How I Got C Diff

It took years of worry and sleeplessness to weaken my immune system.

I was going too fast for my life: dealing with work stress, maintaining my home, going to the gym early, and staying active in my faith community. I didn't get enough sleep.

In 2019, I took three courses of antibiotics: two of Amoxicillin and one of Clindamycin. In 2019, my dad’s friend was also in the hospital for cancer; he was quarantined and we had to put on protective clothing to visit him. Since Derek was quarantined, I suspect he had C Diff. It might be that I was exposed to C Diff when visiting Derek in the hospital.

On December 16, 2019, I had two wisdom teeth removed. The dentist prescribed Amoxycillin as a prophylactic.* Since I had already had Amoxycillin twice that year, and it made me tired, I said that I didn't want Amoxycillin. The dentist said there was another drug he could prescribe: "It's pretty much the same thing."

I thought to myself, "I can handle it".

Looking back, that was a naive thought, but God did help me to handle C Diff. And through my recovery journey, C Diff helped me see differently.

The wisdom teeth removal went perfectly, and I took Clindamycin from December 16-23, 2019. Two weeks after finishing Clindamycin, I tested positive for C Diff ("GDH by EIA" and toxins test). Combined with my diarrhea symptoms, my doctor was able to diagnose me with a severe C Difficile infection (severe CDI) on January 6, 2020.

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*"prophylactic" - "a medicine or course of action used to prevent disease." (Oxford English Dictionary)

Clindamycin capsules (credit: Mx. Granger on Wikipedia)