Clostridium Difficile (C-diff); Colitis - 02.15.08

As Jerry progressively got worse after his routine oncology appointment, on Tuesday 02.12.08, having more chronic and severe diarrhea along with abdomen, back and upper thigh pain. I insisted we make another trip to the ER (Emergency Room). I told Jerry that if he didn't go voluntarily, I would call 911. We arrived at a very busy ER around 1:00am Sunday morning. Patients everywhere, including in the hallway on hospital gurneys from the Operating Room (OR). It was pretty chaodic. Of course Jerry has a problem sitting around anywhere, except for on the toliet, these days. When Jerry was finally set up in a bed, his vital signs were taken the when the doctor triaged Jerry they ordered pain medication along with a CBC (complete blood count), doopler for his upper legs (to rule out blood clots) and a lab test for stool and urine. The results of the doopler was negative, but the CBC and labs showed him to have very high white counts. The doctor's prognosis is again the C-diff and prescribed his 3 prescription of Flagyl and Cipro. When we finally left the ER Jerry was the last and only patient left with only one patient checking in, it was approximately 6:30am. It was a very, very long night. Jerry still continued having problems when we arrived home but around early evening he was doing much better. The ER nurse explained to me that having the C-diff infection causes the waste to go through his colon not being processed appropriately which causes a lot of acid pain in his body. Evidently, the colon produces a sticky substance that helps create your poop consistency and Jerry lacking sticky substance which causes Jerry not to get a fair warning that something's about to get eliminated.

I think that Jerry and I need to have a serious consultation with his oncology physician to see what we could do to discontinue as many of his regular medications until Jerry's body has a chance to heal with this C-diff. According to what I have read and heard about this condition it's a very stubborn condition to get rid of and it also causes additional problems with your colon and that's why a colonoscopy is necessary.

I guess the next step is to get his colonoscopy scheduled ASAP, as well as, have discusses about the situation with his gastroentraolist and oncologist.