Member who battled C. diff offers advice for preventing it

Samaritan Ministries member Tami Neal of Tennessee blames antibiotics for her case of Clostridium difficile.

Tami, a Tennessee homeschool mom and pastor’s wife, believes she developed C. diff in 2008 after taking antibiotics a few days before she was to have a dental procedure. The antibiotics were prescribed because Tami has a heart murmur. Such a prescription is common ahead of any invasive procedure because bacteria can enter the blood stream and harm the heart.

The problem is that such broad-spectrum antibiotics can reduce helpful bacteria in the intestines and allow C. diff to take over if it’s present.

Tami had taken two days’ worth of antibiotics when the first symptoms hit. For Tami that included movement difficulty, weakness and muscular pain.

“I thought I had eaten something wrong or eaten too much,” she says.

She started feeling sick to her stomach a couple days later while preparing breakfast for her family and had to lay down. “By that time, I was having trouble lifting my head off the bed,” she says. “I felt so sick.”

By the time she arrived at a doctor’s office, she was also running a fever. Within hours, both C. diff and pancreatitis had struck.

To get rid of the C. diff infection, Tami had to go through four rounds of the antibiotic vancomycin at $100 per pill. Through an Internet forum, the Neals learned ways to cut down the cost; they went to a compounding pharmacist for some of the vancomycin and then told the manufacturers about their plight, receiving some pills for free.

The fight went on for about six months.

She would get better, Tami says, then after finishing a round of antibiotics, the symptoms would return. A test would confirm she still had C. diff, and it was back to vancomycin.

“I would have to go home and follow detailed instructions: wash my clothes separately, use a separate rest room from everybody else, use bleach in the laundry,” Tami says.

The discipline probably kept C. diff from spreading at home, she says. But it didn’t keep her from redeveloping it.

“Within a week or so (of ending the vancomycin), I’d be sick again,” she says.

Tami’s illness extended beyond the typical diarrhea and nausea. She lost muscle strength and her mouth was locked shut at one point. She still suffers from gastroparesis, which “slows or stops the movement of food from the stomach to the small intestine.” As a result Tami has to eat a restricted diet.

Her advice to prevent being infected by C. diff is to:

• “Be aware” of the bacterium’s dangers, especially when taking antibiotics or entering a health care facility.
• “Keep a healthy gut.” Tami takes probiotics, but a healthy digestive system can mean different things for different people.

If you do have to battle C. diff, it is important to try to find a doctor who is aware of the extraordinary challenges of this dangerous infection.