When I was battling c diff infection, I joined a support group online. Since I have healed I follow the group and offer such support as I can. One thing I have noticed is the very common experience of abdominal symptoms that occur after infection has been treated. To be clear, these symptoms feel like…
Wash, rinse, repeat: preventing MRSA
I am addressing preventing MRSA infection today by special request. It is a common condition that I often encountered when providing primary health care. Chances are, you may have experienced it or know someone who has. Or, you’ve watched Dr. Pimple Popper. What is MRSA? Well, it is a type of staphylococcus aureus- called “staph”…
54321 – Countdown to ease anxiety
2021 was a rough year for me, fraught with anxiety. Not only was I fighting a recurring infection, I also had a kicked up thyroid that set off debilitating episodes of disabling anxiety with scary symptoms like chest pain and palpitations. We eventually got the physical causes under control, but I continued to have bouts…
Finding reliable health info online
“I get a little help from my friends”. Where would we be without the help of others? When you are looking for information to guide your decisions about your health, how do you know who to trust? There is a lot of information out there on the internet, and not all of it is sound…
Loving your microbiome – it matters!
I see lots talk these days about loving yourself. One part of our selves that often gets neglected is your microbiome. What is your microbiome? Your microbiome is the collection of all of the microbes, such as bacteria, fungi, viruses that naturally live on our bodies and inside of us. In our gut alone, we…
Your microbiome buddies – the benefits of taking probiotics
I’ve always said that everything is connected, and that couldn’t be more true when considering probiotics. Think of it – throughout the environment there are symbiotic relationships where different organisms co-exist to each other’s benefits. We ourselves are teeming with bacteria, in and outside of us, and for the most part, we get along just…
Let’s talk poop; fecal microbiota transplants
I was rockhounding in the high desert of Eastern Oregon when I go the call: get your husband tested. I was on my third long taper of vancomycin and it wasn’t working; c diff showed no signs of abating. I felt constantly miserable. My surgeons were worried about my continued recurrences of infection and were…
Treating c difficile: when the solution is part of the problem
For the unfortunate few who become infected by clostridioides difficile (c diff) the initial and hopefully, final treatment is an antibiotic. But, wait! Aren’t antibiotics part of the problem? Don’t people GET c diff after taking antibiotics? Well, yes. When antibiotics impair your gut microbiome by killing off both good and bad bacteria, it can…
Waiting for test results is hard. Things you can do while you wait.
In my last post I discussed that oh-oh moment. When something happens that you know ISN’T GOOD. You know, like all of a sudden you are bleeding from somewhere unexpected, or your body just isn’t behaving normally. You know something in your life is about to change, and maybe not for the better. What do…
C diff and that “oh-oh” moment
Oh-oh. That moment of urgency hits. You have diarrhea. And you just finished taking antibiotics for your (insert condition here). Are you in trouble? Next comes the search for the cause. Was it something you ate? What the heck is going on? What things cause diarrhea? The differential list of causes in long and includes…