Started my FMT treatment on Saturday 8/24/13. At home, self-administered, with my boyfriend's hopefully magic poo. He's untested but never takes medicine, antibiotics, has never done a drug, doesn't drink and is the picture of health. I have done my research well and am fully aware that donors should be tested prior to treatment to ensure there are no parasites or other bad bugs. It was a calculated risk after weeks of brutal agony.
I followed my intuition and went for it, no apologies. I feel comfortable with my decision.
A little background on my health situation: I have been diagnosed with slow transit colon/IBS-C and struggle on a daily basis from SIBO and Candida. My symptoms for 20+ years have been extreme constipation (when I did the sitz marker test last, I had zero movement for 7 days), horrendous brain fog, dehydration despite drinking lots of fluids, bone dry hair, skin & nails, headaches, fevers, chills, insomnia, anxiety, mucous in stool, bad PMS, can't gain weight and always hungry, etc. Amitiza, Linzess, and other constipation drugs never worked but the side effects were fierce. I have had a defacography and multiple colonoscopies that were 'all clear'. I've seen doctors all over the world including Cedars Sinai (right down the street), and The Sansum Clinic - they just wanted to take my colon out. I said no - if its gone, I can't fix it! I've survived for years on saline, water and liquid glycerin enemas but they zap my electrolytes and take up a huge chunk of my day. If I can get to the point I go naturally even once in awhile with some relief of the symptoms I mentioned, I will consider FMT to be highly successful.
It took me almost 2 hours to administer my first treatment. I assembled all my tools in my tiny bathroom, including my laptop so that I could watch videos if I needed to stay close to the toilet. I did not fast because having IBS-C (constipation) I felt pretty confident that I would be able to retain my sample just fine. I also elected not to take anti-biotics in advance as some protocols call for as I feel fairly certain that they are what got me in this mess in the first place.
There were a few hiccups, such as discovering that gauze does not serve well as a strainer (a messy a-ha moment) and that the mouth of my funnel was ever so slightly too large for the empty enema bottles. But I eventually managed to get the poo milkshake into the bottles and injected them where they needed to go.
After a few minutes of being certain I would be able to retain the treatment, I retired to bed and just watched some TV while switching the sides I was laying on, with my hip propped up on pillows to assist the flow uphill.
I must say the entire rest of my day I felt AMAZING. My regular symptoms were pretty much gone, with the biggest change being 90% reduction in brain fog. It felt FANTASTIC to have all my mental wits about me at last! When I woke up the following morning I had dewy skin on my face, which hasn't happened in years. My hair looked much healthier, it was 'heavier' as if each strand had moisture inside. I am thrilled with the results so far! I will continue to administer FMT treatments until I have either completely reversed my symptoms permanently or until the improvements level off.
A note on my donor. He is my live-in boyfriend which is very convenient. He can poop on command, so my samples will be very fresh, which is important to me. But I do think it will be OK if in the future he is not home when I'm ready for the FMT treatment, he can leave his sealed poop box in the fridge for a few hours before I get home. My donor maintains the same diet as me for the most part (paleo); he's a body builder with a lot of discipline, so he didn't have to make many changes.
For those who are interested in researching the FMT procedure, I highly recommend checking out www.thepowerofpoop.com and watching all the how-to videos on YouTube you can find. I also read a few online books, my favorite being Vivek Apte's e-book.
I took many photos of the FMT procedure to document this wacky adventure that may just turn out to be miracle medicine! I will be posting updates to my journal here on Inspire.
A little background on my health situation: I have been diagnosed with slow transit colon/IBS-C and struggle on a daily basis from SIBO and Candida. My symptoms for 20+ years have been extreme constipation (when I did the sitz marker test last, I had zero movement for 7 days), horrendous brain fog, dehydration despite drinking lots of fluids, bone dry hair, skin & nails, headaches, fevers, chills, insomnia, anxiety, mucous in stool, bad PMS, can't gain weight and always hungry, etc. Amitiza, Linzess, and other constipation drugs never worked but the side effects were fierce. I have had a defacography and multiple colonoscopies that were 'all clear'. I've seen doctors all over the world including Cedars Sinai (right down the street), and The Sansum Clinic - they just wanted to take my colon out. I said no - if its gone, I can't fix it! I've survived for years on saline, water and liquid glycerin enemas but they zap my electrolytes and take up a huge chunk of my day. If I can get to the point I go naturally even once in awhile with some relief of the symptoms I mentioned, I will consider FMT to be highly successful.
It took me almost 2 hours to administer my first treatment. I assembled all my tools in my tiny bathroom, including my laptop so that I could watch videos if I needed to stay close to the toilet. I did not fast because having IBS-C (constipation) I felt pretty confident that I would be able to retain my sample just fine. I also elected not to take anti-biotics in advance as some protocols call for as I feel fairly certain that they are what got me in this mess in the first place.
There were a few hiccups, such as discovering that gauze does not serve well as a strainer (a messy a-ha moment) and that the mouth of my funnel was ever so slightly too large for the empty enema bottles. But I eventually managed to get the poo milkshake into the bottles and injected them where they needed to go.
After a few minutes of being certain I would be able to retain the treatment, I retired to bed and just watched some TV while switching the sides I was laying on, with my hip propped up on pillows to assist the flow uphill.
I must say the entire rest of my day I felt AMAZING. My regular symptoms were pretty much gone, with the biggest change being 90% reduction in brain fog. It felt FANTASTIC to have all my mental wits about me at last! When I woke up the following morning I had dewy skin on my face, which hasn't happened in years. My hair looked much healthier, it was 'heavier' as if each strand had moisture inside. I am thrilled with the results so far! I will continue to administer FMT treatments until I have either completely reversed my symptoms permanently or until the improvements level off.
A note on my donor. He is my live-in boyfriend which is very convenient. He can poop on command, so my samples will be very fresh, which is important to me. But I do think it will be OK if in the future he is not home when I'm ready for the FMT treatment, he can leave his sealed poop box in the fridge for a few hours before I get home. My donor maintains the same diet as me for the most part (paleo); he's a body builder with a lot of discipline, so he didn't have to make many changes.
For those who are interested in researching the FMT procedure, I highly recommend checking out www.thepowerofpoop.com and watching all the how-to videos on YouTube you can find. I also read a few online books, my favorite being Vivek Apte's e-book.
I took many photos of the FMT procedure to document this wacky adventure that may just turn out to be miracle medicine! I will be posting updates to my journal here on Inspire.
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