The last 3 days have been amazing. The night of the inoculation I pretty much slept through the entire night, only waking up briefly twice with mild nausea but was able to go right back to sleep. The following nights after that, I've been sleeping straight through the night. I've been able to eat breakfast--pretty much all of my meals without difficulty. My energy has been phenomenal. I was cleaning yesterday, listening to music and I just started dancing. Without even thinking about it, I was so happy I was dancing to the music. Normally, I hate dancing and hate moving anymore than I have to when I don't feel well. In fact, I felt better so fast that I don't think my emotions or neurotransmitters that regulate my mood had time to catch up. I'm still bursting into tears randomly throughout the day, though lately its because of shear bliss and relief, or sometimes as much as I hate to admit, frustration. I don't like being so unstable... its kind of embarrassing. Don't know when I'm going to break the dam loose next.
I was feeling a bit heavier today though, and my hips joints are burning right now... so I have a feeling this might not last much longer. Regardless, I'm going to hold on to this as long as I can.
Yesterday, while I was cleaning, I was listening to some podcasts done by Steven and Jordan from the SCD lifestyle website. They have some great resources for starting the diet, by the way. Anyway, Reid Bryant Kimball was a guest on one of the podcasts I was listening too. He's working towards creating a documentary on alternative medicine and diet for achieving and sustaining remission of Crohn's called Wanted: Crohn's End. It was a very interesting story and the documentary also includes spot lights on helminthic therapy and the SCD diet. By donating as little as $10 you can order a prepaid digital copy of the film set to release in 2012, with higher amounts you can also order DVDs and bonus material. Since he was primarily funding this project out of pocket, if you feel this is something you want to contribute to, I urge you to visit the website and get involved.
I feel I am on the right path, the one that is going to get me into actual remission, and I'm really starting to see the bigger picture here. Reading the novel Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschal, really helped me achieve a deeper understanding of what is going on inside my gut and how food and the natural bacteria inside are influencing GI disease and quite possibly, other autoimmune diseases as well. While I really don't believe this is an actual cure for Crohn's disease, I do beleive it can help me heal my gut and maintain health. I have no doubt that abandoning the SCD completely in the future after healing it, I may feel "cured," but if the damaging lifestyle is resumed, I'm sure the symptoms would return again. That's why I don't think its a cure but a much safer and more effective option than Remicade, Imuran and probably all drugs out there. Plus, I know that the food I am putting inside my body is safe and much healthier.
I'm almost finished my second week on the diet, which is grain-free, starch-free, dairy-free (for some). I started eliminating everything and ate broiled meat or meat soup, pureed carrots, home made grape gelatin and eggs. Then I introduced acorn squash (which I didn't tolerate and had to remove), then pear sauce, I just introduced the yogourt made with cow's milk which is so far going well, and tomorrow I am introducing zucchini. I am also still taking digestive enzymes and I added betain HCl supplement to my diet. I've stopped taking ranitidine for GERD and am hoping to cure it with the HCL supplements and diet changes. I'm convinced the medication has only made me worse since starting it, since each relapse is worse than the previous.
Side note: the only difference between the SCD yogourt and the yogourt I was previously making is that the SCD yogourt needs to be incubated for at least 24 hours vs the 7 hours I was doing previously. Apparently this uses up most, if not all the lactose and it has more strength as a probiotic. Take a look as this journal article about yogourt and gut health if you're interested.
So my goals are to wait out the 12 weeks for the worms to start working, continue the SCD (specfic carbohydrate diet), and when I see my specialist in January be down at least one medication (Imuran first! I hope).
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