Good appointment, horrible commute!

My ND may be super hard to get an appt with, but his prices are reasonable and he gets the job done.  I walked in and he asked, "what are we doing today?".  I explained that I was having lower abdominal pain and so he did visceral manipulation.  He was so great about describing what he was doing on a picture of the body - sort of pulling my uterus away from my rectum (sorry, TMI I know!) and making sure they was proper movement in the tissue down there.  It's not uncomfortable at all.  He also showed me a spot on the colon where the nerves from the small intestine branch in and he wants me to massage it to stimulate it daily.    He asked about how my SIBO was and I said would like a prescription for Resolor and a breath test.  He hadn't heard of Resolor, which isn't surprising because his focus is not SIBO but did not hesitate to give me a prescription after I explained what it does and the dosing that is on Dr. Siebecker's site.  After I explained what happened with Dr. Keller (increasing prices to $500/hr with a 1/2 hr skype appt required to receive breath test results) he happily logged on, set up an account and ordered me a breath test even checking the box so the results come directly to me.  So nice!  It takes at least 3 months to get just a follow up appointment with him so it's nice that he realizes he doesn't want the hassle of having to send out test results himself. He was pretty shocked that Dr. Keller raised her prices that high.

So on to the guar gum.  It is still gross but if you stir quickly and chug it goes down fine.  I've been eating FODMAPs too and honestly I'm suddenly feeling pretty darn good, not sure if it's because my bugs are fed and happy or if it's because they are dying.  Either way, I need to do a probiotic/resistant starch retention enema tonight to help the good guys in my colon out. 

I've also jacked up my prokinetics so that could be helping.  I was in Seattle for my appt yesterday so decided to splurge and eat something I normally wouldn't.  I was contemplating Thai even though last time I ate it I felt like crap for days.  Hunger led me to gluten free, vegan, aoili pizza at the Flying Apron.  I had to stop in to pick up a couple of donuts for my son and just couldn't resist.  Not what most people would consider a cheat! But seriously, how easy is it to find gf/df pizza without tomato sauce that's actually edible!?!

So I'm currently taking Rifaximin, Allicin, and Oregano with guar gum 3 times a day - breakfast, mid day and bedtime.  For prokinetics I'm doing Iberogast with meals, Motilpro mid morning, and Motilpro, LDN and Magnesium at bedtime.  Resolor is supposed to be the strongest prokinetic so I am eager to see if I can reduce some of the other stuff by adding it slowly in (I asked for a script for 0.5mg pills).  Once I'm done with the Rifaximin I'm going to add in Biocidin, Olivirex and Candibactin-BR and continuing with the Allicin and Oregano.  Not sure if I'm going to continue with the guar at that point or just eat FODMAPs.  After I'm done I'll test and see where we are at.  If I'm not clear at that point I may just give up :) Not really, but I'll definitely need to give my good colon bacteria a break.

After my appointment I raced down the freeway only to get completely stopped by the President of China.  They completely closed the two highways he was traveling, waited for them to clear and he drove down them, during rush hour. What a freaking mess! There were police on every single overpass. It would have been much cheaper, not to mention less disruptive and more efficient, to put him in a helicopter!  45 minutes to Seattle, 3 hours home.

Also got a call that our stolen vehicle has been recovered. It was in the process of being stripped but the sheriff's office put it back together and drove it out of the woods. The thief left behind their key, and their kid's booster seat and their tools. Who takes their toddler out with them boosting/stripping cars????

Guar Gum is disgusting!

Just took my second round of Guar Gum, Rifaximin and Allicin.  Holy crap the guar is so disgusting.  It doesn't have much of a taste it's just really hard to drink gel.  Blech!  I'm up to 1/2 tsp after starting with a 1/4 tsp this morning and having no reaction.  Probably didn't need the guar since I just devoured a burger patty with cheese (first dairy in prob 3 years) and avocado with a huge plate of sweet potato fries.  I usually don't go out to eat but my dad is in town so I decided "F" it, I'm going and I don't care what I eat (within reason).  The additional 7 lbs I'm lugging around these days doesn't make me any more rational!  I tried really hard to stay away from my Array 10 foods but my step-mom was going to let them toss her salmon nuggets so I ate them.  Salmon is a no-no.  Wanted the fish tacos really bad but I'm scared to death of the whole tomato/aquaporin thing and how the heck do you eat a taco without salsa or tomatoes???  (Obviously easy to do at home, harder to improvise in a restaurant and still get the flavor).

Received Biocidin and Olivirex in the mail today, 10 days worth.  I will start them when I run out of Rifaximin.  Ordered Candibactin-BR to add.  I'm too scared to do the AR because of the thyme and gelatin (both positive on Array 10).  I'm probably going to mess around with some essential oils as well.  Try to hit it from every angle possible.  We'll see how it goes!

Vacation recovery time

The bugs in me still love the carbs.  I have been trying to get my digestion back on track the last couple of days since returning from vacation and it's just a struggle.  I'm bloated, constipated and annoyed.  I have a love/hate relationship with vacations.  I find them fun but incredibly stressful (to be honest this was probably the most stress filled vacation I have ever been on).  

We were in Whistler and stayed in a condo with a full refrigerator and kitchen.  I packed a ton of food - ground meat, offal muffins, chicken thighs, veggie soup, stir fry veggies, coconut milk, etc.  I ate my usual breakfast of an offal muffin, veggie soup and hot chocolate.  I was doing several hours of yoga workshops/classes for 5 days (Wanderlust) so I would eat nut butter and drink tea at lunchtime, do more yoga and then come home for a dinner of curried veggies and chicken.  My digestion was holding it's own.  Same rigid diet on the same schedule I had been eating at home.

Wanderlust went away and I went back to eating 3 meals a day.  We were doing a lot of biking, hanging out at the lake, having more relaxing days.  I started nibbling on potato chips here and there with meals and ate french fries one day when we went out to dinner with friends.  I drank a glass of wine one night too close to bedtime and ended up a bloated, nauseuos, painful mess in the middle of the night. We packed up and moved into a yurt and everything just trickled to a halt. Bristol scale - 1. I'm not complaining, I thank my lucky stars that things are moving.  I have to admit I am a little envious of the people who easily clear this or move on with life, asymptomatic even though they still have some infection.  For some of us, it's just not that easy, we blink and things just fall apart.  

Came home Monday night and I treated myself to a hot chocolate after nearly 8 hours on the road home.  Again, too close to bedtime and I ended up awake half the night, bloated and nauseous.  Arg!  Oh, and I'm still actively treating (red yeast rice with garlic, oreganol, Biocidin, Olivirex, etc, etc) so what the heck!  Shouldn't all these antimicrobials be taking care of business!  

I started in with this.  Aromatic spice formula, ha!  It feels like squirting fire up your nose.  I have always had sinus issues so I wonder about an overgrowth of commensal bacteria.  I'm too lazy to schedule an appt to get my sinuses cultured (I have an appt in late September) so I thought I'd see if the SinuOrega would make a difference with my symptoms. 

Things I would have changed:

• Taken my probiotics with me and LOADED up.  I took my probiotic tonic but that was not enough.
• Stayed away from the carbs! Knowing that my system was already taxed from stress I should have stayed away from the carbs!  I tolerate them okay when life is easy and good but clearly not otherwise.
• Been a little better prepared before leaving and not overpacked on everything.  This creates more stress because things start thawing and produce starts spoiling.
• Communicate better with my family so we all are on the same page before splitting up or making plans.  To be honest, much of the time it felt like we were on someone else's vacation.  We didn't do enough of the things that we love doing.
• Sometimes you just have to embrace "the hippy shit" as my husband's friend Amy calls it.  My family was doing yoga together and it turned into a big circle lovefest and we ran.  We should have just gone with it, but in all honesty I kinda wanted to go meditate.

I have a week to get my shit together before we pack up and head to Idaho.  Will definitely be better prepared and do things differently.

Fits and Spurts

Sometimes I guess I just don't have much to say.  The suddenly I'll think of 10 things and write a bunch of posts.  Anyway!  I signed up for Wanderlust months ago.  Wanderlust is a big yoga festival that travels all over.  I am in the midst of it now.  In preparation I cut out lunch.  Seems odd, I know, but my Wanderlust schedule has me in classes from 8am to 3:30pm and so I wanted to acclimate my body to that before diving in.  I guess I didn't cut out lunch competely, I eat a packet of almond butter and have jasmine tea (not really what anyone in their right mind would consider a meal!).

And of course the festival doesn't come to my hometown so I had to pack up a CRAPTON of food to bring with me.  Today I didn't have leftovers in the refrigerator when I got back so I whipped up a smoothie.  I haven't tried one in a loooooong time.  I kept it low FODMAP (coconut milk, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, carrot and spinach).  It immediately made me feel sick, thank goodness my body throws up major warning signals to keep me from downing the whole thing and suffering for it..  My body just isn't ready to handle the raw stuff yet.  I recently ate a banana successfully so I don't think it's the fructose.  All I can say is thank goodness for hot dogs :)

My first class tomorrow is a meditation class so I'll be able to eat a HUGE breakfast to sustain me better and I have all the veggies ready to be sauteed up when I get home.  This morning all I could choke down was an offal muffin and a hot chocolate.

While I am here I do plan on eating out and drinking a glass of wine here or there so I am taking all my Biocidin, Olivirex, Red Yeast Rice with Garlic, SerraGold and Oreganol for 10 days.  I took a break just before I came but wanted to be a little more lax with my diet (french fries) while here so decided to do another round.

Other than that, life has been same old thing.  Sticking with the diet (for the most part) and treating off and on.  Trying to get my hands on a breath test to see if this latest protocol has made a difference at all.

Oh, and after all the yoga craziness is done I will be adding back lunch again.  With my adrenals as taxed as they are it's not good to deprive your body of meals (and drink caffeine instead).

Home again, home again...

Oh how my bowels are happy to be home.  TMI :)  Sorry!  Not sure if it's related but I rolled a ball under my foot while sitting in the symposium this morning and things finally started moving. Phew!

What an amazingly fun weekend hanging out with online friends (in person) who are just like me!  Last night we went to the The Brooklyn House for dinner last night.  They are well versed in dietary challenged people and are rumored to have a copy of the SIBO Specific Diet in the kitchen.  My meal wasn't spectacular, but really what can you do with white fish if you can't use butter, garlic, onions, etc.  I should have tried the rabbit.  The rib eye steak looked fabulous too but my chewing it would have been too difficult.  They messed up and accidently gave me a side of grilled cauliflower instead of grilled vegetables but with the huge amount of fish and the potatoes I knew it would be too much so didn't request them.

Today we went to The Cultured Caveman on the way home.  I chose wrong again!  I'm just not accustomed to eating out.  I had hot dogs (off the kids menu) and they were scrawny things with a pretty tough exterior.  I had zoodles on the side, bone broth and a shot of fermented cod liver oil.  I usually take this fermented cod liver oil but in capsules. They had the same brand in liquid form.  It was so disgusting and I burped fish for the rest of the 3 hour ride home.  But the restaurant was so cool and they had so many paleo products to browse and buy, including cookbooks.

I'll update on everything I learned tomorrow.  It's going to take time to put my notes together and I am exhausted!