Mary Raich

I had gone to Florida with friends for a girls weekend. I felt fine when we left. The next morning I woke up not feeling well and stayed in bed all day and night. At 5am I woke up to use the bathroom and passed out. My friends called 911. My pulse oxygen was 84. I had severe diarrhea, extremely low blood pressure and a lot of pain.

Doctors admitted me to the ICU with C-diff, sepsis and septic shock. (Sepsis and C. Difficile, Sepsis and Septic Shock) My kidneys and liver where failing and they were struggling to keep my blood pressure up. After several days things started to get better. This is my fourth episode of C-diff and everything happened so quickly.

It was terrifying to nearly lose my life and to be so far from home in Michigan. My husband was desperate to get a flight to Florida to be by my side. I’m home now and am doing better but I still have lingering fatigue, belly pain and brain fog. The infectious disease doctor immediately said I desperately need a fecal transplant to try to stop this recurring c-diff. Vancomycin can hopefully keep it at bay until I can get the procedure. My insurance will need to authorize the procedure or otherwise it costs $9000. Though my days are better I’m terrified to go very far from home because this event occurred so quickly with no warning. The thought of this happening again drops me to tears every day. How many times can a body go through this before it takes your life. I’m scared.