Good words to wake up to in email this morning. I had my MRI on Thursday and the results are already in, no sign of MS. It looks like all this weird arm/shoulder stuff could be cervical cord compression which makes sense given the state of my neck. I’ll know more on Friday when I go in and discuss this but was just very glad to find out that I definitively do NOT have MS. Huge relief.
My gut has been doing very well too, I have no symptoms most days now and if I have any they are very minor and usually many hours after dinner. I’ve been on no herbal anti-microbials for 18 days now and no relapse. I have made changes to my prokinetic regime and am also adding in ferments to see if I can get my gut balanced out better. I am doing sauerkraut most days and kombucha several days a week. I plan to add in kefir in a bit, evidently if done 24 hours there is no lactose or casein in it and I can also keep grains in dairy and make the kefir in coconut milk if desired to be totally safe. I’ll add in some kimchee too even with the hot pepper, just need to make another batch. Debating on adding in a real probiotic, have been looking at Primal Defense by Garden of Life which is a Soil-Based probiotic but includes many strains that Dr. Siebecker recommends plus I can get it in powder form and use a very small dose.
Prokinetic wise here is my new regime we are trying:
- Before meals – Iberogast 20 drops in water
- 1 hour after dinner – 3 MotilPro (well, still homemade version but my B-6 is fine now so I may buy some again to avoid making capsules)
- 1 hour before bed – 2mg time-release melatonin
- At bedtime – 4.5 mg Low Dose Naltrexone
Other than that the only thing I’m doing right now is Digestzymes with each meal, an Endozin capsule at lunch to help with gut repair, and some Milk Thistle 2x a day to help support my liver. My ALT enzyme was high but not too high, no doubt due to all the oregano oil, berberine, wormwood, … I was taking for three months. We are also going to be doing Ileocecal Valve work on a regular basis for a while to try and get that functioning all the way.
I really think the worst of this is behind me and that things can only start improving here on out as I get my gut repaired and repopulated with more good bacteria. Off to the SIBO Symposium in Portland next weekend, will be a busy weekend but should be very informative.