C. diff affects us all.

I had been ill for about three months with cramping and diarrhea and had been working with an obstetrician/gynecologist (OB/GYN) to figure out what was wrong. After three months she referred me to my current gastrointestinal specialist (GI), and it took us another four months to diagnose the C. diff which I had contracted from too many antibiotics…

On January 5, 2016, I gave birth to a beautiful, healthy boy. Two weeks postpartum I got Mastitis (a clogged breast duct) from breastfeeding. My doctors put me on an antibiotic. I took it for a week and a few days, and after the last dose, the diarrhea started. I called my doctor after a few days of awful pain and the never ending visits to the…

When I was first diagnosed with C. diff, I was relieved to finally have a diagnosis, but had no idea the slow recovery I had in store for me. I was dismissed several times by my primary doctor and at urgent care clinics for about two weeks as having the stomach flu. I asked several times for testing. All of my bloodwork came back okay and x-rays…

I had what was supposed to be a routine colonoscopy in April 2016. My doctor instructed me to use SUPREP to clean myself out for the procedure. The SUPREP made me very ill! I immediately got stomach pain, intestinal pain, severe diarrhea, and weakness….

I believe I caught C. diff in the hospital while having trauma surgery on my left knee and tendons from a bad fall on icy stairs. I also returned to the doctor’s office many times after the surgery; I could have caught it in that building. Having been in so many doctor’s office buildings and emergency rooms in the past few months, I felt that…

My name is Catherine Duff….

I remember sitting at work in early March and noticing increasing pain in the lower right molar area of my mouth. “Let’s face it,” I thought. “You haven’t been taking care of yourself since you had the twins.” Yes, they were three, but here I was 49, working full-time and caring for three year olds again. By the time they went to bed at…

I learned about C. diff the hard way. In October of 2013, I was diagnosed with a C. diff infection following the use of clindamycin. I was prescribed vancomycin to get rid of the C. diff, but every time I stopped the vancomycin the C. diff would return. It took me six months of being ill, rounds of failed vancomycin treatments, and going from…

After four rounds of antibiotics in an eight-week period, I was diagnosed with C. diff on June 9th, 2015. I am positive that I had it and went undiagnosed for at least three to four weeks. When I got the diagnosis, my doctor started me on ten days of Flagyl. After three days, the diarrhea started again, and then I was given Flagyl again (except for…

y name is Lawrence, and I am 28 years old. In November 2012, I was 24 years old. I went to the doctor for a staph infection in the form of a boil. My doctors prescribed me clindamycin to kill the bacteria in the infection. About a day or two later, I started to feel like I had a stomach bug. After a couple of days of having what I thought was just…

Unlike in the lives of so many who struggle for months and years, as C. diff stories go, mine is rather unremarkable and short-lived. For that reason, I was hesitant to share my story. While I am grateful that this was the case, I am also keenly aware that C. diff is a true menace and threat to life for many. Sadly, this does not need to be the…

Back in September of 2015, I started experiencing bouts of diarrhea. After five days of nonstop diarrhea, my husband took me to the emergency room. Blood tests were done, but no stool sample was taken. The hospital sent me home with an anti-diarrheal medicine. On and off for the next month, I would have the start of diarrhea, and then take a pill…

My story is not just a C. diff story, but a story of struggles with being diagnosed. My problem was that I also had gallbladder problems at the same time I had C. diff. I’ll start at the beginning. In April of 2015 I started having severe burning in my stomach/gut. I went to my primary care doctor, and they said it was probably acid reflux and…

My story is like so many others. After a visit to my Primary Care Provider (PCP) for a possible sinus infection, I was prescribed antibiotics and referred to my dentist for a possible tooth problem. Two weeks later, I saw my dentist who did some dental work and prescribed clindamycin. No sooner than I completed the antibiotics, I woke up in the…

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….