Microincremental Improvement Daily

I'm NOT seeing a huge difference in my symptoms during this second round of vancomycin. After 5 days my stomach doesn't hurt after every meal and my intestines aren't constantly swollen and tender to touch. I went from fecal urgency (feeling like I have to go all the time) to fecal frequency (if that's the term) or going about 6 times already today, rather than my previous 3-4x for the whole day.

I also stopped worrying about making my last vanco dose evenly spaced (5 hours) after my dinner dose. I'm just too exhausted to stay up that late. I also don't want to set an alarm to wake up to take a pill. When I turn out the light, I don't want anything to bother me. I usually sleep straight through 8 hours, unless bad gut pain awakens me after 6-7 hours. WOW!! That's another improvement. Light, not bad gut pain, woke me this morning.

Maybe I forgot how bad I felt when I started the last round of vanco. So I'm expecting to feel better faster. However, I'm still uncertain whether I'll be completely symptom free after only 2 weeks on Vanco. I still had symptoms after one week, but I confused those with probiotic side effects. I won't do that again. I definitely won't take high dose probiotics until I'm certain I'm recovered from c-diff.

I also learned that my cousin contracted and recovered from c-diff during her 5 month hospital stay. She took vancomycin for a MONTH before that eliminated her c-diff. She was tested before and after treatment. I only have my symptoms to tell me whether I recovered.

I also sometimes doubt my symptom awareness, because my doc discounted my gut symptoms for 2 years in a row (when I had obvious signs of first a parasite and then c-diff). I keep wondering when he's going to tell me that I must be recovered by now and that my symptoms are really just 'stress'. GRRRRR!!! Maybe he finally learned his lesson not to discount my symptoms after he realized I actually had serious infections. I learned that I have to strongly assert my needs. So I can't let doubts keep me from asking for another round of vanco, if I still have symptoms after another week of this prescription.