u/restaurateureur

Hi all. I've been dealing with an atypical case of C Diff for two months now, since early March. Thankfully my case was less severe than most, but it was (is?) still very annoying.

Recently it seems like I've been somehow "cured" without taking an actual antibiotic, and this just makes me confused and mistrustful. Any insight it appreciated.

I found out I have C diff on April 15th, by testing positive for Toxin B and GDH. Before that I thought it was a Candida infestation based on a big misunderstanding.

After this revelation, I changed a few things*, but I did not take an antibiotic. My doctor thought the case was too weird, so she told me to test again, and only start with the antibiotic - Metro - if I get a positive Toxin or PCR test.

I test again on April 22nd I get negative on toxins, negative on GDH, negative on PCR.

Confused but cautiously optimistic, I go on without taking the antibiotic.

Two weeks after that, I do another C diff toxin test (in my country, when you do a toxin test they also throw in a free GDH test) - negative for toxins, negative for GDH. Again, despite not taking the antibiotic.

Around this time, my symptoms have started gradually improving and are currently mild as long as I keep to a bland, easy-to-digest diet. Various foods still aggravate me, suggesting there might be post-infectuous IBS at the very least.

So basically:

• April 15th: Toxin B positive, GDH positive
• April 22nd: toxins negative, GDH negative, PCR also negative
• May 6th: toxins negative again, GDH negative again

My questions:

1. What tf does this mean? I know the active Toxin test can produce false negatives. But the GDH test and the PCR tests - as I understand - don't really have false negatives, they're supposed to be very good signs of C Diff presence (whether active or dormant). So how can they go from positive to negative without antibiotic treatment? Is it possible for a mild case of C Diff to not only go dormant, but straight up pack up and leave, without the use of an antibiotic?
2. Is these a chance that I might still be colonized with C Diff, despite getting two negative toxin and GDH test results? I'm worried it's buried somewhere deep in the colon, waiting to come out once I lapse with my diet or have to take an antibiotic for something unrelated.
3. Would it be safe to reintroduce things like regular sugar, dairy or nuts? In small amounts, at least? I'm still not convinced the bacteria is gone, and if it isn't gone - I don't want to provoke it into an active infection again.

*for the record, this is what I changed after April 15th and before my first negative test results. I am intentionally putting this at the bottom - maybe some of these things helped, maybe not, but I fundamentally have no idea what happened with my C Diff, and I don't want to make recommendations about something I still don't understand.

• Started taking a Boulardii probiotic twice a day
• Started eating Manuka honey (grade 15+), like 2-3 spoons a day
• Switched from an attempted anti-Candida diet (low carb, high fat), to a high-carb diet focused on bland and easy-to-digest foods. Eliminated dairy completely, for now.
• Stopped taking the anti-fungals and herbal antimicrobials for my non-existent Candida infestation
• Upped my Vitamin D to 6,000-8,000 IU per day
• Reduced my Zinc supplementation to zero (I was taking fairly large amounts the week before that)