Good words to wake up to in email this morning. I had my MRI on Thursday and the results are already in, no sign of MS. It looks like all this weird arm/shoulder stuff could be cervical cord compression which makes sense given the state of my neck. I’ll know more on Friday when I go in and discuss this but was just very glad to find out that I definitively do NOT have MS. Huge relief.
Monthly Archives: May 2015
The Zen of shooting
I know that seems like a weird title but today I found out how shooting really is an act of Zen. I went for another shotgun lesson at Seattle Trap & Skeet Club today with ClayBrakn shooting instructor Frank Neumayer since I knew I needed to become a better shot before fall rolls around and I’m back out in the field after birds. On our last outing in March I sucked at clays but ended up doing OK on birds because my instincts took over.
More tests back, some good news
While my recent still positive SIBO test would have been considered negative until this last year it was still pretty good news that my levels were at the lowest they’d been in the whole time I’ve been dealing with this. Today I got back my Diagnos-Tech panel and my blood work and it was actually all pretty good news from it too.
Stopping anti-microbials, focusing on motility
After my test on last Friday which showed I had dropped to the lowest levels yet in my SIBO journey I met with Dr. Keller yesterday morning to discuss what to do next. We started out reviewing my results and asking about my symptoms. In general, most days my symptoms are way down. Compared to last year at this time I’m 95% better, able to eat more, and have very few symptoms. I had even eaten a bunch of semi-illegal food over the weekend in Portland, probably even getting glutened by accident on Sunday night, and felt fine. In fact, I walked all over creation, ate restaurant food and managed to gain weight! Hearing this she thought maybe it was time to lay off the anti-microbial herbs instead of beating this thing to death over the last few points on the graph.
Portland Paleo
Another great trip to Portland full of incredible Paleo food yet again. This place amazes me, it is the only city I feel totally comfortable traveling to without worrying about what I can or can’t eat, it beats Seattle hands down for food options. In February we ate at The Imperial, the restaurant of Top Chef 3rd place finisher Doug Adams, which was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten and at Cultured Caveman which was good old Paleo comfort food. This time we added a few other places to our list.
Still have it after 20 months
My high numbers on all 8SIBO tests for the last 16 months
I had my 8th SIBO test yesterday at the SIBO Center in Portland while we are down here for a long weekend. The good news – my numbers are down even lower than the test in February, in fact the lowest they have been during this whole strange trip I’ve been on. The bad news – I’m still positive for SIBO. I only have 7 points to go on methane to get to a true negative test at this point. The frustrating thing is that I just did a protocol for 8 weeks that was shown to clear SIBO in 85% of cases and all it did for me was take a few points off each of my methane and hydrogen levels.
Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3…
I took my last handful of herbal antimicrobials last night and am getting ready to do the prep diet tomorrow for re-testing on Friday morning at the SIBO Center in Portland. A few weeks ago I would have said that I thought I had this thing licked but then I started having some evening symptoms again so now I’m not sure what to expect from this test. I’ve used up all the protocols I know of so if I’m still positive I’m going to have to figure out what the heck to do next. I will be reviewing the results with Dr. Keller on Monday morning so will have a chance to sort this out.
To dog or not to dog
This past few months we’ve been discussing whether or not to get a dog, specifically a bird dog. After my hunting excursion this spring I decided you kind of need a dog here, the terrain here is nothing like the marches through Iowa cornfields that I grew up hunting and a dog seems pretty essential. I also miss Isan and would like to have a dog companion around since I’m a bit more house bound than I’m used to being.
I decided to turn this into a whole research project so we began investigating breeds before settling in on a German Shorthair Pointer. This is a good bird dog, a good family dog and a very athletic dog perfect for hiking or trail running. Catherine ran into a client that has a GSP and absolutely loves the dog, it is their child. She gave us a bunch of resources and this began a search for breeders and trainers in the area plus a bunch of reading about dog training for a gun dog. Luckily the Pheasants Forever magazine this quarter was all about dogs so I got a bunch of resources from it. I located Sage Brush Gun Dogs in Ellensburg which raises and trains GSPs, I also know that our guide from Red’s just had pups too that are in the same line as Katie above. I just finished reading The Ultimate Guide to Bird Dog Training and Wing & Shot to get an idea of what would be involved with training one of these dogs, both excellent books that gives you a very sobering look at how much work and time is involved in developing a bird dog.
Autoimmune results back
This was kind of a tough week. On Monday I went in to see Dr. Bowen and we went over my autoimmune panel results. Not too surprising something showed up, I knew something had or she would have e-mailed me the results. I was in the equivocal range for Myelin Basic Protein antibodies, not necessarily high but in the top portion of the normal range. I knew what that meant right away, back to the specter of MS hanging over my head. She suggested I get back in to see Dr. Srivatsal, my neurologist, and get an MRI so we can rule this out or deal with it. Everything else was fine which was really good news.
Starting the (hopefully) last round
I finish up my second break week this week in the Mullen Protocol and am ready to start my last round of it in the morning, I organized my pills this morning. I really debated whether or not to even do this last few weeks since I’ve been feeling so much better but I decided that it wouldn’t hurt just to get in a last 10-12 days and see if I can knock this stuff out all the way. This break week went well, I only did one of the S.boulardii caps a day instead of two and had no bad reaction to that. I have had pretty much no SIBO symptoms all week long, just a bit of deeper stuff very occasionally late in the evening and even that is nothing.