C-Diff Update

I didn't mention in my last 'preChristmas' post that my husband bought me one expensive Christmas gift, a $350 DNA Microbial stool test to determine whether I still have c-diff. That gift seems more like a health related necessary expense than a Christmas gift. However, I often said that all I want for Christmas is freedom from C-diff.

Nevertheless, the test results won't necessarily guarantee that I'm well, even if the test is negative for bacteria. Given my experience with spores, which hide out in gut lesions and later morph into bacteria in the absence of antibiotics, I fear the test will only show that I have no bacteria, while I still may have c-diff spores. I want to wait until I have no c-diff symptoms, after I stop taking vanco at least a week. However I experienced obvious c-diff symptoms when I delayed taking a 'pulse' dose for 6 days. I only took one vanco after 6 days. Then I felt better for a day, but got more c-diff symptoms 2 days later. So more recently I only skipped 3 days and took 2 vanco on the 4th day. Then I took high dose probiotics last night. I fear that if I wait too long between doses to take the stool test, I will have such a high amount of bacteria that I can't kill those with 'pulse doses' of vanco. I really have no idea what's going on in my gut, but I recognize know my c-diff symptoms when they occur.

Meanwhile I keep getting vancomycin side effect symptoms, specifically a plugging and ringing in my ears, which is a precursor to hearing loss, a common side effect of long term vanco use. I defintely want to stop taking vanco before I lose my hearing. However, I want to kill off the spores before they morph into bacteria which causes pseudomembraneous colitis which could destroy my colon. What to do? What to do?

My naturopathic doc is totally clueless about how to treat recurrent c-diff. However, traditional docs only use diagnostic tests which require the patient be very ill, i.e., (1) the toxin test, which measures toxins (which cause symptoms) produced by large amounts of bacteria (toxin test) or (2) a colonoscopy to look for signs of the 'pseudomembrane' on the colon. I don't want to wait until I'm sick enough for their tests. I want to keep killing off the bacteria as they morph from spores, since I can't really kill the spores with antibiotic. I want to keep killing the bacteria until there are no more spores. Unless, I have spores on the surfaces of my bathroom counters, I most likely can kill all the spores and erradicate this c-diff infection. The question is when ...