Ended up at Primacare the other night.  I was lifting my wife's uncle's Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC - bet most here don't recall what that was) footlocker when the handle broke and it landed on my left foot.  The bruising and swelling looked a lot like a similar break a few years ago so I hobbled into Primacare; a local "doc in a box" that I knew from past experience had an x-ray machine.  Turns out that I had not broken the foot.

The worst part of it is that I can't blame any of this on the reaction to the last pulse since the aftermath has been completely unremarkable.

Fifteenth pulse completed today. 

Overall, had the same experience as the last few pulses of getting "supercharged" after starting the flagyli [5].  Also, had very severe shortness of breath a couple of times reminiscent of my experience in Chicago.  If I had not already had the experience of making a trip to the Emergency Room in Chicago last year, I would have probably ended up going to check out what the E.R. looked like a Houston's Memorial Herrman hospital.  I've heard its a good one.  Anyway, the dyspnea passed and I'm now just waiting for the endotoxinsi [9] to hit.

I also have to remember to keep it a secret from my son that flagyl turns the color of urine orange since that's his favorite color.  

 

 

A week after pulse #14 completed and I was in Toledo when I started having shortness of breath problems just like those that sent me to the hospital back in September 2007 (see prior blog posts for all the gory details). 

Since I knew that this was probably just a visit from Dame Endotoxini [11] the Mistress of Misery, I just upped my charcoal intake and made sure I didn't miss any WelChol tablets and it has pretty much cleared up on its own.

Guess this means I'm killing something.  Can't wait for November to start pulse #15.

Was well into pulse #14 when I got side-lined by a stomach bug that went through town.  I couldn't keep anything down for 36 hours.  While it's not fun being sick on the road it does have at least one benefit - since most hotels use either a boiler or tankless system, I didn't have to worry about running out of hot water when I took 45 minute showers to try and calm down the body aches.  As soon as my stomach calmed down, I did resume the antibioticsi [13] so hopefully there was no harm done (except to the bugs).

You wouldn't know it by me. 

Three days post-pulse #13 and only mild reactions (mostly slight shortness of breath during stressful parts of the negotiations and the familiar "cog fog") so far.  

By the way, Oklahoma City is a real nice city.  The Murrah Building Memorial affected me more than I thought it would.  I think it was the small chairs that represented the children killed in the day care center that made it so emotional.

Thirteenth pulse of metronidazolei [5] (1,500 mg/day) plus Isoniazid (300 mg/day) completed today.  Since about pulse seven I've felt "energized" during the pulse and have had little post-pulse reaction.  This pulse was different with reaction (lethargy, confusion, pain in various areas) starting two days into the pulse.  I'll keep you posted on the post-pulse reaction.

When I was in surveying class, the instructor described the process that one should follow as: "We complete the field work, take our measurements, do the computations and then try everything we can think of to prove ourselves WRONG.  Failing that, we cautiously concede we may be right."

I don't know that I've done everything to prove myself wrong, but I'm going to cautiously concede that the decison to add the amoxicillini [15] was right. 

I have blogged several times suggesting that people (like me) who are doing the CAPi [19] on their own stick religiously to one of the protocolsi [20] until they had enough experience with it to know how they were going to react and thus have a "baseline" for comparison with any changes that they make. 

I have followed this advice for a year through 12 flagyli [5] pulses.  Having lamented about the fact that I was not getting the kind of reaction to the later pulses that I got to the earlier ones, I decided to make a change.  Knowing the NACi [21] and Amoxicillini [15] had the same effect on CPni [22] Elementary Bodies, but that Amoxicillin was also effective against other pathogens that might be co-infectionsi [23], I decided to add Amoxicillin to my antibioticsi [13].  

The Texas sun beat down relentlessly on his sweat-covered brow.  The sawdust blowing up from the unshielded tablesaw got caught in the sweat and rolled past the safety goggles into his eyes.  The throught flashed through his mind, "I haven't had the saw out since my diagnosis so I wonder if the cog fog is going to get the better of me and I'll end up slicing off a finger?" 

Well, I'm typing this with nine fingers.  I didn't cut any of them off, but I did get a nasty splinter. 

Pulse Number 12 completed on August 28, 2008 and I didn't get a chance to find out what any of the Emergency Rooms looked like.  I'll report more on the die-off aftermath when and if there is anything to report, but so far it has been unremarkable.

 

On the road again

Just can't wait to get on the road again

The life I love is doin' Flagyli [5] in strange towns

And I can't wait to get on the road again.

Pulse #12 beckons.  In Houston this time. 

 

Pulse #11 completed August 1, 2008. 

Well, it's time to start pulse #11.  Unlike the last few pulses, I'm not going to be on the road while I do this one.  The tension of being out of town and wondering if I was going to have a reaction that would leave me spending the night in a hospital emergency room just added to the "excitement" of each trip.  Being home for a pulse may make the week anticlimactic.  I'll let you know if anything interesting happens.

Well, first the good news.  I didn't get to find out what the Emergency Rooms looked like in Arkansas.

The better (or worse, depending on how you look at it) news is that after next to no reaction to my last few pulses, I am having significant side effects this time:

Well, it's time for pulse #10.  I'm also scheduled to leave on a trip tomorrow.  I thought about postponing the pulse out of fear of resuming my old bad habit of "touring the nation's emergency rooms", but for the last several pulses I have actually felt best during the pulse, so I decided I would go ahead.  If it turns out to be a bad decision, I will let you know what the Emergency Rooms look like in Hot Springs, Little Rock, Searcy and/or Salem, Arkansas. 

Also, I went ahead and added atherosclerosis to the index terms since I've also got it although I'm doing this for the M.S.