As you might have read in my last entry, we've all been doing great on the Alinia (anti-parasitic) for the past two weeks. Well now, the tables are turning and things are changing. The new moon is in three days. Gavin had been reacting to the new moon (always starting the week before the new moon), progressively worse with each passing month. So naturally, I was curious to see what would happen while we were on the Alinia.
Three days from the new moon today
As the new moon approaches, we have sudden changes in Gavin and it looks like I will have to put my foot squarely in my mouth as I tell you that severe the die off has set in! He went from being calm, happy and having fairly decent BMs to being in pain constantly, grabbing his belly and crying that he doesn't feel good and the BMs....wow. A few days ago they began to change, I was noticing they were full of black specs, like pepper, and the consistency was slowly becoming less formed. Black specs are often associated with bad bacteria. This is from the EnzymeStuff website:
"If you start any supplement that might create looser stools, temporary diarrhea, or die-off of yeast or bacteria (like an antibiotic, probiotic, digestive enzymes, antifungal, laxative, etc), you might see dark or black flecks in stool during this 'cleaning out' period. Certain types of adverse bacteria in the colon can produce dark residues and this is getting cleaned out."
I have also read about people who have seen this while doing colon and parasite cleanses. Then two days ago, he began to have explosive diarrhea which has progressed to water and now today, they are burning his skin pretty significantly. The colors have even been changing, progressively getting lighter so I am increasing his liver support. The first couple of days with the watery BMs, his mood was horrendous, today his mood is better, but the stool is still awful and his belly hurts. I was helping him eat a small lunch today and he had just barely finished swallowing his first bite when I distinctly heard his tummy grumble in distress, out loud. Needless to say, his little meal was briskly followed by a visit to the potty. This description of his parasite, from Humaworm, just about sums up his die-off symptoms right now:
"DIENTAMOEBA FRAGILIS - this parasite lives in the large intestines - it is found worldwide. Symptoms include diarrhea, stomach pain and cramping, loss of appetite, weight loss, nausea and fatigue. This parasite infection stays in the large intestine - it does not spread to other parts of the body."
Fluids, fluids and more fluids
On a good note, he's drinking well, and a lot. I've made him an electrolyte drink with coconut water, filtered water, salt and baking soda which he guzzles no problem. I think he has single-handedly downed 32 ounces already just today! He is also still drinking his camel milk and kefir. The milk will offer him the nutrition he's lacking from not eating very much. As long as he keeps the fluids going through him, I feel ok with his condition. His skin is slightly pale, but looks good and supple, cheeks still holding some color, and even though he obviously feels yucky, he is still responding with humor when we interact and play. It seems that the effects today are purely gastrointestinal and that would make sense with parasite die-off.
And what about mommy?
As we ended our last round of chelation, I began to feel nausea that I initially chalked up to the round, but it lasted days and was neck and neck with exhaustion that just won't go away. I've also had much more severe and painful acne and the bulk of it is around my hairline, which I have read can be a symptom of parasites. Today I woke with very achy, painful upper thigh and shoulder muscles and I did not do any manual labor in the past day or two. So it appears that even I am slightly reacting to this phase on the Alinia which would suggest that it's probable that I have the same parasite. This could mean that my assessment of where Gavin contracted it is correct.....in utero? How very disturbing! If only I knew then, what I know now.
This is from the Humaworm site, interesting how the sore muscles are the exact muscles I am feeling pain in!
Parasites can travel to almost all soft tissue including in the joints and muscles where they cause cysts and inflammation that is commonly mistaken as arthritis and muscle pain. The toxins from parasites can also pool in the joints and in muscle tissue causing:
Muscle Pain
Joint Pain
Muscle Cramping
Numbness of the Hands and/or Feet
Heart Pain
Pain in The Navel
Pain in the Back, Thighs or Shoulders
Arthritic Pains
Fast Heartbeat
Uh oh duty calls, quite literally, I think he might have had a blow out during his nap, in his sleep, he's crying now, I better go.
Showing posts with label die-off. Show all posts
Showing posts with label die-off. Show all posts
Friday, August 26, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Learned our lesson, again
We have been doing this for two years now and know our kids pretty well when it comes to what antimicrobials they need, the doses and when. We have never intentionally stopped their antimicrobials with the exception of when my husband decided to test it out while I was away, which didn't go over well. I can't lie, we often hope that they might not need so much to keep things maintained so when we are forced into a trial for something like the stool test we did with both of the boys two weeks ago, we have a secret, unspoken hope. We hope that when going back onto the antimicrobials, they won't need as much and/or that the die-off won't be as severe, because that would mean we are seeing the ultimate goal, the BIG light at the end of the tunnel. We also know that chelation is going to require 100-300 rounds for complete recovery, so the fact that we are only on rounds 46 and 22 means that this is purely wishful thinking on our part.
In this particular case, we truly thought we might have been out of the woods with the high doses. They initially handled being without the antimicrobials REALLY well, then when we chose to only use partial doses of their antimicrobials, they appeared to still be handling it incredibly well, no severe die-off, but we began seeing the Jekyll and Hyde behaviors again, which you might remember from a previous post. This always means that we are killing only some of the pathogenic load, so we see small improvements and then they relapse into more die off, almost constantly. This means we need to increase until we see more consistent behavior. The problem is when they have gone days without any antimicrobials, allowing the overgrowth to go unchecked, it means having to really hit them hard to get back on track. Then die-off just sucks, plain and simple. The symptoms creep up on us and the die-off lingers for longer than expected. Sometimes it means even doubling up on doses and increasing the frequency until we get to a better place again. This solidifies our need to be consistent, because once we are there, life is good.
So now two weeks into having them back on the antimicrobials, we are still struggling with normalcy. One thing for sure is I can definitely see what their yeast and bacteria symptoms are now, it's so evident when we go through something like this. And what happens is we first see the yeast overgrowth, because that increases in an attempt to deal with the bacterial overgrowth, it masks it. So when the yeast levels begin to come down enough, the bacteria overgrowth is exposed and the symptoms change. Grayson has been itching a LOT, which sometimes confuses me, because it can be confused with tics. He swats at his head and ears, but he is also rubbing his head, telling me his ears and head are itchy. This is a major yeast sign for him and it's been pretty constant for the past two days....die-off! Prior to that, he was exceptionally hyper, too happy, yup yeast. Then today he came home from school spaced out, tired, grouchy and negative, bacteria. I've noticed over the span of about three days now, he's lost his sparkle which is a trait Grayson has had his entire life, since the moment he was born, he sparkled. It's times like these when I see how tragic it must feel for the parents who have more severely effected children. When your child loses his smiles, his eye contact and his sparkle, you've lost everything. They become an empty shell, staring back at you with blank eyes. This is also the part I wish my family and friends could understand about why we do what we do. The only people who truly get it are us and his teachers, because they spend hours a day with him.
Gavin is effected differently, his BMs started off horrendous. He was having half constipated and half loose stools in one bowel movement. Just a few days ago he passed the oddest looking thing, which interestingly I've seen with him before. It's hard to imagine this thing could be duplicated which leads me to believe it was something of significance. Without making this too gross, it was a string of "balls", for lack of a better word, all linked together with about a 5-6 inch fibrous some-thing-or-other. Both times it came out with another stool, but it was completely independent of that part of the bowel movement. I assumed last time that it was yeast related, but it's possible that it might have come out during a parasite cleanse, I'm not 100% sure though. I have had a few people tell me it could have been a dead tapeworm. One of those people said she has seen the same thing numerous times with herself, her husband and others who have had tapeworm infections. Talk about being freaked out! So I am researching that angle. One thing I can say is that his behavior and bloating changed almost immediately following the passing of whatever it was!! He also responds to die-off with increased screaming when he can't cope. So instead of communicating with us when he is frustrated, he loses his ability to calmly communicate, he has outbursts all day when anything challenges him.
At a time like this when both are experiencing die-off together, especially when we've hit the bacteria stage, it makes for a great combination of screaming and anger, impatience and tears. Let's just say that today I am glad to have my husband home from his business trip, because I need the break!
In this particular case, we truly thought we might have been out of the woods with the high doses. They initially handled being without the antimicrobials REALLY well, then when we chose to only use partial doses of their antimicrobials, they appeared to still be handling it incredibly well, no severe die-off, but we began seeing the Jekyll and Hyde behaviors again, which you might remember from a previous post. This always means that we are killing only some of the pathogenic load, so we see small improvements and then they relapse into more die off, almost constantly. This means we need to increase until we see more consistent behavior. The problem is when they have gone days without any antimicrobials, allowing the overgrowth to go unchecked, it means having to really hit them hard to get back on track. Then die-off just sucks, plain and simple. The symptoms creep up on us and the die-off lingers for longer than expected. Sometimes it means even doubling up on doses and increasing the frequency until we get to a better place again. This solidifies our need to be consistent, because once we are there, life is good.
So now two weeks into having them back on the antimicrobials, we are still struggling with normalcy. One thing for sure is I can definitely see what their yeast and bacteria symptoms are now, it's so evident when we go through something like this. And what happens is we first see the yeast overgrowth, because that increases in an attempt to deal with the bacterial overgrowth, it masks it. So when the yeast levels begin to come down enough, the bacteria overgrowth is exposed and the symptoms change. Grayson has been itching a LOT, which sometimes confuses me, because it can be confused with tics. He swats at his head and ears, but he is also rubbing his head, telling me his ears and head are itchy. This is a major yeast sign for him and it's been pretty constant for the past two days....die-off! Prior to that, he was exceptionally hyper, too happy, yup yeast. Then today he came home from school spaced out, tired, grouchy and negative, bacteria. I've noticed over the span of about three days now, he's lost his sparkle which is a trait Grayson has had his entire life, since the moment he was born, he sparkled. It's times like these when I see how tragic it must feel for the parents who have more severely effected children. When your child loses his smiles, his eye contact and his sparkle, you've lost everything. They become an empty shell, staring back at you with blank eyes. This is also the part I wish my family and friends could understand about why we do what we do. The only people who truly get it are us and his teachers, because they spend hours a day with him.
Gavin is effected differently, his BMs started off horrendous. He was having half constipated and half loose stools in one bowel movement. Just a few days ago he passed the oddest looking thing, which interestingly I've seen with him before. It's hard to imagine this thing could be duplicated which leads me to believe it was something of significance. Without making this too gross, it was a string of "balls", for lack of a better word, all linked together with about a 5-6 inch fibrous some-thing-or-other. Both times it came out with another stool, but it was completely independent of that part of the bowel movement. I assumed last time that it was yeast related, but it's possible that it might have come out during a parasite cleanse, I'm not 100% sure though. I have had a few people tell me it could have been a dead tapeworm. One of those people said she has seen the same thing numerous times with herself, her husband and others who have had tapeworm infections. Talk about being freaked out! So I am researching that angle. One thing I can say is that his behavior and bloating changed almost immediately following the passing of whatever it was!! He also responds to die-off with increased screaming when he can't cope. So instead of communicating with us when he is frustrated, he loses his ability to calmly communicate, he has outbursts all day when anything challenges him.
At a time like this when both are experiencing die-off together, especially when we've hit the bacteria stage, it makes for a great combination of screaming and anger, impatience and tears. Let's just say that today I am glad to have my husband home from his business trip, because I need the break!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Wishful thinking....and a glass of wine
I was hoping that the too-good-to-be-true signs we saw after taking a break from their antimicrobials/nutraceuticals for the stool test meant that the overgrowth wasn't too out of control. Unfortunately, it was just the calm before the storm.
Grayson went off to school perfect and came home like a space cadet. I knew this was the start of the oh so familiar downward spiral that inevitably follows a break from their antimicrobials. He was quiet and distant, played on his own a lot and Gavin's interferences resulted in explosive outbursts. His belly which had been so flat for a week now, was bloated again tonight. After bedtime, he came out of his room twice to rub a wet washcloth on his neck, because he was hot. He was also exceptionally thirsty. All signs of die-off. Now, I have to decide whether to wait this out to see if he levels off again or to continue to increase the antimicrobials. My gut tells me, we are going to be heading right back to the high doses of antimicrobials.
Gavin had a rough day today too, he was more volatile than Grayson. His die off signs are different from Grayson's. It actually took a while to get a handle on what they were, considering what we were so used to with Grayson. Today his belly was huge and his moods were extreme. He was still speaking very well, but the moods were just out of control. He couldn't handle any direction, and he would vacillate between needy/clingy and defiant.
Bedtime was tough, I was alone tonight, but now I sit here with the glass of wine that my husband brought me and I am in self-pity-land for now. Tomorrow is another day.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Interesting change of events
Since I wrote about our BAX update this morning, things have taken a turn for the worse and it has been dramatic enough that I am going to write about it, because we are wondering if the BAX has something to do with it. As I mentioned earlier, they had the best morning in a long time, which is pretty typical of the post treatment days. As the day progressed though, I started seeing our yeasty signs and before I knew it, we were up to our eyeballs in two yeasty kids!! Between the two of them I saw a lot of running back and forth, throwing themselves on the floor, the couch and anything around them, loud voices, spinning, the baby was VERY bloated, tip-toe walking a lot and only partially responding to his name being called...Grayson was talking non-stop, couldn't focus, scattered, making up words and laughing hysterically at himself, asking a LOT of questions, but not listening to answers, couldn't answer simple questions and by the end of the night the emotions were in full swing which of course means he is wired up in his room rather than sleeping. On our way home from tonight's treatment he was getting hot and itchy, which is our usual sign of severe die-off. Hubby and I were thinking about how this occurred so suddenly with no other changes to his diet, supplements or anti-microbials and all we could think was that perhaps the BAX treatment for yeast caused some sort of healing crisis or die-off. It will be interesting to see how he progresses from here.
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