u/mynamewhereilive

I'm currently a little over halfway through a pregnancy. A couple of months ago, I started to get a rash on my nose, which was misdiagnosed as cellulitis. Because of being pregnant, I was told that the antibiotics that would typically be given for the condition weren't options, and was given three rounds of pregnancy-safe antibiotics, the last of which was clindamycin. After finishing the clindamycin, I was told it was actually rosacea, i.e. not bacterial at all.

All that to say, a couple of weeks after I finished the clindamycin, I was diagnosed with c diff. I was given vancomycin, started feeling better within a couple of days, finished out the 10-day course, and was hopeful I'd be in the group of folks who don't relapse.

Unfortunately, it's now about two weeks later, and I've started to get some of the same symptoms, although they're not severe at this point. The doctor told me that for relapses, they don't retest, they just go by symptoms, and she proceeded to prescribe me a 12-week vancomycin taper.

In twelve weeks, I'll be nearly at term, pregnancy-wise. By the time I give birth, I'll have been on some kind of antibiotic for over half my pregnancy. I don't love the idea of going into labor so soon after finishing a very extended course of antibiotics, for a lot of reasons, and I've lost a lot of trust in the doctors I've been working with after how poorly I feel like the whole situation was handled.

Given my symptoms are still pretty mild (stomach upset, Bristol type 5 or 6 a couple of times a day), is it crazy to just give myself a little time of eating lots of fibrous veggies and fruits, pounding fermented foods, and taking Florastor to see if anything changes? Normally I'd just take the damn antibiotics, but I kind of feel like unquestioningly taking too many antibiotics got me into this situation in the first place, and it feels like once I start the treatment, it'll be harder to stop it. But I also worry about a possible infection getting stronger, or causing permanent damage to my intestines.

Thoughts? I'd ask my doctors, but in addition to not having the most faith in them at the moment, they're really slow to respond to any questions I have. I feel like this forum has given me more useful information than the medical professionals at this point, so hoping there might be some helpful advice in here.

Our daughter, who is five, will start school in the fall through a teacher-led but all-online program. (I understand people have a lot of opinions about online school, especially for younger children, but we've spent a *lot* of time thinking through our options and genuinely feel this is what's best for our family.)

She'll spend almost four hours a day in actual instruction, and we'd like to start thinking about the right setup for her to be comfortable, happy and able to focus. We're in the fortunate position of having an extra room we can set up for this, at least for a while, and will likely mount a large monitor or small television on the wall for her video so she's not hunched over a smaller screen all day. Wondering what other things people have found useful. Mouses and keyboards that are good for small kid hands? Desks that are a good size for this age? Something else I'm not thinking about?

Thanks for any help you can offer!