Kaley
As told by her mom Sara
Our first experience ever with this C. diff occurred in June of 2015. Our daughter Kaley, who was at four at the time, had a month of weird stool. I kept calling and taking her to the doctors, and they kept telling me she was constipated—yet she was going up to six times a day. Finally, the stool ended up being bloody. I knew something was terribly wrong. I took her in, and asked that they check her stool.
In April 2015, Kaley was given a broad spectrum antibiotic for her first ear infection. She had always been a healthy child, so we took the medicine, but gave her probiotic during and after the course of meds. Prior to her being diagnosed with C. diff, we saw how tired and worn out she was, and we noticed her body seemed swollen—especially her tummy.
Within a few hours of taking her stool sample, the doctors knew it was C. diff. Within two days of starting her prescribed antibiotics, she was back to normal bathroom-wise. However, two days after finishing the antibiotics she had bloody stool again, and was very, very under the weather. We went back to the doctor where they gave us another ten-day round of antibiotics. We loaded our family up, and traveled over four hours to a pediatrician gastroenterologist to have her seen. She was given an additional two days of this antibiotic, as well as a special, very expensive probiotic to help return the bacteria in her belly back to normal.
She has been symptom free since mid-July, but still has to remain on those probiotics. This whole ordeal was a very scary situation for our family. We had to bleach and clean our house top to bottom. We had to bleach our toilet after every bathroom visit of hers, and we washed our hands so much they were dry. We were warned we could get it. My whole family was affected, even our elderly grandparents. We all had to do our part to stop the spread of it and help her heal.
She is still in recovery and probably cannot have a strong antibiotic again because of the risk of the C. diff reoccurring. I will never look at germs the same way again since this happened. We are just so thankful we were able to stop it from getting worse and progressing further. We are so thankful for the doctors who helped us locate the issue and help our daughter heal.
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JULIA W.
In February 2020 I was prescribed both clindamycin and cefalexin for a breast abscess. Three weeks after I finished my course of antibiotics, in March 2020, I started to have severe, painful abdominal cramping and diarrhea. Each day became worse and worse until I was up through the night and couldn’t be away from the toilet for more than half an hour.
Ken
It started with a rash on my back that I suspect started from the barber I was seeing. Scratching it made it worse. I went to the doctor’s office and was tended to by a PA. It was decided that this infection should be treated with a broad-spectrum antibiotic.
JULIA W.
In February 2020 I was prescribed both clindamycin and cefalexin for a breast abscess. Three weeks after I finished my course of antibiotics, in March 2020, I started to have severe, painful abdominal cramping and diarrhea. Each day became worse and worse until I was up through the night and couldn’t be away from the toilet for more than half an hour.
