Jan-July 2023
It’s been a while since I posted and a lot has happened since. To be honest for the most part (feb-jun) of this year was awful and I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. I don’t even know where to start and this would be a huge post if I wrote down everything that happened and all the details, so I’ll just summarize:
• I tested negative finally for high risk HPV, I still had one strain positive from last year and it finally cleared. I definitely think the investment on some supplements (and diet) was worth it. I wasn’t going anywhere before with the traditional approach of “waiting and watching” and things were getting worse. Since I started my protocol things definitely improved and “fast”. The not so good part is that the deep pelvic pain I started to feel as soon as I became intimate with my partner is still here, and I now believe he passed me something that ultimately became a permanent problem although HPV is dormant. And no, I don’t have any visible problem and all tests are negative and I did pelvic therapy that didn’t help. From symptoms, it fits endometriosis (I have Adenomyosis confirmed) but I’m not doing a laparoscopy anytime soon.
• Treatment for SIBO with herbals gave me diarrhea with weight loss although my stools turned temporarily brown with Berberine and neem. I was already underwheight and had to stop. Rifaximin after, didn’t give me diarrhea but didn’t solve the yellow stools and by the end of the treatment also triggered my gut (although no diarrhea) with further weight loss. I hit my all time low after this. Very underwheight, even my period became irregular. Zero energy, and a bunch of stomach pains immediately after..
• I developed gastritis and intestinal pains and tested positive for H.Pylori. Natural treatment didn’t work and my functional doctor eventually had to put me on a PPI and do the conventional antibiotic therapy that by the way is extremely aggressive. I developed severe gastritis, housebound, in a lot of pains 24/7 and sleep deprived. For months I couldn’t work. I was a wounded animal sitting in a couch all day. Tbh it’s psychologically hard to describe these months so I’ll just leave it at this.
• After Pylera (antibiotics) my gut was even worse, as expected, but it worked for Pylori. My diet is now extremely limited to what my stomach can cope, and I’m eating only very bland foods well cooked and non-acidic until the stomach walls fully recover which can take many months to a year. I believe that by the time I did Pylera I developed ulcers, such were the pains. I have to eat still very frequently, every 2h or so and I’m finally getting better. It took me a month after the therapy to get off PPIs and I’d be much more comfortable if I were still on them but the side effects are no joke and for SIBO is definitely not good, my gut hates the PPIs so I got off of them as soon as I could. I endured the acid rebound pains although I tappered slowly. I’m now able to work and go outside as long as I take all the food I need with me at all times and keep eating frequently. Im not kissing or sharing anything with my partner (saliva wise) for the next foreseeable months. A lot could be said about this, and how unnecessary this is but I have my reasons regardless of what any doctor says.
• Gut: As for the yellow and loose stools those still continue and are overall worse than before especially the yellow part. Bile issues have been discarded a long time ago and if Berberine and Neem temporarily worked, means it’s a bacterial problem. Although I’m sensitive to fats - but also a lot of other things - so, a conundrum. All carbohydrates even low FODMAP ones give me yellow stools. I don’t have any Candida though and have done antifungals. I’m a puzzle. I wasn’t sensitive to gluten at all although I’ve been gluten free for over a year - yet recently with the gastritis I tried white bread and the intestinal pains it triggered were insane. I also have pains in my cecum and ascending colon every time the stools are firm, which means somehow they put pressure in that area when passing. I don’t think I have a ileocecal valve dysfunction but my functional doc at this point doesn’t know what else to do with me. I’ll be pursuing other avenues if I can in the future. The majority of supporting supplements either do nothing or make me worse, and my stomach can’t handle them now (gastritis). I’ve seen another gastroenterologist - supposedly one of the bests in the country - and the gaslighting and mistreatment was such I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I went to a psychiatrist, forced by this doc that told my family this is all in my head. Ignoring the positive test for pylori and my gastritis pains! And ofc the psychiatrist didn’t find anything wrong with me, just said if there was something that couldpotentially help would be amytriptiline. I was on it for a while but because it solved basically nothing at all the psychiatrist told them there’s nothing mentally wrong with me.
• These past few months I had significant discussions with family and even partner. If I wasn’t struggling mentally before, there were many times where I felt I was starting to break apart. The sleep deprivation (from pains), the inability to work or leave the house, coupled with lack of moral support, hurt me, and there are things I heard I don’t think I’ll be able to forget. Including from my partner, that was always supportive but at some point he wasn’t, and some things he said (for me) were a red flag.
Everything is better lately though. And if there is one positive thing is that for the first time in 2years I managed to gain 2kg after pylori treatment and with the gastiris diet. I had lost 10Kg. Still have a long way to go, I have nutritional deficiencies and I don’t even want to test my ferritin at this point.
• There are many layers to all of this, a lot of details I skipped. If anyone has doubts I’ll answer any questions. I still can’t get over how Cefuroxime for the bladder managed to turn my stools yellow and triggered everything I’m going through now. Oh, as for bladder I had one post coital infection (e.coli) after the Pylera therapy because I couldn’t keep up with the proper dmannose dosage on empty stomach- I managed to treat it under 2 weeks on high dosages of Dmannose at the expense of stomach pains (empty stomach hurts like hell for gastritis, but it’s the only way dmannose works properly for me). But all of this confirms what I initially felt: I am still dependent on dmannose for post coital infection prevention. Although it works now and before fulguration it wasn’t enough. What I don’t have anymore is those random and frequent flares (in my case, full blown UTIs) all the time.
As if all of this wasn’t enough, my mother underwent major surgery to remove half her pancreas and spleen, due to pre cancerous cells. She’s still in hospital, and now I’m having to take care of my parents house, my father, and still take care of me and cook and eat every 2h and pause when my stomach starts hurting.
I have no idea when I’ll post again, but I will at some point when I have new and significant progress.
(as an European non-English native please feel free to correct me) Take care 🌿















