7 ms·
If you want to crowdsource, obtain all your lab results that have ever been done, scan them, and post them. Those medical records belong to you. Black out you
by Vivtek 16y ago
If you want to crowdsource, obtain all your lab results that have ever been done, scan them, and post them. Those medical records belong to you. Black out your name if it worries you. (Edit on afterthought: if you're considering doing more tests and if your insurance situation is poor and if you're American, look at personalabs.com, who will order your labs from LabCorp nearly anywhere in America at just a little above cost - the difference is almost certainly going to be huge, and if the doctor isn't helping you, it's good to know you're not locked into getting the doctor to order labs for you.)
That said, it's pretty clear there's something funky immune going on - the IgA thing, the initial response to Vitamin D (and I second or third the recommendation to get sunlight - go for a walk every day; it'll do you general good anyway). You've got some weird digestive stuff going on, and so my personal red flag goes up, which is intestinal flora.
(Note also: tracking this stuff down is going to be a personal struggle, it'll take years, and there is a truly immense amount of bullshit in the world, so take nothing I say, or anybody else, without a large helping of skepticism.)
My daughter has Crohn's Disease and my son has minimal change disease (a kidney inflammation). After my daughter was hospitalized, we did a lot of research and found out what amazingly bad things can happen as a result of poorly managed intestinal ecology, and after making changes to our diet - some of them pretty profound - she's been symptom-free for three years, our son is improving, and I've lost weight as well.
So here's what I recommend: go to your pharmacy and purchase some sachets of "VSL #3", a probiotic mix. Don't follow the instructions on it; use it as yogurt starter. Yogurt is dead easy to make; get one half-gallon of organic whole milk, one quart of organic half-and-half creamer, mix a cup of plain Dannon yogurt and one sachet of VSL #3 into them as a starter, put it into a gallon glass jar (available from Walmart) and put the whole thing onto a candle warmer for 24 hours wrapped in a towel.
After 24 hours, you'll have three quarts of the most electrically sour yogurt you've ever tasted. Eat that twice a day for a while. If you want to get serious about this cure, take a couple of weeks and don't eat any complex carbs (that's way harder than it sounds). If you've really got an intestinal flora imbalance (you're presumably American, so you do, trust me) and if that's your root cause, you'll feel better in a week. You'll probably feel somewhat better in a week anyway, but there might be more going on.
That's my two bits. I applaud your effort to take your health in your own hands, and if there's anything I can help with, get in touch (email's in my profile).
- frossie 16y agoIf you want to crowdsource, obtain all your lab results that have ever been done, scan them, and post them. The other effect of doing this might be some media attention; this is a case where this could actually be a good thing, as you are going to get more doctors listening in to mainstream media rather than a narrow internet forum not even aimed at them.
- savemylife 16y agoVivtek, thanks for the thoughtful reply. That's great that your daughter has shown such an amazing improvement. I actually tried the pro-biotic, anti-candida route about 10 years ago. I remember eating lots of Stonyfield Farms unsweetened yogurt. :-) Was great for losing weight, but not much else in my case. You're right that logging and tracking is very hard. It seems cruelly unfair that brain fog is such a factor, since that makes it impossibly hard to figure out what might be wrong, and what to do to fix it. I've tried so hard to find a pattern. Owing to my fatigue, I must admit that eat a lot of prepared foods. But generally they are the healthy ones- Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, etc. Well, as healthy as a box of frozen food can be, anyway. I do try to get sunlight, but it seems to have a paradoxical negative effect on my now- I feel even sleepier if I take an noon walk.
- Vivtek 16y agoTry taking a noon walk and a nap, then. That's what I'd do. The problem with the dietary approach is it's nearly impossible to do unless somebody in the family is basically working exclusively on food preparation. The healthy food can't hurt, but probably isn't helping that much. Well, if you can't think of anything else, do try making your own yogurt; they don't let storebought ferment completely because norms don't like sour yogurt - and a true lactic acid bacteria yogurt is like putting your tongue on a battery. Good luck. I hope you figure it out.
- fleitz 16y agoHave you checked Vitamin B levels? My friend has very similar problems that are solved by getting a B12 shot. She has to get one weekly as her gut cannot absorb it. It's probably easier to just get the shot and see if it helps.