This Infection Changed Everything | Krissa Hoermann 

In this episode, Kerri Fitzgerald sits down with Krissa Hoermann, an event florist, to discuss her journey navigating the challenges of C. diff and irritable bowel syndrome symptoms. Krissa shares an honest account of the physical and emotional impact C. diff had on her life, recounting how it left her exhausted and frustrated without a solution for 6 months. She shares how an incredible doctor at Mount Sinai in New York City and a clinical trial finally cured her recurrent C. diff and allowed her to slowly come back to full health and live without fears and constraints. 

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Krissa Hoermann, welcome to My Hero 360.

Krissa Hoermann:

Thank you so much for having me, Kerri.

 Kerri Fitzgerald:

We’re really excited to get into your story. You experienced a long health journey starting with Clostridium difficile or C. diff, then subsequently dealt with irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, symptoms. Can you talk about that experience? How did you come to learn what was going on?

Krissa Hoermann:

I was on an antibiotic, I was on Cefdinir for just a regular sinus infection. I started having pretty mild diarrhea and abdominal cramping. I didn’t think too much of it. It lasted maybe a week or so and then didn’t get any better.

I went back to my primary care clinic, and they prescribed me another antibiotic, azithromycin, a Z-Pak, another very popular antibiotic, and sent me on my way. I took it without thinking and it actually made my symptoms way worse.

Another week or 2 went by, I was still experiencing the same symptoms, but way worse—to the point where I would be in the bathroom 20 to 30 times a day. Eating would send me straight to the bathroom, drinking water, really anything. That’s when they did some stool testing, and I officially got a C. diff diagnosis.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

You mentioned some of the symptoms you were experiencing as well as going back and forth to doctors trying to get a diagnosis. How did all of this impact your day-to-day life?

Krissa Hoermann:

In addition to it being physically and mentally exhausting, it was also really embarrassing; because I was going to the bathroom sometimes 20, 30 times a day, extremely frequent trips to the bathroom, it really impacted everything that I was doing. It really incapacitated me for a period of time.

Then my symptoms unfortunately led to a chronic infection. Being on and off medication for a period of almost 6 months was disruptive to my life. It was really embarrassing because a lot of people don’t know about C. diff. They don’t really understand it. There’s not a whole heck of a lot of people who talk openly about it, even if you do understand it. It was a dark time.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

All this time, you’re not actually getting any relief from any of the medications that you’re going on.

Krissa Hoermann:

The first medicine I was prescribed was simply a Z-Pak, because they didn’t really know what was wrong with me before I was diagnosed. That honestly just made it so much worse. That can be really hard on your stomach. Once I did get a proper diagnosis of C. diff, they prescribed me vancomycin, which is pretty common. It’s the first go-to line of defense.

My symptoms would go away or they would improve for a period of time while I was on the medicine, but as soon as I was off of it, they would come rearing back actually worse. We went through a cycle of that, several rounds over the course of several weeks.

The medicine that they give you is actually 4 times a day. Even just remembering to take all of the pills all the time, to go through the cycle, to meet different doctors. To get a GI doctor in New Jersey is difficult just to get an appointment. There was a lot of stress surrounding that. Obviously just trying to live my life, work my job, be a present family member. It was hard.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

To that point, while this was going on, you own an event florist company with your sister.

Krissa Hoermann:

Yes.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

This was happening to you all during the busy wedding season. First, I want to say that’s a really cool profession, really exciting that you and your sister have this company. How did you get into that line of work?

Krissa Hoermann:

My mom was a grower for many years, just a hobbyist. She always grew a ton of flowers. My sister and I talked her into signing up for a farmer’s market in 2020, and the business really took off from there. We connected with some amazing people who were throwing parties and benefits.

We were both working day jobs at the time. I was a teacher, and I was surrounded by women who were getting married and having babies. Eventually, friends asked if we would do their flowers for their events, and it took off from there. Now I have a farm, because our business has always been really rooted in local flowers, then we have our event studio as well.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

What’s your favorite part of the job?

Krissa Hoermann:

My favorite part is using the flowers that we grow and really seeing them from seed, then getting to use them and incorporate them into people’s weddings. I think that there’s something really super special about that process. It takes months, sometimes even years, to grow some of the really specialty things that we grow.

To get that timing to line up sometimes too is really special and wonderful. It doesn’t always work out, but that’s my favorite part of the process, really championing local flowers and getting to use stems that are unique and different for people’s biggest days of their life.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

That’s really awesome. Now you’re going through this during wedding season. What was that like?

Krissa Hoermann:

It started at the end of May, and I didn’t really get any major relief until I would say mid-October, literally the entire wedding season. It was so stressful. I think when you have a chronic condition, after a certain point, you get used to being in a state of chronic fatigue. That is a terrible feeling as well, because you literally go into this mode where all you can do is have enough finite energy to do your job and that is it.

At the end of the day, I was always depleted. I would say that’s my number 1 word to describe how I felt, extremely depleted. I would try to have enough energy to get through the day and to function and lead a studio team or a team on site, but at the end, I was completely and totally a shell of myself.

There were times when I would have a recurrence. I’d go off my medicine, I’d be feeling good. Mentally, I would feel like I was in a better place, and then my symptoms would return 48 or 72 hours later. That was always really tough, especially if you’re preparing the night before a big event.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

You feel it coming on.

Krissa Hoermann:

Exactly. Those were some of my toughest nights, where I would have a big event the next day and I would be laying in my bed sobbing. I didn’t think I would have the physical ability to do it, because my work is very physical; it was tough.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

You’re maneuvering right on the farm with the flowers, then for the events, you’re carrying heavy things, setting things up, reaching, moving.

Krissa Hoermann:

Exactly. It’s very physical work. A lot of people don’t realize if you’re not in the industry, but it really is. It’s pretty physically demanding, that was tough.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

You said you went 6 months without any real relief. When we spoke initially, you described how your local doctor got to a point where they said, “I don’t know what else to do to help you.” What is that like when someone tells you that?

Krissa Hoermann:

So disappointing. For me, it took several weeks, maybe even a month, I would say, maybe about a month to get a GI appointment just with a specialist, from my primary care, elevating things to seeing a specialist. Initially, when I saw the specialist, I got some mental clarity on “this person thinks they could help me.”

Prescribed another round of antibiotics and we would monitor. Unfortunately, with it being a chronic infection, it would just come right back. Eventually, the GI specialist said, “It’s really out of my hands. It’s out of my league at this point.” That was so frustrating and, honestly, so disappointing because I did not know where to turn at that point.

My mother, who was a nurse for 42 years, went with me to one of my appointments and was asking a lot of questions. Unfortunately, the doctor that I saw didn’t have answers for me. We would ask questions about diet, things I could be doing. Maybe supplements or vitamins that I could be taking that would assist me. I didn’t really get any solid answers.

Eventually, they referred me to an infectious disease doctor who gave me a range of different potential treatments, but nothing felt really solid. There was nobody in my corner to really say, “Do this, don’t do this. Here is what you need.” That level of frustration just compounded over time and just turned into disappointment and despair. Eventually, you hear so many different things.

That’s when I turned to the internet, which can be a scary place as well. It led me ultimately to finding help and finding the right people, but there was a lot to get there. There was a lot of frustration and a lot of feelings and anxiety to get to that point.

 Kerri Fitzgerald:

Let’s talk about that. You turned to the internet, you turned to social media, which I feel like is something people often do when they’re struggling with a similar situation. There’s the good and the bad of social media. You don’t know what you’re going to get out there. It actually led you to someone who recommended a doctor at Mount Sinai in New York. Tell me about that.

Krissa Hoermann:

On one of my lowest nights, I was laying in my bed sobbing to my husband. I ultimately just started on Facebook trying to find somebody who was dealing with the same condition as me. There are thousands and thousands of people out there.

I joined 2 groups on Facebook for people suffering with C. diff. Like we said, the internet can be a scary place. There are people doing all sorts of home remedies and things, but there are also people who genuinely have been through it and want to help. I posted my story. I said, “I’ve been dealing with this for many months now.” I probably overshared, but I was so frustrated and upset at that point.

I was able to find someone who commented on my post and she said, “I’m going to send you a DM.” I was like, “Okay.” This random person from New York, from Long Island, she was my angel. She sent me the information of a doctor at Mount Sinai who specializes in recurrent C. diff. He wound up being really a huge part of my story.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

That’s amazing. You ultimately wound up on a clinical trial for a treatment. I think you had said there was a treatment, but there were some insurance issues, which is highly relatable. I’m sure, unfortunately, people can relate to that. Tell us about the clinical trial. What was that experience like?

Krissa Hoermann:

When I went to Mount Sinai for the first time, I was so taken aback. I was at, like I said, a really low point, feeling like there was no one out there who could help me. Knowing that I was at a research hospital, seeing a specialist who really—that was his research and his life’s work, I did feel hope going in.

The doctor came in after a little while and he took my hand and said, “You are my bread and butter. We are going to fix this. I’m going to help you.” Then he was like, “I got to go see another patient and I’ll be right back.” Even just before my full appointment, I felt a little bit of relief knowing that there were people out there who do that work, who research C. diff every day, and that was a really good start.

Then they presented me with several options looking at my labs. There were many, or several appointments leading up to what ultimately happened, which was me getting an FMT.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

What is that?

Krissa Hoermann:

We can talk more about that. A fecal matter transplant (FMT). They first presented me with the option of the pill form, which is a bit less invasive. My insurance wouldn’t cover it, and it would cost out-of-pocket over $20,000. I wound up with the fecal matter transplant, which is exactly what it sounds like.

It’s not glamorous, but it is an extremely effective method or cure for C. diff. I wound up going that route in the clinical trial and ultimately was cured. It worked, thankfully. It’s basically a colonoscopy, where they take fecal or stool from a donor, and use that to essentially restore your microbiome. Essentially, the good bacteria that someone with a chronic C. diff infection is lacking. It gets put back into them and is able to replicate and get you back onto a path of being fixed.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Sure. A working microbiome.

Krissa Hoermann:

A working microbiome, which is something that I didn’t have for a long time. It was a journey, but I was so grateful to the team there. Knowing I could be part of that research, and hopefully help other people who are in the same position, was really a special process.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Did you have any second thoughts or concerns about going on a clinical trial, or by that point you were like, “I will do anything that this doctor, who I trust, tells me to?”

Krissa Hoermann:

By that point, I was pretty open to whatever would help me and get my life back to normal.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

What was this clinical trial looking to gain in terms of the data?

Krissa Hoermann:

They are researching donor stool versus essentially a manmade product that would basically take all of those wonderful pieces of the microbiome and essentially do a similar thing as the FMT. All those amazing gut bacteria, but not having to rely on a donor stool, if that makes sense.

 Kerri Fitzgerald:

That’s really interesting, because it is so nice to have donors in any way, right? There’s a lot of people who donate for science, but to be able to not have to rely on that if there’s a shortage. That’s really interesting. That’s really cool. Afterwards, you start to feel yourself…

Krissa Hoermann:

Come back to life.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Yes. What was that like?

Krissa Hoermann:

It was good, but it was also a process. For me, I thought for me as a healthy, or what I considered to be pretty healthy and active young person, I thought the process would be pretty fast. After the ordeal that I went through, it took some time to get my colon and bowel system back to its normal state, and really be able to eat certain foods.

For a long time, I stayed away from so many foods, because I had been hearing different opinions and different people telling me, “Eat this, not that. Stay away from dairy. Stay away from meat, processed this and that. Sugar, caffeine.” So many different things. I was essentially living at this point on a diet of chicken and rice because those were 2 things I knew that my body could handle.

Incorporating fruits and vegetables and fiber back into my diet was actually pretty challenging. I thought it would be a bit of an easier process, but once you’ve been through something like that for several months and you deprive yourself of normal, balanced diet, it was a little more difficult than I expected.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Did you have any fears throughout the process of starting to be fearful of food almost?

Krissa Hoermann:

Absolutely. For a long time, if I ate something that was full of fiber or fruits or vegetables, I would immediately be in the bathroom. To the point where there were work days that I would work the entire day and not eat, because I was just afraid that it would just immediately incapacitate me. I definitely put myself through some additional stress through that.

It took some time. Ultimately, I found a wonderful registered dietician who helped me reintroduce certain foods back into my diet slowly, and that made a big difference for me as well.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

What in particular made it so impactful for your journey back to full health?

Krissa Hoermann:

I think just somebody who understood my fears and was willing to really break things down in a really simple way and say, “Okay. We are going to start today and we’re just going to have plain rice, and maybe we’ll incorporate 1 serving of vegetables. It’ll be something really easy to digest like a carrot or something like that.” She really broke it down for me.

She gave me a full list of things I could get at the grocery store that were a safe type of foods. She really took it back to the basics, square 1, to get me to a point where my body was able to calm down and accept new things eventually, little by little.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

I think when we spoke, you told me once you finally got through this, you gave yourself a little bit of a present. What was that?

Krissa Hoermann:

Yes. We booked a trip to Hawaii and…

 Kerri Fitzgerald:

That’s awesome.

Krissa Hoermann:

Yes. I remember one of my trips to New York City for the clinical trial, I told my doctor, “I think I’m going to book a trip to Hawaii.” He was like, “We are going to get you on the beach, C. diff-free, having a Mai Tai or whatever you like.” I said, “I really hope you’re right.”

There were ups and downs throughout the process where I thought, “I don’t think I’m going to make it there.” I made it there and I had an amazing time and lived it up. It was great.

 Kerri Fitzgerald:

Well-deserved for you and your husband.

Krissa Hoermann:

Thank you.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Because your husband was going through this with you.

Krissa Hoermann:

Well, for me, I was too afraid of the flight.

 Kerri Fitzgerald:

That’s a long flight.

Krissa Hoermann:

It’s a long flight. An airplane bathroom already scares me, C. diff aside. Yes, my husband was with me. He was an incredible supporter through it all. We definitely both learned a lot. It was tough.

At the time, my in-laws were living with us as well, and they’re in their 70s. There was a fear of giving it to them, because in older people, it can be very serious. It can be deadly. That was another stress and added challenge of the whole thing.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Now that you are on the other side of it, you’re feeling much better, you’re back to your full strength and wedding season is upon us again.

How would you counsel other people who are going through, it could be the same exact situation or a similar situation where they’re struggling to get a diagnosis, they’re struggling to find something that brings them relief? What would you say to that person?

Krissa Hoermann:

I would say a few things. First, is that there are people out there. It may take many, many paths that are perhaps not the right path. There are people out there who specialize in probably what you’re going through. There are people out there. It’s really a matter of finding the right fit and getting the puzzle pieces together.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Hopefully your story gives people hope who are still in the struggle, whatever that may be.

Krissa Hoermann:

Don’t be afraid to crowdsource on social media despite there being so many different avenues.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Sure. Be discerning of what you see.

Krissa Hoermann:

Yes.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Do your own research.

Krissa Hoermann:

Yes.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

It is a community where you can connect.

Krissa Hoermann:

It helped me find this one foundation, the Peggy Lillis Foundation, which did have some dietary suggestions that were helpful as well in the end. There are some of the right avenues as long as you are discerning about the information.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Yeah, absolutely.Krissa, where can people connect with you and your business?

Krissa Hoermann:

DaybreakFlowers.com and Daybreak Flowers across social media, Instagram, Facebook.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Awesome. We like to conclude our interviews by asking the same question of everyone. What would you tell your younger self, or yourself before this process, knowing what you know now?

Krissa Hoermann:

Just because you’re dealing with something very challenging doesn’t mean it’s forever. As someone who has had anxiety pretty much my whole life, it was easy for me to catastrophize the situation and start to spiral and think, “Am I going to live like this forever?” Which brought me to a dark place and a mental hole.

It doesn’t have to be forever. It’s not going to be forever. Finding the right fit and piece of the puzzle will happen, even if it takes months or years in some cases. There are people out there who have dealt with what you are going through and have gotten to the other side. That would be my number 1 piece of advice.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

That’s amazing. Krissa, thank you so much for taking the time, coming here live, in-person for a My Hero interview. We appreciate your story.

Krissa Hoermann:

My pleasure.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

We appreciate all the insights. Your willingness to do a clinical trial, I think is an incredible advancement for the field for other people. You’re not just helping yourself, you’re helping others. Thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it.

Krissa Hoermann:

I feel fortunate to be in this position. A lot of people don’t talk about C. diff, it’s embarrassing, it’s anxiety-filled, it’s stressful, it’s painful. Whenever anybody wants to talk about it, I’m an open book.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

The more we talk about it, the less stigma and shame and embarrassment.

Krissa Hoermann:

Yes, and GI and IBS. I had post-infectious IBS. These are things that are real, that really happen, that are hard. Like you said, the more we talk about it, we find community and we find resources and we find people who have dealt with similar struggles, who are there to assist us and bring us up and back to reality that it will get better. The more we talk about it, the more open we can be, the better off we all are.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Yes, absolutely. Agree so wholeheartedly. Thank you, Krissa.

Krissa Hoermann:

Thank you for the opportunity to share.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Of course.

Connect with Krissa Hoermann: 
https://www.daybreakflowers.com/ 
https://www.instagram.com/daybreakflowers  

About My Hero 360: At My Hero 360, we honor, celebrate, and connect heroes worldwide. By sharing their stories, we aim to inspire and provide hope for humanity. Follow us to hear more incredible stories of unsung heroes who make a difference in the world. 

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