Hookworm working, feeling great!

Today I’m 10 1/2 weeks into a 75 hookworm dose. As far as I know, I had no worms remaining when I did that top off, because stool tests for ova were negative at the time, but I have had blood work done recently suggesting the new dose is alive and well. My EOS level is quite high, which is consistent with a parasitic infection.

I should add that for nearly everyone providers won’t allow a dose of 75 at once, but in my case I’ve demonstrated a very high tolerance, and have some health issues that make hosting for longer periods difficult, so my provider was willing to make a rare exception.

How am I feeling? Fantastic. Today Spring has sprung, the air is so loaded with pollen you can see it blowing in the wind. This year I can smell all sorts of flowers and other plants in the breeze, which is a nice change of pace. In previous allergy seasons when I was not hosting hookworm I was stuck inside, huddled in a dark room next to an air purifier, and shoveling down vitamin C, the only antihistamine I could tolerate. So the scent of Spring is a wonderful, new thing.

It’s a joy to have no asthma, no sinus trouble, and my mood is also really balanced. I have more energy, no more insomnia, my skin is clearing up (less rosacea), constipation (one of many side effects of levaquin) is gone, and I’m starting to gain some healthy weight: 6 ft tall, and 160 lbs. After being underweight for the last 10 years, this is a major milestone. I now weigh what I did before I got sick with ulcerative colitis. On the IBD front, I have not had a flare in a year or more, and the last one was brief, and quite mild.

Besides the hookworm protocol, I am drinking home-brewed kefir daily, and eating raw, organic sauerkraut a few days a week. I have adopted a lower-fat “mediterranean paleo” diet, designed to keep my lipid profile optimized. This seems to be encouraging good gut flora diversity, too.

Apologies for not updating this blog sooner. I’ve been busy working, holding down more than one job, and at times working 12 days straight. Anyone who has followed my blog from the start knows how incredible this is. I feel “normal” again, but in some ways I feel better than I have in about 15 years. Seriously!

Day 53 — Stability.

Today offered the strongest clues yet that the side effects phase is beginning to resolve. I woke after a fairly sound sleep with decent energy, and only a little of the brain fog and dehydration I’ve come to associate with “worm flu”. My appetite is slowly beginning to emerge again, and I’m able to tolerate the fairly narrow range of foods in my current diet quite well. I’ll test myself with more choices later, once I know I’m not reacting allergically to the helminths anymore.

Exercise is a key barometer — I continue to not only tolerate it, but I am starting to thrive on its effects. Curiously, it really seems to mediate my body’s reaction to the HT. I can feel the strength returning to my legs, as I push myself along at a good clip, searching for fatigue that never seems to come. My breathing is consistently clear and unaffected by temperature, humidity, airborne allergens, etc. By all measures my asthma and upper respiratory complaints are gone.

And it’s also time to celebrate 3 consecutive days of no worm-induced GI disturbances. My gut no longer feels tender, and I’ve started to gain back the weight I lost due to several weeks of compromised digestion — 5 lbs in about 6 days. So I’m now 149 lbs, 11 under my ideal target weight. That’s significant!

Tinnitus is only audible these days when I’m having a reaction to the HT, which came again this afternoon. I was able to deal with the symptoms by taking five 1,000mg tablets of vitamin C. That’s half of what I’ve used in the past, and the attack only lasted 90 minutes — about half the duration of a typical episode. This is one more indication my body  is beginning to submit to the iron will of the worms. The total absence of tinnitus throughout most of the day suggests my adrenal function is normalizing.

I’ll be quite happy if the trend continues, with modest improvement, for the foreseeable future. Obviously, I’d like to start feeling some of the more euphoric moments like I did during the initial “bounce”, post-inoculation, but as my sleep patterns rebalance (I still feel a touch of insomnia), and my diet becomes more varied, I would expect the benefits to start ramping, perhaps even with some synergy.

Day 41 — Good Vibes.

Do I continue to run to the loo, constantly? Well, as a matter of fact, yes. Does my gut hurt now and then? Of course. Am I a bit dehydrated and skinny? Uh-huh.

Am I bothered by any of this? Not in the least.

Today was day number 3 of a profound new development — absolute calm, improved breathing, and increased energy during exercise. I enjoy walking so much now, being outside, just floating along through my neighborhood. It’s meditative, relaxing, enjoyable — and this is happening for the first time ever.

I’ve probably always had a problem processing adrenaline. Ever since I was a little kid, I remember having some difficulty breathing during vigorous exercise, and I’d get pretty amped up, jangled, when I exerted myself. As a young man, it would take me a while to “come down” after a workout, too.

Here in mid life, thanks to some new “old friends”, I’m starting to break free of all that. It’s nothing short of incredible.

How long will this last? I’m not assuming anything. I’m taking things day by day, and just enjoying the ride.

Thank you, helminths.