My husband had 12" of his bowel removed 4-8-08. He is currently being treated for C.Diff also. Flagyl doesn't work for him so he is taking vancocin. I believe it is the generic for vancomycin. He actually spent 5 days in the hospital recently for it. It appears that each day is getting better. The pain is slowly diminishing and the trips to the bathroom are getting fewer and fewer.

He recovered from the actual surgery very quickly. He also had a bad episode a couple weeks after surgery with boils on his tush. They had to be lanced and drained. Then they had to be cleaned and packed daily for over a week.

These infections are very common from people who have had this type of surgery. Because the doctors need to kill all the bacteria (good and bad) prior to surgery, these things happen.

What we are doing:

My husband only uses one of our bathrooms. After he has a bowel movement, he uses those clorox wipes to clean all surfaces anywhere near where he may have touched. He also scrubs his hands with hot soapy water. Anything that may touch his body is not used by anyone else in the house. I wash things constantly to keep things as clean as possible. You can actually reinfect yourself by touching anything that may have the C.diff spores on it. Plus anyone else can catch it. I also have him eating yogurt and drinking a juice that has the good bacteria in it.

It may seem horrible now, but it does get better. It just takes a long time. It may take up to a year to get your body back to "normal". You had major surgery. Any abdominal surgery is painful and has a slow recovery time. Plus, your colon isn't a body part that you can rest and not use like an arm or leg. Just go slow and watch what you eat and follow your docs orders.


Robin