This past July I was going about my business not doing much of anything when I started to have severe headaches and dizzy spells. I kept bumping into things and falling down especially at night.
As I was 63 years old but it kept happening and got worse. I went to my local hospital, Florida Hospital-Altamonte Springs, and they thought it was TIAs, transient Ischemic Attacks or Mini-Strokes but after CAT Scans, Ultrasounds and MRIs, they decided it was not my brain but my inner ear which which was errant even though the inner ear is a part of the brain.
They released me with no diagnosis and suggested I see a ear nose and throat doctor about my falling problem.
Three days later the problem got much worse and, scared, I returned to the Emergency Room of the hospital. They did many more tests over eight hours and still could not find out what was making me dizzy and fall.
Instead, they informed me a CAT (Computer-Assisted Tomography) scan revealed that I had an inflamed gall bladder with many stones trying to get out.
They kept pointing to my right side as that was where the gall bladder pain was supposed to lie, but I kept pointing to my left side as a part of my body in very severe pain which they ignored.
They said the inflamed gall bladder represented a medical emergency, admitted me, sedated me and hung an IV bag loaded with broad spectrum antibiotics, the usual stuff given pre-op.
The doctor did the surgery the next day but said I fainted as they were moving me from the transport table to the operating table.
The doctor and his nurse were happy as they visited me the next day and said I would probably be released the next day which they did.
On the way home I felt increasingly weak and took immediately to my bed and slept for more than twenty hours.
Then my roommate woke me up to see if I was OK and I got up, staggered about fifteen feet, and collapsed on the floor and could not get up.
My friend called EMS and and they took me back to the hospital fading in and out of consciousness and confused and with a 103 degree fever.
They admitted me immediately but kept the call light far away from me.
I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom but didn't realize I had a retention catheter attacked or that I had the beginnings of severe diarrhea, got out of bed somehow and managed to fall over some medical equipment blocking my way to the bathroom. I started crying and yelling for help, utterly confused.
Nurses came running and got me back into bed and explained where I was and why.
By dawn I had more severe diarrhea than I had ever had, as whatever when into me can out of me immediately. I had ultra severe abdominal cramps and my abdomen swelled out and became rigid to touch.
I felt like I was going to die from the treatment with nurses, nurses aides, different doctors, and others, sticking needles in me, turning me, and touching me all over. (I usually hat being touched but can tolerate it for a little while in emergencies.)
I had no rest and no privacy for fourteen days, the period during which I was very sick.
Finally, after being placed in the Intensive Care Unit, deprived of food or drink, I got much better, and was transferred back to a regular room, where I steadily improved and was discharged three days later, as I was told that just being in the hospital for an extended time greatly increased my risk of developing being infected with a new strain of C Diff pt becoming infected with a new one.
I was told upon discharge that I had a sixty-six percent chance of relapsing or catching a new strain and that the odds of developing a new attack increased with each successive attack.
I am now experiencing my sixth relapse and have been hospitalized it it four times.
I have not allowed to eat dairy products, citrus fruits, raw fruit or vegetables, or anything sweet using natural or artificial sugars. My meals must be small and taken five times a day.
At the hospital I've always gone to for this, they seem like they want me to go elsewhere. After all my flare ups they seem like they'd want me to go somewhere else for a change. When they admit me they seem to just go through the motions and release me quickly, even before my symptoms entirely go away.
Now, I'm sitting and thinking. I don't know what to do or what professional, if any, can help me.
Do any of you have any experience with Clostridium-Associated Disease. Have you ever had it or do you know someone who has? And what sage advice can you give me about overcoming it or, at least, coping with it?
I really need your help with this as I no longer know what to do.
Please help me if you can!
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RPPVW
"The purpose of the physician is to entertain the patient whilst the disease runs its inevitable course." -Voltaire
Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AT) Test: 46
Broad Autism Phenotype Test: 132 aloof, 114 rigid, 99 pragmatic
15 Dec 2010, 5:40 am
Sorry to hear you went through all that Richard. Did they ever discover the cause of the initial pain?
