r/cdifficile

My mom is currently dealing with her second recurrence of C.diff. She took Dificid for 10 days and felt much better, but now, two months later, her diarrhea episodes have returned. She is completely exhausted from feeling this way and is really scared of taking Vancomycin.

Has anyone tried a holistic routine to cure C.diff? Specifically, has anyone used bentonite clay, oregano oil, and probiotics? If so, how did you do it? Please share your specific routine and where you purchased these items. Thank you so much.

I am 38 weeks pregnant and have a scheduled induction during my 39th week due to this being an IVF pregnancy. I finished Vancomycin for C Diff a few days ago- it will be 10 days off Vancomycin before the induction. As of now I’m feeling great and recovering really well.

However, I have Group B Strep and am supposed to receive penicillin during labor. I assume receiving antibiotics so soon will be a guaranteed relapse of C Diff, which I am DREADING. I can’t imagine taking care of a newborn, breastfeeding, and worrying about contamination with a newborn.

I am taking vaginal probiotics, staying away from sugar, wearing cotton underwear- trying to do anything that could inhibit the growth of GBS.

I keep going back and forth on what’s the best thing. My doctor said she’s comfortable with me opting out of antibiotics and said they’ll monitor the baby for 48 hours. Though rare, the consequences of the baby catching it really scare me. I can also aim for just a couple doses during labor and hope for the best.

If anyone has any input, I would love to hear it. I’m driving myself crazy trying to decide what to do.

Hello.
Had C Diff about a month or so ago…finished vancomycin 3 weeks ago and was doing fine until this morning. 2 very watery poops back to back. Also feel kind of nauseous and just weak overall. Went to the ER, and my C Diff PCR test was negative? The sample I gave was a really small liquid stool. I peed before collecting the stool sample but I had to strain a bit to get any poop to come out and I did pee a little bit again. Not sure if it got into my sample or not but I’m stressed and paranoid that my negative result isn’t accurate. Thoughts?

Has anyone looked into this? I’ve had it about 5 or 6 times and my ID doc now just wants to wait and see. I can’t keep going through two months of normal life just to get it and sepsis again I just won’t it’s not worth it. I’ve done Vowst twice it’s never worked. I don’t want to just wait to get it again.

I have extremely bad diarrhoea should I go back to the hospital

Hi, I'm 25F, and have just recently been diagnosed with C.Diff. I also have a severely damaged L5 that rubs against the sacrum. Essentially, I'm in a ton of lower back pain, which has been exacerbated by this because of how frequently I am hunched over.

Tylenol no longer works for me on its own, the only thing that does work is a muscle relaxer, which I have been told is a big no-no for C.Diff.

I was wondering if people know of any other OTC medications that are not NSAID that I can take alongside Tylenol that might be able to help?

I am at the beginning of my first journey with C-Diff and I am terrified - seeking some advice.

Since 2021, I have struggled with post-infectious giardiasis, leading to a diagnosis of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, which I have tried to manage through various medications and diet. In 2024 I had my first brush with Covid and it was horrific. Admitted to the hospital for six days with nonstop green diarrhea, fainting, and fever (though no respiratory symptoms). Eight months later, my incredible immunology/allergy team prescribed IVIG therapy, and for the first time in five years, I started to turn a corner. Since being on IVIG, my quality of life has started to resemble something more normal - I could gain weight, eat more foods, and even go out occasionally. But then I developed some gnawing, dull upper abdominal pain, and my GI doc ordered an x-ray. Results showed a partial blockage in the transverse colon. She prescribed several courses of colon prep to remove it. I asked the GI if the sustained prep protocol might impact the microbiome. She said yes - unlike a standard 12-hour prep, this would be more sustained in order to dislodge the blockage.

I did the protocol, and it was painful and horrific - but some hardened masses of stool did come out. I did notice, however, that I felt different after. The gnawing pain in my abdomen was gone, but my stools were no longer firm and brown - they were soft and orange. They weren't really recovering. I had already been on a high-strength prescription probiotic that my GI had ordered, so I kept up with that, mindful of her warning about my microbiome changing. And then, last week, the C-diff symptoms started.

I began having very sticky, mushy stools that smelled very sweet. I knew that people had mentioned the smell as being a hallmark of this infection. It's come and gone over the previous seven days, but tonight it's kicking into overdrive, and I am terrified about what the next few weeks/months will look like. Stools are giving way to diarrhea again and basically smell like grape juice and maple syrup. I have not tested positive yet but the persistence of the symptoms is striking.

So far:

- A stool study for C-diff was collected yesterday and should be processed this week

- I am being screened for Candida as this is also known to produce a sweet odor

- I am again reducing my diet to the low-fodmap basics

- Basically planning on staying close to the bathroom for the next several weeks/months

- Expecting a major MCAS flair that may not be controllable through IVIG (I am seeing both the immunologist and allergist this week to explain what is going on).

Has anyone else with MCAS or other pre-existing PI gut issues fully recovered from C-diff?

So my insurance finally approved VOWST after 2 denials but there is a $1776 co-pay which I cannot afford. Does the VOWST manufacturer help with expensive co-pays like that? I'm really hoping they do.

trying Dificid after a long haul with vancomycin. I have increased watery diahrrea on day 2. is this normal?

If you’re having a cdiff infection, who manages it? Is it your family dr or do you need to go to the Ed?

I was admitted to the hospital on March 25 with extreme rectal bleeding. No fever, no vomiting and no diagnosis other than assumed enflamed diverticula. I was given antibiotics, nexum, fluids and blood. The only symptom that plagued me was super exhaustion. A week later I had an stool panel run and was diagnosed with cDiff...still only exhaustion. 1 weeks after that I was diagnosed with eColi. Now here I am, still almost dibilitation exhaustion. I am a teacher and any time I don't have students I have to take a micro nap. I go to sleep at 9 at night and when I wake up at 6, I feel like I haven't even slept. This morning I woke up out of the blue with egg burps, feeling like if I could just toss my cookies or have a raging case of green apple quick steps I would be okay. But no such luck and I am hiding behind my desk at school like a zombie who has been shot with too many frozed green peas.

My questons are: 1) is this to bee expected? 2) is this long lasting exhaustion normal? 3) Any helpful hints or encouragement anyone can offer. This is all so discouraging.

Im 29 female that was put on Augmentin for an ear/sinus infection. One week after finishing that antibiotic I started having symptoms. Going to the bathroom 10 plus times a day and intense abdominal cramping. I was diagnosed with c diff a few days later and put on 10 days of vanco. The vanco was great for me, my symptoms pretty much completely stopped 12 to 24 hours while on it. Once I finish the vanco, I was great for exactly one week. Then the symptoms started reappearing just in a more mild form. I thought maybe it was pi ibs but Tested positive for toxins. And started a 10 day course of Fidaxomycin, which is going ok ish… my stomach is very uncomfortable, bloated gurgling etc.. and it’s been 4 days on it already. Today I went to a G.I. doctor instead of my primary care and she made me feel awful. She told me that the Florastor (I’ve been taking this the whole time) and probiotics are pointless, watching my diet isn’t really going to help and this can come back at anytime at any point for the rest of my life regardless if I take a trigger like an antibiotic. And there is never a safe point to say I’m cured from it. So now I’m extremely depressed. I’m a very active person/marathon runner and this has been the worst thing I’ve ever been through in my life. I wish I could go back in time and not have taken the Augmentin (first time I’ve ever taken an antibiotic) I also wish this was more talked about because I had no idea this could happen. Does anyone have any success stories while on Fidaxomycin? I’m truly feeling so hopeless, especially after my appointment today.

Can c diff colitis come back after antibiotics ?

Brief story. I had a hysterectomy. A few days later I got sick. Since my husband had a stomach bug they said it’s probably the same thing. Hold pillow against belly. Wait it out.

Well days later I wasn’t better. I ended up going to the ER. They didn’t take me seriously. Negative for flu, covid, and RSV. You have gastritis. I said something isn’t right it smells like unalive things are rotting out of me. My gyno ended up sending my stool to the lab.

CDIFF….he then sent me to a gastroenterologist who prescribed Dificid and Bentyl. Welp I’m on day 6 of the meds. I started feeling better by day 3. Day 4 no bowel movements. Day 6 I feel like crap. Diarrhea started this morning. Puked after plain white rice. Sulphur burps are at full force.

Should I be concerned? I know I am also still healing from a hysterectomy. But man this has been the worst experience of my life. I am paranoid. No one took me seriously.

Hey after one year from my cdiff run, I have been having bad gastritis since november, I feel really good on omeprazole, I can function really normal but if i dont take it right away i start going through it, i tried bland diet and it just dont work for me even if i take bland diet my stomach starts bubbling and i get a sour taste in my mouth then i get dizzy and nauteous, my stools on omeprazole are super good always consistent and nice color as well but as soon as i start letting go i get alot of gas and weird stools, is anyone else going through this or has gone through this? Is there anything i can do? doctor only gave ppis and wished me luck man it sucks I dont even care about eating crazy food i just want to be able to drink coffee

So I (26F) had first C.diff infection in march 2023 and second at the end of march2026 I was on Vancomycin for 14 days every 6 hours. I finished Vancomycin over a month ago and I still have troubles with bowel movemets. Its not diarrhea most of the time but its very mushy, slymy and really frequent. I use toilet from 3 to 10 times a day and my stomach hurts alot. My doctor is not really helpfull, she said to watch my diet but its reallly tricky because Im in recovery from Anorexia. My dietitian, therapist and psychiatrist think that I dont need to change anything in my diet because they are scared that I will relapse back in my ED. Because all of this I did loose some weight and Im underweight.

Idk what to do, its hard to control bowel mowments, If im stressed or anxious I need toilet even more and sometimes I cant get to the toilet on time.... wich sucks. I plan my life around toilet and if it is close enough. I had accident over the last couple of weeks and I feel really embarresed but my doctor is not taking me seriously. I will probably need to cancel my trip with University next week because of this. Nobody takes me seriously and Idk what to do anymore. I did change my diet a bit, Im vegetarian and when I got C.diff I cutt out all dairy. The hardest of all is that Im in recovery at least I was till this all happened and Im scared that I will relapse again with anorexia. I've been struggling with Anorexia for over 10 years and this makes it all more difficult.

Do any of you had anything similar? Maybe some advice? Do I need to ask my useless doctor for a refferall to gastroenterologist? What did help you? Is this normal?

Sorry for maybe bad spelling or something english is not my language.

Is it possible that this is normal and will go away on its own?

I had a bowel movement in the morning. It was dark brown but not tarry from what I could tell, and mostly solid. My grandma called me outside a few minutes later to take a picture of the rising sun. My phone camera isn't the best, so I struggled to capture its rich pinkish hues to the full extent.

Immediately after snapping the picture, I felt the urge to go again. And it felt different. It felt like I couldn't put it off this time unlike previous gurgles. I scooted past my grandmother to the bathroom and got on the toilet. There were pale globs accompanying the stool this time, and the stool was green rather than the brown I had been seeing. What really truly suggested to me that this was something to actually listen to my hypochondria this time was the smell. Until then, all my refuse had smelled very sulfuric or eggy. I had Googled at least dozens of times what the difference was between the smell in normal Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea and C Diff. I would rephrase and specify a ton of times to get reassurances from the AI summary, stupid and probably not terribly accurate I know. This time, it didn't smell like egg but instead unusually sweet.

I suffer from pretty severe anxiety. My life has basically been completely derailed since March because of it. My father didn't have the patience to put up with it and I ran away from home to my grandmother's house. I would relapse and get better over the previous weeks. Last night, it was so bad that I scarcely slept for more than half an hour last night. Ever since i had gone to a GP to get an ingrown toenail removed and the clindamycin they prescribed had given me diarrhea, I was terrified because I'm living in Mexico in an extremely poor community. There are stray dogs everywhere. There is dust everywhere. It baffles my mind that a GP could be able to prescribe such a dangerous drug for something as minute as an ingrown toenail infection that had cleared after 3 days. I don't have health insurance and probably not even 1000 mxn in cash, which is what a specialist would likely charge for the consultation alone. My publicly available hospital doesn't have a gastrointerologist and even if they did the whole place is absolutely depressing and filthy and probably leave me much worse off.

Miraculously, I'm not breaking down. Not yet, and hopefully not ever. Maybe it's because I haven't been enjoying life very much if at all ever since I suffered a horrible and life-changing anxiety episode throughout March of this year. Maybe I've been wishing for the end inwardly. My life hasn't been the same since my mom died. I love my sisters and they love me but they're in the US and living their lives.

I'll see if I can even pull the money together to get tested. I was planning on going on a family trip and starting sertraline today, trying to improve my life again, but I guess I'll remain a prisoner in this town. Who knows what'll happen. Maybe getting my diagnosis will be what triggers my spiral, like the GAD diagnosis triggered my worst and longest anxiety episode in March. Maybe I'll pass away here in this terrible town like Mom did, without being able to do the things I had wanted to do back when I had dreams.

Despite eveything, I still feel love in my heart. I wish all of you the best on your journey. And two big middle fingers to clindamycin and the GPs who prescribe it for minor infections. I know it helps more than it hurts, but the fact this might be happening to me over an ingrown toenail is some serious bs.

I love all of you. Do your best. I'll try mine, and hope that I'm just overreacting. If it turns out I am, I will come and give my sincerest apologies to all of you and to one of my best friends who is currently going through this. I'm sorry if this got too doompost-y.

-EDIT-

Had an extemely tiny bowel movement in the afternoon. I won't lie, it's worrying that I have multiple even if they aren't diarrhea. it was mushy but a solid piece. Very small, very dark, but it was connected. I'm feeling the urge again, really hope it's a big solid slug. Goddamnit why is it multiple times though. -edit- nothing, just gas. some slime when I wiped. Well, way to kill my optimism =(

Hi all!! I just wanted to post a positive story because I remember being in the thick of it with c diff.

Some background first, I have IBD and endometriosis so I had tummy issues going into this whole deal.

Back in early July 25, before IBD and Endo diagnosis, I was struggling to figure out what was causing my stomach issues. I was ill pretty regularly. They found out I had a bout of colitis and a UTI at the same time. I was put on another 1500 mg of antibiotics twice a day for TWO WEEKS (literally insane btw), they wanted to rule out my colitis being infectious so we could formally diagnose me with IBD. Well on my 21st birthday, after my first ever (and last 😔) drink I started having violent diaherra. I just assumed this was the consequences of drinking with my stomach. Well one day goes by, now two, by three I'm realizing something is horribly wrong. This is when I'm diagnosed with c diff. The next months that followed were rough!! For about 3 months all I ate were egg and cheese sandwiches bc it was the only thing that didn't make me blow up. Eventually I could slowly start adding things in, I am about 10 months post infection (?) and I can eat pretty much everything. I just got dairy back in late January. I mean today I just had Chili's for dinner!!!

Anyway, it gets better! My stomach is unfortunately not 100% but that's due to my other issues as well. That being said my day to day is sooo much better. I wish every one quick, painless, and fast journey of healing ✨

Hello - I was diagnosed with C diff in January and did a round of Metronidazole in February and have had a negative test since. I am still suffering from the resultant IBS (soft more frequent stools and stomach discomfort). I had IBS before the infection. I am taking Bio K+ for IBS and Iberogast and fibre pills. But I’m still experiencing digestive issues so was wondering if I should add some Florestor as well. If so, what kind? I’m leaving for a trip to Bali in a few weeks and I just want to feel better.

My GI has been shaky the last few weeks... then I had my 40th birthday on Saturday and had more beer than usual, even though it was spread out over the course of the day. 48 hours later on Tuesday symptoms returned and they haven't let up. I did a test on Wednesday and am waiting to hear results.

This is the 4th recurrence for me and last time was in the summer, and I was sure Dificid fixed me... but here we are.

I honestly don't know what to do at this point...