Suffering... the pause in life

For those of you that read my previous post I wanted to share some more thoughts.

I was a very healthy active woman.  I did yoga, horseback riding, and hiked all over camp.  I am a pretty lively and enthusiastic person.  My recent illness caught me by surprise.  My bout of "c. diff" (see previous post)  could have killed me or changed my life forever.  The doctor told me at a follow up appointment " people come into the hospital with c. diff and leave without a colon".  That certainly gave me pause.  Life is fragile.

During those three weeks that I was deathly ill I did some soul searching. 
"Was I ready to meet God?"
"Was there anything I needed needed to ask God for forgiveness  for?"  (Yes. and I did)
"Where there any relationship issues that needed to be resolved?"
"Had I told my family I loved them enough?"
"What would my dear husband and children do without me?"  "Are they equipped to survive emotionally without me?"

Believe me, these are not easy questions to ask yourself.  Yet they are very important.  They should be in the back of our minds as we make our way through life.  It is easy to get caught up in being busy and productive without much thought to some of the hard questions.  I do not think it would be good to live life fearing the worst but I think maybe God allows suffering to help us focus on what really matters.

What are your insights?  What have you learned when life hits you hard with a "pause"?

Clostridium difficile aka c. diff

I learned more about Clostridium difficle than I ever wanted to know.  Clostridium difficle(aka c. diff) is a bad boy bacteria that can invade your digestive track and wage a war.  c. diff is one of several nasty bacteria in the Clostridium family.  You've probably heard of this bad boys cousins: Clostridium botulinum, the cause of botulism, and Clostridium tetani, the bacteria that causes tetanus.

I will spare you the details but suffice it to say what started as a case of "it must be something I ate" quickly progressed to severe bloody diarrhea.  My delay of almost a week nearly cost me my life or my colon.  I was put on a heavy duty antibiotic and a probiotic that saved my life.

c. diff can be found in many places, it resides in soils and surfaces.  It generally doesn't cause a healthy people much trouble because we have all kinds of good bacteria in our colons that keep this bad bacteria in check. c. diff is a spore producing bacteria that is not killed by alcohol based hand sanitizer.  Bleach is the only thing that kills this bacteria's spores.  Soap and water hand washing also helps greatly.  Wash your hands carefully when ever you have been in a health care setting.

The doctors believe that I got into this mess because I had taken antibiotics for a sinus infection a month before all this happened.  I usually eat active culture yogurt when I am on antibiotics... but not this time.   Since the regular flora in my colon was greatly reduced c. diff had opportunity to take over.

Unchecked c. diff can progress to a condition called mega colon.  This life treating complication can cause your colon to explode.  Very few survive this complication. 

I hope that my story can spare you this terrible illness.

Here is what I learned in MY CASE:
Do not take antibiotics unless absolutely necessary.
If you take antibiotics add an over the counter probiotic called Florastor.  Florastor is a probiotic with Saccharomyces boulardii , a strain of yeast that has been proven to keep c. diff in check.
Eat yogurt with live cultures.
If you experience unusual diarrhea or see any blood at all... go to your doctor immediately!

I AM ONLY SHARING MY EXPERIENCES.  THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE.  CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR FOR HIS SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS.