please explain colitis dificil

My spouse has been in critical care with infected blood and what the gastroenterolist diagnosed as c.dificil.  His abdomen has been swollen and extended despite the draing tube he has had for 6 days.  His heart rate keeps skyrocketing.  He has multiple myeloma and kidney complications which by the way are getting better.  My spouse has been under heavy sedation and unconscious all this time.  The gastro doctor has not given any reason for this swollen stomach, today they will cat scan and they have taken 2 x-rays already.  Please tell me if this will pass and will it effect his cancer treatments which are valcade and dexamethodone 4 times weekly.  He has been on continuous dialysis for a few days and the prognosis for kidney recovery is positive.  Peace and blessings, V. Singh

[CalGal]

V. Singh, I'm not sure any of us can really explain what might be going on, but C. diff is a nasty little bacterium that is in almost everyone GI tract, but it's typically kept in 'check' my the presence of other 'good' bacteria. Unfortuantely when some drugs are used - typically some form of antibiotics - they kill off the good backteria and the C. diff unfortuantely 'blooms.' When C. diff is present, it secretes toxins that unfortunately attack the wall of the colon and those toxins can do a lot of damage. The C. diff needs to be attacked with some fairly potent drugs.

Unfortunately, only your doc will be able to tell you how the C. diff will interact with his current treatment. To treat C. diff, you may want to consult with an infectious disease specialist.