Originally I blamed this whole nasty illness on a single round of Doxycycline in the fall of 2013. That was the one incident that I could point to when I suddenly started having some serious digestion issues but now a year plus later and a lot of learning I think I can say that the Doxy may have been the straw that broke the camels back but wasn’t necessarily the whole story. I had started having issues with dairy by the summer of 2011 and at that point switched out milk in my lattes for almond or hemp milk so something was definitely not right almost 4 years ago. I’d occasionally eat pizza or ice cream (or both in the same night) and pay for it for a few days. I had an incident of what we thought was gallbladder problems back in 2010 after a trip to South Carolina where I ate a bit too much fatty foods so maybe this started almost 5 year ago. So, while my digestion was usually pretty good these were signs that something was up starting in 2010. I can point to a few things now that probably contributed to the SIBO, the parasite and the leaky gut that really caused all this to ballon out of control and impact my entire body.
Weed and SIBO do not mix
Looking back at this last year I almost had eradicated SIBO twice. I had two technically negative tests, one in March and one in September. Each time I relapsed a few months afterwards, this last one even while I was still taking herbal antibiotics for 40 days. I was trying to figure out what these two periods had in common and it finally hit me – herb, and not the antibiotic herbs. In March I was unable to sleep from so much gut pain that I started using medical marijuana to put me out, it worked and I got the rest I needed. After a few months I stopped but my SIBO was back. In September I increased my dose of low dose naltrexone to 4.5mg and was waking up wide awake at 2:00 am every night so I got back on the herb usually vaping a few hits in the middle of the night and going back to sleep. Again, I relapsed within a few months.
Yet another relapse
I thought for sure that the last 40 days of herbal antibiotics was going to knock out the SIBO once and for all. Instead SIBO regained some strength and managed to fight back pretty hard and throw a few good punches. Things aren’t as bad as they have been but they sure aren’t as good as my September test and are much closer to the worst test in July than the September test. I went from a high of 10 at 120 minutes to a high of 42 at 120 minutes and now I not only have methane showing but also hydrogen showing. My hydrogen has never been above 2 before and now it is peaking at 9. My methane was down to a high of 8 from a peak of 42 and now it is back up to 33. Very frustrating to say the least.
Ravenna Refresher
Today was the second event in the Northwest Trail Runs Winter Trail Run Series, the Ravenna Refresher. The event had 4k, 8k and 12k options, with about 200 people signed up and quite a few day of runners registering. In the two weeks since the Carkeek Cooler 5k I was able to get out running 3 days a week and built up to actually running a 5k with some elevation gain at Grand Ridge so I figured I could actually run a 4k event. I arrived early to help setup and do registration and the weather was holding out, it was cool and overcast but not cold and not raining. I was half expecting it to start raining right when we got going but that didn’t happen, I finished before a drop fell from the sky.
Carkeek Cooler
For much of the year I didn’t think I’d ever trail run again due to SIBO, my extreme weight loss and my numb feet from the neuropathy I came down with. A few months ago my weight started slowly coming back and a few weeks ago I started treatment for the neuropathy which is working to an extent. I started doing more walking when my weight began increasing and, over the last month, began a bit of light trotting in between walking. Last month I did the Run with the Kokanee at Lake Sammamish State Park but for me it was more like a Walk with the Kokanee, I really didn’t run at all.
Shocking news for my feet, SIBO update
I decided to try and do something, anything, to get my feet back from being numb and painful due to the neuropathy I’ve been dealing with. We never did figure out the cause of this but it is most likely either antibiotic toxicity or the methane producing bugs from SIBO. I visited a doctor in town who recommended an electro-stim until called The ReBuilder to fix neuropathy so I decided to just buy one instead of having to go in for regular treatments with it. Now every morning and evening I sit for 30 minutes with my feet in a hot foot bath or in conductive socks and I run current through my feet and legs. The good news, it seems to be working. My feet no longer hurt like crazy in the mornings when I first get up and many days I don’t even notice the numbness, especially in my left foot. They are still numb but not as bad as they were a few weeks ago. I’ve even been able to walk more and do a bit of light running since starting this treatment so I’m hoping that I can reduce it even more or at least keep it at the level it is at now.
Time to deliver the knock out punch
After finishing up three rounds of herbal antibiotics on September 8th I retested for SIBO on the 15th, waiting a week to get the herbs out of my system. This time I also did a 2 day prep diet to hopefully avoid the very odd results I had at the last test. Finally had some good news from a test – I made a serious dent in the bacterial levels going from a peak of 49 ppm methane (CH4) to a peak of only 10 ppm methane, that is an 80% reduction in levels. The other good news this week is that I weighed in at 155.4 on Wednesday, finally crawled up to my interim goal of 155. This is almost 8 lbs up from my low point in May. Now I’m aiming for 160. I really don’t know if I’ll ever get back up to 170 given the low carb diet I’m going to have to stay on but when I was in really good shape running I was at 165 so I’m ultimately shooting for that.
Herbals round 3 – Done
Today I finish up my third round of herbal antibiotic treatment for SIBO. In June I started taking Berberine Complex and AlliMed after a bad relapse in May. This didn’t do much so I switched to a higher dose AlliMed and Neem protocol in July and did two 30-day rounds of it. The first 30 days I couldn’t handle the Neem too well and had to cut it in half but for the last 30 days I decided to just suck it up and deal with the discomfort that the Neem caused and ride it out sinec I was assured it would make a difference. Luckily the upset stopped after a week and I’ve actually felt petty good for much of the last month. I still have a few symptoms after dinner each day so I think the SIBO isn’t quite knocked out but is teetering a bit.
A Tale of Two Tests
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Nope, wrong tale but sort of fitting to my tale too. I got my latest test results back and do not know what to make of them at all, neither do the doctors, even though I’m feeling pretty good these days.
Just a reminder, here is my June 30th test, pretty much a standard looking SIBO test for a methane producer like me:
Now, here is my July 30th test after 10 more days on the Berberine/AlilMed protocol and 20 days on the AlliMed/Neem protocol:
New treatment plan
I had a meeting with Dr. Melanie Keller at the SIBO Center yesterday and then met with my doctor here today to go over a new treatment plan that I’m hoping will get those numbers back down. I evidently made the right move in changing over my herbal treatment a few days ago but Dr. Keller told me to double down on it so my new dosage is:
- 2 caps/3x day AlliMed
- 2 caps/3x day Neem Plus