BungeeGirl
I have become the probiotics preacher. :) Here's what you should know about probiotics and C-Diff:
When you have surgery, during the surgery, you get lots of antibiotics intravenously. These antibiotics often kill some of the good bacteria in your colon. If it kills enough, the good bacteria cannot fight off the bad bacteria in our gut, and the bad bacteria takes over.
This is called C-Diff, and it's on the rise - in the southeast, it has surpassed MRSA as the #1 bug you get in hospitals (it's usually contracted due to antibiotic use, but once you have it, your poop becomes contagious so you have to use a separate bathroom from the rest of the family until you're better). The cure for C-Diff is more antibiotics (ironically), and the kind they have to use makes you really sick (on top of the nausea and cramping diarrhea you already have!). It's also become more resistant to treatment, and sometimes you have to use several rounds of different drugs to cure it. In 20% of cases, there is a recurrence within the year of C-Diff. I was so sick the whole month of July with this, and if I can prevent one person from getting this, I'll be happy.
Probiotics are the good bacteria you find in your gut. Yogurt has probiotics in it, but not enough to fight off C-Diff when you're exposed to strong antibiotics. You can buy capsules at any drugstore. I got mine at Walgreens. I just bought the highest one I could, which at my store was 20 billion parts (whatever that means!). I've heard it recommended that you take probiotics a week before your surgery and at least a week after, if not two. You can open the capsule and sprinkle it in yogurt or a shake, if your doc won't allow you to swallow pills after surgery.
Probiotics just gives your colon a fighting chance at not being overtaken by the nasty bacteria. Ask your doc about it at your appt to make sure he's ok with it, but I don't see why he wouldn't be ok with it. It's not fun getting this right after abdominal surgery, let me tell you!
Good luck with your surgery!! And here's wishing you lots of good bacteria in your gut! :)
