Glad you are doing well, Paula!
My story: Diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 1992. Did very well for the last 10 years – no meds/no nothing. Then had my routine colonoscopy in Dec. 2012 at a new-to-me clinic. Within 3 days, I got DESPERATELY sick. The GI doc said it was a flare-up. Ummm...after 20 years of UC, I certainly knew what a flare-up was, and this was NO flare-up! Long story short, the doc continually tried various med combinations – I continually told him this is no flare-up and that something else is wrong - have never felt so sick. Lost 50 lbs. in 4 weeks until another doc at the clinic said, "This guy sounds like he's got C-diff!" Tested positive, tried everything under the sun shy of fecal transplant to rid me of C-diff, realized I was spinning my wheels with this so-called GI doc, requested a referral to U. of Wis. Madison. Waited weeks for an appointment at U. of Wis. and kept calling GI doc as to why it was taking so long. Every reply was, "We will call them today to make sure you get scheduled."
In the meantime, I kept getting sicker. So I called the Mayo Clinic, and they got me in right away. My wife bedding me down in the back of her car since I was too sick to sit up. 4 days of testing, and they told me my only option was a total proctocolectomy with end ileostomy – the C-diff totally destroyed everything. The director of the Mayo Clinic GI dept. told me this was as bad a case as he has seen, and if I didn't have surgery immediately, I would die. Went home Fri., came back on Sun., had surgery on Mon.
I am convinced I contracted the C-diff from unclean equipment during my colonoscopy.
To make matters worse, two weeks post-op on a Mon., I get a call from U. of Wis. to schedule an appointment. I said, "Seriously?!!! I've already had surgery!" Their reply was, "We just got the referral from your dr. on Friday."
In Dec. of 2014, 8 inches of my small bowel had pushed through my parastomal hernia and had gotten restricted, requiring emergency surgery. No mesh was used.
March of 2017, had the hernia repaired again (at Mayo Clinic this time) using mesh. Very hard recovery – the many sutures required for the mesh have been really painful. No stoma relocation.
Now, hernia back again only larger, am in pain – I'm sure part of this is due to scarred tissue, stoma prolapsed to 4 inches. Can't go through another surgery. So for the time being, I'm just living with it.