2 Down, 18 to Go

I thought I was doing pretty well with the Iodquinol this time. Before dinner tonight I had taken 2 days' worth of Iodo, but I didn't notice any really disturbing side effects. I did get some initial constipation, but I resolved that by taking more magnesium and then another probiotic first thing in the morning. However, I don't like to take an excess of either of those, because they cause more bloating. Nevertheless, I didn't seem to get that initial dizziness/nausea from Iodo, like I had during the first treatment, until after dinner tonight. SIGH

Maybe I drank enough ginger tea for the first day to prevent nausea. However, too much ginger tea can cause reflux and burning stomach pain, especially when combined with the Iodo. Today I drink much less ginger tea. However I snacked between meals, when I wasn't actually hungry, but rather just craving something to settle my stomach. Usually bland fruit, like cantaloupe, or peanut butter straight from the container makes me feel better. So I didn't actually get nauseas, but I felt overly full after snacking so much between meals and then eating regular meals so I could take more Iodoquinol with food. When I wasn't taking HCl with meals, I didn't get so much reflux from the Iodo. So today I cut back to 1 HCl with small meals and 2 HCl with dinner. However, my dinner must have been too small to protect my stomach from the Iodo. Now I have burning stomach pain, dizziness and nausea, all reported side effects of Iodo.

I also learned that diet 7up doesn't help with nausea from Iodo. Ginger tea is much more effective, but then I get reflux with the tea. That seems like a @#$%^& if I do and @#$%^& if I don't situation. I need to figure out something. I can't afford to get so nauseas that I throw up and lose the Iodoquinol dose. I did that once during the last treatment cycle, a day after I had just plain forgotten to take a dose. Maybe that's why 20 days of Iodo didn't completely eradicate the d-frag critters.

I'm really tired of treating this d-frag critter. I've had symptoms since April. I've been treating it with drugs which have awful side effects since June. Now I'll spend August suffering side effects of yet another drug treatment. This is the fourth consecutive summer I've spent feeling sick during the really warm days, when I would prefer to be biking, playing tennis, gardening, walking or almost anything except sitting at this computer researching gut bugs and drugs. I would recall that last summer I wondered whether I'd ever recover from the C-diff bacteria. Fortunately, I finally killed it with a pulse dose method, which I discovered online. I haven't found any miracle cures for d-frag, although I read about a one dose (one day) successful treatment for d-frag with Secnidazole. I'll ask my doc about that when she returns from vacation. Right now I just need to get through tonight without throwing up. Then I have to somehow endure 18 more days of Iodo and hope it works.