Health update

Okay, a health update....

The short version: Not too much has changed

The long version: Well, if you'll recall, when we left off last time, I had just received a positive test result for a bacterial infection in my small intestine. As I mentioned before, this is generally a complication of some other problem and doesn't usually develop spontaneously. Anyhow, after high doses of antibiotics, my symptoms did not improve. Actually, they got a little bit worse, and I lost some additional weight. This led my Johns Hopkins GI to believe that perhaps the bacterial infection was not the main problem and that we'd need to look at other things.

Because the JH GI actually has her practice office north of Baltimore, getting there has been a challenge. It's easily 2-3 hours in rush hour, and honestly, I just don't have the energy for a 4-6 hour round trip on a regular basis. Although I'm still keeping this doctor as my GI, I realized that I needed a local doctor as well.

So...a couple of weeks ago, I started seeing a family practitioner who specializes in chronic pain and illness and uses integrative medicine. He's affiliated with Georgetown Medical School. His tentative impression is that when I first became ill (nearly two years ago), I had some sort of infection, and my body overreacted to it. This became an autoimmune overreaction, and now my body is treating most foods as allergens. This has led to the malnutrition, malabsorption, intestinal infection, etc. (Basically, think of what it's like to have the stomach "flu." Now extend this for two years. As you can imagine, this leads to significant weight loss.) However, he says that at this point, it's difficult to know what is "disease/condition A" versus the results of the malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies. So...his plan is to start IVs of minerals and such (as well as something that will hopefully help my small intestine heal) and provide supportive acupuncture to try to calm my system down. Hopefully, this will allow me to be able to eat a bit more, and then we can have a clearer view of the underlying issue. He's also looking at the possibility of some exposure to toxins (and has started some blood work to test for various things), but that is not clear yet. I'm happy that he at least has a plan. I'll be seeing him weekly for the next couple of months so that I can get IVs and acupuncture.

So...we'll see.....

That's the update.