I've had Cfs since 1997 following chemotherapy. I've also struggled with recurrent ebv, cmv and hhv6 since that time. I was treated with valcyte, valtrex and famvir in the past by dr Lerner.
I was also treated for Lyme disease and babesiosis. Needless to say- I've been a mess for a while.
A few years ago, my chemo induced food intolerances significantly worsened.
I've been on a Paleo, gluten free diet since January 2015 trying to figure this out with the help of a functional medicine dr. Several dna stool tests have shown
Some nasty critters- over the past year, I have fought: cdiff, giardia, hpylori, Ecoli and staph infections, candida. Now I am fighting a geotrichum infection. But everything else is clean, and my good bacteria are no longer low.
Over the year- colloidal silver, oregano oil capsules, berberine hcl, wormwood, black walnut, artecin, artemesia, mastic gum have been rotated to knock back the bad guys.
Megaspore biotic probiotics for general probiotic help and prephage probiotic for treating Ecoli overgrowth have been amazing.
I started lauricidin at the beginning of August. I tend to be very sensitive to everything when I start it. I started with 4 pellets and had a terrible die off headache four hours laters for two hours straight. That made sense to me since 4-6 hours after I eat is the spot is my guts that seem infected with something and causes me problems.
I kept at that low dose for about a week, and was blessed with an immune response-a sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, achy neck, low grade fever- everything I get when mono flares up.
Except for the really achy neck- the rest of it wasn't so bad. My energy level dipped, I slept a lot. I was not nearly as sick as the last time I had mono, so I am guessing my last year and a half of diet changes and herbal killing protocol and probiotics have strengthened my immune system.
I increased my dose slowly at first, then went to 10 pellets then 20 then 30 then 40 and finally to a full scoop a few days ago. I'm taking 1 scoop 3 times a day. Once I got to 10-20 pellets per meal for a few days, all the fever, sore throat, swollen lymph a etc were cleared up. The sore neck resolved the first or second week. I do drink a lot of water 2 or more liters per day. And I have also been using serrapeptase enzymes to reduce inflammation too. At the time I started serrapeptase I wasn't even thinking of the side benefits- it clears up cellular debris and die off of yeast and bacteria. I also taking sodium bentonite clay, 1 tablespoon hydrated overnite in 8 oz water.
This may be why I was able to increase my dose so quickly and not suffer as long from die off- or it could be the killing protocol I took for the prior year has already cleared out so much garbage.
Am I all better?
Nope.
Can I function better than a year ago- yep! I can not work yet. But I have been able to go from full time couch potato to walks when my guts are happy.
I was able to do some painting in my kitchen on my good days.
I can make some social events, can shop for my own groceries, make my own meals, clean my own laundry on a regular basis now.
These were all things I did not do a year ago.
I still need to clear up the latest infection- geotrichum. It does seem to cause me a lot of (healthy) foods I don't tolerate like any starchy food- squash, sweet potato, potato etc.
Lauricidin has been one of the strongest products I have taken, and I plan to take it for 6 months to see how much progress I can make. Megaspore is another of my absolute favorites and I plan to continue this as well for at least 6 more months.
All I know is having a crappy immune system begins with a damaged gastrointestinal tract.
I'm trying my best to reverse/ correct the damage done by 8 months of chemotherapy, and way too many doses of antibiotics from childhood on. I'm sure it took a lot of bad things on my part to get here, and now it's going to take a lot of hard work to fix it.
It doesn't matter that the Drs didn't know any better, my parents didn't know any better, and I didn't know any better at the time. I still have to do all the work myself if I want to experience the benefits.
I have wanted to give up so many times
But what choice do we have? We just have to keep trying- as much as we are mentally and physically able to!
I hope everyone finds something that helps them and gives them hope to continue. This path is hard, and can be lonely, but you are not alone.
Lisa