Saturday, August 31, 2013

My first week of Fecal Transplants - Update

Its been one week since I started FMT at home - this is the best I've felt in a year! There have been some little fumbles due to the learning curve, plus my donor's butt was not always compliant (he's regular as clockwork, but the pressure to make poo medicine backed him up a couple times!), but my goodness! I'm feeling crazy good!

I've learned a few things this past week about giving myself water enemas. When I did my distilled water enema prior to treatment (to clean myself out as much as possible) I experienced massive elimination to the point I was completely worn out! I felt weak and went straight to bed, too exhausted to do the FMT. My lower back kind of burned/ached. I was not sure what to think of this; on one hand its amazing I was able to eliminate so much, but its strange to have my body react with such extreme exhaustion following an enema!

I belong to the Fecal Microbiota Transplant Facebook page, where I was kindly informed that I should not use distilled water as it takes all my electrolytes out with it.  Guess I got some wrong data along the FMT research line.  So I now add some sea salt to my enema water.  This prevented me from getting wiped out afterwards.

Today I feel zippy, zero symptoms, a colon that feels empty and sparkling, and I'm in a happy mood with healthy looking skin & hair.  How wondrous!  Strangers stopped me both on the street and in a restaurant to tell me how healthy I looked, which is pretty wild!  I also was smiling ear to ear, which I'm happy to say is no longer forced.  Going to keep going with my treatments and posting about them!

6 comments:

  1. Dear Melanie,

    I am very interested in knowing what your progress via FMT was beyond this last posting of yours. I am suffering from terrible constipation for the past many years and have tried everything under the sun to no avail. Am at my wits end. Stool tests have revealed a severe gut dysbiosis and right now an FMT seems to be my last and only solution. I am unable to eat anything solid and am mostly on liquids and have lost 20+ pounds, get headaches, cannot sleep and other issues. Could you please write to me at 7224324@gmail.com and let me know whether you continued with the treatments and if so for how long and whether your problems/issues subsided and how you are doing now. I will be eternally grateful to you forever if you are able to share your experience with me. Warmest wishes and wish you a very healthy life.

    Dee

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  2. My update is not the good news I'd like it to be! I had to stop the FMT treatments at the end of 2014 because my donor (boyfriend) was eating a poor diet and did not want to hurt me with his samples. I've been waiting for him to start eating right again so we can resume the treatments that were so successful for me, but he continues to eat fast food as he's working long hours and too tired to eat properly. I have been asking him to reconsider...it was what gave me the most improvement. Now I'm back to where I was prior to the FMT.

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  3. Melanie, what do you think made you regress and get worse again?
    Did you screw up your diet?
    How many FMTs in total did you do?
    How long did you typically hold them in for?
    Have you checked for parasites and candida?

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    Replies
    1. 'Anonymous':
      1) I did not screw up my diet.
      2) I did a total of 14 FMT treatments
      3) I held the treatments in for 2 - 4 hours
      4) Yes, I have been checked for parasites and candida; the latest tests just 2 weeks ago and I'm all clear

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    2. Hi Melanie,
      I think maybe the issue was:
      1. You didn't use antibtioics beforehand to kill off the bad bacteria. This gives room for the FMT bacteria to land and adhere to the gut lining.

      2. I think holding it in for 2-4 hours is definitely not long enough. Try 8 hours or something. I heard of someone holding it in for like 48 hours, but that sounds impossible. Try Imodium to see if that helps.

      Also, have you joined the secret facebook group through The Power of Poop website?

      -Elliott

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    3. Thanks for your advice Elliot!

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You're awesome for wanting to share!