Life with the Candida Monster

February Update

2012-02-21T14:38:00.000-08:00

Wow, time flies by doesn't it? There is so much craziness going on but I continue to heal more day by day. I got a full-blown sinus infection a week and a half ago, and am now pretty much over it. The best part - I used NO pharmaceuticals whatsoever. Not that I wasn't tempted to try to get some relief, but I knew that everything I have been through to heal hinged on me not going on antibiotics to destroy all the progress I have made so far. I've dealt with a couple of sinus infections just trying to start, but this is the first one that got all the way to full blown. Apparently it decided to sneak up on me.

I've been through two colds, a zit outbreak, and now a full blown sinus infection with my new way of doing things. As much as being sick sucks, I am starting to look at these illnesses as a learning opportunity. I research, and I find ways of dealing with it to help my body naturally.

For instance, I now know that homeopathic hepar sulphur calcareum ROCKS at dealing with zits. It also works well for sinus infections. For the sinus infection I bumped up my Sovereign Silver orally to three times a day, plus doubled the dose of aged garlic (morning and night instead of just at night) I normally take. It's been interesting watching the snot colors change (gross I know) from the yellowish-green that is classic of the infection and watching it go back to clear within a matter of a couple of days, so I know the combination is fighting the infection. Everything has been pretty much clear now for about a week, but occasionally I get little bits with a bit of infection still in it.

I started out with using Sovereign Silver and SinuOrega as nasal sprays and alternating them, but I quickly realized the SinuOrega was making my symptoms worse in this case. It usually burns pretty badly, but my headache would get worse each time I used it. So I tried a new xylitol/grapefruit seed extract nasal spray called Xlear and alternated that with the Sovereign Silver and it seemed to work much better. It's a more soothing product than the SinuOrega.

I also discovered that homeopathic belladonna seemed to be the remedy of choice for my really bad sinus headache this time instead of phosphorus. Once I made the switch over to the new nasal spray and belladonna I finally got some relief from the pain. Of course my old standbys allium cepa and kali bichromicum were a big help as always in the snottiness/congestion department. I also got a little Olbas inhaler thingie that I LOVE. It really helped keep my sinuses opened up. It's all pepperminty/eucalyptusy scented.

So a week and a half later I'm still using my garlic/oral Sovereign Silver and alternating doses of Sovereign Silver and Xlear nasal sprays. I'm still having to use belladonna in the mornings and right before bed, because my sinuses just feel a bit sore and kind of dull achy, and it really helps. I know this means there is still inflammation in there, and I'll have to keep treating for another week or two. It's not gone yet, but I know I've got it on the run.

Interestingly I found that massage, acupressure and reflexology also helps. I went to a massage therapist and she did some reflexology stuff to stimulate my lymphatic system and some sinus massage to help drain everything. Then she showed me some pressure points to use daily to help continue to keep the sinuses draining. The next morning I got up and felt SO much better.

Probably the hardest part of this whole process is getting my head knowledge down to my heart. Knowing I can trust my body to heal, that it wants to heal, and that all I need to do is support it is great. But it's so contrary to the notions I've grown up with that the body does stupid things and we don't understand why so you have to take drugs to suppress the stupid body. Getting that knowledge from my head to my heart is hard. I still am fearful, thinking things like "what if this doesn't work" or "what if my body can't handle this one" or "what if I can't figure out what my body needs to help it." But I am learning and growing stronger by the day. I know that knowledge is slowly making its way from my head to my heart.

Even my mom got really ticked at me that I wouldn't go see the nurse down at the Walgreen's and get some antibiotics on day two of the sinus infection. A lot of times I feel like I'm alone in this, especially when people are telling me I'm being silly for not taking the drugs.

My depression is continuing to get better. I haven't had many more signs of the twitchies recently, so I'm just watching for now. While I've been sick I don't want to mess with anything. But I still feel like I am going to be able to get off of the drug, even my doctor thinks so at this point.

Over the past couple of months I have actually been able to slowly adjust my body to some oral magnesium. The lotion is great, but I didn't feel like I was getting quite enough from it.

So I got some of the Natural Calm magnesium powder and started taking it in teeny doses. The normal dose is two rounded teaspoons, but I had to start out with 1/4 tsp. a day. Not much, but I took that for a while, and let my intestines adjust to the dose, then upped it to 1/2 tsp. a day, let my body adjust and so forth. Now I am up to a full 2 tsp. a day, only I take it in 1 tsp. doses twice a day. So far my intestines seem to be handling it with no problems. Eventually I'll be able to do rounded teaspoons. I can tell a difference in my anxiety and stress level when I take it.

Cleaning Out the Cosmetics Drawer

2011-12-11T17:13:00.001-08:00

I'm continuing to make progress day by day. My digestion has gotten tons better since switching to a topical magnesium supplement and adding digestive enzymes to my regimen. I got the Ancient Minerals Magnesium Lotion and it seems to be working pretty well for me. Plus with all the coconut oil in it my skin is all silky smooth too. Two birds, one stone. Love it!

I've also been working my way through all my cosmetics. I got into some gluten containing foundation or moisturizer and my chin broke out pretty badly. It's healing up now thanks to a switch to some known gluten free products and the Sovereign Silver First Aid Gel. That little gel works wonders on zits. Like I've said before, I have never known of anything that works on cystic acne, and one did try to pop up, but it pulled a Barney Fife and nipped it in the bud.

I feel bad having throw out so much of my old stuff, but it's much better to be safe, since I know I'm reacting to this stuff now. My first priority was my lip glosses, since they run the risk of getting into my intestinal tract. Now I've moved on to verifying ingredients and manufacturing for everything.

On the up side since I'm a lip gloss-aholic, I've been able to buy a bunch of all new lip glosses. Yay!

Healing Tendons, Raw Cheese, and Digestive Enzymes

2011-12-03T19:25:00.001-08:00

The one thing that amazes me on this journey is how much I continue to learn about what my body needs on a daily basis. Thanks to my great chiropractors and the double dose of turmeric I am taking daily, my hip is healing fast. It still stiffens a little bit when I've been sitting for a while, but there is no pain any more. But the stiffness is getting less and less, and quickly shakes off after walking around a few minutes.

I've also started eating raw cheese on a daily basis. It's truly interesting because I was having such a hard time with any dairy, but this doesn't make me nauseated at all. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a good source for raw milk. I've been getting organic kefir which is pasteurized, but the fermentation process seems to make it quite digestible for me. Plus it's giving me probiotics. So now I can eat raw cheese, kefir, and ghee without problems. Apparently this is pretty common for people recovering from either celiac or gluten intolerance from what I've been reading online. For some reason we just can't handle the lactose, but in the kefir and ghee there is no lactose. Interestingly, raw cheese still has the enzymes from the momma cow to help her baby digest the lactose. So I'm guessing lactose is my culprit there.

I'm still having problems when I eat anything outside of vegetables, meat, and nuts. Any kind of carbs do not go well, not that I eat many. But I have found some digestive enzymes that are really helping quite a bit. Initially I ignored the suggestion that I take digestive enzymes in the Body Ecology Diet book, but I started having some intestinal issues again. Apparently that was a combination of my oral magnesium supplement and needing some extra digestive help. I started the digestive enzymes with meals and it got a lot better but still not 100%, but then I realized that the magnesium can have a laxative effect, so I stopped it and now I'm back to normal.

Fortunately I don't have to take the enzymes with everything, but I do have to watch anything with any real carbs in it, like brown rice and some seeds. If I eat anything at all questionable, like something a restaurant or relative has prepared I take them to be safe.

As far as the magnesium goes, I have a magnesium lotion coming to try supplementing through the skin, as I know the magnesium is really good for me. But I guess my system can't handle it orally.

The Case of the Curious Eczema Recurrence and a Torn Tendon

2011-11-05T15:39:00.000-07:00

It has been an eventful few weeks. I found out this week that a problem I have been having with my hip since I tripped and landed squarely on the pointy hip bit that sticks out beside the tummy are due to a partially torn tendon on the iliac crest. Fun fun! Fortunately it will heal with some help. I started seeing the chiropractor this week and it has helped. Last week the pain and stiffness was getting pretty bad, but I couldn't get in to see the chiropractor til this week, so I started taking New Chapter Turmeric Force twice a day. It really has helped manage the pain a lot. Even the chiropractor told me that staying on the turmeric would be huge in helping me heal up.

My biggest mystery of the past few weeks was the recurrence of some pretty bad patches of eczema on my scalp. Up til now it had been pretty well under control, save for a few flaky spots here and there, but definitely showing continuous improvement over the last few months. All of the sudden it flared up big time and was actually scabbing up again. This was definitely not good. I finally figured out that I had started using some remaining leave-in conditioner for my hair, that I had from a while back. My hair had been dried out from two beach trips over the past couple of months (who knew salt air could wreak havoc on hair?), so I had started using it a few weeks ago. Finally my brain made the connection and guess what I found on the ingredients list? Yep, hydrolized wheat gluten.

Geez. I sent Ojon (the product maker) a rather irate letter explaining that they needed to do a better job formulating their products, especially with the growing numbers of people with gluten sensitivity. I also checked out most of their products at Sephora and most contain wheat. Their response ... we have experts formulating our products ... will pass this along ... reading between the lines the response appeared to be basically "we don't give a crap." Nothing like "gee, we're sorry our product made your scalp self-destruct."

So I went to EarthFare and got some gluten free hair care stuff by Hugo Naturals. Hopefully that will calm my scalp back down in a bit. I also got this yummy gluten free brown sugar and kumquat sugar scrub from them too. With winter coming up, a good sugar scrub is a must!

I never imagined when all this started that I'd have to completely go through all my personal care products and start trashing anything with wheat or wheat derivatives in it. Fortunately I found a list online of stuff to look for in the ingredients lists. I remember about a month ago helping pack up cookies at a wake after a memorial service and noticed my hands got itchy, but thought it was just my imagination. Maybe not. I did have the good sense not to eat them, but I didn't think touching it would be a problem. Now I think I really do have a full blown allergy to wheat.

Oddly enough I was talking to my chiropractor about the whole gluten thing while he was adjusting me, and he said that he thinks that 90% or more of all humans are gluten intolerant to some degree, but just don't know it. Interestingly even my dog's allergies have improved since he has switched to a wheat free formula. So what the heck has happened to our wheat to make it so toxic?

Change of Seasons

2011-10-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

The period came and went uneventfully, so I appear to be on the right track with the whole food iron supplementation and ferrum phos. All I needed was a little arnica for some minor cramplets one day and I was good.

Due to the changing seasons here in East Tennessee, my sinuses have been a bit more trouble than usual. Our weather changes from moment to moment between hot and cold, rainy and dry when the seasons are changing so it's not terribly surprising that my body is having trouble keeping up and it's manifesting in my sinuses. Still, it's not nearly as bad as it used to be.

I'm having to keep up with the SinuOrega and Sovereign Silver nasal sprays multiple times a day and it is helping. They seem to be a lot less irritated, especially with the SinuOrega. I guess it irritates the crap out of them all at once and there's no irritated left by the time it's done. There was some blood coming out while blowing my nose and I could feel scabby-crusty stuff forming in the sinuses, but some hepar sulphur calcareum for a few days got that under control. I read somewhere that it's supposed to be good for that, and it worked like a charm. That's definitely going to stay on my go-to sinus drama list.

Doggie Drama

My Boxer recently had to have surgery to remove a small benign tumor in one of his lower eyelids that was really irritating him. The vet had to take a V shaped section out of his eyelid to get all of it, and he did great up until a few days after surgery. Then he pawed at his stitches and scratched his lid. There was blood everywhere. The dog, the carpet, me - EVERYWHERE. Honestly I thought he had gouged his eye out. So I put his cone collar on and took him back to the vet and it was just a little scratch, and he didn't do any damage to the stitches or incision (thank goodness!).

Anyhow, his eye got super irritated after we got him cleaned up and home from the vet. There was some blood tinged pus coming out of the eye almost constantly. I got an eye dropper and started flushing his eye out with Sovereign Silver a couple of times a day. Admittedly, the boy was not thrilled with it, but he tolerated it well and his eye cleared up and healed up beautifully. His stitches came out yesterday and he's my happy, handsome Boxer boy again!

So Far, So Good

2011-10-10T09:34:00.001-07:00

According to my period tracker I am about 2 days out, give or take, from starting my period. So far I haven't had any advance symptoms of PMS. Considering last month's stellar performance after having been on the Blood Builder and ferrum phos for a month straight, I am expecting nothing major this month either.

Periods without PMS ... I would never have thought it possible.

I am starting to notice some definite effects of the Camu Gold now. It was subtle at first, so it was hard to pinpoint. Really I am just feeling more joyful and upbeat, even at work. Work is especially hard as I am in a very high stress field and around people who are pretty much in panic mode 24/7. I think the Camu is making a difference there.

The Death and Demise of a Cystic Zit

2011-10-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I had my first official zit since starting on the Silver/Aloe Protocol back in April. Before I was on birth control pills I would get horrible cystic acne, especially on my chin, that would get pretty big and painful. The mounds would get as big as half of a small marble on the surface of my skin and they would hurt so bad. Even worse, they would last for weeks at a time and no over the counter acne meds would touch them. Typically the end result is that I'd get so frustrated with there being no end in sight to the zit and break out the rubbing alcohol and a sewing needle and go digging in the zit for the infection. I'd open the thing up and get out all the infection and then alcohol it to death, leaving a huge scab and a lovely scar. Fun times!

I still get some clogged pores here and there on my chin, now that I'm off the birth control pills and on my new organic/homeopathic lifestyle, but those have never gotten infected and I've been able to easily extract them using an aethetician's tool. Clogged pores are pretty normal for us oily skinned girls anyway. But this one decided to go rogue on me. I felt it starting to swell with a tiny bit of pain, but not bad. It came up to a bit of a bump, more like the head of a pin. I started slathering my chin with Sovereign Silver First Aid Gel immediately.

The zit never got any bigger, and the pain stopped, and then the zit went down to being not visible within 5 days of twice daily application of the gel. I can still barely feel a bump under the surface of my skin, so I'm still applying the gel. But that was FAST.

Any doctor will tell you that cystic acne is the most difficult to treat, because the infection is deeper in the skin and it never comes to a head like normal zits. Instead they just look like giant cysts. I have tried EVERYTHING on the market to fight these. The Sovereign Silver must be able to penetrate way down into the skin to get to the infection somehow. Admittedly I was taking the oral Sovereign Silver as well, to help with the recovery from my cold, and a little bit of sinus crud from the sudden weather change from summer to much cooler weather. Still, I think it was the First Aid Gel that made the difference.

Cold Update and Other News

2011-09-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

I'm on day 6 of the cold. Other than an occasional gob of phlegm hitting my vocal cords and making me sound like I'm under water for a few seconds I'm doing really well. I'm not even really sniffling today. All the noticeable symptoms of a cold are gone. I'm still a good bit tired, but that's from pushing myself through 10 hour days at work in spite of the fever and other symptoms. Unfortunately I was just in a position where I couldn't be out sick. Honestly, I feel pretty normal today minus the tireds.

One of the ladies I spoke to at the office who had the cold well before me said that she still had a cough hanging on a couple of weeks later. My cold, on the other hand, never made it down into my lungs. That's a minor miracle considering I used to have major problems with asthma, and anything that got into my head or sinuses was usually destined to head straight for the lungs.

So this cold bug has been hanging on for weeks in other people, but I knocked it out in 5 days with NO drugs. Wow!

I really can't get over how much things have changed for me. It was a tough decision for me to let the fever run its course naturally when I had no choice but to keep working regardless of how sick I was. I could have caved and gone for pharmaceutical intervention. But now I see the results. Even with my work schedule, supporting the fever instead of suppressing it was worth it.

In other news...

... I have my first tan! I have always had porcelain white skin and have never in my life been able to get a tan. But when I was on vacation I was out in the sun all day and I didn't want to block all the good vitamin D, so I only put a teensy bit of sunscreen on my face. I did get a little bit of pink around my decollete, but never really burned. I put some Sovereign Silver first aid gel on the pinkishness and never had any problem with it, although I did cover it up the next day to be safe. Now I have an awesome tan on my face, arms and decollete, and even a little on my legs (so anti-tan stubborn it's not even funny - I could blind astronauts on the International Space Station with the glare off these babies).

The astaxanthin I have been taking must have made all this possible. I have never been able to hold sun, instead I'd just turn red as a lobster and then go back to pasty white as soon as the red went down. Now I have this nice sunny glow for a change. So fun for the girl who got called Snow White in school!!!

The Camu Explosion

I started taking my Camu Camu while I had a fever. My first bottle of Camu Gold I bought while I was on vacation had a defective dropper top and wouldn't release the drops. So when I pressed a little harder to try to get some out, the entire dropper top exploded out of the bottle and sent sticky camu-ness all over me, my hair, my face, my clothes, my desk, my computer, etc. Not fun.

But I do have to give props to the folks at Amazon Herb Company. I contacted them because I was rather ticked about the Camu explosion and subsequent cleanup ordeal. Even though I didn't buy the bottle directly from them, they replaced the bottle at no charge. Now that is a company that knows how to make things right!

So I got my replacement bottle and since I knew the Camu Gold had a ton of vitamin C in it, I started taking extra. I do think it helped to have the extra along with my regular daily dose of Vitamin C. I do feel like I'm getting a little pick up when I take it, but it's hard to really tell since I've been so sick. Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll start getting a better picture of whether or not it's helping my depression. The few depression symptoms I have left seem to be getting better and better by the week just from the nutritional and homeopathic intervention, so I'm excited to see how this may play in to that.

Battling a Cold

2011-09-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

Well here it is. My first official battle with an illness sans big pharma. I had to go out of town and Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, I woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible sore throat and sinuses feeling like they were on fire. I used some of my SinuOrega and Sovereign Silver nasal spray, thinking it was just sinus stuff, and took some kali bic and allium cepa. By the time I got up for work in the morning I felt like I'd been hit by a mack truck. I knew I was running a fever, even though I didn't have a thermometer. You know that weird tingly burning feeling you get on the skin of your face when you're sitting by the fire? That was what I had and my face was pretty flushed. I have no doubt it was running pretty high.

After listening to Robert Scott Bell's show when he's discussed fevers multiple times, I knew this was actually a good sign. I don't think I've had a fever when I've been sick since I was a kid. It is interesting to actually experience the whole "you're finally strong enough to have a fever" thing. Fortunately I keep homeopathic phosphorus in my purse for my occasional sinus headaches and popped some under my tongue once I realized I was running a fever. I also had some white willow bark tincture in my purse, and since my head was really hurting along with my throat, I mixed up some of that in a bit of water and drank it down. It really did help with the throat and headache. Then I took some Sovereign Silver orally, holding it under my tongue for 30 seconds, and gargling it back in my throat before swallowing.

Midday I ran to get some Zicam zinc lozenges, as I've had good luck with it before, and some Elderberry juice that had zinc, propolis and echinacea mixed in. I continued to take this along with the silver, phosphorus, kali bic and allium cepa several times a day. By day 2, the inflammation in my throat and sinuses had gone down and my voice was much better, minus the plegm flopping down on my vocal cords as it drained out of my sinuses.

I did have a little intestinal mischief with all the drainage, but I really think that the daily dose of chia seeds and Dr. Ohhira's probiotics saved me there. It never turned into diarrhea like it normally does when my sinuses go nuts. I am seriously in love with chia seeds now.

My fever finally went down on day 3 (Friday), but I was still tired from all my traveling for work this week. Today I'm spending the day resting and recovering. I've been blowing stuff out of my nose today like crazy, and I think that's a good sign.

It's been a rough few days being sick and exceptionally crazy days at work that I just couldn't miss, but I've done amazingly well with no pharmaceutical intervention whatsoever. My body seems determined to fight it. Before I would have been fighting my body with drugs to suppress the fever, suppress the sinuses working to clean themselves out, and all that. I can't say that it sucks any less being sick, but I seem to be a lot less sick and the symptoms seem to be resolving themselves faster than they would have in the past. Now all I need is sleep, sleep, and more sleep.

Vacation Time!

2011-09-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a great week-long vacation. It's amazing how much I learned about my body with the variance from my daily routine. I went to the coast and had a great time indulging in all sorts of new foods, but still I was very careful with what I ate and did not get one bit sick.

My morning smoothie routine stayed the same for breakfast. It is:

1 cup dairy kefir,
2 scoops chocolate Amazing Grass,
1 scoop One World Whey (chocolate),
1 cup coconut milk (I used to use almond milk but I decided I like coconut milk better),
8 drops of chocolate flavored stevia, and
2 tbsp. chia seeds.

It's amazing how much this helps me power through a long day. I spent a lot of time walking through several historical cities and on the beach in some pretty oppressive heat, typically I was on my feet from early in the morning until I went to sleep at night. I did get one minor heat headache, but I did not get dehydrated in the least or sick from it (thank you chia seeds!).

My friend who went with me did get dehydrated and heat exhausted, and I actually was having to slow myself down in the heat so she could keep up with me! My endurance and ability to cope with the climate was amazing, and so far beyond where I would have been just months ago. I am a little sore in my feet and ankles from walking on the beach, but some arnica montana really seems to be helping.

The interesting thing is that I started my period the day before I left, so I was in the heaviest part of my period while I was doing most of the walking in the heat. After being on the Mega Foods Blood Builder and ferrum phos. for an entire month I had no trouble whatsoever. No weakness, no energy loss, nothing. I really didn't even experience my usual PMS beforehand, although I did start taking my King Bio PMS Relief several days before I started. My blood loss was pretty par for the course as it has been for the past couple of months, but the difference in how I felt was substantial, especially with all the physical activity. Needless to say the Blood Builder and ferrum phos. are going to be a permanent part of my supplement regimen from here on out.

When it came to eating I made sure to get plenty of good lean protein and raw vegetables. I did indulge in dessert a couple of times, but was careful to stay gluten and grain free. My intestines stayed quite happy the whole trip. It's amazing how you can overindulge on a great salad and seafood and it totally doesn't mess with you or sit heavy on your stomach.

I picked up some Camu Gold from the Amazon Herb Company while I was on vacation, since I happened to run into some and have been meaning to try it to see how it helps with depression. Hopefully that will be a good report as well.

Why Didn't I Do This Sooner?

2011-08-23T18:04:00.000-07:00

I've been a little frustrated with ear canal issues and discharge for several years now. While the silver-aloe protocol seemed to help some, because I had discharge from my ears while I was on it, it didn't completely clear it up. There's actually so much gunk in my ears every morning that if I don't clean it out it affects my hearing a bit (and it smells funny!). Yesterday it was itching something awful, just driving me crazy. I had tried coating a cotton swab with the Sovereign Silver First Aid Gel and swirling it around in there a while back, which helped, but never really cleared it up. The itching was always back in a few hours.

So, I was frustrated enough that I finally did what I should have done months ago. I dumped an eye dropper full of the liquid sovereign silver down each ear canal, while laying on my side. Then I left it in for about 8 minutes and then sat up and let it run out. Then I put a little of the first aid gel around the outer part of the ear where my skin is a bit flaky. The difference this morning is amazing. The outer part of the ear is still a little itchy where there's some eczema, but the inner part of the ear canal is totally happy and not itchy. It doesn't feel like there's gunk in it like usual.

I have had some clear fluid discharge coming out of my ears today, sort of like water.

I'm going to keep doing this every night for a few days to clear it up. Apparently candida can grow and do exactly this itchy, crusty, gunky stuff in the ear canal, so I'm betting my ears have been one of the last bastions of candida in my body. Bye ear candida monster, you are going down!

Also I am working on my scalp eczema too. It's back a little but not nearly as bad as it was before the silver-aloe protocol. I read online that you can put about 10 drops of grapefruit seed extract (the same stuff I use diluted in water to clean my veggies) in your shampoo and leave it on for about 3-5 minutes. Talk about cheap, and using stuff I already had. I tried it for the first time last night. That would be awesome if it works!

Ch-ch-ch-chia!

2011-08-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

My intestines are getting back to normal now (the new healthy normal) after several days back on the silver aloe protocol. Another change I have made that seems to have really helped is the addition of chia seeds to my morning smoothies. I had been eating a lot of chia seeds early on in the form of chia seed pudding, but I have been so busy I haven't made any in a while.

Adding 2 tbsp. of chia to my 1 cup of organic kefir, 1 scoop of chocolate One World Whey, two scoops of Amazing Grass chocolate, and almond milk really seems to help. Sometimes I put a bit of extra raw cacao in it for some more chocolatey goodness. As a bonus it does keep me even more filled up than my smoothie alone. I have to put a little more almond milk in it to compensate for the liquid absorbing properties of the chia seeds, otherwise it would be too thick to drink. The chia is going to become a permanent addition to my morning smoothie.

I've also discovered flavored stevias which I am totally in love with. Sweet Leaf makes liquid flavored stevias in all sorts of flavors. So far I've tried the vanilla creme and chocolate and I love them both. The vanilla creme is especially awesome. I put a few drops of it in with my milk thistle and dandelion tincture (to help detox my liver) and it totally masks the nasty taste of the milk thistle and makes it yummy.

Crazy Life and 25 Pounds!

2011-08-16T17:33:00.000-07:00

Gee, it has been forever since I've updated. Life has gotten crazy lately. I am doing pretty well, especially on the depression side. I am holding at 20 mg of Prozac now, half of what I have been on for the last 5-7 years. It's pretty awesome! I am using homeopathic sepia as a single remedy and King Bio's Good Mood Enhancer to help support me in this.

My last period was a bit rough, as I appeared to be trying to detox some more and was losing a lot of blood again. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as the period from hell, but still rough. I had a really bad headache on the worst day that I thought was a sinus headache, but even with all the usual sinus remedies I couldn't get a handle on it. I took some white willow bark tincture in water and that took the worst of the edge off of it. I was also feeling pretty weak and puny.

Realizing I was losing a lot of blood, I went to the local health food store to get some ferrum phosphoricum and Mega Foods Blood Builder supplement to help support me like the last time. I popped the ferrum phos. pellets into my mouth walking out of the store and about 15 minutes later the headache was gone and my energy level perked up within an hour. My best guess is that this wasn't a sinus headache at all, but more of an anemic headache, as I've heard of people getting really bad headaches from anemia. By the next morning I felt SO much better.

I kind of wonder if perhaps there is a bit of iron deficiency going on, so I think I'm going to stay on the Blood Builder and ferrum phos. indefinitely. It's amazing to look at the bleeding in a whole new light, knowing my body is using it to throw out toxins. Before I would have been running to the doctor for something to "fix" it. Now I know there's nothing to fix, my body is doing exactly what it should be doing.

My intestines have gotten a little squirrely again, and I can see some bloating in my tummy so I'm going back on the silver/aloe protocol for a week or two. Robert mentioned on his radio show that this might be something that would be needed periodically, so I think it's a good time to restart it after four months. I was planning on doing it again at 6 months just to refresh everything.

It's not like I'm sliding backwards, health-wise as I'm continuing to make strides. My sinus episodes are becoming less and less frequent and less and less severe. Even when they do hit they are responding very quickly to the homeopathic meds and snorting Sovereign Silver and SinuOrega. I am changing my bed clothes much more frequently, since I sleep with my dogs (an allergy no-no I know, but they're just so darn cute and pitiful), and putting my pillows in the dryer on high heat for an extended time to kill any dust mites.

The diet is going well, and I'm learning new ways to prepare good organic foods and eating lots of veggies. This usually involves garlic. You can never have too much garlic.

Oh, and I hit 25 pounds gone now. I am hovering at 190!

Getting Stronger

2011-07-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

We've dropped my prozac dosage down due to the twitchies and I'm doing well at the new dosage. My doctor wants to follow up with me next week to make sure all is well. The twitchies have stopped, so that was definitely the culprit.

I'm also seeing more and more signs that my digestive system is getting stronger. I can eat small amounts of goat cheese now on rare occasions and I can tolerate two meals with raw vegetables a day. Before now I would have to have one of those meals with cooked vegetables to help me digest the food. These are small steps, but it's encouraging to see more and more progress as I go along.

I still can't believe I've come this far in just three months, but I have a feeling there is a lot more to come.

Twitchies Twitchies Everywhere

2011-07-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

Apparently I'm going to need to lower my antidepressant. I've been noticing more and more twitchies especially in other places besides my eyelids. These are the classic "too much prozac" twitchies where the muscle just goes into fast rapid spasms. A couple of days ago I had one in my side by my lower ribs that was driving me nuts. Today the muscle at the base of my thumb is going ape.

At this point I think we're going to have to go halfsies - back to the dose I was on in my twenties when I was first diagnosed. Wow. That is crazy. Cutting my prozac in half. I am calling the doc first thing tomorrow. Freaking awesome!

Three Years of Healing

2011-07-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting thing on a homeopathic web site, but I can’t remember where. It said that for every year you have been sick, that it will require a month to get well using homeopathic and natural detoxification methods. Wow! Considering that I’ve been sick most of my 36 years, that is about 3 years to approach a full healing of my body. I knew in my mind that this would be a long term process, but to put an objective number on it is a bit sobering.

Three years to get better. I’ve been mulling it over in my head for a while now. On the one hand it’s amazing that the human body can recover from a year’s worth of abuse and FDA-approved poison in just a month, but it really made me think about how far I have to go. Obviously my health is going to continue to improve, but it suddenly seems like a long way off. I guess the key is to focus on the progress I’ve already made in the past three months and let the next three years take care of themselves.

I am getting better by leaps and bounds, but there are occasional setbacks, like Thursday. Even the setbacks though seem to press the fact that I am getting better. I was sick as a dog yesterday, and woke up early in the morning well before my alarm went off and I was choking on snot running down the back of my throat. Up til yesterday my sinuses really hadn’t been bugging me much, so much so that I had cut back on my homeopathic remedies for my sinuses and allergies to only twice a day. But yesterday they cut loose.

The sinuses didn’t feel so bad, but I was coughing and gagging from the stuff draining out, and as the stuff ran down into my stomach it got all upset and nauseated. It was about all I could do to gag down my morning smoothie (which is really good!) and make it to my early workout before work. We did a light workout since I felt so crummy. By mid morning the snot had made it into my intestines and even more fun began. Then by lunch time I had a sinus headache that was really hurting and making me dizzy. This is always how my sinus infections start.

I started taking my phosphorus for the headache and upped my dose of kali bichromicum and allium cepa to try to help, and took some of the King Bio Headache Relief, but it didn’t really phase the headache too much. Fortunately when I got home and started flushing my sinuses with as much Sovereign Silver as I could squirt up my nose the headache finally let up. I went to bed early to let my body rest and recover, and slept with my head elevated.

When I woke up Friday morning I was fine and dandy. The sinuses are a bit sore if I press on the pressure points, but otherwise I’m good. They still seem to be draining some more stuff off. Before, I would have been heading to the nurse practitioner at the Walgreen's for some antibiotics that would take days to work (if at all), and now I knock it out in a day with homeopathic medicines, snorting silver, and a little rest. I guess that’s just another sign of how far I’ve come.

24 Pounds Gone and Assorted Random Musings

2011-07-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

I’ve officially lost 24 pounds as of Monday. Wow! That’s one pound short of a whole weight plate at the gym. It’s pretty crazy. People at work are really starting to notice and joke about how if I lose any more weight they won’t be able to see me going by, they’ll just feel a whoosh of air as I run by.

Obviously at 191 pounds I’m not quite to that stage, but still it’s nice to hear. One of my friends said the place she could see it most was my face. All the puffiness that used to be there is gone.

My period this month has been a whole lot of nothing, thank goodness. I think I had two mini cramplets but that’s about it. It’s definitely not been the drama that it was last month. I guess my body just got a little zealous about the whole detoxing thing.

I’m down 10 mg of my antidepressant, actually I am having to split the capsules because I’m in between the doses that are made by the manufacturer. It’s been a couple of weeks now and I still really haven’t noticed a difference. I have been taking some homeopathic sepia which seems to be working well for me. I’ve been trying to find some aurum metallicum, but there is none to be had around here, even in the vitamin and health food stores. I did get a complex remedy from King Bio that has some in it, so hopefully that should prove helpful. Everything I’ve heard about aurum metallicum is that it’s great for depression. I keep my depression managed pretty well, but I’m all about the “hey let’s throw everything and the kitchen sink at it” school of thought.

Interestingly I did some reading about aurum metallicum that really led me to a lot of questions. I have a materia medica app with Boericke and Kent on my phone (it’s a freebie if you have an Android device). The stuff seems a bit rambly to me but I’m starting to figure some of it out. One of the things they kept rambling on and on about in the stuff about aurum metallicum remedy was about syphilis and mercury. Of course, this is cracking me up for some reason, I guess because I have never had syphilis and thus have never had to medicate myself with mercury.

But then I stopped to think about the possible connection between mercury and the brain. From what I gathered (and I’m still a total newbie at reading this so I could be way off base), the mercury treatment was making people depressed, and then the docs were going back and using the aurum metallicum to help with it. Then a ding ding ding went off in my head.

I was a very well vaccinated child. The only vaccine I didn’t get a second time was the DPT, because I had a reaction to it when I was little. There was some sort of temporary leg paralysis thing, I’m a little fuzzy on the details that my parents told me about and I was too young to remember. I think it was something to the shot went in the rump and a few hours later I could no longer stand or move the leg attached to said rump cheek. It cleared up in a day or two I believe. Anyway Mom and Dad opted to not let me have any boosters of that one, and they told me when I was older to avoid it.

So I had lots of vaccines as a kid. Vaccines have mercury in them. Possible connection with the depression? I don’t know, but it does make for very interesting questions doesn’t it?

Sweet 16!

2011-07-08T19:32:00.000-07:00

Over the long weekend I got into my first pair of size 16 jeans and a couple of pairs of size 16 pants. I can’t believe I am actually taking the first steps out of the plus size clothing department. I actually even tried some tops on, but since my biceps are pretty big from weight lifting I had some issues there. Then there were some that were very short sleeved, but the arm holes were cut WAY too low. Do fashion designers not realize that if women don’t want necklines cut down to our navels, we probably don’t want the arm holes cut down to the navel either?

Anyhow, I’m feeling much better now that the little intestinal upset has passed. It was nice to take some time off over the holiday. I’m heading up to my period in the next couple of days. The period from hell I had last month started with major PMS and brain fog several days beforehand and I haven’t seen any signs aside from a little gassiness. Hopefully that bodes well for me this month. I started taking my PMS Relief proactively yesterday just to be safe.

My melasmas are really starting to get noticeably lighter.

My poor boxer has a nasty yeast infection in one of his ears. I'm out of his normal ear meds (an antibiotic/steroid/anti-fungal combo), so I am putting a bit of Sovereign Silver in them. He's so miserable wanting me to rub the base of his ears, and when I was rubbing them he maneuvered his ear to try to stick one of my fingers in it. Gross, but my baby boy definitely knows how to give me a hint. So I suppose we'll see how Sovereign Silver does for the canine set. I've already been using the First Aid Gel on his eczema patches with success so hopefully the ears will do well too.

Garlicky Kale Stir Fry from Heaven!

2011-07-03T12:53:00.000-07:00

I conducted a culinary experiment tonight and I am basking in garlicky kale bliss and I had to share. This is one experiment that I am so going to repeat!

I had some prepared buckwheat in the fridge, along with some grape tomatoes that were just starting to get a little mushy. So as I was washing up my fresh lacinato kale (a sweeter Italian variety), I concocted a plan. Being a kale-aholic and a garlic-aholic, those were a given. Here is my little experiment.

1 1/2 tbsp. ghee (clarified butter)
1 1/2 tbsp. minced garlic
8 grape tomatoes, halved
several big handfuls of coarsely chopped kale
1/2 cup prepared buckwheat (approximately)
Himalayan sea salt (to taste)

In a wok, I melted the ghee and added the minced garlic. Then I dumped the kale, tomatoes, and buckwheat in and sauteed them on medium high heat. When the veggies get nice and wilty and the ghee starts turning the buckwheat brownish it's done. Dump on a plate, salt to taste and enjoy!

Go Big Orange!

2011-07-01T18:02:00.001-07:00

Yes, I’m from Tennessee so orange is normally a good thing. Except when your poop turns orange. Then it’s just scary as heck. I’ve had some intestinal issues over the past few days, I think from not properly cleaning my sprouts like I should have, but at the same time it all turned orange! Seriously, I had no idea poop could be orange. It freaked me out, and I stopped at the local health food store on the way to work to pick up some aloe juice, King Bio Diarrhea Relief, and some hepar sulphuris calcareum. Admittedly the intestinal issues have been a little annoying, but not bad.

The orangeness was really freaking me out, but I was checking out an article on astaxanthin, because my endurance in my workouts has been through the roof since I started taking it about a week and a half ago. Sure enough, listed as one of the side effects of taking astaxanthin on several different sites is orange-ish poop. I’ve been taking two pills a day of the BioAstin, so that would definitely explain it. Freak out averted. All my spirulina turned it green, and now the astaxanthin is turning it orange. Maybe now I really will bleed orange. Go Vols!

Geez, I feel like an old lady always discussing the state of my bowels.

So is it weird to really like the taste of aloe juice? I kind of miss it anyway from when I was doing the silver-aloe protocol. It tastes so fresh and green. Is green really a taste? I don’t know but that’s the word that strikes me when I drink it. Plus my whole abdomen would sort of sigh happily and relax whenever I drank it with the silver. Since I got that feeling on the protocol, I figured it wouldn’t hurt now that my intestines are a bit crabby. Sure enough, I took a couple of gulps out of the bottle and my tummy went, “AHHHHHH.” Pepto Bismol sure doesn’t work that fast.

I’ve been sipping on the aloe juice all day and it’s amazing how much better everything is. The funniest part is that almost intuitively, I seemed to know that I needed the aloe juice. This whole “the body is smart” (and apparently very chatty) concept is new to me. I’m sure the homeopathic stuff is helping too, but it’s such a weird feeling to see these dormant instincts in my body are starting to awaken now that I’m not fighting it. Kind of like finding out everything you ever learned about your body is wrong. That’s probably why my brain is still spinning. Is there a homeopathic remedy for that?

Fat and Being Not Fat

2011-06-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

My mom commented the other day, seeming a bit bewildered by how much fat I am eating. It made me stop and think about how much my diet has changed and how much fat I am really eating. When I bought into the fat is bad mantra, I avoided fat like the plague, everything was low fat and low calorie, but I still wasn’t losing weight. Sure I managed to drop about 15 pounds on the Medifast powder and water diet of about 800-900 calories a day, but even that stalled out.

Since I started the silver-aloe protocol, my diet completely changed as I started researching and finding out more about candida and reading the Body Ecology Diet book. I started drinking kefir smoothies for breakfast and eating lots of fresh veggies and oily fish, including my favorite salmon. My favorite way to make it is to brush the filet with olive oil before seasoning and cooking it, as it helps keep the salmon nice and moist. Then there were the oily salad dressings, usually made with either olive oil or hemp oil and apple cider vinegar. If I’m not eating meat I usually put a good amount of hemp seeds in my salad which have a good bit of fat in them along with the protein. For snacks I often eat organic almonds or pepitas (aka pumpkin seeds).

Oftentimes I’ll saute kale or another leafy green in either coconut oil or ghee, especially as I can’t seem to handle two meals with raw vegetables in a single day very well. (Speaking of which, kale sauteed in ghee with a tablespoon or two of minced garlic and Himalayan sea salt - freaking awesome!) It’s not too bad when I eat two meals of raw veggies, but my intestines can get a little cranky about all the roughage. Plus there’s the tablespoon of coconut oil I take religiously every night, as it has anti-candida properties.

So, I’m eating all this fat, and my weight is coming off. Not at the super fast rate it was at first when I started on the silver and aloe, but a pound or two every week or two. According to all the conventional dietary and medical knowledge, all this fat should be making my butt swell up like a hot air balloon. But instead it’s deflating. Hee hee!

I really don’t understand the dynamics in play here, but in concert with the silver-aloe protocol and the anti-candida diet, eating healthy fat seems to be a major game changer. One thing is definitely clear. Fat is helping me be not fat, and that’s a good thing!

Workout Bliss!

2011-06-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

I am kicking some serious booty working out! Maybe it's the One World Whey or the astaxanthin I started taking last week, but I am seriously on fire lately. I'm not even breaking a sweat on my cardio and really going at it. Either way my endurance and stamina is way up. As the fat is coming off I am starting to see some of the muscle trying to show itself in my biceps. It's always been there, just hidden by all the flab. Still, it's kind of nice to say, "hello there little muscle!" now that I can see it. It was so cool to kick my trainer's butt in cardio today. I beat him by 0.15 of a mile on the stationary bike during our circuit today!

I had a little setback with my digestion over the weekend, but I'm not 100% sure why. Perhaps I ate something wrong, or it could be that I forgot to soak my sprouts in water with grapefruit seed extract before eating them (bad, bad, bad me!). It wasn't that terrible, mostly just annoying, but I did get a little sick. Even still it's not nearly as bad as the day to day drama I used to live with before starting my journey slaying the evil candida monster.

I am still in awe that I've lost 22 whole pounds. It seems to be going at around a pound or so every week or two, kind of doing its own thing as it feels like it. Strange though, I'm really starting to trust the wisdom of my body and figuring that it's doing what it needs to do when it needs to do it. It's such a totally new concept for me, because everything I have done up until now has been about fighting my body. Fight it on the depression, fight it on the allergies, fight it on the eczema, fight it on the monster zits. But then look where that got me ... a one way ticket to Sickville.

The rash under one of my arms is trying to flare up a smidge, but I'm slathering the Sovereign Silver First Aid Gel on it and it is keeping it happy. My ears are acting goofy too, and the eczema and itching have gotten a bit worse. Fortunately the Sovereign Silver First Aid Gel is coming in handy there too. I get a Q-Tip and roll it in a huge squirt of the gel and then swirl it around all in the ear canal. It feels like I'm giving myself a Wet Willie, but it works. So far I've been doing it twice a day and it seems to help. The color of the discharge in my ears has changed from yellow to white over the past few days, so apparently it's doing something in there. I may try a couple of drops of the liquid in there to see if it improves the results if it continues with the itchiness.

I have to remember that these things aren't setbacks, just more layers of the toxic onion trying to peel off. Believe me with the crap I have put in my body over my lifetime, there are lots of toxic layers. But they'll come when my body is ready to release them, I am confident.

An Arnica Montana Kind of Day

2011-06-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if the One World Whey is contributing to this or not, but I am so sore from my killer workout yesterday. My abs hurt, my butt hurts, my legs and chest hurt, and my back hurts. I haven't been this sore in a long time. I don't know if it was because the workout was killer, or if the addition of the whey protein just gave more power to put into it. Either way, I've been popping arnica montana pellets and using arnica gel pretty much everywhere today.

I'm sure my trainer will be the usual sadist that he is tomorrow when he finds out I'm sore. He says "the best way to deal with soreness is to work it out." Which of course means that he's going to work everything that's sore even harder tomorrow. By Friday I may not be able to move!

I had to face a harsh reality of weight loss today - my boobs are shrinking. I suppose that's a good thing in the grand scheme of things, but it necessitated a trip to the mall to go bra shopping tonight. So, I've officially dropped a full bra size in the past two months. It would have been much nicer if those inches had come off my butt, but I'll take what I can get!

Everything else seems to be going well. I've been able to reduce my usage of the homeopathic allergy meds to twice a day now, so they seem to be clearing up a bit more. This new immune system is pretty powerful!

It's a Conspiracy...

2011-06-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

What is it with people trying to make me eat the exact stuff I'm trying to avoid? Seriously, it's nuts. Everywhere I turned at work today, there were bagel platters and cookie platters all over the place. All filled with the wonderful things that will make my gut very, very cranky: sugar, lactose, gluten, and refined carbs. Sheesh!

My dad has taken to calling me "grass eater" because I am eating so many vegetables, mostly leafy greens. Dad's never met a vegetable he likes, with the exception of battered and deep-fried-til-it's-blackened okra. He eats something like two doughnuts a day, so I have started calling him "doughnut eater." It works!

Sometimes it is so hard dealing with everyone else around me shoveling all this toxic garbage into their faces as fast as they can, and it's so hard for me to find things that are safe for me to eat out in the wide world. I get bored with food easily so it's definitely going to be my next challenge to come up with more creative ways of putting together the foods I can eat, while still getting all the food combining rules from the Body Ecology Diet right. Mostly it's making sure that you don't even put protein fats, animal proteins, or protein starches together. Fortunately veggies pretty much combine with anything.

I just got almost two weeks worth of samples from One World Whey in that I started on Sunday. It's definitely pretty tasty, and I did have an AWESOME workout this morning. Maybe it's the whey, maybe not. Only time will tell. It's a little on the spendy side, so I'm glad they offered samples first. I really like mixing it in to my morning smoothies, and the offer it in chocolate too. The vanilla is pretty awesome too, and they have strawberry but I haven't tried that yet. One of my smoothies will last me a good 4-5 hours before I get hungry again with the whey in it, so that's definitely a plus!

Two Short Months - A Whole Freaking World of Difference!

2011-06-19T18:57:00.000-07:00

Wow, tomorrow will be the two month anniversary of the day I started my journey with the silver-aloe protocol and Body Ecology Diet that Robert Scott Bell suggested to me. It's strange because it still seems like yesterday and almost a lifetime ago at the same time. Just this morning I hit 22 pounds lost. That's 22 pounds in two months! And not on the 800-900 calorie powder and water diet I was on. So I started this journey at 215 pounds and I'm now at 193. That's only 13 pounds away from my goal of 180. Once I'm there I'll re-evaluate and see how much more I want/need to lose.

My melasma (hyperpigmenation) spots on my face appear to be slowly fading on their own as well over the past week or so. Yay! Interestingly my complexion overall seems to be getting more and more radiant, so much so that I'm wearing less and less makeup. The girl I see when I look in the mirror is looking more and more like the girl I was 5-10 years ago.

On a funnier note, my boxer is now addicted to coconut oil. I read an article on Natural News from Dr. Carolyn Dean that suggested putting coconut oil onto rashes for pets, and I started putting it on him. He gets horrible rashes where his back legs join up to the rest of his body. He now points to the coconut oil jar with his nose when he wants some, and loves to lick it off my hands after I put it on his rashes. It's pretty funny, and his rashes do seem to be improving. So now when I take my daily dose of coconut oil, he has to have some too.

For another fun adventure, my sun lamp that I use to get up in the mornings died last week. With my delayed phase sleep disorder normally this would have been a big problem, but I'm not having trouble getting up in the mornings even without it. My sleep cycle seems to be completely normalized now, where it never has been before. Now I'm still going to get an electrician to try to fix it, because I'm used to using it, but it's nice to know I don't have to have it.

So let's review the progress I've made in two short months aside from the hugely fantastic freaking awesome 22 pounds I've lost. I was only expecting an improvement in my allergies, certainly not all of this. Eyelid eczema - gone. Bad rash under my armpits - gone. Weird occasional skin eruptions on my legs - gone. Monster zits from hell - gone, even after going off the birth control pills that were keeping them under control. Rosacea and redness - gone. Depression and mood - significantly improved. Allergies and sinuses - significantly improved and only taking homeopathic medicines now, with occasional sinus headaches still occurring. Energy level - way up. Stress level -way down and handling stress so much better. Intestines being a complete drama queen - so much better, still an occasional spell, mostly because I'm still discovering the foods that trigger it to act up. Delayed phase sleep disorder - normalized.

Gee, that's a whole lot of stuff for two months. I have known instinctively that something has been wrong with me for several years now and have gone to doctor after doctor looking for a diagnosis. And to think none of them were able to offer any help, or even acknowledge that anything was truly wrong. I think as far as they were concerned this was all in my head. There's a few I would like to go back and show them the "all in my head" 22 pounds that just fell off my rump.