The "gift" of good gut flora

Introductory Comment: May be TMI (Too Much Information). I blog this for several reasons:

• For my own personal log of my struggle with C-Diff (which frankly has been a trial)
• For anyone else who has suffered with C-Diff and may stumble upon my blog and find this helpful. (For all Cold Fusion Guy posts on C-Diff click here)
• For any friends or family members who may be interested.

Well I did it .. I had the Fecal Flora Transplantation today at Methodist Hospital. My experience with Fecal bacteriotherapy is in this blog post. Wiki has a good article on Gut flora.

• The Doctor: David Stoplman
• The Donor: My son, Roger. Thank you son!
• The Process
  • Donor qualification
    • The donor had to sign various paperwork
    • The donor provided a stool sample (last Saturday) that was tested for 7 different conditions: C-Diff, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV, and other pathogens
    • This testing is not covered by insurance and my out of pocket will be $ 250
  • Prep for recipient (me)
    • Consultation with the Dr (last Thursday) and paperwork
    • Free from C-Diff (test confirmed) (see an earlier post)
    • Off drugs (I took my last Vanco Tuesday and my last aspirin on Monday (I take a baby aspirin three times a week)
    • The less than fun colon cleanse : 8 8 oz glasses last night; 7 today (I threw out the last 2-3 oz ... I couldn't take it any more. During this time I camped out by the bathroom. Kathee moved my recliner to right outside the bathroom door. Last night I camped out from 6 pm until 9:30. This morning from 7:00 am until 11 am. This stuff really works! During my "camp out" I read the Scriptures, prayed, and ran to and fro from the bathroom
  • The transplant:
    • The donor provided fresh stool to the hospital this morning. It had to be there by 10:00 a.m. and had to be fresh this am.
    • Methodist's lab processed and filtered it. The outcome was a liter of brownish / yellow fluid.
    • I arrived this afternoon and had the basic Colonoscopy. This is my third time. I had a Sigmoidoscopy when I was 50. I had a Colonoscopy at 60. And now I am 63. At my 2nd exam one polyp that was removed and tested. This time all clear - no polyps. The colon is healthy with no permanent damages from the C-Diff infection
    • The inner aspect of the Colonoscopy was a complete exam of the colon. I watched on TV. The outer (pull-out) sprayed the fecal transplant material throughout my colon.
    • Takes all of 15 minutes.! (Simple) ... followed by
    • 45 minutes in the recovery room.

I am the 9th person in the Park Nicollet system to have the procedure. Nine is my lucky number! 2012 is almost over .... 2013 will be a year of health!

An interesting thing about the scheduling of the procedure:

• I've reached the $ 5,000 out of pocket deductible for my insurance this year.
• They wanted this to be scheduled in January .. would have cost me several thousand dollars.
• I said I really really needed it to be done this month.
• The suggested December 26th. (Wouldn't Christmas have been terrible (prep work)
• But they moved things around and got me in today!

I hadn't eaten in 2 days. Yesterday was apple juice and water up to to the beginning of the prep at 6:00 p.m. Today likewise no food. Kathee made a nice dinner at my request of sloppy joes! Um good!