I took my last handful of herbal antimicrobials last night and am getting ready to do the prep diet tomorrow for re-testing on Friday morning at the SIBO Center in Portland. A few weeks ago I would have said that I thought I had this thing licked but then I started having some evening symptoms again so now I’m not sure what to expect from this test. I’ve used up all the protocols I know of so if I’m still positive I’m going to have to figure out what the heck to do next. I will be reviewing the results with Dr. Keller on Monday morning so will have a chance to sort this out.
To dog or not to dog
This past few months we’ve been discussing whether or not to get a dog, specifically a bird dog. After my hunting excursion this spring I decided you kind of need a dog here, the terrain here is nothing like the marches through Iowa cornfields that I grew up hunting and a dog seems pretty essential. I also miss Isan and would like to have a dog companion around since I’m a bit more house bound than I’m used to being.
I decided to turn this into a whole research project so we began investigating breeds before settling in on a German Shorthair Pointer. This is a good bird dog, a good family dog and a very athletic dog perfect for hiking or trail running. Catherine ran into a client that has a GSP and absolutely loves the dog, it is their child. She gave us a bunch of resources and this began a search for breeders and trainers in the area plus a bunch of reading about dog training for a gun dog. Luckily the Pheasants Forever magazine this quarter was all about dogs so I got a bunch of resources from it. I located Sage Brush Gun Dogs in Ellensburg which raises and trains GSPs, I also know that our guide from Red’s just had pups too that are in the same line as Katie above. I just finished reading The Ultimate Guide to Bird Dog Training and Wing & Shot to get an idea of what would be involved with training one of these dogs, both excellent books that gives you a very sobering look at how much work and time is involved in developing a bird dog.
Autoimmune results back
This was kind of a tough week. On Monday I went in to see Dr. Bowen and we went over my autoimmune panel results. Not too surprising something showed up, I knew something had or she would have e-mailed me the results. I was in the equivocal range for Myelin Basic Protein antibodies, not necessarily high but in the top portion of the normal range. I knew what that meant right away, back to the specter of MS hanging over my head. She suggested I get back in to see Dr. Srivatsal, my neurologist, and get an MRI so we can rule this out or deal with it. Everything else was fine which was really good news.
Starting the (hopefully) last round
I finish up my second break week this week in the Mullen Protocol and am ready to start my last round of it in the morning, I organized my pills this morning. I really debated whether or not to even do this last few weeks since I’ve been feeling so much better but I decided that it wouldn’t hurt just to get in a last 10-12 days and see if I can knock this stuff out all the way. This break week went well, I only did one of the S.boulardii caps a day instead of two and had no bad reaction to that. I have had pretty much no SIBO symptoms all week long, just a bit of deeper stuff very occasionally late in the evening and even that is nothing.
Done with round 2 but why is my weight down?
Today I’m finishing up round two of the three round Mullen Protocol and get to take a break next week again. This time around I’m only doing one single S.boulardii capsule a day instead of two in case that caused my reaction last break week. Only one more round to go on this treatment protocol and then I retest in 3 weeks. Overall my gut has been pretty stable this past week and I’m eating somewhat high on the FODMAP chart. The only things I’m really avoiding at the moment are onions and garlic, I’m eating most other non-nightshade veggies and quite a bit of fruits even trying some apple which seemed OK in small amounts.
Hunting deer???
After I decided take up hunting again this year for birds the next thing that I had thought about was moving up to big mammals. I got quite a bit of venison and antelope from my friend Tom and it was excellent to say the least, made me want more. I also have to purchase a quarter beef and then some each year, a lamb and a whole pig to get me through the year in meat, it would be great to replace some of that with a deer, an antelope or even better an elk. Shooting birds, however, is much easier than shooting a large mammal and the prospect of taking a deer has forced me to do some reading and soul searching on the matter. The deadline is coming soon, if I want to try and hunt deer this fall I need to get my name in the draws next month in just a few weeks then I need to get myself geared up and ready to go.
Halfway through the Mullen Protocol
Today I finish up another week of the Mullen protocol which means I’m half done with the second round and half done with the entire 8 week protocol. I definitely have improved since last Saturday when I was having issues with the S.boulardii but I’m not 100% over this yet. I am starting to think that my issues may not be the SIBO as much as either the blasto or some other basic colon imbalance at this point since I don’t start having any discomfort until about 2.5-4 hours after eating dinner at night which makes me think things are lower down. Every night when I’m about ready to go to bed some churning starts down deep and bugs me into the night, last night I woke up at 12:30 and my gut was still going. Maybe all these antimicrobials have finally just done in the flora I need but I’m still afraid to add in probiotics to see if that makes a difference, at least not until I get a clear test. I was hoping to get in a call to Dr. Keller to discuss this next week but there are no openings until May 1st and I’ll be almost past my next break week by then.
Is S.boulardii the devil?
Finishing up break week this week and it hasn’t been as easy as my last break week was. This time I took S.boulardii 2x a day and as the week has gone on I’ve had an increasing amount of gut distress. It started out a few hours after dinner mid-week, I figured it was the sweet potatoes I ate for dinner that night since the are a bit on the risky side. Next day same thing even though I stuck to true low FODMAP AIP. By yesterday it started after lunch and by an hour after dinner I was not feeling well at all and the gut churn continued until I fell asleep and was still going strong at about 1 a.m. when I woke up. I’m stopping the little yeastie beasties today in hopes that they will start to clear out of my system in over the next few days.
Starting a break week, neuropathy, sleep and chili recipes
Two weeks of the Mullen Protocol done today, now I get to take a break from the giant handful of pills with each meal. For this week I’ll just be doing two capsules of Saccharomyces Boulardii a day, assuming I can tolerate it. This is a yeast that is not a typical gut flora component and will just build up while taking it and then go away after a few days stopping but it will keep bad stuff from overgrowing while I’m not on the antibiotic herbs. We’ll see what happens. I am still doing my basic prokiinetic regime too with Iberogast at each meal and then at night MotilPro and 4.5mg of LDN. I’m down to 250mg of Mag at night which seems to be plenty these days to keep things moving. After the week break I’m onto Round 2 starting on the 12th. I’ve still got just about 6 weeks until I re-do my SIBO test in May.
Nightshades revisited
After my food allergy test I decide to start adding back in a few new foods to se what happened and in my last post mentioned I was adding in nightshades. Last week I had some eggplant, that seemed OK. On Sunday I had Venison Chili which was AWESOME. I had another bowl of the chili last night to finish it off. The results – today my weird arm symptoms and general brain fog are back with a vengeance. My upper arms feel like I just did about 100 push-ups, like they did months ago before I bit the bullet and went AIP. My head just is not all there and I haven’t experienced this for months on AIP either. So, I think the answer to the question on the tomatoes is Not to Eat for me.