Worms for Crohn's: The path to pharmaceutical freedom?: Infection Initiated

So yesterday the worms arrived. There was a bit of a hassle with customs on Thursday but it did arrive late Friday afternoon. Applying the worms was very straight forward. I simply sucked the little worms out of the tube with a pipette (eyedropper), deposited it on the pad of the band aid and applied it to my skin. You can’t actually see any of the worms in the tube; just some black specks which I was told are the same density of the worms so you know approximately where they are in the solution.

I was on the phone with Garin (hookworm provider) the whole time and he talked me through everything. He asked me to tell him when the itching started. I was so worried. What if I feel no itching? What if they all died on the way, or worst of all, what if I’m not a responder? I read somewhere that the average reaction time is 7 minutes and it took about 7 minutes and 12 seconds to feel the itching. It’s really a very unique itch, very deep and prickly. I’ve never been so happy in my life to be itchy. I had to keep the band aid on for two hours and then remove it and flush it down the toilet. I’ve attached photos of the band aid, the skin reaction after it was removed and a picture of what it looks like now, approximately 24 hours after its been applied. Garin said that you can count how many dots are on your arm after removing the band aid and that’s a rough estimation of how many worms penetrated the skin. I was also told that multiple worms can go through the same spot. Last night I was able to count around 17-23 dots, which out of 25 is pretty good! They’re all kind of meshed together so it’s difficult to make out an exact number.

So far, I have felt nothing unusual. I’m feeling pretty good actually which may be the so called “honeymoon period” or "bounce". I’m told in the next 1-8 days I should feel some heavy phlegm in the back of my chest. I should not spit it out because it’s housing all my little friends and they need a safe trip to my intestines. In 2.5 weeks they will finish their final malt, their teeth will be nice and sharp, glands fully developed and they will be ready to feed. At that point, my immune system should be fully aware of their presence and I may feel some side effects: diarrhea, fatigue, headache and night sweats. I’m hoping since my ileum (where the hookworms attach) is in good shape these effects will be minor, but I guess we’ll see!