Wild Ride

I am putting this information on here mostly so we can remember the events and timeline of everything that happened. Most of this post are text messages that were sent from my dads phone to us kids and friends to keep us updated. Alot of it is just my dads texts and not any responses so it may be hard to understand. I also was going to try and put the times the texts were sent but that became too tedious so I am just going to try and put the dates.

This was the Sunday before the surgery:
Cami. Tori. Mindi. Sunday afternoon mom wants to have a dinner which will include Pulled Pork Sandwiches salad chips soda pop Home made ice cream Baked Beans. Mom wants those who want to to fast sunday and then we will have a prayer and eat at 3 pm. Tell ur kids if they want to participate and give us an idea of how many will be coming from ur families? The dinner is going to be simple and easy for mom to prepare

This was soon after the surgery after she was in her hospital room:
Doing alot better. Getting more alert every hour. Seems to be getting back to normal. Carisa is here with us

This was the day after surgery:

Yes we are using it (incentive spirometer, a device that "exercises" the lungs) 10 times per hour. Oxygen level right now is 96% She didnt sleep well. Only dozed on/off. They got her up at 6:30 and walked around the bed over to the chair. They took catheter out also this morning. She is now sitting in the chair and feeling good. They are taking her off pain button thing at 8 and starting her on Percocet. Things seem to be going good. Will update u later this morning. Have a good day.

No pain, just couldnt get comfortable. She cannot sleep well on her back and with all the stuff on her she couldnt get comfortable on her side. she only pushed the pain button 2-3 times all night

The oxygen level wont stay up so they put her back on oxygen. Earlier tried to walk her but mom felt too weak. However in last 15 min she walked to bathroom by herself and also walked completely around big circle of hospital by herself and did really well so hopefully things are improving.

Oxygen level is not staying above 87. Mom has to really work by breathing to get it back up. Only stays above 87 for couple of minutes at a time. Just went on a long walk of about 15 min. Circled hospital carpet areas 4-5 times. She did really well

Doctor Reynolds just left. Mom is going to stay another night. He says this is not that unusual for someone moms age so he is not concerned. Hopefully she can improve over night. i think she is more relieved than anything. I'm going to walk her for 5-10 min each hour tonight for the next 3 hrs Not much pain and she feels good. She also has eaten good for both lunch and dinner. Her only problem is the Oxygen level. Everything else is good.

Well. So far this morning is an exact repeat of yesterday. Doctor came in at 7:30 and said she had a very good night since oxygen was only on 1 liter and stayed above 95% all night. He said since oxygen usually drops when u sleep we should have no problem getting her weaned off it by noon. But Doctor took off oxygen and then left and within a couple of minutes oxygen drops below 87. She cant keep it above 87 for more than a few minutes without doing the heavy breathe in/out thing. Doctor will be back around noon??????

Doctor checked lungs and they seem fine with no obstruction or anything. He seems to think she needs alot of walking etc. They also are going to give her a Nebulizer Treatment this morning. Doctor said blow blow blow on lttle machine and walk walk walk this morning. Once it starts beeping at 86 she does deep breaths and it comes back to mid 90s in just 4-5 seconds.

(Me talking here) Well that's an improvement from yesterday when it went to the 60"s

hey have really been doing alot of stuff on mom the last hour. They have taken 5-6 blood samples for blood analysis to really measure the oxygen in the blood. They now just took her to get xrays to look at her lungs. So i guess they should find out whats going on Doctor just called and talked to me. He said xrays and all blood test except one came back normal. The one wasnt bad but just slightly irregular. So he is giving her another test. Its a CT scan of lungs to ensure she doesnt have any Blood Clots in the lungs. He doesnt think she has this but is being overly cautious just to be sure. If the CT scan comes back ok then he will release her. If not he will discuss how we treat the blood clots.

They just took her for the ct scan. Mom is an absolute nervous and upset lady. Also very depressed. I sure hope there isnt any blood clots.

I ran home to change and doctor called me and before i got back the nurse came in and told her about the blood clots and ct scan which upset her. When i got here and told her what doctor told me and he was being overly cautious etc then she settled down. We will be fine and i will let u know results of the test. Stay at work. Im confident we will be going home this afternoon. I hope. Lov ya Hey u dont need to miss work. Moms sleeping and very calm and relaxed now. We are just here in room doing absolutely nothing. Stay at work hon. I dont think doctor is coming until late afternoon. Nothing going on here They are going to give Mom some anxiety pills and something to help her sleep now so i will keep u informed on how she is doing thru the night.

(I left work anyway and went over to the hospital. About 1/2 hour later, the doctor came in and told us she had 2 blood clots in her lungs and about the 5 cm mass in her upper chest and another mass on her adrenal gland)


This was later the same day:
They think she can probably go home sat and then we will go to Huntsman Cancer Institute on Mon or Tues. Its going to be a very long 3-4 days. Lov ya all. She doses off/on. Hasnt taken anxiety pill yet because nurse says it will put her to sleep so she wants to wait until about 9 Mom will need to give herself two Lovenox shots in her stomach at home each day when she is released. She has told the nurses here that she will ask one of her daughters to do it. Which means one of u two Cami and Mindi. Is that ok?. I suppose u guys are willing to do that?

Ok they are giving her one tonight at 9. And then one in the morning before she leaves. But will need one tomorrow night and then one in morning and one at night starting Sunday. The doctor was in about 10. They are in process of checking us out. Setting up Oxygen. Giving us prescriptions etc. We should be leaving here by noon.

This was Monday morning, the day after Mom was discharged to home:
Huntsman Cancer just called and they cannot see Carolyn until Tuesday Nov 29 to do the Biopsy. Obviously Carolyn is very upset to wait the week and continue on Oxygen and all this medication but we have no other options. I will keep u informed. Mindi is coming over at 8 to give her the shot. Doctor Reynolds is having pharmacist work with Insurance to determine what med to prescribe because she has to continue on this px until she goes to Huntsman Cancer next Tues. We should get new px. I text Dr Reynolds since i havent heard from Pharmacy about the Lovenox px refill. A few minutes later pharmacy called and said they had negotiated with our insurance and they agreed to pay down the cost because Doctor says she needs to get shots for two more weeks which is 30 shots for 2/day for 15 days. Im going to pick up px within hour. Next shot needs to be given around 8 pm tonight. Cami can u do the shot tonight?. Also mom very concerned about having to take shots for 2 more weeks and she knows its expensive. Lov you guys

(This is a text from the doctor to my dad) "Yeah I spoke to him (cancer doctor) and we will consider regular heparin or conversion to oral medication depending on further recommendations after the biopsy is done- those methods require more labs and more possible side effects so we didn't start with them but we can switch after we have the whole picture. Thanks Ps I hope you are doing ok and we will keep you all in our prayers." I have to say it scares me to death when even the Doctor sounds like he feels prayer is the only option. Lov ya all

This was on Thanksgiving:
Yes she did great. Went to mailbox. Then half way around neighborhood. Then to grocery store and walk around for 30 min in the store Mom says u dont need to come over until 1:30. She is sitting at table cutting up stuff and feels fine. She says its good for her. Im running around getting stuff and doing what she tells me. Stuffing done, i will get turkey going in another half hour. So at 1:30 we can peel potatoes cook vegetables make sweet potatoes etc etc. So see ya at 1:30.

Saturday after Thanksgiving:
Mom is very depressed. She wants to know how many times per day and how long should she walk. She thinks Last night Mindi told her to walk at least 4 times for 15 min each. Does that sound about right??. She is super depressed that she is bleeding again. Even tbough Dr Reynolds told her all was good and the clots showed the Lovenox was working it still freaks her out.

Sunday, 1 week after coming home from hospital:
Your mom is in kind of a fragile shape today and really not up to coming over to your house to get the shot. Is it possible for you to come over here about 8 pm to give her the shot? She has pain and has taken 3 pain/insomnia pills. so she is groggy and not very mobile.

(Me talking) Why is she in so much pain now?

I don't know, I just texted Dr Reynolds and waiting for reply?

He talked with her for 10 minutes and had me take blood pressure and pulse. 110/70 but pulse 114. He told me to take her to Riverton Hospital emergency to have her checked for infection or internal bleeding. I will keep u informed.

Just got her downstairs. The pain had a sudden jump about 10 minutes ago and she says it now has completely stopped. so she wants to sit here for a while and recheck blood pressure and pulse again before we go. Dr Reynolds mostly concerned about high pulse and possibility of infection.

Ya I would be worried about the internal bleeding. Tell her to feel her abdomen and see if it's bloated or hard.

K well I'm nervous to give her the shot because I don't know whats going on.

I understand. Lets see what happens in 30 minutes and if I don't go to emergency room, then I will text Dr again.

Do you have blood pressure thing at your house to check moms blood pressure??

No I thought you had one at your house

We do but everytime I use it on mom, it comes up error.

Has it done that before?

No, and it works on me but not her. Unless I'm doing something wrong.

I tried it on the other arm, upper and then on other arm lower and it seems to be working fine until it gets to 80 on way down and then it suddenly goes down really fast and flashes error.

(This was about 8:30 pm on Sunday. Also, on Monday, I found out just how bad things went while my dad was getting her to the emergency room. He tried to walk her downstairs, she could barely walk. She had to rest after every step. It took him 45 minutes to get her down the stairs. Then when he finally got her in the car, she was mumbling and was incoherent and then wouldn't even respond to him. He then realized something was very wrong and looking back, he said she was dying right in front of him. It freaks him out to think what would've happened had he not taken her to the emergency room when he did)
Pain came back. We are going to emmergency

Mom is in being checked in emergency room right now. They are just starting. No word yet I think we are here for a while. They are having her drink something so they can see and they are going to do ct scan to see whats going on in there. They are putting in a catheter right now. Her heart is beating very fast. Just go to bed because it is going to take over an hour to drink the stuff before they can do ct test. I will text u guys in morning around 8 Okay. But i just talked with Doctor who said she would be here about 3 to 4 hours because they cannot do ct scan until she has drunk all of the special liquid. So get to bed.

This was written on Monday morning after she had been admitted to the University Hospital:
Mom is now resting and doesnt seem to have any pain. Mostly just sleeps. Talked with doctor and she said first goal is to get bleeding stopped which should now be happening since its been 24 hrs since last lovenox shot. Then need to get moms pulse to drop to normal range and third is to decide what to do about preventing blood clots Had a very difficult sunday and especially sunday night. Carolyn in extreme stomach pain starting at 5 am sunday. I gave her two pain pills and she slept till 10. Then again woke up and was weaker than she had been but ate a good breakfast and took a pain pill and seemed to be getting better. Then about 2 again had severe pains then they relaxed but about 5pm again really severe pains so i text her Doctor and told him what was happening. Doctor Reynolds then talked to carolyn for 15 min on the phone and carolyn was doing pretty good. Next Doctor had me take blood pressure and pulse with our machine and blood pressure was normal but pulse was 125 so did it again and it was 132 so he had me take her to emmergency at Riverton Hospital. We got there about 8:30 and they decided to do a ct of stomach by injecting liquid substance in veins so ct scan would show up. Discovered she was bleeding internally and had lost over 4 units of blood and the bleeding was pooling in between carolyns muscles of outer wall of stomach and causing severe pain. About 3am with vital signs erratic and pulse still over 130, Doctor Reynolds came to me and said i feel we need to Air Flight her to univ of utah med center due to concern over high pulse, bleeding and especially the risk of more blood clots forming and going to lungs or heart. They air flighted her via univ of utah air med helicopter and she is now in Intensive Care here at Univ Med Center. Big concern is not the tumor right now but getting her pulse down and blood to stop bleeding. But then the big concern is blood clots going to chest and heart. Going to meet with Doctor in an hour to see if he has decided to go in her vein in groin and go up and put in filter to collect any blood clots from getting to lungs or heart. As Doctor said its a double edged sword were facing. We need to use blood thinner to prevent more clots and dissolve the two already in her lungs but we cant because she will bleed internally. Doctor tells me now she is here in Univ Med Center Intensive Care that it is not life threatening but its going to take time to solve this and could require surgery to drain blood in stomach wall if it doesnt stop soon and pulse goes down from danger area. I will keep u informed


This was after the cancer doctor talked to them and told them he felt the tumor was not cancerous:
Just got back in carolyns room. She is feeling pretty good and of course much more optimistic. The bad news is they gave her another unit of blood at 5 and they are now giving her another unit now so we are up to number 7. As Doctor said we can work thru this. She will be okay Mom is sleeping well and so far this morning all is well. She is tired because alot of doctors and nurses disturbing her all night. But so far so good. Blood count is still normal so hoping stays there. So far today is good. Im just sitting here reading paper and watching her sleep. Have a good day. No need to come up here today since thank goodness its pretty boring right now. Hope it stays that way. Lov ya


Cautious optimism continues. Doctors just left and decision has been made to not do surgery or vein dye tests today because so far blood count still up in acceptable range even thougb not totally normal. Kidneys working a little better also. (This is when I found out that she was in kidney failure. In fact, they had already written an order to start dialysis, but doctor decided to try to jumpstart her kidneys by giving her alot of iv fluids at a fast rate. That seemed to do the trick).

Just gave carolyn a pain/sleep pill so she is sleeping right now. I have to share a crazy thought that just went thru my mind, if no one tells carolyn. As i sit here watching her sleep and getting excited with every drop of Pee that runs down the tube into the bag hanging on end of bed. I just promised i will never again give her a rough time for all the times i complain every time she makes me stop for Potty/Bathroom break on the way to st george. Going to the bathroom has never been one of her weaknesses. Hope that ability returns soon. Crazy what you appreciate sitting in intensive care room watching ur wife sleep. I hope good news can continue with kidneys and bleeding. I will give u update this evening. Lov ya all One update on visitors. They just asked me to not have any visitors at all the rest of the day. They have closed door to her room and put sign on door saying no access without going and talking to the nurse. The reason is carolyn has only has about 2 hrs sleep in last 48 hrs so they want her to have total privacy to sleep. thanks for everyones concerns. Lov ya

Tuesday evening update. So far today we are doing okay and holding our breath it continues. Blood count still staying in acceptable range so no additional blood transfusions needed tonight. Its been 18 hrs since she had the last and 7th transfusion. Doctor told me carolyn had lossed over 52 per cent of her total blood in her body. Its amazing she made it. We are going to be okay and better days are ahead for us. Although told me we are looking at best scenario of 7 to 10 days in hospital after she gets out of intensive care and then about 5 to 6 months recovery at home. She will be quite Immobile for 4 to 6 weeks and alot of pain due to all that internal bleeding and all that blood takes months to be absorbed by the body. Oh well we will worry about that when we get out of here. Just did sugar level again for sugar for diabeties and it has jumped up to 143 again. So i guess its back to insulin shots. Level should not be above 119.

The therapists are in there working with mom now. The goal is to get her up out of bed and walk to chair in the room. Sit there and then walk back to the bed. Hope they succeed.

Back in room. They have a room for mom but there isnt enough nurses on that floor so we havent moved yet. Maybe not till morning

Thursday morning Carolyn update. The only bad news today is we are still in Intensive Care but everything else is wonderful this morning. The reason we are still in intensive care is the hospital is so full they do not have a room available. This morning Carolyn is sitting up in a chair out of bed and for those of u who know her that makes me elated. she is watching one of her favorite shows The Price Is Right and Regis and Kelly. She flips channels back and forth and doesnt miss a thing. She is alert talkative and her pulse has dropped into normal range yesterday it was 115 to 120 and mon and tues it was over 130. Well today it is right now 103 which is in normal range. That means no bleeding and blood returning to normal level and count and enabling her to regain her strength. Urine flow continues to get better although still not normal. Still requires oxygen and will until tumor in chest is removed because it is pushing on and restricting her breathing path in her neck. Also diabetes continues and they are giving her insulin shots ever 3/4 hours to control it so we dont know what the outcome will be as they say it could be temporary and it could be permenant. Next step is get into regular room then address blood issue and finally address the tumors. Two blood specialist Doctors are suppose to come to see her today and give us a recommendation regarding how to treat and balance the clotting vs thinner problem. But we are doing well and finally all carolyns vital signs etc have returned to normal.


Her body is settling down and working again. hope it continues. we are going to be okay. appreciate your support

They just moved us out of Intensive Care to the Acute Internal Medicene Unit B and we are in room 4314. The doctors told us about an hour ago they feel mom needs to have a filter inserted to collect any blood clots that might occur to keep them out of the lungs and heart. It is just a 30 min procedure and goes through vein. I believe they would do this later this evening. They did say if she gets the filter inserted she probably can go home in 2 to 3 days. They also said they would not take out the tumor for 3 months because it is not cancerous and they want the blood situation solved and totally controlled first. She is now sleeping and very nervous about filter insertion procedure even though they are telling her it is not a difficult procedure and done commonly every day. Now sleeping deeply so im going to leave the room and they have sign on door to not disturb and see nurse first. Will keep u informed. Nothing will happen here with procedure for 5 or 6 hours or more because she just had lunch an hour ago and they now have her on no water or food in preparation for the procedure.

Carolyns surgery of putting in the filter is over. Doctor just came into waiting room and told me everything went well and she did fine. He said she should be back in her room in about an hour. Thats a relief. I will keep u informed as she comes around and starts talking etc. All is well here now with mom. Doctors from intensive care just came in room and talked with me. There were 7 of them and they said now that she had the protection of the filter that today was a rest sleep relax day and get moms anxiety to ease. Maybe later this evening physical therapy will come in and see if they can get her body moving a little. They said as long as blood pressure, pulse, blood count etc continues as it is right now and with protection of filter, then the only thing we need to be sure of is regaining her strength, becoming mobile enough to get to bathroom with some help and her own confidence level returning and he would feel okay about her going home. He said lets strive for late saturday afternoon or at the latest sunday afternoon. Wow thats great but also scary for me. I have been with her all the time but its been great for me to grab a nurse or nurses assistant if it got difficult. Oh well. I will survive. But looks like we are almost ready to get out of here. Carolyn has not been able to even sit upright without assistance and couldnt come close to getting out of bed, let alone walking so i hope she can do all of that in the next 24 to 48 hours. Otherwise im going to be awfully nervous by myself with her at home??? She ate good at about 2:00 and she has been sleeping better for almost an hour than i have seen her sleep for more than a week. Mom is finally sleeping and resting well. She has been deeply asleep for 1 1/2 hours

Fri. Dec 2nd Carolyn Update. Carolyn still doing better. Eating well, talking well but not alot of energy, blood pressure good. But doctor didnt ever send in physical therapist and we just found out why??. Doctor just came in at 7 pm this evening and told us she is still very anemic and heart is having to work too hard trying to get limited blood supply with good oxygen throughout her body. So u wont believe this but Doctor has just ordered TWO MORE FULL BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS. Doctor showed us ct scan dvd of the giant reservoir of blood that bleed internally and as she said, "This is unbelieveable and i havent seen anything like it before. I have never seen the body bleed this much blood before." Doctor said u actually have as much blood pooled in this giant reservoir that fills stomach walls from just below her chest all the way down to her groin, as u do in the rest of ur body. As doctor talked and explained it was amazing. So Carolyn cannot be released until her heart beat slows down and stays down to 100 or less for a sustained time. Her heart beat did go down briefly yesterday but last night i noticed it was 120 or higher and tonight right now it is 119. So they feel by adding two blood transfusions that will increase blood level to point it will be easier on the heart and lower pulse to around 100. We cannot get out of hospital with this high of heart beat. So i guess we are still here. They are getting first blood transfusion hooked up now which they said will take 4 hours and then follow up immediately with 2nd transfusion for another 4 hours. So this brings it doctor said to an even 10 transfusions. Doctor said u actually have almost double the amount of blood the body needs but the problem is half of it is in the wrong place and u dont have enough yet in the veins going thru ur body to give u strength oxygen and make u healthy. Hope this does the trick. We are getting tired and discouraged. They are giving carolyn anxiety pills and sleep pills so i hope she just sleeps thru it. So the Saga continues. I sure hope we are getting close to the last chapter. I sure hope we are still not in 1st or 2nd Nephi or even Alma. Will let u know more tomorrow. One good news, the A1C test came back and doctor said if your 7.2 or higher u have diabetes and carolyns was 6.4. Sounds pretty close but doctor said u dont have diabetes

Carolyn Update. Sat Morning. I guess the only word to describe both Carolyn and I is Discouraged but still hopeful. They finished the 2nd Blood Transfusion at 5 am and nurses and assistants in room every 15 min all night monitoring and doing vitals etc all night. The concern is the High Pulse Rate, Low Oxygen Level and she is Anemic. The hope is the two Blood Transfusions done in the night will add additional blood with more Oxygen to put less pressure on Heart. They feel if they can do that, then Heart Beat should decrease and should also breathe easier with less effort and regain some strength. We are sitting here looking at monitor however and her current Pulse Rate is 120. So hopefully it takes more time after Blood Transfusions to kick in. But it gets pretty depressing just watching the monitor and nothing improves. Thank goodness Carolyn cant see monitor so she just asks me every hour or so and i have to admit i knock a few points off when i give her an answer. Lets hope we get some improvement thru out the day. Will keep u posted.

They havent told us anything that might make us think that. They just keep saying it should go down and the loss of blood was such a gigantic experience that it has really disrupted her body. Doctor yesterday said are u aware we have completely changed out ur total blood supply. You have total new blood and body has to adjust. This has been a major event for your body and it takes time. Highest. 137. But that was last mon and tues. Lowest. 110 at about 6:30 this morning. But it has usually been 114 to 119 the last few days. Then jumps to 120 to 122 for a while then drops a little again. Thurs even after they told her about putting in the filter it jumped up to 130. But they werent too concerned and expected it to drop back down yesterday afternoon below 110 but it didnt.

Carolyns Main Attending Doctor who was in charge in Intensive Care and will continue to be her Doctor just came in and talked to us. We both really like him and he gives u a feeling of confidence. He said blood transfusions went well and should show benefits by this afternoon. He also is sending in two physical therapists to get carolyn out of bed in a chair and walking. He feels the high pulse rate may be result of Carilyn being taken of her high blood pressure medicine when she went on the blood thinner medicine after the Hysterectomy and blood clots in her lungs two weeks ago. He said often when patient goes off the high blood pressure medication quickly it can increase pulse rate. So new plan 1. Start her high blood pressure medication immediately 2. Get carolyn up out of bed into chair 3. Try and get her to walk a little 4. By tomorrow get her to walk to bathroom 5. By tomorrow after back on high blood pressure medicine for over 24 hrs and impact of two more blood transfusions start to kick in. Then maybe late sunday afternoon we can send u home. Sounds like alot of ifs to me but thats the plan. Like i said this doctor is an optimist. I sure hope he is right???. Will keep u informed


Cami, Tori, Mindi. I hesitate to tell u this info cause it has only been this way for an hour. But about 11:30 the nurse came and gave carolyn her blood pressure pill Atenolol. This is the pill the doctor said needed to be taken again since she no longer was taking blood thinners. He felt that could be the reason her pulse rate was so high since she has not taken Atenolol since Nov 18. Well, and again it has only been this way for 45 min so may be misleading but Moms pulse is right now 97. First time it has been below 115 all week. Lets pray it continues. Dont put on facebook or anything. Lets see if it holds until 6 pm. Lov ya


Good news so far. Mom is up sitting in chair and not plugged into monitor so we dont have info continuously until she gets back in bed and gets plugged back into monitor. But nurse just came in and took vitals and pulse was 95. Yea. Hope it continues.


No doctor told us we would make going home decision sun morn when he came back to see us. All depends on Pulse Rate and moms mobility. Can she get to bathroom if she goes home?? Therapist is coming back in morning and she is to train me on what to do when i get her home. So we are here until at least tomorrow afternoon

Therapist got her up and she walked with walker down the hall and back with therapist right behind her. She sat in chair for 4 hrs and she is now attempting to go to potty on the toilet in her room with assistance of aides getting her there.


This is on Sunday, the day she was discharged from the U:
Main doctor came in 30 minutes ago. He is releasing her and we just signed the release papers and are waiting for someone to call and help us out. we should be home about 3:30. Yay. He wants her to just recover, do as much walking as she can handle, and increase as she can. We see him on Dec 20 at 2 to discuss next steps which are getting her weaned onto some kind of blood thinner, deciding how long to leave filter in her main artery, discuss when to schedule surgery to remove growth in her chest. He felt we should count on chest surgery which will be at Huntsman Cancer Institute in mid March. We go home to recover and wait for next step.

Update as of December 23:
Well, she now has developed a conditon called C diff. Clostridium difficile (klos-TRID-e-uhm dif-uh-SEEL), often called C. difficile or C. diff, is a bacterium that can cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammation of the colon. Illness from C. difficile most commonly affects older adults in hospitals or in long term care facilities and typically occurs after use of antibiotic medications.

In recent years, C. difficile infections have become more frequent, more severe and more difficult to treat. Each year, tens of thousands of people in the United States get sick from C. difficile, including some otherwise healthy people who aren't hospitalized or taking antibiotics.

Mild illness caused by C. difficile may get better if you stop taking antibiotics. Severe symptoms require treatment with a different antibiotic (From mayoclinic.com)

Its one thing after another! Good news is, she is getting around without the use of a walker, and is getting stronger everyday. She is even walking on a treadmill everyday. Way to go mom!