Reeling It In

SO.

Reread the last post just now and I feel like it was a little too angry-faced. Or frustrated/sad-faced? A fury in real time, that’s what it was. It just goes to show ya, we UC people have colitis for a reason 🙂 emotions! oh, you guys slay me. or tear my innards into tiny pieces, rather.

Thankfully I have bounced back after that hard reality check. I’m dwelling (mostly) in the happy land of acceptance as I know I’m in for the long haul. I believe it might take a year or more to fully get rid of the Candida. I have been on the Candida diet for just shy of two months now. I am on my 4th week of Diflucan 200mgs a day. In case you were wondering, when people talk about “getting out the big guns” they are actually talking about Diflucan, 200mgs a day, for over a months time. Pray that my liver sustains me.

Last week I went to visit my gyno and wasn’t that a h0000t. Not really.

She said I still… STILL?!… have a very serious yeast infection and prescribed me some antifungal cream. I mentioned my diet to her; she laughed and said it won’t help me at all but I could stay on it if I wanted to. Um, thank you lady. Worst advice ever. “Oh you have a systemic yeast problem? go ahead and feed it sugar every single day. you’ll only be miserable until the day you die. more cream?? 🙂 ”

She sneered at my probiotic treatment too. Like, seriously… get real, physicians. Please just get real for one second. But do I say anything? No, no. I’m not about to try to reeducate my doctors, A) because I look like I’m 12 and nobody be takin’ advice from a 12 year old, especially nobody’s who spent a good portion of their life in med school. and B) I don’t have that kinda time. When you’re freezing your butt off in the freezing cold office with barely anything on, you prioritize. This time I wanted to make it out with a diagnosis and some kinda help. done and done. I go back in 6 weeks to repeat the process.

My colitis has MUCH improved, I am happy to report. Mostly formed stools, very little blood, and while I still have urgency and cramping… I only have to go maybe 3-5 times, depending on the day. That’s darn good without prednisone. I attribute this to the strict diet, and also to the candida-inhibiting drugs. I also started taking Low-Dose Naltrexone again. 4mgs at night. I think that has helped as well. Hopefully as I continue down this path I can steadily improve, now that I know what is causing this nonsense in my body.

And here’s the thing with all this. I’m considering dumping the wormies. *GASP* I know, but I don’t feel like they have “worked” for me, at least for a decent amount of time, and if anything they are lowing my immune system capabilities, which I kinda absolutely need to help fight the candida.

I’ve always believed that given the right tools, the body can heal itself. That is what God made it to do. Get a cut, and the body heals it. Break a bone, the body reforms it. Given the right application of nutrients, bacteria, and emotion, the body can heal from an autoimmune disease. So why did I choose worms after all this time?

Truth is, all along I have known that these worms did not offer a cure,  just a relief of symptoms. For years, I have been on horribly strict diets,  drug therapies, taking up to 60-something supplement pills a day… exploring emotional healing techniques and alternative medicines. It’s been a long hard road and I will admit it, I wanted something easy for once. E-A-S-Y. And throwing back a few hundred worm eggs is so freakin’ easy. I  mean you saw me right? I was even playing worm pong for cryin’ out loud. I wanted to get worm happy and stay that way forever.

So because of my childlike faith I was willing to compromise my knowledge about how the body heals and give this a try, thinking that maybe the worms would be a step in a “healing” direction. I thought maybe they would heal my gut enough and then I could heal it more in another way… And I recant, people.

I recant! I was a forefront-er on this ride out into the Wild West and even though I did a bunch of research and read a bunch of people’s experiences I was unaware of the following things until now (9 months later):

• Whipworm can cause allergies to become worse, or even create new ones. Food, materials, fragrances, whathaveyou. Allergies come in all sorts. I am not experiencing this currently, but just to warn you, faithful readers. It could happen to you, at a theater near you, in a neighborhood that is yours… creepy creepy.
• As time goes on, usually one must increase their dosage of whips in order for them to still be effective. Not cost efficient. Or, as time goes on, they stop being effective altogether.
• If you lose the worms accidentally or on purpose, people are reporting that their colitis has come back worse than ever, and that the places where the worms were previously “attached” had the worst ulcerations.
• Therefore, Hookworm is actually a better option for treating ulcerative colitis. Even though they reside primarily in the small intestine, they have a systemic effect on the body. They also help minimize existing allergies, so no worries there. They are pretty cool if ya like worms.
• And as always, the long term effects are unknown.

So right now I’m at a crossroads. give it up? or stick with it? Maybe try some hookworm instead? I wanted this to work, I really did… but is this another “failed experiment: lesson learned” kinda thing? Anyone is welcome to weigh in on the 20 questions…just looking for some insight. readygetsetgo!

P.S. I’ll keep you posted on my decision and the “why’s” of it 🙂