Thursday, August 27, 2009

Quick update

Adding fermented foods is going very well. I am surprised that the taste of all of them is growing on me .... I am starting to like the Komubucha, and I'm loving the homemade sauerkraut .... a totally different beast than store-bought, pasteurized stuff. I eat it with things you wouldn't think of, like in a veggie burrito, or topped on a homemade pizza made with a pizza crust from the health food store, olive oil, organic cheese, chopped up bratwurst (be sure to put the sauerkraut on after the pizza comes out of the oven). I think I might make reubens this weekend if the new batch is ready by then.

I tried a batch with green cabbage, onion, garlic, and carrot .... can't wait to taste it! A second batch with red and green cabbage, which is turning a pretty fuschia color as it ferments.

My bottles just came in today that I ordered for my homemade kombucha, so I'll be making it soon!!! I'll keep you posted on the progress.

I started the Dr. Natura cleanse three days ago. It's going well, and I'm feeling GREAT lately!!! All I'm taking is - KPU protocol, iron, magnesium, Dr. Natura, and sleeping herbs. I started a multiple vitamin, but I don't really seem to want it ... I know how weird that sounds, but I just don't want it when I go to get it out of the jar.

I'm really excited about what I have decided to do with my time now that I'm feeling better. The problem with chronic illness is you are out of touch with the world for so long that when you get better, you are really in the habit of doing nothing. I am going to be training to teach pilates!!! I'm so excited! I've spent enough time laying around and I find it astounding that I am even able to think about taking a pilates class much less training to teach classes myself! I will be in 10 hours of training per week .... I'm excited.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Fermented foods

Since I'm going to be working on my digestive system with the Dr. Natura cleanse, I thought I'd do more for it so I'm going to try fermented foods. I've read how good they are for us, so I thought I'd give them a try.

I went to Whole Foods and bought four bottles of Kombucha. The guy checking me out asked me if I liked it. I told him no, it was vile stuff!! He seemed relieved and said when he first started working there a couple weeks ago he bought some, took a sip, and threw the bottle out. It is vile, but honestly, you get used to it. Also, if you need it, then you will find the taste easier to swallow. :) I drank a bottle yesterday and one today. It's actually refreshing after a workout.

Today I made sauerkraut and fermented beets .... well, I prepared them and now I'm waiting for them to ferment. We'll see how it goes. The sauerkraut in the store is pastuerized, which defeats the purpose of eating it entirely!

I chopped up a head of cabbage, I salted it, then I squeezed it with my hands until water was coming out of it .... I did this in a big bowl so I didn't lose the water. Then I packed it into a jar and pushed it down tightly ... by the time I got it all in the jar, the liquid covered all the cabbage. Now I just leave it sit out on the kitchen counter for a few days so the bacteria can grow. Ewww.

For the beets, I sliced three of them, put them in a jar, then covered them with brine made from four cups of water and one teaspoon of salt.

As usual, I will keep you posted with my progress. Mentally I'm done trying different herbs for killing bugs. I'm just ready to move on to better health!

My shoulder has been absolutely killing me the past few days. It's been sore for a couple weeks, but the pain has been so intense that it keeps me up at night .... so I took a painkiller for it. The last one I took was at 9:30 this morning and now it's 5:30 and I have little pain, so I think it's letting up. I'm thinking this is a healing reaction. My shoulder pain dates back to high school, so it was bound to be something my body had to go back and fix .... it was bound to have pockets of bacteria, or be lacking minerals, or be loaded with toxins/heavy metals, or whatever it was that caused the pain.

My massage therapist could feel the swelling yesterday, but could feel no reason for it other than a series of muscle issues starting at my right foot. He suggested maybe I walked with my foot turned out and that it may be causing the shoulder pain. Interesting because the pain started in High School, after I broke my leg and have walked with that foot turned out ever since. Since bacteria and toxins are opportunistic, perhaps they took up residence in my shoulder. I'm going to work on walking correctly now.

Well, I'm off to have some apple cider vinegar in water .... another source of fermented food rich with probiotics.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

ONE YEAR OFF ANTIBIOTICS!!!

I can't believe I missed it! I was off antibiotics for one year August 12th! I was thinking it was August 18th, but it was the 12th.

I am doing better, still improving, still a ways to go. I'm not tolerating the Triphala or Red Root. I have been a bit sluggish since starting both of those .... seems to be both of them that bother me. So, I eliminated them .... I'll start the Dr. Natura cleanse when school starts the end of next week. It's time to do Humaworm again, but I thought I'd give the Dr. Natura one a try.

I'm thinking maybe my immune system is still a little hyper-active? Perhaps it's a cytokine response any time I use herbs that increase the immune system? Here's an interesting article that talks about this - http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?id=3748&t=CFIDS_FM

Nevertheless, I'm still overall improving. I have these delusions in my head that I felt perfect when I returned from Germany, but I looked over the beginning of the blog and realized that I only felt 70% during my last days over there. That was such a huge improvement for my "bad days" that I felt at the time that I was doing great .... and I was. Now a bad, bad day is about 80%, but typically I'm closer to 90% .... except on these herbs I've been trying to force on myself. I'll have a rest from the herbs this week and next, then I'll probably feel bad as I adjust to another cleanse .... but I know I need the parasite cleanses ... I still have a die off when I start them and I still have a few digestive issues.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Liver cleanse #5

I did my fifth liver cleanse yesterday. Only about 50 stones. No sludge. So, it appears my liver is clean. :) I won't do another for six months .... the Hulda Clark site recommends twice per year after the initial cleanses if I remember correctly.

I didn't get any relief from pain from the cleanse this time and it was time to do the photons again. I got a fresh vial of blood, this time more than just a few drops. I treated at 11.77, same times/places as in Germany. I started getting relief during treatment. I felt weird during treatment like I did in Germany, though not to that extent.

About 1PM, I rode my bike 3.5 miles to my pilates class, then rode back after an iced green tea at Starbucks (without sugar syrup) and after sitting out in the sun at the pool for 45 minutes. I got a little dizzy in Pilates when I was standing on the reformer and bent over to change my springs ... and a couple other times. Maybe not such a good idea being quite so active afterward when I still hadn't gotten a lot of food or fluids in my system, but I felt great otherwise and feel even better today.

Because of my response to the blood treatment and because of the long time away from photons, I will treat once per week for three weeks to try to really work on whatever infections are bringing me down. I suspect babesia because my air hunger flared a little tiny bit yesterday. I started taking quina since I can't get any good tonic water here anymore (should have kept my big mouth shut on Lymenet, LOL). Quina is probably better anyway since it's the herb without the sugar.

Overall, HUGE improvement since I came back from Germany last Nov. I'm really a different person. I still am having trouble getting involved in any commitments because it's just hard to trust I'll feel better day after day. This leaves me with a lot of "down time" with not much to do, but I don't want to fall into my old ways of getting over-extended. My good days are better than ever and my bad days are, too.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Almost a year off abx!

It was a year ago this month that I stopped antibiotics! I stopped antimalarials one month later. After stopping my health crashed, but I went to Germany in October for three weeks of Bionic 880 therapy .... the rest of the story starts in October on this blog.

Currently, the only symptoms I have are fibromyalgia and fatigue when the fibro is flaring. It seems to clear up completely after liver cleanses and stays away for a couple weeks afterward. It also helps to have lymphatic drainage massages. I am guessing it's mostly toxin related. The length of time the fibro and fatigue stays away after the liver cleanses is increasing.

I am sleeping better and continue to improve in this area. I take "I Sleep Soundly" by Banyan Herbs and 5HTP.

I continue to exercise four days per week. Forty minutes of cardio three or four days .... two days of advanced pilates .... and two days of lifting weights.

I am juicing twice daily if I have the time .... fruit in the morning and veggie in the afternoon .... along with eating right.

I treat once monthly with the Bionic 880 using blood as a nosode.

Here's a list of all that I take:

Synthroid/Cytomel
Depyrrol (a zinc, manganese, B6 formula)
iron
magnesium
Oil of Evening Primrose
Triphala

Detox:

Heel Detox homeopathics daily
Red Root tinture for lymphatics daily
parsley/burbur when I feel toxic
coffee enemas when I feel toxic

Sleep:

I Sleep Soundly (Banyan)
5HTP


I am trying to take as little as possible. The photon treatment stands alone for treating the "illness", so the rest of what I do is to build up vitamins/minerals that have been affected by illness or to detox. I need to find a multiple vitamin that I like and tolerate. I have been having trouble because I like the ones from food sources, but most of them have chlorella, which I am allergic to. I also have gut problems which run in my family, so I can't blame it on the Lyme ... and that causes trouble with some multiples for me. Hopefully, juicing picks up the slack.