Weight Gain During Nausea?

Most people with c-diff, especially those who took flagyl for c-diff, LOSE weight. The nausea makes them not want to eat. The awful metallic taste of flagy permeates everything they eat. Their stomachs hurt after taking flagyl. They throw up from flagyl-induced nausea. I also experienced all those symptoms, although I only threw up once during the middle of the first night 6 hours after I took flagyl. I'm so adamant about NOT throwing up, because I want to overecome a longterm binge/purge habit. Of course, throwing up from illness nausea totally differs from choosing to throw up after overeating. I also didn't want to throw up flagyl pills, which tasted horrid going down, because they would taste worse when coming up.

So HOW did I manage to GAIN 3 (maybe 4) pounds during my 17 days of flagyl and several months (4 now?) of fighting c-diff? First of all, I realized this morning that I usually equate dizziness and light-headed sensations with low blood sugar. Since took a 2 day break from flagyl (or any treatment) for c-diff, symptoms of that bacterial infection returned. I felt very spacey, dizzy, cold, achey, even like I had the flu or maybe a bacterial infection. LOL So after 2 days off flagyl I became convinced that I STILL needed to treat C-diff. However I reacted to that dizzy, light-headed sensation by eating to raise my blood sugar, because I didn't realize c-diff, not low blood sugar, caused the dizziness. So I 'fed' the dizziness.

I also read comments from many flagyl users and medical info sites that eating many small meals or snacks would help decrease nausea. Even though the thought of eating was disgusting, when I was nauseas, I soon learned that I did feel better after eating, even when I had to take flagyl with meals. However I relished snacks when I could enjoy food without adding more flagyl. So I 'fed' the nausea.

Despite the awful metallic taste of flagyl, which permeated my system and changed the taste of everything I ate, I found foods that still appealed to me and tasted okay, despite flagyl. I loved high fat foods like ground lamb patties, ham and cheese sandwiches with dairy/soy free butter spread (same calories as butter), french fries (bland and oily), and coconut milk ice cream. Bland foods didn't taste as metallic. Almost any meat or vegie (which are basically bitter tasting) did not taste metallic. High fat foods, except peanut butter, didn't taste metallic. So my husband cheered when I craved and prepared his favorite foods like fatty meats, french fries, hot dogs with cheese, and anything with that butter spread (which he sometimes eats with a spoon from the container). I never 'graduated' to baked potatoes with butter (another of my husband's favorites), but I really got hooked on french fries (actually oven fries with lots of olive oil and salt). I 'covered' the metallic taste from flagyl with high fat, high calorie foods. That changed my normal diet from balanced low/high fat, low/high glycemic, low/high carb to high fats, carbs and glycemic foods. I suspected I might gain a few pounds but I felt too awful to care.

Finally I fed my discomfort, frustration and misery with food. I never binged. I never purged. However I ate snacks (usually fruit or nips of peanut butter) when I was not hungry. When I ate meals I seldom stopped when I felt full. Previously I stopped when I felt satisfied and full. However the metallic taste kept me from really feeling satisfied by anything but bland, high fat foods. I even overate those, because they tasted so good. Basically I stopped caring about hunger/fullness eating. I just ate to cope with physical discomfort from nausea, metallic taste, fatigue, etc. Most importantly, I ate to cope with emotional frustration, hopelessness and fear that I would never recover from c-diff.

How long did I feed my feelings and my discomfort? Amazingly, about as long as I have abstained from bingeing and purging ... or almost 5 months. My c-diff symptoms were troubling in April, but I didn't get a stool test till mid May. After my doc previously discounted my cryptosporidium symptoms as 'stress', I doubted my still undiagnosed c-diff symptoms. Then I had to wait 3 weeks (almost 4) for the test results, which arrived when my doc was out of town. By the time my doc saw my test results, he called in my prescription, and I started flagyl, another month passed. I spent another 10 days taking flagyl while suffering those horrid side effects. Then I spent a week taking high dose probiotics to replace good bacteria which flagyl killed. Then I felt good for about a week, before the c-diff symptoms slowly returned, first irregularity, then bloating and finally cramping pain after every meal.

After I emailed my doc about my recurrent symptoms, he again prescribed flagyl, which I began immediately. However, the 2nd round did not immediately alleviate the c-diff symptoms. So I had c-diff cramping intestinal pain, bloating, and irregularity along with flagyl induced nausea, metallic taste, stomach pain. I could have endured the flagyl discomfort if I would have noticed some improvement in the c-diff symptoms, but those got worse until nausea from both c-diff and flagyl made me call my doc and ask for vanco a few days ago. I only took 7 days of the second round of flagyl, for a total of 17 days of flagyl treatment.

I'm not surprised that I didn't gain more weight from comfort eating over 4 months ... a pound a month seems pretty reasonable. LOL However, I did refrain from bingeing and purging, despite all that I experienced. I had committed to abstain from b/p no matter what happened. So that commitment carried me through flagyl induced nausea.

So now I'm on the vanco. Timing and taking the pills is the most difficult part. I have to take them with a high fat meal and full glass of water. Then I need to evenly space out each of 4 pills daily. I can do 3 with meals, but getting the fourth before I go to bed may require staying up a little later and suffering through some high fat ice cream or peanut butter on crackers bedtime snack. LOL Side effects from vanco so far? ZIPPO!!!

I had nausea and bloating from c-diff before I started vanco. So I don't think I experienced any vanco induced nausea. I actually felt better as time passed after taking the vanco. Maybe it's finally killing all those c-diff spores. I still get gut cramps after eating, one of my c-diff symptoms, but those cramps disappear after a few hours ... yeah, just before I get hungry and have to eat another meal. However, I suspect as the vanco eliminates the c-diff I will have less and less gut pain, irregularity, bloating and nausea. I don't know how long the metallic taste from the flagyl will hang around. Last time I quit flagyl I tasted bitter metal for a week after I quit.

Only time will tell, but I already feel more optimistic about vancomycin. I wish I had insisted on vanco the first time, but those scare stories about horrible, irreversible side effects scared me. I suspect those occurred in patients who were already hospitalized with underlying conditions, rather than basically healthy people like me.