurance would not approve it. It cost up to $18k without insurance.

I finished my third round of antibiotics the last week of November 2024, right before Thanksgiving. You have to take the Vowst within 1-2 days after finishing the antibiotics. Luckily I have made it 12 weeks now without any issues. I hope that I’m in the clear now. As I mentioned I was not happy with the GI Dr with how I was taken care of. They had basically pawned me off to get a referral to an infectious disease Dr if I was having more issues. I setup an appt with an infectious disease Dr. By the time I was able to get into the infectious disease Dr it had been almost 8 weeks since finishing my antibiotics. She told me that I should feel pretty good at that point that I would not have anymore issues unless I came into direct contact with c diff again on something contaminated. She also told me that my second occurrence may have been the original occurrence since it was so close together and that her approach to treating any future issue or maybe just anytime was with 20 days of antibiotics and also doing a Zinplava infusion (monoclonal antibodies) at the start of the infection.

I’m hoping I am past this and never have to deal with it again. It is a disruption to your life. I did feel like by the time I got to the infectious disease doctor and heard her treatment approach, that it would probably have been the best way to initially treat this. I’m guessing the Vowst is what did it for me though to ultimately get rid of this. I would not want anyone to have to deal with this and I searched as much as I could for info and treatment options daily. Luckily, I found Peggy Lillis Foundation and got some good resources. I would highly recommend going straight to an infectious disease doctor asap if you had to deal with this and request Zinplava and Vowst. I feel like that combination could probably knock this out the first time.

Unfortunately as I mentioned about doctors and insurance, you’re not fully in control of what they will prescribe and approve. Our healthcare needs an overhaul for things just like this. Nobody should have be limited to any treatment options available based on insurance or number of occurrences. I hope this changes. Vowst is a FMT in pill form and comes from another persons healthy microbiome. I also had went to a holistic doctor during all of this and he said that Vowst would be considered a holistic approach as well because it came from another person and was not lab made. I know there are also lab trials on similar FMT’s and they may work as well. I was definitely open to trying them if I had too. I even signed up for a lab trial FMT in the event I had another recurrence. From what I read those may be as effective as the Vowst.

I think Rebyota is another form of Vowst also. Something I was not told by any doctors was what else I should do to try building up my microbiome. I recommend taking probiotics and I also took a separate probiotic called Florastor. I also recommend eating fermented foods to help build up your good bacteria. I also took a kimchi pill. You also should avoid alcohol. The antibiotics wipe out your gut and you need to build it back up with good bacteria that outnumbers any bad bacteria you may have leftover from the infection. Hope this helps anyone dealing with this.