antibiotics and clostridium difficile toxin in stool

[trisha]

I was taking Biaxon for a some gum inflammation. I thought it was an abcess (abscess) and it was a holiday weekend so I took some Biaxon I had from a past infection. About 3 weeks later I developed very bad diarrhea, stomach pain, noises in stomach and severe bloating. Thought I picked up a stomach virus but I still had these symptoms 6 days later. I went to my doc and had a stool culture done. He called the 2 days later & said positive for clostridium Difficile. He said it was probably caused from something I ate and prescribed Flagyl. I did some reseach online & found out it was from antibiotics taking away the good bacteria giving this bad bacteria a chance to overdevelope. I had went to visit my husbands grandmother in the hospital around the time this all happened. Wondering if I picked this up there? After taking the full course of Flagly will it kill all this bacteria or will I always have to worry about taking antibiotics in the future? Also how common is this? Thank you for any info.

[basenjirl]

Trisha:

That same scenario has happened to me as well.  It was suggested by my pharmacist that if you are going to take an antibiotic take Acidophilus.  I was told that it maintains the "good bacteria" in the bowel.  It has helped me.(You can pick the stuff up at Wal-Mart-cheapest place I've found)

[giig]

For reliable information on C.difficule and how to get ride of it FOREVER see this thread on the C.Difficule support board.
http://boards.eesite.com/board.cgi?boardset=Cdiffhlp&boardid=Treat&thread=14&spec=3940886