C-diff patient Stephanie Bennett and her physician, gastroenterologist Dr. Sahil Khanna, share the story of her successful fecal transplant.
While she was attending college, Stephanie Bennett was suffering from nausea, diarrhoea, and other symptoms that seemed to continue for weeks. Eventually she was diagnosed with a nasty infection of the bowel called Clostridium difficile or C Diff for short. Doctors tried to treat the C Diff infection with antibiotics but that simply didn’t work. As a last resort, Stephanie sought help at Mayo Clinic. The team there finally treated her symptoms with faecal microbiota transplantation sometimes referred to as a stool transplant.
I remember the day that I first started feeling symptoms. It was a Sunday and I didn’t feel very good when I woke up. I just started being sick and it lasted for way too long, days, then weeks. I started to feel ill in September and then I officially had the FMT procedure in March. I was losing a significant amount of weight because I was just getting sick all the time. I had constant diarrhoea, no good, especially when you’re studying or at school. It was a very stressful time.
Stephanie’s doctor ran tests and confirmed that she has tested positive for C diff. She was put on a ten day antibiotic course.
Unfortunately after further testing Stephanie still had positive results for C Diff.
After two more rounds of antibiotics Stephanie saw no improvement. She then approached Dr Sahil Khanna.
So we’re seeing C Diff more and more out in the community. Studies have shown that it’s in the walls of meat processing plants, water sources and also in public restrooms. So if you have someone like Stephanie who has unexplained diarrhoea and other symptoms that should be kept in mind. It doesn’t only happen to the elderly who are in the hospital. Says Dr Sahil Khanna.
Dr Khanna then completed a procedure called a stool transplant or faecal transplant to help alleviate Stephanie’s symptoms.
Stephanie reported a marked improvement after just three days!
