Hi guys! It's been a while since I have gotten to do a post on what's happening with me treatment wise. So I thought I would give a little update on things I'm doing, and what's to come.
These last few months have been very tough. I had a surge where I felt really a lot better, and then my health started to go downhill slowly as far as the symptoms I was experiencing. I started to have a lot of new troubles (primarily neurological and G.I related), and I could not figure out what was happening. My mind raced for a long time with worry and frustration. I was detoxing like crazy and still very overly toxic. My brain felt as if it was constantly electrified, with around the clock anxiety and brain zaps. Noise was bothersome, light was bothersome, and everything flared horribly at night. My night's went like this: lay in bed herxing and sick until 8am, go sleep from 8am-2pm, repeat. It was like I was stuck in a cycle where nothing I did helped. I compare it to being in a corn maze and hitting a wall every direction I turned. This went on for a while, and some of the symptoms got very scary. I had night time episodes which were akin to mini seizures, I would awake gasping for air, choking, gagging, pale, groggy. Scary stuff. A big part of the reason I didn't update this blog on the personal front is because every time I tried I didn't know what to write. If I just talked about how bad I felt without having an answer then it would have been just one long post where I complained. And I really hate ever coming across like that.
So, I waited. I waited until I finally started taking steps in the right direction. To recap: I tried to begin treating the Protomyxzoa (one of my co-infections) by doing 3 months of a standard parasite cleanse. This was to prep my body by cleaning out any small parasites that might be in the body, and get me ready for the big guns when we treat the Protomyxzoa, which is a blood borne parasite. Well, when I got to round 2 it became obvious that my stomach was not tolerating the meds what so ever. Which was an issue. On top of that my night time episodes were getting more severe. So I halted treatment in hopes that I could just detox and get caught up and then jump back in. Well, instead of that happening I just got worse and worse. So I just spent my time trying to put out as many fires as possible, and managing symptoms any way I could.
Fast forward to now and here is what I learned and what is going on:
1. My new furniture was quite literally slowly poisoning me. At the end of January I re-did my room. I was very conscientious to buy non-VOC paint (VOC is chemicals in paint that can be strong and effect the nervous system), and I took all the precautions to make sure no toxins got in there. Once my room was freshly painted with this safe paint, I ordered this gorgeous new white furniture. What I did not realize then was that new furniture is FULL of chemicals; Formaldehyde being a prominent one. When you buy new furniture it takes a while for it to "off-gas," which means how long it takes the furniture to stop emitting the toxic fumes into the air. Furniture typically takes 1-7 YEARS. Yes, I said years. So here I was in my room with this new furniture, which left me breathing in VOC's around the clock. For someone like myself I have many chemical sensitivities. And I also have trouble detoxing due to my genetics. Therefore slowly but surely these toxins built up in my system. These particular toxins also are mostly neurotoxins which means they act on the nervous system (the brain), and hence my crazy symptoms in that realm. Just to test this theory I moved out of my room into another room in the house that is safe and I immediately felt better. Within a day my brain had calmed down and my nights were much more smooth. So, unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) my theory was correct. Now I'm working on ways to remedy the situation, I will keep you all posted on that in case this interests anyone else. I can't possibly urge you all enough to try and think about what is in your environment if you get a flare. Sometimes there is hidden mold, other times its other chemicals that snuck in. Do your research! The change for me getting out of the environment was almost immediate and life changing. I always did notice in the past that when I left my bedroom for extended periods of time I felt better. I just could not figure out why, until it dawned on me when I put 2 and 2 together. Headboards, mattresses, pillows, furniture, carpet, flooring... these are all things that omit VOC's.
2. I will spare you the details on how this came about, but I just began treating for Giardia Lamblia. If you are not familiar with this bug, it is one that burrows into the walls of the stomach and causes G.I distress. Giardia can turn chronic because it is able to protect itself in cyst form, and hence why it is often missed. It is in the parasite/protozoa family and can tend to be cyclic and flaring at night, among a lot of other things. As soon as I started treatment for it I felt absolutely miserable. Which was a sign that I was doing the right thing. I am on day 5 of a 60 day treatment, so prayers that I get through this would be very much appreciated. It's been probably one of the toughest things I have done in a long time. There is really not much I can do to relieve the symptoms as I go through it. I have tried a wide variety of things but thus far nothing has particularly made a large amount of difference. I think I'm going to just have to muscle through, I'm just trying to get through the days and know that at the end of this I will be so thankful for treating it! The fact that I have had this bad of a reaction just goes to show that it is indeed pretty severe and pretty deep down in my stomach. I'm just so happy that at least I know this will give me relief in the long run. For those of you curious I am doing the Deseret Biologicals Giardia Lamblia Series Therapy. I love DesBio, they are hands down amazing in terms of treatment plans. And no, I'm not being paid a cent to say that!
Okay, I think that about covers it. For now I am hunkering down and working on treating the Giardia, staying out of my toxic room until I can come up with a plan to get the chemicals out, and I will keep the whole length of my Giardia treatment covered under the Treatment Blog tab (tab up top) for those of you interested in following along. I won't be posting about it here on my main page until I'm finished and have some news to report.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
xoxo,
Christina
These last few months have been very tough. I had a surge where I felt really a lot better, and then my health started to go downhill slowly as far as the symptoms I was experiencing. I started to have a lot of new troubles (primarily neurological and G.I related), and I could not figure out what was happening. My mind raced for a long time with worry and frustration. I was detoxing like crazy and still very overly toxic. My brain felt as if it was constantly electrified, with around the clock anxiety and brain zaps. Noise was bothersome, light was bothersome, and everything flared horribly at night. My night's went like this: lay in bed herxing and sick until 8am, go sleep from 8am-2pm, repeat. It was like I was stuck in a cycle where nothing I did helped. I compare it to being in a corn maze and hitting a wall every direction I turned. This went on for a while, and some of the symptoms got very scary. I had night time episodes which were akin to mini seizures, I would awake gasping for air, choking, gagging, pale, groggy. Scary stuff. A big part of the reason I didn't update this blog on the personal front is because every time I tried I didn't know what to write. If I just talked about how bad I felt without having an answer then it would have been just one long post where I complained. And I really hate ever coming across like that.
So, I waited. I waited until I finally started taking steps in the right direction. To recap: I tried to begin treating the Protomyxzoa (one of my co-infections) by doing 3 months of a standard parasite cleanse. This was to prep my body by cleaning out any small parasites that might be in the body, and get me ready for the big guns when we treat the Protomyxzoa, which is a blood borne parasite. Well, when I got to round 2 it became obvious that my stomach was not tolerating the meds what so ever. Which was an issue. On top of that my night time episodes were getting more severe. So I halted treatment in hopes that I could just detox and get caught up and then jump back in. Well, instead of that happening I just got worse and worse. So I just spent my time trying to put out as many fires as possible, and managing symptoms any way I could.
Fast forward to now and here is what I learned and what is going on:
1. My new furniture was quite literally slowly poisoning me. At the end of January I re-did my room. I was very conscientious to buy non-VOC paint (VOC is chemicals in paint that can be strong and effect the nervous system), and I took all the precautions to make sure no toxins got in there. Once my room was freshly painted with this safe paint, I ordered this gorgeous new white furniture. What I did not realize then was that new furniture is FULL of chemicals; Formaldehyde being a prominent one. When you buy new furniture it takes a while for it to "off-gas," which means how long it takes the furniture to stop emitting the toxic fumes into the air. Furniture typically takes 1-7 YEARS. Yes, I said years. So here I was in my room with this new furniture, which left me breathing in VOC's around the clock. For someone like myself I have many chemical sensitivities. And I also have trouble detoxing due to my genetics. Therefore slowly but surely these toxins built up in my system. These particular toxins also are mostly neurotoxins which means they act on the nervous system (the brain), and hence my crazy symptoms in that realm. Just to test this theory I moved out of my room into another room in the house that is safe and I immediately felt better. Within a day my brain had calmed down and my nights were much more smooth. So, unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) my theory was correct. Now I'm working on ways to remedy the situation, I will keep you all posted on that in case this interests anyone else. I can't possibly urge you all enough to try and think about what is in your environment if you get a flare. Sometimes there is hidden mold, other times its other chemicals that snuck in. Do your research! The change for me getting out of the environment was almost immediate and life changing. I always did notice in the past that when I left my bedroom for extended periods of time I felt better. I just could not figure out why, until it dawned on me when I put 2 and 2 together. Headboards, mattresses, pillows, furniture, carpet, flooring... these are all things that omit VOC's.
2. I will spare you the details on how this came about, but I just began treating for Giardia Lamblia. If you are not familiar with this bug, it is one that burrows into the walls of the stomach and causes G.I distress. Giardia can turn chronic because it is able to protect itself in cyst form, and hence why it is often missed. It is in the parasite/protozoa family and can tend to be cyclic and flaring at night, among a lot of other things. As soon as I started treatment for it I felt absolutely miserable. Which was a sign that I was doing the right thing. I am on day 5 of a 60 day treatment, so prayers that I get through this would be very much appreciated. It's been probably one of the toughest things I have done in a long time. There is really not much I can do to relieve the symptoms as I go through it. I have tried a wide variety of things but thus far nothing has particularly made a large amount of difference. I think I'm going to just have to muscle through, I'm just trying to get through the days and know that at the end of this I will be so thankful for treating it! The fact that I have had this bad of a reaction just goes to show that it is indeed pretty severe and pretty deep down in my stomach. I'm just so happy that at least I know this will give me relief in the long run. For those of you curious I am doing the Deseret Biologicals Giardia Lamblia Series Therapy. I love DesBio, they are hands down amazing in terms of treatment plans. And no, I'm not being paid a cent to say that!
Okay, I think that about covers it. For now I am hunkering down and working on treating the Giardia, staying out of my toxic room until I can come up with a plan to get the chemicals out, and I will keep the whole length of my Giardia treatment covered under the Treatment Blog tab (tab up top) for those of you interested in following along. I won't be posting about it here on my main page until I'm finished and have some news to report.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
xoxo,
Christina
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