I am a 32 year old mother of 3, and wife to my husband of almost 7 years this April. We are what you would consider first generation modern homesteaders. We strive to raise most of our own produce, and have a small hobby farm where we have a very large garden, and raise a few animals for eggs, milk, and meat. We are very active, and for the most part, very strong and healthy people.

At the beginning of 2024, I found out I was pregnant after only a couple of weeks in January with our 3rd child. When I was 4 weeks pregnant, we went out to eat for my son’s 2nd birthday on January 26th. By the following morning, I was feeling very ill, as though I was coming down with a stomach bug. I began having diarrhea that evening, and it progressed throughout the night and the next day, Sunday.
By Sunday night, the 28th, I was on the floor of our living room with debilitating stomach pain after a recent trip to the bathroom. I was taken to the Emergency Room of Baptist East Louisville, I had severe pain and diarrhea at that point, and was also extremely dehydrated. I was there several hours, and the more fluids they gave me through the IV, the more and more I had to use the bathroom. It got so intense that they ended up bringing me a toilet chair to use beside the bed, since they were hooking and unhooking me from the monitors constantly. As the night went on, I ended up soiling myself and the bed several times, because I was so weak I could no longer get up to use the chair.

After several hours, I finally saw a doctor, who ordered an ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy, and to rule out that what I was experiencing was not due to an ectopic pregnancy or a miscarriage. They did not run any other tests, despite my asking, as they were just too busy with their one other patient in the ER that night. I continued to decline physically, and after several rounds of fluids, and a dose of benadryl in my IV, for what reason, I don’t know, I was sent home with a general diagnosis of a stomach bug, saying it will clear up on it’s own. I was given a prescription for an anti-diarrheal, which ended up being just pepto bismol tablets, and an anti-nausea medication.

I was so weak by the following morning, the 29th, that I could not get out of bed. My husband had to stay home from work to care for me, and our two young boys. I was too sick and weak to even move. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t drink, I couldn’t sleep, as I was going to the bathroom every 10-15 min…I was so sick that I couldn’t even watch tv, read a book, or even look at my phone long enough to answer a text message. I was also in horrible pain. My insides were screaming. My son celebrated his second birthday, January 30th, sitting on our bed to open his gifts. I could barely watch him.

After taking the anti-diarrheal for a few days, I finally stopped going to the bathroom constantly. It took until that Friday, February 2nd, to completely stop using the bathroom altogether. I still felt absolutely awful, but I wasn’t having diarrhea every 10 minutes anymore, so I thought “I must be getting better”.
Despite what the ER had told me, I felt very strongly that I had an infection. I mentioned that I am a gardener, so I had on hand a homemade antibiotic that I made from Nasturtium flowers I had grown the previous fall. Nasturtium Tincture can be very powerful, and I actually started to feel a little bit better by the next day, and was actually able to spend a couple days out of bed.

On the morning of Monday February 5th, so 10 days of sickness so far, I woke up with excruciating stomach pain. I rushed to the bathroom, and over the course of 2 hours, all the while crying and in full body sweats, I managed to finally pass a blockage that had occurred in my bowels, accompanied by quite a bit of blood. I laid down on the bathroom floor and immediately passed out. I woke up about an hour later, and passed even more blood.

At this point, my sister picked me up to take me to another ER, Norton Audubon, so my husband could stay home with our boys. I was treated much better and faster here. They listened to my story, and immediately sent for blood and stool samples. They put me on several rounds of fluids, and ordered another ultrasound to check on my baby. I was 6 weeks pregnant at that point.

I was going to the bathroom pretty frequently at that point again, since the blockage caused by the pepto bismol was gone, and I had given the staff permission to speak to my sister in the event that I was out of the room, which I was at the time of the lab results. They were very busy that day, so they quickly informed her that I tested positive for c-diff, that it was a form of infectious diarrhea, and that I would be given a round of antibiotics through my iv, and sent home with a prescription for Vancomycin and another, but stronger, anti-nausea. I never saw the doctor again, but received my round of antibiotics, discharge papers, and prescriptions shortly after.

I wasn’t told the severity of C. diff. I didn’t realize at this point just how sick I was. Vancomycin wasn’t an antibiotic that our pharmacy, or any around us, had on hand. I was forced to wait until 2 days later to get it filled, as it is a special order medication, and not to mention, an extremely expensive one. But, by Wednesday, I was so sick that I once again became too weak to do anything except lie in bed. I was back to all the previous symptoms, but even worse than before. I was terrified. I was convinced I was going to lose my baby. I thought I was going to die. Every day that went by, it seemed more and more of a very real possibility that I was going to leave my husband alone to raise our boys.

When I finished the antibiotics 10 days later, I had not improved much at all, but the anti-nausea meds helped me enough to be able to start my great deep-dive into the internet to search for some answers about what was going on with me. That was when I realized that my fears were very, very real. I was extremely sick, and even worse, my family had been exposed to my infection every time I used the bathroom. We keep a fairly clean house, but I had no idea that I needed to thoroughly bleach every surface of the bathroom each and every time I used it. I didn’t know that the food i was trying to eat, no matter how healthy it was, was feeding the C. diff and making it worse.

I didn’t know I had a threat of losing my colon to toxicity, and that the anti-diarrheal I was prescribed from the first ER visit, that led to the blockage, could have very well killed me. I didn’t know that most people with C. diff will end up hospitalized, with recurring infections, and a lifetime of having to live with major restrictions that affect their daily life. And most of all, I didn’t know how I got it in the first place.

That was when I found the Peggy Lillis Foundation, and read through and printed out the information booklet that contained very valuable information about how to cope with an active infection. I strictly followed the diet provided, and by Valentine’s Day, so 9 days after the 2nd ER visit, I was able to keep down plain white rice and unsweetened organic applesauce that I had canned myself from our apple tree. I had gone from my normal 112lbs to 95lbs by 8 weeks pregnant. I was starving, weak, dehydrated, and continued to be bed-bound throughout the rest of that month.

At some point mid-february, I got a follow up call from a nurse practitioner from that 2nd ER visit. I can’t recall her name, but she informed me that she had personal C. diff experience, with a family member of hers, and gave me the advice that I should make a point to avoid all antibiotics for the rest of my life, since the bacteria now lives in my gut, and antibiotics will kill the good bacteria trying to keep it at bay, and that I would be at risk for reinfection.

She also questioned me about how I got the infection. I informed her that no, I had not taken antibiotics in the year and a half prior to my infection. I had not been in a hospital setting prior to the first ER visit, in fact, I had been home since Christmas, and left the house for the first time for my son’s birthday dinner on January 26th. I must have picked up the fecal spores at the restaurant. Whether it was the chair I sat in, the table I touched, the plates, cup, or utensils I used, or even the bathroom of the restaurant, where I am someone who is overly careful about what I touch in public. All I know is, I must have picked up the spores at some point that evening, and now, the thought of eating in a public restaurant whatsoever, makes me nauseous. That is something we rarely did anyways, for special occasions only really, but now, we never do and never will again, if I can help it.

I ended the phone call with the nurse practitioner with her urging me to follow up with a gastroenterologist asap. Thanks to our wonderful health system, the soonest any office in a 100 mile radius could get me in wouldn’t be until April 29th, two and a half months later. This conversation led me to begin researching antibiotic abuse in our country, and how factory farmed meat products contain a cocktail of antibiotics that the American people regularly consume. I learned that up to 42% of meat products on the shelves test positive for C. diff, and it cannot be cooked out. We are eating these things unknowingly, since companies are not required to list this on their packaging.

Add to this, the 30%+ of antibiotic prescriptions that are completely unnecessary, which do far more harm than good to our gut biomes. When your gut bacteria is wiped out, C. diff can swoop in and take over. I knew I had to do something. I could not wait 2.5 months to see a doctor. I didn’t think I would make it that long. I knew that I needed to take matters into my own hands.
The level of flippancy and indifference from the official medical community that I encountered through this ordeal, looking back, was an outrage. They had no idea how serious this was. They did not give me more urgency even after knowing I was with child. It was just another, “take this round of antibiotics” boilerplate. They were not malicious, just ignorant, I pray. More antibiotics is what got us into this mess and they had not even a clue that this is part of what this illness is about.
I lost faith in the medical system, where before, I dabbled in herbal medicine here and there, I dove head first. I researched, and researched, and researched, thinking that there has to be SOMETHING I can do to heal myself naturally.

Near the end of February, I was ghostly. I still had not graduated from my diet of rice and applesauce, and had read story after story of C. diff victims and the major impact that it had on their lives if they survived it. I was a gardener, was I going to be able to eat anything that came out of my garden this year? Would I even have the strength to put seeds in the ground? Could I even do the basic tasks that are required of me to keep our household going? It seemed my options were down to another round of vancomycin, which I was scared of causing birth defects. I saw some people end up with fecal transplants, which is disgusting, or even having to have my colon removed and wear a bag for the rest of my life.
Out of the back of my mind, mostly out of complete and total desperation, I happened to remember that coconut oil is antibacterial. So I did a google search of “Coconut Oil for C. diff” and was shocked to find a link to a study claiming that in a study of mice, that the mice given vancomycin had recurring infections and death, where as the mice given coconut oil was cured of infection across the board without recurrence.

I sent the link to my husband, and proceeded to eat an entire jar within a week. By the end of the week, I was significantly better. I no longer felt like I was going to die. The bathroom visits lowered to almost normal, and I was able to sleep through the night for the first time in a month. Coconut oil is high in lauric acid which greatly inhibits the growth of C. diff bacteria. I continued the strict diet provided in the e-book from your foundation for another 8 weeks, without cheating. I only ate rice, apples, bananas, oatmeal, kefir, and coconut oil. Every single day. I took it more serious than anything before in my life. I was not going to get sick again, and I was willing to commit to healing by whatever method possible.
After the 8 week period, I slowly reintroduced more foods, including building my gut bacteria back up with all kinds of fermentation strains: sourdough, sauerkraut, water kefir, 2 types of kombucha, etc. anything to get an abundance of probiotics in my body.

Another thing I did was make sure to cut out any and all meat products from our diet that was not antibiotic-free. I have taken my no-antibiotics stance quite seriously, and applied it across the board.
By the date of my appointment at the end of April. My labs showed I was completely cleared of infection. I was able to eat normal food, and my weight and strength returned. My pregnancy was going well, and I gave birth to a very strong healthy baby girl September 30th, 2024.

I am proud to say that now, a little over a year later, I am still thriving, with no sign of reinfection.