Afterbiotics

Well, the antibiotics did….  nothing.

We have an email into the doc, we’ll keep working on the Paxil and the Seroquel.

The triumphant return.

So when T read the last post, he wanted me to make sure and post our awesome doctor’s opinion.  She said that candida does not overgrow in the system except in such extreme cases that you would be in the hospital regardless.

I am inclined to believe her.  She is extremely open-minded to other problems, and involved heavily in diagnosing and working towards understanding the GI system.  At one point, both T and I were absolutely sure that he had candida.  He had all the symptoms!  They improved with cutting sugars out his diet.  And yet, we’ve found that they’re improving more with this correct diagnosis.

So, onward and upward, the triumphant return to the doc’s.

The Followup Appointment

So, the followup appointment started as a bit of a disaster.  We arrived at the doc’s office and were told that we weren’t in the system.  We produced her tiny, handwritten card and the nurses and staff went off into a flurry to figure out what was going on.

In the end, the fix was simple — we’d been scheduled in for a 3am appointment instead of a 3pm appointment.

The first thing we did was talk about how T was fairing with the Paxil.  And the end result was “not to great”.  Though many of the GI issues had resolved themselves, the missing sleep and difficulty waking were producing the same end results — it was impossible for him to get into work.

And we got more exciting news!  T was not lactose intolerant, but he did have a bacterial overgrowth in his GI system!  It sounds silly to be so excited about that, doesn’t it?  But you have to realize, this was the first time in FOUR years that we had an actual diagnosis of something real.  We were both excited.

Together with our doc, we formulated a plan.

First, she wanted to do an antibiotic run (and stop the probiotics) to try and eradicate this bacterial overgrowth.  Initially she suggested Xifaxan, which is a relatively new, “hotshot” antibiotic that targets specifically the GI system.  However, we had already been on a run of that from the bitchy doctor with no improvement.  That was added to the overall knowledge pool, and we opted for a run of Ciprofloxacin instead.

After the 2 week run of ciprofloxacin instead.  We were given the option of trying Flagyl, but it’s tougher on the system overall, so we opted for the Cipro.  That took care of the initial problem, but not the Paxil sleeping issues.

To cover the insomnia/trouble waking up, we developed a several step plan in order to figure out what would work the best for us.

Once the antibiotics stopped, we would cut the Paxil dosage in half for 2 weeks, and observe the effects.  If not enough improvement was noticed, we are going to add another drug commonly used for psychiatric problems but with an off-label useage for digestive problems like T’s, Seroquel.  Initially, we were going to start with a half dosage to try an dkeep him on as small a dose of medication as possible.  The effects of the seroquel are twofold — to help him sleep (which is one of it’s side effects) and to boost the effects of the Paxil to try and keep the positive results while cutting out some of the side effects.

If that doesn’t improve things, we have the “go” to up the dose of Seroquel to a full dose.

Also, please note that (at least in the case of the Seroquel) the dosage used is extremely tiny in comparison to psychiatric use.  I believe she quoted us 500mg as the starting point for psychiatric use, but our dosages are more in the 50mg range.

We have another appointment scheduled for October once we finish playing pill swapping and seeing what happens.

Bad Bloggers

So, we have been bad bloggers the last few months.

To be honest, our lives have been especially hectic, and we felt like it was jinxing our new awesome doctor. T would be fast to interject and inform you all that our new doctor is not really a doctor, but a PA (which she herself will also be quick to inform you), but I call her our doctor. In fact, I usually call her Dr. Awesome.

Initial Appointment
We had our initial appointment with Dr. Awesome (hereby shortened to Dr. A.) on July 25th. We were both nervous. After all, here we were doing the Dance of Doctors yet again. So far nobody had helped, but Dr. A. was referred to us by a friend who used to work with Dr. A’s doc group and had nothing but glowing praise for their ability to help people.

The experience that we had was amazing and so much different than our past experiences with doctors. She sat down with us for nearly 3 hours, and listened to everything we had to say. She didn’t hurry us, and didn’t cut us off, and didn’t try to minimize what T was feeling and going through. She asked questions to clarify, commiserated with her own experiences, and it was absolutely WONDERFUL.

Most importantly, she did not suggest that he try “walk walk walking”, state with an adamant tone that certain symptoms were “definitely” not related to what was going on, and didn’t treat us like freaks.

At the end of this meeting, we came up with a theory of what was going on and a plan of tests to help confirm or deny that it was that.

She strongly suspected that T may have a functional esophageal disorder, which was teaming up with an especially sensitive gastrointestinal system which was overreacting to some foods. Our first step was for T to start a daily dose of Paxil. This sounds counterintuitive. However, according to our doc, most of the serotonin in your system is in your GI tract, and too little can cause sensitivity.  In addition, she recommended a new, scientifically monkeyed with probiotic known as Align.

She then scheduled us for what I still call the “poof test”. I’m sure it has a scientific name. Basically, they starved T for a night, poured a ton of lactose into him, and then had him breathe into vacuum bags in regular intervals to check for both lactose intolerance and bacterial overgrowth.

The Interim

So the interim began before our next appointment.

First of all, the paxil began.  And with the paxil came several interesting side effects — most importantly was the sleep deprivation.  T was unable to fall asleep easily while on the Paxil (initially taking up to 4 hours), but finally made it down to a single hour.  However, once he was actually sleeping, he was impossible to wake up.

So we’ve began a regimin involving me calling him every half hour starting at noon until he’s finally awake (generally between 1:30pm and 2:00pm).  The probiotics couldn’t be started until after the bacteria tests, unfortunately.

Poofy

The “poof” test (I should really look up the name of this actual test) was fairly simple, painless, but involved a LOT of time and boredom.  Basically, they fed T a nasty sugary chalk drink full of lactose, and then handed him a bucket full of vacuum seal bags.  T had to sit, time for 15 minutes, and then blow a breath into the bag.  Once he did that, he put the cap on, and chucked it into another can.

This took FOUR hours of extreme boredom and coldness.  (They run the AC like crazy at the hospital.)  Luckily I thought to bring my laptop and the hospital had free WiFi, so I wasn’t very bored.

Post-Poof

After the “poof” test, T started taking the Align and continued with his Paxil.  And between the two of them, things actually got better.  You read it right.  We made a stride forward.  The gas significantly reduced, the chest pressure has all but disappeared, and things are better.  Well, all except one thing:  the sleeping.

Because he couldnt’ sleep well, he didn’t have good energy, which led to him being just as lethargic and terrible as if he had had the GI problems in the first place.

Interesting side note…

During this interim, T’s brother, D, was diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis when he ate out at a steak place one night and a piece of steak became lodged in his esophagus.  The doctor’s there used the extremely technical medical surgery of sending in the camera with a light to look at it, and then poking it repeatedly with the camera until it went through.

 

Next post…  the triumphant doctor’s visit.

Candida Log – 6/3/2008

A couple of things that either didn’t make it into my last update or that have occurred since then:

Several ‘symptoms’ (at least, I guess, that’s what you’d call them) have reappeared over the past several weeks since I have started eating- at least to some degree- foods that are off diet.

• My flaky skin has gotten worse as well as my dandruff
• I have mild to moderate headaches pretty regularly
• My thinking has gotten a little rough. I can still process much better than pre-diet, but I get frustrated a bit more and my typing has gotten a bit worse
• I feeling a higher degree of frustration on a regular basis than I did when fully on diet (but not nearly as bad as right before initially starting the diet)
• My vision isn’t as sharp as it was and I sometimes have to struggle a bit to focus on things not right in front of me or TV/computer screens. This went away when fully on diet.

Of course, this is on top of the various things mentioned in the previous post.
Additionally, several nights ago we went out to eat with one of J.’s friends at IHOP. I had French Toast (something I had been wanting to partake of for awhile). J.’s friend had been sick for the past two weeks, but it was assumed that she was no longer contagious. I felt fine for the most part all day, but later that night- and after a day of eating too few protein oriented on diet foods- I suddenly started to feel really flu-ish. I began to experience the same symptoms I usually get when I am first starting to get sick (and mostly the same symptoms from about a month ago when I did get sick after hanging around another friend who had been ill). My eyes started to burn and feel weird (forcing me to take out my contacts), I got an odd sort of nausea, & a bit of weakness.

These are all the symptoms I historically get right before catching a bug/flu. This time, I went in and immediately started to cook some protein (chicken) and consume it ASAP. Before I had even finished eating it I was feeling better. I wonder if I had done this a month ago would I have not gotten sick for two days afterward.

It’s a little baffling- on the one hand I can understand my system being more prone to disease when I am eating off diet. I can even understand why my body might start feeling really crappy when I eat things that aren’t on diet. But what really confuses me is why merely eating a bunch of protein enables me to pull out of this tail-spin. What is it about protein that makes my body work so much better? And why, then, do I regularly crave non-protein foods like sugar and to such an alarming extent?

Oh well, questions for the doctor I suppose…

 

 

Candida Log – 05-28-2008

Well, the death of my old PC has made it difficult for me to do an update for awhile, but now that I have a new computer and Word has been installed I thought it long past time to log some info.

Well, I wasn’t able to go back on my diet completely. My body still demands regular sugar from me. But the weird thing is that in many ways it appears that I need sugar to get energy sometimes.

During these past two weeks my gas level has gone all over the place. Before I went off my diet I was at a daily level 2 with an energy level pretty low. I spent a week eating whatever I wanted and realized that that would not fly (I got sick, had problems). Since then I have tried to go the middle route, eating most meals like I was on my diet but allowing for ‘treats’ (read: things not on my diet) for in between. This seems to work pretty well.

To show what happens when I don’t follow this pattern: about a week ago we were running around doing errands and such, that evening after J. went to sleep, I found that there was nothing for me to cook (nothing meat based/on diet) and so I ended up making my last meal consist of some cake we had around. I went to bed mostly ok but was woken up from a sound sleep by my body at about 6:00 in the morning. I was sweating bullets, nauseous nearly to the point of throwing up, and feeling just awful. I knew what I had to do- rushing to the kitchen I managed to fry up some chicken and eat it and within minutes I started to feel better. Once I had gotten the protein in my body I felt fine, went back to bed and had no real ill effects the next day. Lesson learned: I now must have regular protein in order to function.
But, the regular ‘treats’ do have their ill-effects. I experience that ‘catch’ in my chest sometimes. This is usually able to be dealt with through a vigorous round of push-ups, however. There are times when I can’t think quite as well as I’d like to, my energy can be more ‘red’ and less ‘blue’ than I’d like. Things aren’t as easy as they were when I was on the diet and it was working like it should. In addition I find myself getting dizzy more often now, especially when I’m getting up from a seated position. There has also been at least once where I had to throw away a ‘treat’ (in this case, a spice cake) that seemed to be especially bothersome to my system. But, other things (even other cakes) don’t seem to be quite as bad.
But, on the other hand, my gas level has drastically dipped. There was a point about a week ago when I experienced my first full on level 3 gas attack before bed in quite some time. I had to spend 40 minutes pacing, massaging my chest, and belching before it cleared up enough to go to sleep. But that only happened once. And this week my gas has been at level 1 almost the entire time (which is less than it was before I went off the diet).

J. points out that the gas level and energy issues might be independent of each other. Quite true.

These days I am actually only mid-level with my energy. Part of that is due to some events that have occurred personally that have sort of undermined my enthusiasm for the whole ‘self improvement’ project. Without my drive it’s hard to get things done, even with energy. For most everyday things I am fine. I can go to work or run errands, type this log, surf the web, work on certain personal projects. But things like cleaning are just out of my range of functioning right now. When entertaining the notion of cleaning I get the same heavy/straining chest sensation I used to get. I could probably just stop and do a bunch of push-ups to get my heart rate going, but without the motivation to want to push threw the problem I’ve been tending to just let things go and not get as much done.

I haven’t gone so far as to full-on start drinking coffee again, although periodically I do drink 1/3 of a cup to get me going. Sadly, half the time this isn’t enough to rev my engine so I don’t do it all that often.

It looks like I’m just going to go on like this for the next two weeks until I finally get to see the G.I. Specialist. Knowing that the period before going off my diet was not allowing me the energy I wanted and my body’s insistence that I eat more than just meat and veggies- it looks like this will have to do until someone can give me a better direction. I’m not really hoping the Dr. will see me and say “oh, you have X” because I realize that is unlikely… but it would be nice to at least start down a path that would lead to finding out what is really going on.

 

 

Candida Log — Stardate 5-18-2008

Cheating Eating: 5-17-08

Well, I’ve reached the end of a superbly crappy week as is evidenced by the fact that I’m typing this update on a laptop built some time before the turn of the millennium (I think prehistoric birds are chiseling these words out on stone tablets somewhere inside this ancient relic). The death of my PC was only the frosting on a week probably destined for problems due to my vacation from the diet.
Three weeks leading up to last weekend had shown a virtual end to the forward progression of my health. My energy had not only stopped improving but my gas level had returned and maintained itself everyday at a minimum of level 2. What’s more, I started experiencing constant/virtually never ending cravings for off-diet food. It’s one thing to maintain the diet using my health and energy as momentum to push through the fact that eating was no longer fun. However, remove those factors and it became nearly impossible for me to not cheat. In fact, the only thing that got me through to the end of last weekend, and not fall of the wagon sooner, was the fact that it was Mother’s Day and that meant two hole days of needing to be ‘on’ with no real ability to bow out of the festivities. But, my cravings had gotten so bad that on the way home from J.’s Mom’s house Sunday night we had to make a special stop to already begin my week of cheating.

But, it did allow me to observe my body and it’s reactions after all this time to these foods I hadn’t touched in three months.

The first night we stopped to get donuts. I had regretted not indulging in these since the diet started since, historically, there were never any Dunkin Donuts around my house. That is, until about six months ago when two opened within walking distance of my home. So, I got 8 donuts Sunday night and had them all eaten within 24 hours (I suppose there is some solace in the fact that I didn’t eat them all in one sitting. Not really a matter of willpower- I just don’t enjoy wallowing in my vices like I used to).

I did make it to work on Monday. Monday night found my rather irritable and edgy, but I really can’t say how much of it was the donuts and how much was the ever present demands on my resources. Tuesday, however, required me to stay home. I’m hesitant to attribute this to the donuts because I had been really drained for at least a week and was simply not finding any way to relax. Instead of simply lying around the house, I took the opportunity to hit the grocery store for two of the items I knew I had to indulge in- 1) Fruity Pebbles & 2) chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. Even with this influx of sugar, I managed to be there for J. that night due to personal emotional trauma that occurred that day and help her perform a long series of errands and chores that she was emotionally unequipped to deal with alone. What’s more, the following day- Wednesday- I made it to work and still had resources enough to help J. with another evening of ‘getting things done’.

At this point it was really looking like I might be able to just go off the diet and be ok. There were some changes in my energy, however. I finally decided the best way to explain these changes was to liken it to US political thought- essentially there is both blue energy and red energy. Blue energy was what I had been having when my diet was working. It is very calm and level-headed and very clean. Red energy was what I was discovering from reintroducing sugar. It was a far more manic type of energy that was not nearly so centered or clean feeling, but- interestingly enough- managed to help me push through some writer’s block and start on a new short story. However as of this writing, several days later, I’ve come to greatly appreciate the blue energy over its red counterpart.

Anyway, one of these errands that J. and I went on Tuesday evening involved stopping briefly at a sick friends house. Despite the fact that we were only there for a total of about ten minutes, I apparently picked up the bug she was suffering from. Now, my system is largely pretty hardy when it comes to such matters and when I am ‘getting sick’ I tend to exhibit the same symptoms regardless of what I have picked up. Because I was aware of this fact, I knew when- 24 hours later- my eyes started burning and my muscles started feeling like jello that I was fighting off a bug. By Thursday I was too sick to go to work. I felt feverish, although my body temperature actually dropped as opposed to rising, was queezy, scratchy throat, and began a slight cough. I was out on Friday as well. Realizing that my diet had precipitated this to some degree, if not causing the symptoms-certainly weakening my resistance and allowing the problem to creep in, I threw away the remainder of my Fruity Pebbles and my precious chocolate cake (truth be told, none of these foods tasted as good as I wanted them to and most did leave me feeling that my body was unhappy that I had indulged. So, some small consolation.).

By Friday night I was feeling better (having taken three naps that day) and opted to eat the last item on my ‘must consume’ list- pizza. I ordered just a medium and had it all eaten before I went to bed (mind you, that was over something like 7 hours- so not exactly binging). Saturday came and J. & I even managed to go walking with the dog in the woods (so, the effects of all this food was still not too bad). Saturday night brought an extra special ‘treat’ in that my parents took us out to eat where I had pasta and shrimp as well as dessert. In this, I definitely over ate.

The rest of Saturday night was spent belching and being physically incapable of becoming comfortable while I watched TV (keep in mind- my PC is dead and until I can get a replacement many of the activities and projects I had been working on have to be put off). I experienced, not a pain in the front of my chest as is the norm, but strangely a pain in the back of my left chest. This did go away when I finally resigned myself to getting off the couch, pacing around, shifting positions often, and belching a lot. The most shocking event to occur came at some point in the middle of the night when I suddenly started crying and having a panic attack for the first time in… well, quite some time- I can’t even remember the last time, truthfully. Now, it should be emphasized that this wasn’t without environmental stimulus. The week sucked, all the activities I had been doing to bring meaning to my life suddenly died with my PC, there was all the emotional issues J. and I went through, not to mention the ongoing stress of struggling to regain my health (and not largely succeeding). But, having said that, it was without a doubt influenced by the dinner I ate and the gas I was experiencing (why and how? Beats the hell out of me why it works that way).

It was to combat this terrible sense of sadness and frustration that finally got me to sit down and tell the little pre-historic birds in this laptop to dictate this log for me. Writing and talking have always been good therapy for me. And I am feeling pretty decent now. However, the weeks experience has emphasized that I simply can’t go back to eating anything I want and expect to function like a ‘normal’ person. The rub is that I don’t know if I will be able to simply go back on the diet whole-hog. Mercifully, these indulgencies never tasted as good as I wanted them to and I could feel my body not being altogether happy about their consumption. But, all meats and veggies just don’t seem to be an especially good fuel when going for staying power. I am leaving my options open at this point. I am ‘officially’ going back on the diet- but I may ‘cheat’ every Friday or I might begin trying to find foods that I can begin to re-incorporate into my routine. Most of all, I am just hoping that- much like smoking a brand of cigarette that I hate in order to facilitate quitting- all of this has curbed my cravings somewhat. The hardest part is going to be not watching TV, an activity that does nothing but try to convince me to eat garbage all day long. But, without my PC and my projects it is going to be tricky. I’ll just have to do the best I can…

 

 

 

Candida Log – 05/12/2008

An Interesting Conversation

Over the Mother’s Day weekend I had a very interesting conversation with my younger brother regarding health issues. Come to find out, we share a series of similar problems/symptoms.

We both experience this tightness/sense of a ‘catch’ in our chests and the matter can be exacerbated by sitting or being hunched over something. We have both, independently of each other, discovered that one means to push through this sensation (which has a de-energizing effect) is to perform heavy cardio exercises. He opts for using a pull-up bar where I opt for simple push-ups.

There were other similarities that appeared, mostly pertaining to how we dealt with this problem. The primary diverging factor between the two of us is our demeanors. Where my brother is very laid back and casual about life, I am the opposite- tending to be very OCD and worrisome about things. My social anxiety makes leaving the house trying, where he does not have such issues. I have spent much of my life being singled out, being the outsider, having trouble truly fitting in to a group- he either has no such problem or simply doesn’t care.

It’s odd that when my diet was working at its best, many of these issues would minimize or disappear. I could leave the house and not be concerned about the perceptions of those around me. Frequently this was simply due to an abundance of energy that functioned as a buffer.

Well, there was never any doubt that there was a biological issue going on- I’m just sort of surprised to find that my brother suffers from a similar problem but manages to function (at a decent, if not also significantly lower energy level than I require) largely due to his casual demeanor and probably a tendency to eat a little better than I do (he and his girl friend are a bit more chef-ie than J. and I would naturally tend to be). None of this really answers any questions, but is worth noting.

 

 

Candida Log – Stardate 5-9-2008

One of the areas of symptoms that I have not gotten around to logging (due largely to its unpleasant nature) is that of my bowel movements and how they have changed over the course of the diet. Pre-diet I could practically just look at a cup of coffee and need to relieve myself, but about a week or two into the full-blown diet I found things had started to change, and by the first full month these changes had pretty much become commonplace. 

With the shift to a primarily meat based diet I found that I needed to move my bowels only every other day and that their size had greatly reduced. For that matter, they had become more… dense, for a lack of a better word. Whereas before they could be a bit more loose (not anywhere near ‘diarrhea’ mind you)- but certainly not unformed. Let’s say they were soft. But with the diet change they became more hard-formed and dense. They were also darker and, depending on how much Activated Charcoal I had been taking, they could even be black (though the bottle warns that this could happen and not to worry).

The ‘every two days’ part was a bit concerning. But I remained vigilant less I stumble unknowingly into constipation. Luckily, after another few weeks passed I was more or less back to an everyday schedule. Now, sometimes these stools would be less than stupendous in size, but they were at least regular. Now, pushing toward the three month mark, their regularity is pretty consistent.

J. mentioned to me (she volunteering her time doing animal rescue and being well-versed on any number of factoids involving animal care) that people who promote an all meat diet for their dogs, in an attempt to “get them back to a more natural way of living”, site that these dogs will move their bowels less frequently and when they do the amount/size is decreased. Consequently, I was not too concerned over any of these developments.

The symptom that I am most interested in logging is, to some extent, independent of the actual stool itself. It is a regular tendency to pass what appears to be some amount of mucus-type material. This material tends to be clinging to the stool or most noticeable when I ‘wipe’. Its consistency is so very different from the stool itself that it can’t really be confused with what passed for ‘shit’ these days. In typical, positive fashion (after all, I am trying to keep spirits up here and continue feeling like I am accomplishing something) I tell myself that it’s Candida being flushed out of my system when it can’t be fed. But whether or not it is in fact Candida, I do think it holds an important clue to what is going on with my body- either being evidence of the culprit or simply symptomatic of the problem.

Here at the near three-month mark (I really need to sit down and calculate where we really are… but you at home can do the math as easily as I), the mucus is still present but not quite to the extent it once was. Call it ‘half as much’. Where, at its worst, it could be seen like spider webbie strands clinging to the stool, it is now hard to detect. Before, when ‘wiping’, it could be seen readily without much pause and would stick and ‘strand out’ between halves of the toilet paper. These days one would have to hunt a bit to find it, though it is still present.

I like to think this is all a good sign. That my body has been passing this substance as it heals and that I’m actually getting near the point where it has been largely flushed out. Of course, I am trying to remain positive here and keep myself tied to this difficult path- so any of these ramifications could simply be fabrication. I am curious, though, to find out what our new GI Specialist will have to say about it. And, as of now, that appointment is only slightly more than a month away.

My apologies to those who had to endure this discussion of such uniquely unpleasant matters.

 

 

 

More on Cayenne Papper and a Log

We’ve temporarily cut out cayenne pepper, at least in a “soft” way — meaning, we’re actively not putting it into things, although not going crazy go nuts over it the way that we remove sugar.

I did some google searching on cayenne, and really basically only found a lot of conjecture and hearsay.

Some website proclaimed that “candida hates spicy”. I’m not entirely sure why this is, or how this was determined. Possibly in the same way that ThreeLac was determined to be safe for human consumption.

An (absolutely effing frightening) messageboard post discussed other people having the same reaction to a lot of cayenne and featured one man proclaiming that afterward he had passed “a long white string type substance” in his stool. WTF, go to the doctor, that ain’t right! Someone else chimed in and corroborated the white stuff, and in my head I mentally prescribed then Drontal (kills worms in dogs and cats).

So again, we’re sort of at the “lots of people say, but I got no research” phase of our journey.

Captain’s Log:

 

With some of the info J. found out regarding Cayenne and with my recent experiences, I am changing my assumption about Cayenne Pepper. I no longer believe, as previously stated, that my body has trouble digesting Cayenne Pepper.

Today started off with me waking up several hours early feeling absolutely spectacular. Perhaps better than I’ve felt since I was a kid. I sat in bed knowing that I needed to get more sleep, but just really enjoying the feeling of being energized, happy and hopeful, artistically in tune, and-well- just plain full of energy. I did manage to fall back asleep.

When I finally got up at my usual time, my energy wasn’t quite what it had been several hours previous- but I’m not picky, and I went ahead to work. The first warning that I had that something was a little off was when I was getting gas on the way to the office. Usually when I’m full of energy it creates a sort of buffer between me and other people that minimizes my social anxiety. While pumping gas I was unusually cognizant of being ‘out in public’. No big deal, it’s a problem I’ve learned to cope with, but one that has largely subsided while on my diet.

I got to the office and started working and nothing seemed too off, until about an hour in when I realized I was having chest pains again. The pain was, like last time, in my left ribcage only now it had moved from the bottom part up to the upper third. It got to be so bad that I had to resort to old coping tricks I hadn’t used in months, namely kneeing down on a pillow instead of sitting in a chair (which always seems to make the problem worse) while typing on the computer. The gas wouldn’t seem to pass at all and in desperation I dug out an old roll or Rolaids. The ingredients confirmed that there was no sugar in it (and for the record apparently the only easy way to take Simethicone without added sugar… how is it that I missed this option all this time?) so I took one.

It released a bit of the gas, I started belching, and I found myself again in an old pattern of working for a bit followed by pacing the office, massaging my chest and belching till the pressure subsided enough to get back to the computer. One Rolaids was not enough, however, and a second dose had to be taken.

Two things finally brought the work day to an end. One, I realized that- having lost quite a lot of muscle & strength in my legs from the diet- I was no longer equipped to rise up from a kneeling position several times in a half hour. My legs were starting to give out. The second was the onset of basic tiredness but to a shocking degree like one might experience when they were all of a sudden coming down with the flu. I knew then that I had to head home or else driving would become impossible. And I was right. On the way home it was all I could do to stay alert enough to stay focused on the road. When a lady swerved out in front of me I watched my vision dim from 75% to around 40% as all my resources shifted to performing an evasive maneuver (in truth I was still largely in control, my brain seemed to be functioning fine as I was well aware of all the obstacles around me, it was merely my vision that kept dimming like when one is just too tired to keep their eyes open).

I made it home safely, promptly took some activated charcoal, and went back to bed for a couple of hours. After dinner I was still a little weak, but functional, until later that night I suddenly had a splitting headache. It was then that I realized my neck had been tight and soar all day. These, as I’ve come to realize, are almost unmistakably the symptoms of a die-off.

Its hours later, I’ve eaten again and taken some Tylenol and can finally see a little better- not to mention think and type. What with the info J. passed on to me I believe that what has been happening over this past week has been all a backlash to the nearly nuclear level strike my digestive system succumbed to last weekend with a meal spiced way too much with Cayenne Pepper. What’s more, J. noticed that the pre-made spice mix I used last night for my late meal had Cayenne in it as well. She also pointed out that the general consensus online was that die-offs tend to last about a week.

We kicked around a few of the out-of-place variables then. On the one hand, I can accept that Cayenne could cause a die-off in my system. What’s more, it might explain the high level of gas I was experiencing pre-diet. I would nightly eat a heavily Cayenne-d meal and chase it with a bunch of carb’s. The one would feed the problem while the other would kill it off. I was in a vicious cycle and didn’t even realize it. This might also explain (and we sorta’ thought along these lines) that the reason I felt so awful after eating all that coconut a few weeks ago was actually due to a die-off.

My confusion came from the other two instances of food experimentation. Why would eating our specially prepared bread and the uber-holistic almond butter give me the same symptoms? Nothing in these foods have any chance of causing a die-off. J. pointed out that perhaps the two gas attacks were simply from different sources. Perhaps Candida (or whatever) creates gas as a by-product when it is feeding and growing as well as when it is being broken down by my body during a die-off. And, actually, now that I think about it- I might have still been eating a lot of Cayenne Pepper back in those days, too. It’s hard to say, but I am quite content that Cayenne has been pushing me down the path this past week and that feeling like crap is just par for the course.

My only concern is that I have a lot planned for the next three days and I just hope my body has moved on to a point where I can at least get done what I had planned (if not, god forbid, actually have the resources to enjoy it). I should also mention that my overall gas level has dipped back to level 1 this evening (even after eating food).

 

So I figured this bore mention, but what we’re talking about when we refer to “die-offs” are medically known as Herxheimer reactions. The basic, non-scientific jist of what’s going on in such a reaction is simple — bacteria (or, in this case, hopefully fungi) die. And when they die, they release toxins into the body, which the body then has to deal with.

It supposedly happens all over the place with candida, and the reactions can last from a day up to a week. We’re hoping that this period of not-so-good doing has been the hold-out candida (or whatever) finally slowly starving. We’ll keep hoping!

Candida Log – Stardate 4-30-2008

Interesting but Useless: 04/29/08

So, in an effort to log all the happenings with my diet I feel it necessary to mention a recent odd occurrence. I had noticed, until these events, that my gas level was way down (in the level 1 range mostly) and that I was never having soreness in my chest and hadn’t taken my activated charcoal in quite some time.

Saturday night’s dinner was the first time I had had Cayenne Pepper in quite some time, having run out of it some time ago and opting to simply switch to one of the many spices we had in abundance. I inadvertently over spiced my meal, which is saying something because I appreciate a good deal of spice/heat. This was to the point that I could barely get through 2/3 of the pork chops and got that far mostly because I hate wasting food and my meals are all so elaborately prepared, compared to just throwing something into the microwave or hitting a burger joint, that I hate to just give up on food. Plus, I know that I’m just going to have to turn around and make yet another meal.

Later that night I had terrible abdominal cramps. Cramping to the point that I could not go to bed and J. had to lay me out and get me a heating pad. It took several hours for the cramping to let up enough for me to finally think I could fall asleep. I didn’t think too much of the matter especially since the next day I managed to get under the house and do some work there as well as mow the entirety of our 1 acre lawn with a push mower and still had enough energy to get some stuff done around the house. I did notice that I was suffering from level 2 gas most of the day, however.

Monday I made it to work and all was within reasonable parameters, still in level 2 gas though. But come Monday night I found myself ramped up to level 3, something I haven’t been in weeks, with a section of painful soreness at the base of my left ribcage. I was uncomfortable sitting in a chair and reading (something that I hadn’t experienced in weeks if not months) and I found myself pacing the house, massaging my chest and constantly belching in much the way I had been doing at the beginning of the diet but not since. This, not surprisingly, prompted me to take my charcoal for the first time in awhile. Truthfully, the symptoms weren’t quite as bad as they once were, but still it was startling to have it come back all of a sudden.

Tuesday I woke, back at level 2 gas, but in a pretty good mood. However, in much the way things used to occur pre-diet, every little thing that went wrong picked away at my patience until by the evening I was fuming and angry exerting great control to simply not beat on walls and break objects. This is, in fact, the primary thing that keeps me safely on my diet- that when I cheat the frustrated, angry person I become is so loathsome to me that simple food is hardly a trade-off for the person I become. I am still having trouble now many hours into the early morning, even though things have largely subsided. I still get frustrated at the animals for demanding attention from me, typing is tedious and maddening, but I managed to work on some art which I didn’t expect to be able to do.

So, what’s the take home message here? Well, I just don’t see how it could be anything but the Cayenne Pepper… which makes very little sense because Cayenne is actually used to decrease gas and pain. But, the only thing I can think of is that my body has a problem digesting it. The scary thing is that before I started the diet and early on I ate Cayenne on everything. No telling what effect that had on things.

It’s true that my system is very different now, what with the anti-biotics and subsequent pro-biotics not to mention the dietary shift that surely has been teaching my system to respond to things differently. Also, J. pointed out that even she has been having allergy problems today (and she never has such issues). But, I have trouble chocking these symptoms up to allergies. Fatigue- sure, even moodiness could be from allergies. But regular gas? That’s a little hard for me to equate.

So, I’ve removed Cayenne from my diet and am just hoping that tomorrow I am not so damn angry at everything. I really feel, and can’t find anything to support this (just ‘listening to what my body tells me’), that the gas itself is what causes the frustration. That somehow the pressure from the gas is impairing some sort of body function (blood flow?) and that my frustration comes from having to exert a much greater degree of energy and concentration just to try to function at roughly a normal level. I can feel the pressure in my chest now and when I mistype a word the whole thing becomes exaggerated and my temper flares. None of this occurs when I am not so gassy. Sometimes life makes it a little easier to stay on track by showing you just how shitty hopping off the path can be.

Of course, the really sucky thing is that I have apparently ‘cheated on my diet’ here but not in any way that was actually pleasurable. No pizza for T. *sigh*