Hello my name is Jeff. Looking for some insight on my condition, it seems the disease reacts differently with everyone. So below is my story on how I was diagnosed.
I used to have some digestive problems when I was young ( 6 - 10 years old ). I had a high metabolism and sometimes would get burning sensations in my stomach. I do remember what they felt like back then and it seemed to be more like over production of stomach acids. When I was 4 - 7 years old I remember vaguely having a shortage of food in our house and feeling hungry a lot. I would also get very nervous about going to school for years to come so I wonder if those were the main things contributing to my stomach pains as a kid. I have been fairly healthy my whole life especially in my teens and early twenties. It wasn't until a few years ago ( I am now 25 ) that I started having GI issues.
In late summer of 2009 I was on a business trip in Japan. During my time there I contracted Salmonella and was diagnosed roughly a month after my trip. I went on antibiotics to get rid of it and I got better soon after. Months later my mom was sick with C-diff from taking too many antibiotics. C-diff is supposed to be mainly transmitted from person to person from what I read and hard to catch any other way ( this is important info because I was later diagnosed with C-Diff ) By spring 2010 I was having some digestive issues and would have diarrhea anytime I had a salad or any rough food. For the next year I would slowly have more problems but not anything very noticeable. I also started finding it harder to put weight on but I wasn't really losing any. It wasn't until summer 2011 I started finding blood in my stool and would get a bloated and cramping feeling in my stomach. I was going on a business trip soon and took in a stool sample to my doctor and also told my doctor what was going on. He gave me some antibiotics to take since by the time the results to my stool came back I would be gone on my week long trip. Because my symptoms were very similar to e-coli he gave me some antibiotics just in case. I took the antibiotics while on the trip and didn't get any better. Once back from the trip my stool sample results were negative for anything. From there I was instructed to see a GI doctor and he of course suggested a colonoscopy. My symptoms did not improve over the few weeks before my colonoscopy but didn't seem to get worse. After the procedure they told me it looked like colitis and told me my biopsies were negative. From there I got worse. Until the point I lost close to 20 pounds and wasn't even urinating anymore and was admitted to the hospital ( this was middle of October 2011 ). I was hooked up to an IV and they took blood samples and I wasn't allowed to eat anything the first night. They took another stool sample that came back right away as POSITIVE! for C-diff. They put me on flagyl, asacol, and gave me probiotics daily. They had me drink barium and they took an x-ray of my stomach. They said it looked splotchy where my areas were affected and it looked like crohns ( It could be damage from the C-Diff too ). After being on the flagyl and asacol while taking probiotics for three days I was already feeling better and my stool was going back to normal and the bleeding had stopped. I was released from the hospital and finished my meds over the course of the next few weeks and continued taking probiotics for the next few months after the ordeal.
Through the beginning of 2012 I was feeling perfectly fine and everything seemed normal. At this time it was pretty much chalked up to a colitis infection. I stopped taking my probiotics and immediately started having some minor GI issues so I went out and got more probiotics and decided to stay on them. I then went online and would research C-diff and found a lot of people had similar problems to what I was having and even after the C-diff infection having lasting effects and needing to take probiotics to keep their intestinal flora even. A lot of people were not even able to get rid of the C-diff either after medication. It seemed like this is what was happening to me. By May 2012 I was reading a forum thread about people with C-diff and probiotics. Some of the people were taking culturelle with decent results ( this is what I was taking ). A few people on the forum suggested bean biotics and talked about how it worked so much better than culturelle and was more effective for their C-diff issues. I ordered two bottles online right away. I discontinued the culturelle and started taking only the bean biotics. I went out to see a friend for a week and took the bean biotics with me. About 5 days into taking them I started having issues similar to when I went off the culturelle. When I got back home I continued to stay on them for a little while and put faith into them eventually working. I slowly got worse so discontinued them and started back on the culturelle. While on the culturelle this time it did not seem as effective as it did before. I did get better but it took weeks before I felt normal again. Since then every few months I would get some blood in my stool but my stool was solid. It started becoming more persistent winter 2012. I took in a stool sample and it came back negative for C-diff ( I knew C-diff was hard to get a positive out of sometimes and I had a similar experience with C-diff testing negative about a year before ). I took in another stool sample with blood a few weeks later. My doctor told me not to bother bringing in solid stools for C-diff testing because it usually never sheds off in solid stools and will test negative. By February 2013 my symptoms escalated ( I had been taking culturelle two times a day by this time ). I was having runny bloody diarrhea and cramping. I took in a really bad stool sample and it tested negative again for C-diff and they told me they let the culture grow out for an extended period of time and were sure I did not have it. Shortly after I was having watery bloody stool and severe cramping. I was on an all liquid diet and would only have broth, ensure, water, and jello. I was on a similar diet before my flare up got this bad. At one point drinking cold water hurt my stomach and I would get terrible gas from it ( I know it was the water because this day I did not eat or drink anything else ). At the height of my flare up I was not really drinking anything and definitely not eating. This seemed to help actually and I slowly got better as I drank broth and had luke warm water. Two weeks later I was feeling much better and I even had some normal bowel movements but most still had blood in them. I was still eating jello, and drinking ensures, but I also started eating bananas, soups, and a few other easy to digest solids. I had pizza twice and felt completely okay both times. This episode started from mid February and by this time it was the end of March and I was feeling pretty good although the blood in my stool said otherwise. On Easter I had a ham sandwhich and some potato cassarole and the next day did not feel well at all. I went out and got some baby food and boosts and was exhausted. I had some baby food and a boost that night and went to bed. By morning I was feeling awful and had completely relapsed, this second flare up ( or continuing flare up ) is even worse. I'm bed ridden at the moment of even typing this. Also forgot to mention I started taking asacol April 1st and have been still taking culturelle 2 -3 pills a day and also started taking florastor April 1st as well. My GI doctor scheduled a colonoscopy and a endoscopy May1st. Four days ago I was put on flagyl and the second day of taking it I felt great and even stopped bleeding for three days! Today though I feel awful and had a lot of blood in my stool and I am about half way through my flagyl prescription. I'm still on an all liquid diet and I really don't know what to do. Also they have taken my blood twice in the past four months and it always comes back okay.
Not sure what I am looking for out of this post. Interested to see any comments. Also I'm sure I left out some vital info so feel free to ask about anything.
I used to have some digestive problems when I was young ( 6 - 10 years old ). I had a high metabolism and sometimes would get burning sensations in my stomach. I do remember what they felt like back then and it seemed to be more like over production of stomach acids. When I was 4 - 7 years old I remember vaguely having a shortage of food in our house and feeling hungry a lot. I would also get very nervous about going to school for years to come so I wonder if those were the main things contributing to my stomach pains as a kid. I have been fairly healthy my whole life especially in my teens and early twenties. It wasn't until a few years ago ( I am now 25 ) that I started having GI issues.
In late summer of 2009 I was on a business trip in Japan. During my time there I contracted Salmonella and was diagnosed roughly a month after my trip. I went on antibiotics to get rid of it and I got better soon after. Months later my mom was sick with C-diff from taking too many antibiotics. C-diff is supposed to be mainly transmitted from person to person from what I read and hard to catch any other way ( this is important info because I was later diagnosed with C-Diff ) By spring 2010 I was having some digestive issues and would have diarrhea anytime I had a salad or any rough food. For the next year I would slowly have more problems but not anything very noticeable. I also started finding it harder to put weight on but I wasn't really losing any. It wasn't until summer 2011 I started finding blood in my stool and would get a bloated and cramping feeling in my stomach. I was going on a business trip soon and took in a stool sample to my doctor and also told my doctor what was going on. He gave me some antibiotics to take since by the time the results to my stool came back I would be gone on my week long trip. Because my symptoms were very similar to e-coli he gave me some antibiotics just in case. I took the antibiotics while on the trip and didn't get any better. Once back from the trip my stool sample results were negative for anything. From there I was instructed to see a GI doctor and he of course suggested a colonoscopy. My symptoms did not improve over the few weeks before my colonoscopy but didn't seem to get worse. After the procedure they told me it looked like colitis and told me my biopsies were negative. From there I got worse. Until the point I lost close to 20 pounds and wasn't even urinating anymore and was admitted to the hospital ( this was middle of October 2011 ). I was hooked up to an IV and they took blood samples and I wasn't allowed to eat anything the first night. They took another stool sample that came back right away as POSITIVE! for C-diff. They put me on flagyl, asacol, and gave me probiotics daily. They had me drink barium and they took an x-ray of my stomach. They said it looked splotchy where my areas were affected and it looked like crohns ( It could be damage from the C-Diff too ). After being on the flagyl and asacol while taking probiotics for three days I was already feeling better and my stool was going back to normal and the bleeding had stopped. I was released from the hospital and finished my meds over the course of the next few weeks and continued taking probiotics for the next few months after the ordeal.
Through the beginning of 2012 I was feeling perfectly fine and everything seemed normal. At this time it was pretty much chalked up to a colitis infection. I stopped taking my probiotics and immediately started having some minor GI issues so I went out and got more probiotics and decided to stay on them. I then went online and would research C-diff and found a lot of people had similar problems to what I was having and even after the C-diff infection having lasting effects and needing to take probiotics to keep their intestinal flora even. A lot of people were not even able to get rid of the C-diff either after medication. It seemed like this is what was happening to me. By May 2012 I was reading a forum thread about people with C-diff and probiotics. Some of the people were taking culturelle with decent results ( this is what I was taking ). A few people on the forum suggested bean biotics and talked about how it worked so much better than culturelle and was more effective for their C-diff issues. I ordered two bottles online right away. I discontinued the culturelle and started taking only the bean biotics. I went out to see a friend for a week and took the bean biotics with me. About 5 days into taking them I started having issues similar to when I went off the culturelle. When I got back home I continued to stay on them for a little while and put faith into them eventually working. I slowly got worse so discontinued them and started back on the culturelle. While on the culturelle this time it did not seem as effective as it did before. I did get better but it took weeks before I felt normal again. Since then every few months I would get some blood in my stool but my stool was solid. It started becoming more persistent winter 2012. I took in a stool sample and it came back negative for C-diff ( I knew C-diff was hard to get a positive out of sometimes and I had a similar experience with C-diff testing negative about a year before ). I took in another stool sample with blood a few weeks later. My doctor told me not to bother bringing in solid stools for C-diff testing because it usually never sheds off in solid stools and will test negative. By February 2013 my symptoms escalated ( I had been taking culturelle two times a day by this time ). I was having runny bloody diarrhea and cramping. I took in a really bad stool sample and it tested negative again for C-diff and they told me they let the culture grow out for an extended period of time and were sure I did not have it. Shortly after I was having watery bloody stool and severe cramping. I was on an all liquid diet and would only have broth, ensure, water, and jello. I was on a similar diet before my flare up got this bad. At one point drinking cold water hurt my stomach and I would get terrible gas from it ( I know it was the water because this day I did not eat or drink anything else ). At the height of my flare up I was not really drinking anything and definitely not eating. This seemed to help actually and I slowly got better as I drank broth and had luke warm water. Two weeks later I was feeling much better and I even had some normal bowel movements but most still had blood in them. I was still eating jello, and drinking ensures, but I also started eating bananas, soups, and a few other easy to digest solids. I had pizza twice and felt completely okay both times. This episode started from mid February and by this time it was the end of March and I was feeling pretty good although the blood in my stool said otherwise. On Easter I had a ham sandwhich and some potato cassarole and the next day did not feel well at all. I went out and got some baby food and boosts and was exhausted. I had some baby food and a boost that night and went to bed. By morning I was feeling awful and had completely relapsed, this second flare up ( or continuing flare up ) is even worse. I'm bed ridden at the moment of even typing this. Also forgot to mention I started taking asacol April 1st and have been still taking culturelle 2 -3 pills a day and also started taking florastor April 1st as well. My GI doctor scheduled a colonoscopy and a endoscopy May1st. Four days ago I was put on flagyl and the second day of taking it I felt great and even stopped bleeding for three days! Today though I feel awful and had a lot of blood in my stool and I am about half way through my flagyl prescription. I'm still on an all liquid diet and I really don't know what to do. Also they have taken my blood twice in the past four months and it always comes back okay.
Not sure what I am looking for out of this post. Interested to see any comments. Also I'm sure I left out some vital info so feel free to ask about anything.
