Dueling Flora and Fauna

The role of normal intestinal bacteria is frequently downplayed or ignored. Normally the intestines are colonized with an array of normal and friendly bacteria within a few days of birth and these bacteria continue to grow and help the intestines function throughout a person's life. Normally human feces contains about a third by weight of E. coli which is a normal constituent of the intestinal flora. While it is true that some strains of E. coli can cause very serious illnesses, the fact that E. coli are always present in human stool and that without E. coli the guts would not function well is a fact that is frequently neglected.

All of which brings me back to my bowel program. A major objective in spinal injury cases is to regularize the functions of the bowels so that you elimination can be handled once a day at some convenient time. I have been having nothing but problems with this program and it is my greatest worry about going home that bind bowels will not be regular and functioning properly.

At the same time I have been on regular antibiotics for over three weeks to deal with an infection in my wound. The fact that was lost on me for a long time is that no matter how hard the antibiotics are on the infectious bacteria that we are trying to kill, they are also hard on the normal bacteria on which I depend for my daughter did not function in a normal manner.

On top of this there is a bacterium which is fairly common in the hospital which is notorious for colonizing intestines where the normal bacteria had been decimated by antibiotics.Clostridium difficile  or C dif is a standard problem in hospitals and when it infects your gut it can raise havoc with any concept of regularity.

Last night I was diagnosed with C diff. Immediately the nurses arranged to move me to a private room and not just any private room but a private room with a large warning sign on the door telling all personnel that I am infectious and that special precautions including gowns are required when visiting my room. In effect, I have been treated a little like a plague bacillus.

The rules, however, are much stranger than that. The infection should not interfere with my therapy so that it turns out that when I leave the room as opposed to someone entering it there are no special precautions required. I have normal access to the floor and can even go down to the public hospital cafeteria to get my dinners. The world is very strange.

I am now on antibiotics to deal with this new invasion of my body. It is not serious or life-threatening but it is annoying. Furthermore I have three more weeks of antibiotics to go to do with my original infection and as long as I am taking these antibiotics I can never be sure that the flora and fauna in my gut will be stable enough for me to establish a regular routine.