"PAIN Making" written by Derek Morrison

‘THE ONGOING ADDITION OF DOCTORS’.

Today, here in Australia and around the world patients are being not only harmed but disabled due to the continued use of ‘off-label’ Injectable chemicals into the cerebrospinal fluid of the spine without Regulatory Approval. Epidural steroid injections for instance are a classic example of this today through such being used on ill-informed or non-informed unsuspecting patients and in some case directly ‘ordered by Insurance Companies’ to “hopefully” improve their moveability and able them to return to the workforce. Those that carry out these procedures have ‘also’ been ‘mixing’ two or more of these ‘off label’ toxic chemicals together, and injecting them Intrathecally into the patients without any awareness such was safe or had Regulatory Approval.

The question is ‘why’ have they been allowed to do so for decades without being challenged, “is such safe”??? The answer to this, is when such injections started way back in the early 1920’s in fact 1921 there were NO regulatory requirements Governments placed the trust and expertise in the hands of the Medical Profession without any checks and balances in place. In fact, the first injectable toxic chemical used as a dye in x-rays soon led to Chemically Induced Adhesive Arachnoiditis within the subarachnoid space, [spine] and due to such was stopped not by the Government but by the end-users themselves, the Doctors injecting such into the patients. This was due not so much for the welfare of the patients, but for ‘self protection’ legally.

The American FDA being the World Regulatory of new drugs had in place by the early 1900s a set regulatory requirements known as a New Drug Application [NDA] for Companies wishing to submit a new drug for Marketing. What was NOT in place was a set regulatory requirements for Companies wishing to submit an application for a General Marketing License for diagnostic radiographic x-ray toxic contrast mediums. [Dye] for until then end-users were using ‘Air’ in such procedures. [“Air is cheap”]

A specific regulatory requirement on x-ray contrast mediums [dyes] never arrived until 1969 almost half a century later, due to the thalidomide issue, by this time the medical profession had injected this “dye” injuring close to 60 million patients throughout the world 20 million of these in the US and tens of thousands here in Australia without any knowledge of doing so. Why was this? Well those carrying out these injections were not ‘linked’ to the patent’s GP, Specialists and such like, furthermore, the development of chemically induced adhesive arachnoiditis is insidious. The slow damage to peripheral nerve roots and the related man-made disability for many [but not all] develops over time and a relationship to the cause, a past injection of what was deemed to be safe, was never considered.

Today, here in Australia and around the world the practice of ‘off-label’ use continues without any Governmental oversight or Regulatory approval of such practice in place. I believe not only these end-users need to be held accountable BUT also the Government Regulators, of each of the 107 Counties where it was used, sadly many of those once employed by these Government Regulators throughout the world are NOW working for the the Manufacturer’s or subsidiaries.

My Blog explains how many Australians today have been harmed by this unregulated x-ray dye and ‘other’ such injectable substances into the CSF of the spine [and elsewhere]. 

The first contrast medium causing horrendous pain and disability was lipiodol an x-ray oil based dye (1921-1946) then came Iophendylate Pantopaque or Myodil another oil base x-ray dye [1936 – 1996] causing chemically induced adhesive arachnoiditis.

Also, my research and that of others show that even the newer water base x-ray dyes cause chemically induced adhesive arachnoiditis and the related horrendous pain and disability.
It's clear today, what has happened and its cause, it's now up to you the reader to understand how this was allowed to happen.

PLEASE FORWARD TO OTHERS ESPECIALLY THE MEDIA.

Alan Watts ~ Go WIth It

I have to!

I just can't get out of here but at least we know why

I think I am feeling OK and go to get ready to go out and then find out I am too breathless to go as soon as I start moving around or else I try a quick lie down to regain some energy and fall asleep before I know it or I can't bear to drive any further so just end up at Golden Beach and pay full price at the local SPAR supermarket there.  It is certainly not the way to save money and gone are the days of being able to shop around according to what was on special where.  The same thing is happening for a tobacco run, ie. not making it to Rainbow Fuel where the cheapest tobacco is.  It is $4 a packet (the new tiny 25g pouches which aren't really that new) more at Coles.

Pain isn't helping.  I can't get on top of that either with the tiny amount of oxycodone I am on (in combo with naloxone) so my mood is pretty dead pan and no doubt I would be cranky if there was someone here trying to push me into "trying harder", "going for a walk just to the end of the street, or simply not understanding. But I will say it again......I feel like I have got the flu and it is so hard to push through that when you know you might end up worse off because you didn't rest.  I'm wondering if I get enough rest even though I don't do anything much except potter around because I still resist going to bed and just doing nothing.  I am always working on something even when my brain isn't working efficiently enough to do it properly, I have to keep engaged or else the pain will overwhelm me and it is only when it does that I lie down.  The horrible part is that when I wake up again I am usually in too much pain because the pain killers have worn off while I've been asleep although there are still times that sleeping will help reduce pain levels in the long run even if I wake up sore and wrecked for the first 2 hours.   It's also because my body creaks and groans into the new position of lying down and I can feel things either click into a different place as gravity seems to contract me into myself and things hurt.  I've always had pain from moving - that is easier to accept but I am also still feeling like I am putting things out in my back and neck and hearing things click in and out or just click whatever way and I know I have grainy knees and similar crackles in my neck just when I turn my head even when I am not attempting to lift my arms.  Just taking a top off the right way by crossing my arms before lifting the garment over my head, is enough to ruin the whole day.  If I get a migraine then it can often mean the end of my plans for the day and it seems like I have been planning to get out of this house since last year but can't get further than Golden Beach.  I have not even had a swim this entire Summer which is soon over.

I am glad I managed to talk Ange into getting out for her swim before Summer was over but she is confined for different reasons.  The thing is that she did it thinking that I was going to do the same thing down here but I didn't.  "Good idea woman" she typed.  I tried but by the time I was feeling half alright for it, it was cool and after dark and all I managed was another "look" at the water with a paddle for me and Milo thrown in after midnight so it wasn't even the same day that Ange went.

The Gold Coast team are moving along in leaps and bounds with regards to research into Chronic fatigue syndrome as defined by Canadian Consensus Criteria which means that at least post-exertion relapse is required for being defined as having CFS aka ME more correctly when using those criteria. Anyway they are discovering lots of things about people with ME/CFS (which is now more commonly known as CFS/ME - huge contribution to our understanding thank you researchers) thanks to grants from the Queensland Government and Fox I think the other main one is.

Here is an excerpt explaining a bit of it but I am not at all familiar with calcium ion transport in the body so it does not mean enough to me other than my genes should be able to confirm it if I knew which ones to look up on my genetic testing but I don't.  I think they are still picking out the best genes to look at.  Here is the excerpt anyway:

The breakthrough came after researchers from Griffith University identified that patients with CFS/ME were far more likely to have single nucleotide polymorphisms - DNA typos - in the genetic code for certain cell receptor.

This cell receptor is known as transient receptor potential melastatin 3 (TRPM3), and in healthy cells it plays a crucial role - transferring calcium from outside the cell to the inside, where it helps regulate gene expression and protein production.

But in several peer-reviewed papers published by the Griffith team last year, they showed that in CFS/ME patients, something seemed to be going wrong with TRPM3.

In the latest study, the team looked at blood samples 15 CFS/ME patients and 25 healthy controls, and found that immune cells in chronic fatigue patients had far fewer functioning TRPM3 receptors than those of healthy participants.

As a result, calcium ions weren't making it inside the cell like they should be, meaning cell function was impaired.

What makes matters worse is that TRPM3 isn't just found in immune cells. The team tested its presence on immune cells as they're easy to access in blood samples, but the receptor is found on every single cell in the body, which not only explains why CFS/ME has been so difficult to diagnose, but also why it's so severe.

"This is why it's such a devastating illness, and why it's been so difficult to understand," one of the researchers, Don Staines, co-director of Griffith University's National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases, told ScienceAlert.

"This dysfunction affects the brain, the spinal cord, the pancreas, which is why there are so many different manifestations of the illness - sometimes patients will suffer from cardiac symptoms, sometimes it will be symptoms in the gut."

It's something that's confused doctors for decades, and has lead to much of the misdiagnosis of the condition - but the new research suggests that all of the common CFS/ME symptoms can be explained by these faulty calcium ion channels.

"We now know that this is a dysfunction of a very critical receptor and the critical role that this has, which causes severe problems to cells in the body," said Staines.

To be clear, the research is still in its early phases - all we know for now is that these dysfunctional TRMP3 receptors are involved in the disease, and there's a lot more work to be done.

But Staines suggests that the involvement of TRPM3 receptors could explain why so many patients appear to experience CFS/ME following a traumatic event or serious infection.

The class of receptors TRPM3 belongs to are also known as 'threat receptors', because they're upregulated when the body is under any kind of threat, such as infection, trauma, or even childbirth. 

Staines and his colleagues predict that it's this upregulation that causes the the faulty genetic receptors to get over-expressed and then take over, messing up the calcium transfer in a range of cells.

For now, that's just a hypothesis. But it's a much-needed starting point for researchers to look into further.

Excerpted from http://www.sciencealert.com/one-of-the-biggest-myths-about-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-just-got-destroyed

I tried Cannabis oil today. I was in agony when I woke up today,

I had two visitors today.  The first was J because I asked her to bring me over a lighter because every single one in the house died last night but I woke up with a stuffed back (lower).  Goodness knows what antics I must have done in my sleep to deserve that but it was epic pain trying to move.  I was up quite early and poor Milo once again thought I was playing because here I was shuffling like a stiff old man and she thought it was an invitation to do her foot play.  I wanted to cry instead.  Sitting was even worse and I only had to move less than a cm before I was calling out in pain.  Being frozen into a position that gives no room for movement has happened to me before over the years.  The very first time it happened 2 weeks after a trampoline twisting injury at Burwood Teacher's College.  It also happened when I was pregnant with Breville at Hogg St, Toowoomba.  The house we were going to buy but got knocked back on the loan at the last minute (aka max stress time)  It has happened since then I think but not very often I am glad to say.  It gets stuck like that more often in my neck but I have had so much pain for the last, say, four days? ....(darn I can't remember anything).....and this acute pain back pain on top of it was just too cruel.  Once again I got out the wheelie walker.  Luckily the Targin worked a bit within 2 hours so once again the suffering after opening my eyes to  the world of reality without pain relief is really starting to get me down and I can't wait to get back to the pain specialist in March...because 2 hours is a long time to put up with peak pain.  But that wasn't enough Targin so I was still yelling every time it caught me off guard - even lifting my arms did it.  It feels like something is making contact as in bone on bone and it is an instant acute but short-lived pain if you obey and stay rigid, not moving.  So rigid I was for a lot of the day.  It feels like my lower back got chilled last night which means it probably got all the way down to 23 C (which is not exactly cold  is it!) for a brief time after dawn and I make a habit of covering up my waist, hip, lower back areas with at least a sheet lest the fan going all night leaves me stiff and sore.

The ceiling fan has been going since last year in my bedroom because I perspire too much without it and that is even worse since I have been having these stupid 37.2 degree mini fevers up from my basal of 36.5.  But I can always feel when I have the "fever".  The entire year so far! Easing off a bit in between and when I take a prednisolone.

 I did not feel the heat as much as this last year because I was amazed at how heat tolerant I thought I had become.  Can't say that this year...... and the presence or absence of this mini fever makes all the difference.  All I can say is that I glory in cool of some nights well after the mosquitoes have gone to bed.  Unfortunately this year seems to be bad for midges though and I don't think they ever go to bed.

 From them I run, but I love being outside late at night if they are not around or there is a high enough breeze.  I have not been outside much at all this Summer.  It is way too hot for me or way too fast before the mosquitoes track me (and Milo) down during the day.  I am still getting bitten daily INSIDE the house and about a week ago I also got bitten by a green ant INSIDE the house and inside my kaftan-like dress on my left hip.  I had a very strange reaction to that bite, it went straight into my hip joint somehow and I still get a pulling pain on that side.  I took anti-histamine but this hip pain was related to the bite no doubt in my mind.  Toxic joints?  Anyway I could live with that but today's been outta sight and bloody cruel with this frozen back.

 Anyway J brought me over a lighter before it got too hot for her and we had a cuppa and chat in between my yelps of pain.  By then I had added anti-inflammatories and paracetamol to the Targin and if I can move even a centimetre that movement very slowly helps me limber up so I would bend down very slowly and gingerly to get a stretch every so often.  I was feeling much improved by the time all the pills had kicked in but waling still hurts and I feel 80 when I try.  Anyway, this too shall pass but I wish I had some cream for my coffee. I have been stuck here nearly all year so that when I go to the ATM or to get smokes for 5 minutes I end up taking photos of what it's like out there on my way home again to give me the impression that I am getting out and about...or something, I don't know why I do it but I actually love looking at them all again so that's a good thing I guess.

Last night after being stuck here all day I drove down to Happy Valley on dusk because it was much cooler in the strong breeze.  I walked around the carpark and that was it, taking photos of course!  I did not bring Milo.

Back on Facebook after J left I got chatting to local ME sufferer K who said she would let me try some "pain relief". She came right over and we met for the first time, had coffee in the air conditioning and yakked a lot about our similar symptoms and experiences with hospitals and doctors (usually useless, traumatic or rude experiences).  I had one tiny drop of this thick black oil that she put on a spoon but it wasn't paste-like as in the way "Phoenix Tears" comes out.  It was home-made by someone else she's friends with so you might think I was taking a risk but I wasn't because I know how it's made.  I am not really sure how much it would have been felt had I not already been on more than my usual dose of pain meds but it was pleasant, relaxing and perhaps helped with the pain but like I said I was already on so much more than usual this morning because I could not bear not to be.  I'd like to try it again before I have even had a Targin and I will buy some one day from the Internet probably.  I reckon it will be properly legal soon.  Not that its legality bothers me as much as it used to because I worry less about everything that I used to worry about and I don't really know if it is a sign of dementia or not that I have changed.  Leave a comment if you happen to know that it is one of the symptoms.  To my mind it is more like I had a mini stroke and it cut off that worry area of my brain that causes butterflies and the dread feeling in my stomach. I feel just fine (until someone tells me otherwise).  I did ask J if she thought I had changed and she said "no".  She doesn't seem to have noticed that I feel differently about her and that there is a protective wall there that I have built just like I had to do with Rob because of lack of faith in their word. Do people tell me the truth I wonder because if they don't I am getting inaccurate feedback and I am a truth lover if nothing else....even if it hurts and even if I resist at first.  I think I can come to terms with just about anything after all this practice facing so many losses so it's not like I have a meltdown every time something goes wrong. Life has been tough.  And a tough life has taught me that suffering is but for a season and that this too shall pass and before you know it, it will be Christmas time again.  Life has been unfair but no-one is to blame.  It just is the way it is.

Solar light info station

I'm going.  I'll add some more of my photos later so y'all come back now.

I am not very well but there are #millionsmissing not just me

My temperature is 37.4, that's all.  Relapsing and remitting mini-fevers for 20+ years.  My basal temperature is about 36.5.  I'm dizzy.  I'm in pain.  Lead legs, hard to concentrate, light sensitivity, sore eyes, breathlessness, zombie mode, placid, sit and stare, don't want to move, nauseous, don't have an appetite, neck pain, surprisingly not so sore neck glands though, sore throat, burning mouth, aching legs, hurts to lift a cup of coffee with my main hand, headache, reflux, delayed gastric emptying, aching fingers, burning soles, tingles and strange sensations right hand side of my back (but that's probably the arachnoid cyst on my spine), strange wheezes cleared with a productive cough when I breath in, squeaks in my throat when I breath out, shoulders relentless, forget what I am doing, slow to make a decision, stopping and doing nothing but exist for a few seconds while waiting for brain to tell me what to do next,  slow to process information, good for nothing but cuddles.

Crimson Crescents

I've got two of those, one on each side.

Crimson Crescents Facilitate CFS Diagnosis
By Robert B. Marchesani

Infectious Disease News, November 1992

MINEOLA, NY—A new physical finding in chronic fatigue syndrome patients may finally give clinicians what they have only dreamed about a clinical way to diagnose the disease.

Burke A. Cunha, MD, discovered what he called crimson crescents in the mouths of 80% of his CFS patients. After the word got out, Cunha received calls from other parts of the country. Physicians began telling him that they also were finding the crimson crescents in their patients once they looked for them.

"When we look inside somebody's mouth, infectious disease doctors and internists instinctively go right to the back and look at the pharynx. When they do that, they miss these crimson crescents because they are on the side. People have missed them for years," said Cunha, MD, chief, infectious disease division, Winthrop-University Hospital, Mineola, N.Y.

For the first time physicians may have a specific indicator to look for on physical examination of chronic fatigue syndrome patients, not unlike the bull's eye of erythema chronicum migrans in Lyme disease patients.

"If your patient has crimson crescents, you now can say it is probably chronic fatigue syndrome," Cunha said.

Cunha' s crimson crescents are located on both sides adjacent to the back molars. (See figure.) They are present as a crescentic membrane of tissue that points toward the uvula. During a tonsillectomy that membrane is removed, which is the anterior pharyngealpillar. This area is crimson-purple and looks like a crescent moon chopped in half because the base goes into the tongue. The top of the crescent bows in toward the middle such that each side mirrors the other, Cunha explained.

When someone has a tonsillectomy, the borders of the crescent become less distinct and the margins are not as sharp. They are located posteriorly where the tonsil would have been before it was taken out. So even patients who had their tonsils removed still present with the crescents but the location and appearance are modified, according to Cunha.

They are always bilateral, and they can be very bright, which is why he called them crimson instead of purple. These crescents last for months and gradually fade as the disease goes into remission. When the patient gets sick again, the crescents usually get redder.

"In chronic fatigue you always find the crescents alone. The rest of the pharynx is uninvolved," he said. There is a small portion of the normal population that may also present with these crescents. "If you get a patient with a sore throat in the office, he or she can have crimson crescents, and the back of the throat is red," Cunha said.

Cunha found crimson crescents in 3% to 5% of non-chronic fatigue patients who presented with non-specific sore throats. Patients who present with mononucleosis or Group A strep do not have the crescents, nor do those with cytomegalovirus pharyngitis or the common viral pharyngitis, according to Cunha.

After seeing many patients in a chronic fatigue study center at Winthrop Hospital, Cunha has his own beliefs about the etiology of CFS. "I believe that the virus that causes chronic fatigue comes from young adults or children who give it to adults. The young child recovers from the illness but the young adult gets a sore throat and some go on to develop the chronic fatigue in adults. I do not know why, but that intrigues me," said Cunha who is also professor of medicine at the State University of New York at Stony Brook Health Sciences Center School of Medicine.

Cunha is trying to grow virus out of these crescents in an attempt to discover their cause. "The problem is when anyone does antiviral throat cultures, clinical labs are not equipped to grow HHV-6. In addition, with viruses you have to go deeper than just the surface because they live within cells. So my next step is to biopsy the crescents," Cunha said. Since there is no test for CFS, the physician must infer the disease from other sources.

"But the most consistent lab evidence that we look for are elevations of coxsackie B-titers and elevations of HHV-6 titers in combination with the decrease in the percentage of natural killer T cells," Cunha explained.

"If the patient has two or three of these abnormalities in our study center, then he or she fits the laboratory criteria for chronic fatigue. Nearly all patients with crimson crescents have two out of three of these laboratory abnormalities," he said.

Cunha's finding is especially promising for physicians who practice too far from a lab to get such evidence. "If you are a physician out in the middle of nowhere and you can't get HHV-6 titers and you can't get the natural killer-cell percentage, then the crimson crescents may be the only way besides history that can suggest the diagnosis," Cunha told Infectious Disease News.

This article was reprinted by The CFIDS Association of America, Inc. publisher of The CFIDS Chronicle 800/44-CFIDS by permission of Infectious Disease News. Volume 5, Number 11, November 1992.

http://www.immunesupport.com/

Lung Infection? and Pain Doctor

  Before I get into the latest development in feeling fluey so much this year I want you to have a look at this write up by a doctor with ME/CFS

http://mdwme.blogspot.com.tr/2013/04/dr-paul-cheneys-latest-observations.html

It all sounds very familiar.

I went to Dr Georgious with a lingering cough and he me cough once so along with the "pain" investigations he ordered, he threw in a chest x-ray.  Smart cookie he was.

I already had a low-grade fever and felt like it too with all the temperature dysregulation but I knew Dr Jo would not consider a temperature of 37.2 a fever so I made up my mind to go elsewhere for antibiotics after my appointment with Dr Craig was cancelled and I was slotted in with Dr Jo the next day too late in the afternoon.  I was feeling rotten.  My rib cage was sore and that sends pains off anywhere and I have not been able to wear a bra again because of me being so sensitive the pressure just from a sports bra.  A sports bra means no underwire, no metal and they are safe to wear in a nuclear scan if you want to avoid having to change into a gown.  That would come in handy.

I booked online at Health Engine for Jan's doctor but in the meantime I had scans, blood tests and x-rays to get done.  I had a nuclear bone scan looking for reasons for pain from head to toe.  You can take that either way you read it.  I had the chest x-ray at the same place (QDI) who were agents for Northcoast Nuclear Medicine where I got the bone scan.  The nuclear bone scan required a radioactive tracer so I got that inserted into the same vein you would use for a blood test.  Didn't hurt.  Didn't feel any different after it.  It took a while, quite a few series including separate ones for hands and feet, head and body/spine.  Then I had to go away and come back 2 hours later for the repeat series.

However, before I went in for the nuclear bone scan they let me squeeze in the plain chest x-ray because apparently you can't have a plain chest x-ray after you'be been given a radioactive tracer.  And you are radioactive for 24 hours so it was suggested that I did not let Milo sleep on my bed that night.  She was fine in the play pen.  I probably missed her more than the other way around but I was prepared for a bit of a whinge.  Didn't get it.

The good part was that if I did not pick up the chest x-ray until after the second series of scans, enough time would have gone by for me to take the report as well.  I like getting these things in my hand because Dr Jo says she will give me a copy and then never does.  Dr Craig always does if I remember to ask.  Dr Georgious just hands them over automatically like Dr Andrew did (7/20 doctors join him in Lyme retirement btw).  She failed to send them to the printer again today and I did not let it slide this time.  I asked for them at the desk to be available for me to pick up tomorrow.  For a start I can't remember everything she said and she glosses over things far too easily - like using the words "a touch of emphysema" to be expected because of my smoking and then to be forgotten about like everything else.  She didn't even ask about my diabetes.  She wanted to know if I got all dressed up with flashing jewellery for Christmas after I told her I dyed my hair red for Christmas after she told me she had noticed a change.  All very friendly but I left there today missing a lot of information.  I had wanted to hear about the blood tests from Dr Georgious with the ANA and MS stuff on it even if she could not get the most recent ones done at the new doctor I went to down town.

So I booked to see Dr Gray the day before yesterday but it turned out to be Dr Ravi because Dr Gray was away.  I had seen Dr Gray once before and he was most interested to look over my Lyme stuff which I took back the next day for them to scan there.  I really wanted to get back there before now but I've been so energy less and more concerned about pain relief than treating Borreliosis.  I've spent most of my time at home or just ducking out to the shops and I felt like I needed to protect myself from using too much energy so as to avoid relapse down from this my new "normal for me".  Normal since the whole body vibration machine saga.  Before that normal for me did not involve quite so much pain.  I could blame coming off Effexor for that but I am not sure if it is the longest relapse that I have ever had either but if it was the noradrenaline reuptake side of Effexor that helped with pain more than an SSRI like I'm taking now then I have some hope for the new drug the pain doctor prescribed. Trapentadol.  Dr Jo wrote the script out today.  Not taking them today either because tomorrow morning I have to finish spitting in jars for QML and take Milo to be spayed at Animals At Pelican as the vet is called at the Pelican Waters Shopping Centre.  I don't want to risk one of its side effects, drowsiness, tomorrow morning of all days.  I'm pretty keyed up about it and will be glad to see Milo alive and well tomorrow afternoon.

I have gotten myself pretty wired with all these scans and other tests and I have marvelled at the amount of energy I seem to have despite having a fever and pain so badly that even my eye sockets are making holding my eyes open hard because of pain just moving my eyeball.  But pain and low-grade fever along with chest and shin pain which I have are also symptoms of Bartonella and Dr Ravi said it can get in your lungs when I asked so I suggested he added Bartonella Henslea to the pathology form and he did.  It is the only one they test for via Australian Medicare and the test is notorious for being insensitive.  The bug is known more commonly as Cat Scratch Fever and there are many in the Lyme world who believe it too can be chronic yet not provoking an anti-body response just like so many others that seem to occur in immune-suppressed individuals including AIDS patients.  Another common Bartonella species is Trench Fever and I am sure there are newly discovered ones just as there are with the Borrelia genus.

I've been so slow at writing this I have already forgotten what I have written so I give up finishing this post tonight.

UPDATE:  They found a nodule on my lung via HR CT scan.  They left it there for re-evaluation.  Still having lung symptoms in May 2016.  Hearing services lady said I had fluid behind my ear drum and advised drying it up in March. I have tried antihistamine, pseudoephidrine and NeilMed Sinus Rinses.  In April the optician said the eye pain was due to my sinuses being chronically infected because your eyes are in your sinuses.  He recommended Rhinocort and it seems to have worked not only on the eye pain but also the lung wheezes and throat squeaks in May.  Dr Jo earlier on had suggested I might have asthma but did not tell me to do anything about it apart from a single course of amoxillin after I was complaining about feeling feverish with a temp of only 37.9 max.  Cortisone might be my answer then because the antibiotics did not work.

First day this year without watery runs, yippee!

I didn't go to the doctor because I don't like to go.  Not sure what this was though so for my records I am just recording what it was like.  It is not usual for me to get watery diarrhea in the absence of complete bowel attack that finally ends with this.  I had a lot of random mostly stomach pains but other places too in the gut and I lost my appetite or else avoided food on purpose to minimise the problem but I usually ate something by tea time and as usual finished off with something sweet.  It all seemed to start with plum pudding in which I find they include prune puree these days.  That was well before Christmas.  At that time I eventually came to the conclusion it was the sorbitol in the prunes/plums and the humectant (420).  I already knew about  sugar alcohols and my horrid reaction to them gutwise and have found that I tolerate erythritol the best at least in small amounts - eg chocolate drink mix.  Maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol are not for me which excludes most sugar-free foods/bars.  I get pain as well as diarrhea and I'd rather have glycoprep or golytely or whatever it is called if I need emptying (for a colonoscopy).

I cut out the plum pudding and fared better with light fruit cake but not dark which has more fruit.  I made sure there was no plum puree.  I wondered about fructose intolerance but it is the first year I have not been able to eat mixed fruit safely since I have overindulged on fruit mince pies leading up to Christmas for many years but I figured they had too much sugar for a diabetic with all the pastry.  Not really sure why I thought fruit cake would be better except to say that I have not really had a blood sugar problem for a long time despite me eating icecream daily too.  But I went off the desire for icecream despite it being liquid enough to help not aggravate my usual bowel problems.  I also found myself cutting cream out of my coffee which is another major source of calories for me.  I need more calories not less because my body goes into starvation mode making it impossible to lose weight. Anyway, it felt like I may have had a gut bug so cutting out dairy made sense.  I seemed to fare best on rice crackers but I did not check my blood sugar to see what they were doing to me because I had to eat something and even my totally plain beef patties were causing symptoms.  Even all the flavoring on the rice crackers (cheese) did not seem to be an upset.

I tried activated MMS to kill the bug and I did find it useful for after eating because it seemed to quell the bloating and gurgling that built up quickly.  I think the shooting pains were the thing that stood out as being "different" from other gut problems I have.  I did not get to more than 2 drops of activated MMS in a glass but I was worried about taking it and when the diarrhea didn't stop, I stopped taking it after a week.  But I have a feeling it may have helped shorten the lifespan of the bug.  I just don't know.  I wondered if I had food poisoning from the Christmas ham and soon stopped eating it so it went to waste (except for the dog who loved it and the bone).

All I can say is that this gastric bout stopped after I had started taking Silymarin and Tumeric capsules several times a day for a few days with the addition of the probiotic Saccharomyces Boulardii +MOS (expired) for the last 2 days.  Crumbed or battered fish was a meal I tolerated the best at night with a bit of lettuce when I had to start eating again.  And I was back on the mince beef patties for breakfast yesterday and today. I'd run out of eggs so I had no egg yolks as I usually do. Hmm, maybe the eggs were contaminated?  They hadn't expired though.

I did consider gastroparesis but it did not seem anything like the troubles I have with that except the perceived need to cut out cream during those times.  I mean food was going through fast from tea time to morning not slowly and I was not nauseous in the normal sense of the word - just "erky".

I still have not been able to put my back into place so that I am still getting daily migraines cracking and flashing and have doped myself up for those when I couldn't shift them.  It has been going on since before Christmas when I impulsively bought a PainMate to help treat it which has subsequently died on me a day after putting in a new battery.  I needed new sets of sticky pads for it but was putting up with its lack of stickiness due to "insufficient funds".  If I had the money I would not only have bought them but I would try a chiropractor or better still, an osteopath.

I am just shifting things around enough to ease my head by rolling on a tennis ball but basically I have been disabled by these problems so that I've done nothing more than small bits of housework and grocery shopping.  It is a real shame because I actually have more energy than I have had in a long time but using it usually means moving my arms and if you have spent quality time trying to stretch your back (I really should get a proper back stretcher), and received a lot of relief after the initial pain of the stretch, you don't really want to have it all come back just because your brought the wheelie bins in or hung out the washing but it is hard to stop me making the most of the energy I have to catch up on housework.  Milo does not help with my migraines because it is not just moving my arms but bending too and people wonder why I cannot teach her to jump through the doggy door when the flap is not hinged up.  It gives me a migraine trying to show her what to do that's why.  One day I even had my head out the flap.  She remains scared of the flap and totally clueless about the idea of pushing with her body.  And I also have the best liver treats you can get!

Then there is the flea problem, washing bedding and frequent doggy baths.  All migraine material.

Anyhoo, 11 days into the new year I am only nursing one majorly disabling problem instead of two so I've got to be happy with that!  It is time to sling a tennis ball over my shoulder and roll around on the wall.  Have a nice evening - I restored my ipad so I can watch Presto on it tonight.

This was on TV tonight about the state of Tick-borne Disease in Australia - http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4386727.htm

I'd better get a wriggle on and make my submission to the Senate Inquiry.