The Dyingness

the dyingness: phase two? And a call out for diagnostic help!

Posted on August 25, 2007. Filed under: Candida, The Dyingness |

As many of you know, I haven’t had much luck with doctors. My favourite post on this is here (and it leads you to all of the other ridiculous experiences with them all). My family doctor, I’m sorry to say, first became my doctor (mine having retired and me being away at school) at the beginning of they dyingness. Having not known me beforehand, I can understand that he might think me a little unbalanced, but it’s unnerving to hear time and time again in the tone of his voice that he thinks I’m crazy and must just want attention or something. I can attest to the fact that this is wholly untrue and extremely frustrated. And what happens when I’m frustrated? Well, I cry. And so that’s what I did about two sentences into my appointment with him — which I’m sure doesn’t help my cause.

As of late, I have been experiencing wicked headaches (as in the worst I have ever had in my life and much more frequently), which I believe have been in association to periods — but more headaches in between as well. And bumps on my temples — plus my eyes have been doing weird things. SO, me being all logical, think that perhaps these three things are linked. And, perhaps they might also all be linked to taking the birth control pill. And so, as any logical (and not crazy person) might do, I look at that pamphlet that comes with pills — the one that you read once when you first start taking them and then never look at again. And I have all of the symptoms under the heading that reads “contact your doctor immediately if you experience any of the following”. They include abdominal pain, painful breathing and chest pain, sudden vision loss, etc. Lots of scary things having to do with blood clots. And so a bell goes off in my head that perhaps (since candida is also linked to taking the pill) that perhaps if I stop taking it my situation might improve? So I wanted to ask my doctor if this was the case — would stopping the pill reverse any side effects? Or would I be stuck with any damage — would it be irreparable? And I didn’t get an answer. Does anyone out there know?

The other annoying thing is that after months of having bumps on my temples, they had gone down, of course, for the appointment. And now, three days later there’s a huge one back again. Damn it. It’s as if my body wants to make him believe that I’m crazy.

The other thing is that every symptom I have appears to not be typical to what happens in people — which throws me off because it is exactly what is happening. You’d think if I were making it up, I’d at least look up how it happens.

Anyway — he AGAIN thinks that anything I say to him — any symptom I come to him with is because I am depressed or stressed. He always asks how I’m feeling on a scale of 1-10. Next time I’ll have to tell him flat out that I’m certainly not depressed or stressed enough to have symptoms appear. And that I would never consider taking a drug for depression so he might as well get that whole thing out of his head.

Now I am going to see an ophthalmologist about my eyes — someone I should see anyway because I have such poor vision (-12). Who knows, perhaps he or she can fix my eyes with a lazer?

So — anyone have any idea as to if this is related to the dyingness? To the pill? Any diagnoses flying around out there?

He did mention that it could be neurological — which I have always kind of thought of — especially now that there are headaches. But, in the meantime, I’m going to focus on not getting pregnant while off the pill, which shouldn’t be too difficult, and on restoring my vision. Any natural remedies out there for this? Eye strengtheners? Help!

the battle against candida continues

Posted on April 25, 2007. Filed under: Candida, The Dyingness |

You may recall that I had a complete relapse of the dyingness a few weeks ago. I saw my naturopath and osteopath directly thereafter and have some new things to try. A while ago I thought that Ribes Nigrum was the ultimate wonder drug, but that ended up aggravating my candida in the end and I had to give it up, despite the energy boost. So now I’m trying something called oatstraw with borage a. I boil water and pour it over a half a tbsp to boil away the alcohol (which may have been what was upsetting me before). So far I have had a boost of energy from the adrenal support, but can definitely tell that it’s the potion that’s keeping me up and not my own body or fruition. I also have something called Unda — three bottles a 2, 10 and 245. This is to do a cleanse. I don’t know if it’s possible, but I think I can actually feel the toxins now as they come into my body during the day. That’s how sensitive this thing has made me.

But, all in all, I’m feeling way better this year over last and so, I hope that next year I will be even better. It has now been 19 months of the candida diet (no gluten, sugar, dairy, mushrooms, anything acidic, or corn to be specific) and I’m used to it but I don’t think I can do much more than I have in this past year to recover (with all of the anti-fungals and osteopathy) so I assume that only time will work now. I also think that this summer, given that I haven’t committed myself to any classes or any projects, I may be bored out of my mind, but it may be the reduced “stress” that I need to start to feel wholly better. Sound like a plan?

breathing test passed

Posted on April 4, 2007. Filed under: Candida, The Dyingness |

So I actually passed the breathing test that I thought I had failed. Phew! The funny thing is that I still don’t know if I have asthma (though I doubt it) because the test doesn’t test for that…and so, if my “problems” persist, I am to still take my puffers.

I was taking the orange one for a few days and I did feel great. But then I had a major candida relapse and my tongue got all gross again and so now I may have to choose the lesser of two evils. Now, just to decide which that is…

Once the tongue is better I’m going to test it out again to see if the same reaction is there, but I imagine that this is exactly what it’s from. I have also notice that without the inhaler the breathing isn’t as great.

candida relapse

Posted on April 1, 2007. Filed under: Candida, The Dyingness |

I think the candida is relapsing. I’m exhausted and have been for a few days now and everything that isn’t supposed to hurts. Does this thing ever actually die off completely? I’m not so sure.

i think i failed my breathing test

Posted on March 24, 2007. Filed under: Candida, The Dyingness |

When I last saw the Doctor, he sent me for an EKG and a breathing test. I guess the EKG came back fine, as I haven’t heard otherwise, but I think I failed the breathing test today.

First of all, I wasn’t expecting it to take 45 minutes, but here’s what they do. You have to breathe normally for 4 breaths then inhale sharply, exhale sharply until your lungs are empty and then inhale again. I couldn’t do anything after the inhale sharply bit.  I was trying to exhale and everything was out of me WAY before I was supposed to stop.

Now, the doctor also gave me 2 puffers. An orange one and a blue one.

I hadn’t taken them because I really didn’t think I should unless I absolutely had to, but when I think of it, I’m short of breath almost all the time. Even walking up stairs. Forget that. Even just walking. But I just thought it must be because I was out of shape.

Anyway, she then gave me 2 puffs from a blue puffer and I got to sit and attempt to do the test over again. As the puffs were sinking into my lungs, I could actually feel something (or things) releasing. And I could breathe better. So we’ll see what the doctor says, but I’m going to take the puffers for a little while.

At least then I’ll be able to tell you if they affect candida in any way. I suspect that they will.

the dyingness: a year later

Posted on March 5, 2007. Filed under: Candida, The Dyingness |

I had my yearly physical today and updated my doctor on the progress of the dyingness and my diet, etc. and my doctor, upon learning that I was feeling better and that I did think I had candida and that it was in check, said “well, you were defying modern medicine”…finally at least some recognition of the fact! But what I wasn’t expecting was for him to ask about my breathing and heart and, upon reflecting I had to admit that yes, I have trouble breathing quite often and yes my heart hurts, beats fast, etc. quite often…more often than usual lately…and, after I left I thought about all of the times (starting about a year ago with extremely painful breathing) so perhaps he’s onto something — he thinks I may have asthma! Nowhere near what I had expected to come out of today — I had expected nothing to come out of today.

Anyway, I had to go for an EKG to see if my heart is okay, which was a bit odd (but so easy compared to ALL of the tests I was having this time last year including that awful tube in the nose) and I have to go for a breathing test.

This has given me the opportunity to reflect upon all of the health issues I’ve had over the past year and to realize how far I really have come — these issues (breathing etc.) were once that I had pushed aside because they weren’t causing me immediate pain but I guess asthma kind of makes sense. Can you think of what else it might be?

wine, sweet, sweet wine

Posted on February 13, 2007. Filed under: Candida, The Dyingness |

After over a year of being on the candida diet, and not having any yummy alcohol (because I could only drink gin) I decided to expand my adventures in sugar last night and have a glass of wine.

I had the most dry white wine on the list at The Old Mill and it was fantastic! And I feel fine today, which is even more exciting 🙂