Back in roughly 2007, I managed to acquire a clostridium difficile infection. It's a really serious infection, usually preceded by antibiotic exposure, and it can often can lead to death if not treated. In my case, it mostly started out with flu symptoms, but gradually led to me being hospitalized for a few days due to loss of fluids. Once being discharged from the hospital, I was prescribed flagyl to combat the c. diff infection. I did one or two rounds of that over a month or two, but unfortunately still tested positive for c. diff. at the end of it. Since the c. diff wasn't really responding ...

Today was an odd day. It was the first day back to work in about two weeks now, which in itself was a lot of fun, given what we have on our plate. Prior to that though I had to go a few tests down at Chilliwack General Hospital as a final follow-up to all that garbage I went through with my c. diff. infection years ago. Thankfully everything checked out ok, and I think I can finally put that whole health saga finally behind me. That said, I got nothing but sympathy for anyone who acquires c. diff in a hospital setting like I did. After work today I went out and made a run to all of my favourite ...

As I mentioned a few days ago, I decided to try giving up Splenda to see if that helps my stomach out at all. Splenda is a sugar substitute (technically called Sucralose), and it's chemically similar to sugar, although it has a few chlorine atoms added on which makes it mostly indigestible. Unfortunately, since most sugar substitutes essentially can't be processed by the body, they can sometimes cause some distress as they pass through. At the top of that list are certain sugar alcohols (which are used in gum and lots of chocolates), which sometimes have a strong laxative affect. I came up with ...

With regards to my post from yesterday regarding c. diff. First, I want to thank my mom for the eighty or so phone calls and emails she's sent me regarding the subject since that blog entry went up: thanks for caring, mom. Don't worry, I'm ok. Second, I've decided to change my diet in the short term to see if I can find a food trigger. Pretty much the only time I've felt normal again for a period of time was actually when I was in Cancun in March. For basically a whole week, my stomach problems went away and I felt pretty much 100% for a while. I spent about 30 minutes today making a mental list ...

Almost two years ago, I was at work one day, banging on the keys and writing some code. Suddenly, I felt cold, and realized that my hands and my fingers were shaking. I tried to stay at work as long as I could, but after a while my hands were shaking so bad I could hardly function at my job, so I went home. I curled into bed, and wrapped my duvet as tightly as it would go around myself. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't stop shivering. I ended up eventually falling asleep, and slept most of the night away. When I woke up, I was drenched in sweat, feeling like absolute garbage. Six days ...

About a year ago, I was admitted to St. Paul's hospital for what would later turn out to be a rather severe pneumonia. I don't really get sick very often, so for me to suddenly be bed ridden after only two days of feeling bad was a very strange event. In fact, looking back I sometimes wonder if what I really had was pneumonia, or if that was just a symptom of what I actually had. I was going over my medical records a few months ago, and found all the reports from St. Paul's. When they admitted me I was in pretty rough shape. I had a massive fever, low oxygen in my blood, and I was so dehydrated ...

Here comes another rant: As most of you know, back in November I was in the hospital with pneumonia. While there, I picked up a hospital acquired infection known as c. diff. It's unfortunately rather common these days mainly due to the lack of cleanliness in hospitals (and also due to the abuse of broad-spectrum anti-biotics in hospitals). But without a doubt, it's a serious infection, and is responsible for many deaths. The superbug the media focuses on is MRSA, but in terms of fatalities, c. diff kills about twice as many people. Just last month it claimed the life of a mother who went to the ...

I stumbled upon this article about killer viruses this morning, and it pretty much echos exactly everything that happened to me. I had a nap a few months ago, only to wake up with severe fever and chills. I thought I was battling the flu, and couldn't understand why I wasn't getting better. Six days later I was in the ICU at St. Paul's with a 104 degree F fever, and my left lung had partially collapsed due to pneumonia. A high school varsity athlete, a sturdy guy with a health history blissfully free of blips, 18-year-old Joseph Spencer had little reason to think anything was seriously wrong ...

I finally got a hold of my doctor back in Vancouver today to try to figure out what's wrong with me and what I can do about it. It turns out that I have a fairly serious infection caused by a bacteria called "clostridium difficile." C. Difficile sometimes lives in the intestines and is normally kept in check by a range of good bacteria that also live there. Unfortunately, as a result of the antibiotic treament I had in the hospital (which was clindamycin I believe), a large portion of the good bacteria have died off, leaving a pile of bad stuff to proliferate: Clostridium Difficile ...

Last night I was released from St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver to continue the healing process at home. I won't make this a long entry becuase frankly, I find it physically rather hard to type and concentate for writing emails and things right now. The whole episode that led me to head to the hospital is as follows. On Saturday night I was finding myself really short of breath at home. Plus, no matter what medication I took, I just couldn't seem to get my fever to come down. I hit a point when it hit 39C and my heart rate wouldn't settle down and I thought to myself that something was very, very ...

Friday morning, I woke up with a rather large fever, and spent the first hour or two hugging a toilet. I was feeling pretty defeated, so I called my mom out in Chilliwack and asked her to come out and spend the night with me. It's been really great. They made me a meal, looking after me, did my laundry, and tried to do what they could to make me feel better. I went to bed, and actually had a pretty decent sleep. Unfortunately, I had a really large fever upon waking up today, and realized that something wasn't really right. I went down to the walk in clinic with Marty, which was a challenge since ...

After work, I was feeling a bit tired so I laid down for a quick nap. When I woke up a few hours later, not only did I have a wicked headache, most of my joints hurt too. I've since turned the heat up in my apartment to around 28C, and I'm still shivering on the couch with some blankets on. The next couple days are pretty busy for me, so I can't really afford to be sick. I'm going to head to bed now and hopefully wake up at a reasonable hour. My cute maid is coming again in the morning -- so exciting. ...