Clodfobble vindicated. Yet again.

[footfootfoot]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/ma...anted=all&_r=0

[Clodfobble]

I'm happy the world is changing, but I'm sad. It's not fair (cue my mother telling me all throughout my childhood, "Life's not fair.") Minifob's been on the right diet, the right probiotics, the right fish oil, and the conventional meds, for years. He's been on the even more right diet, agreed by mainstream and alternative sides to be the absolute best it could possibly be, for one year this month. He's been on the Methotrexate for almost as long. He's better, don't get me wrong, leagues better than he used to be. But it weren't no six-week treatment for us, and even now we still have no idea if we'll ever be able to wean off the Methotrexate, or let him have raw produce, or more than one serving of fruit a day... Don't even get me started on Minifobette.

Sigh. Right. Having a cheery demeanor. (Not cool, Robert Frost!) I know better than anyone that improvement can spring from around the corner when you least expect it. Right now we're waiting for him to vomit in April. If he spontaneously vomits in April for no reason, as he did first in October and then in January, then that will be a very, very good sign. Then a colonoscopy in June, and then a fecal transplant. Still gotta find an appropriate donor for that shit. (Get it? Ha... ha... ha.)

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

I'm happy the world is changing, but I'm sad. It's not fair (cue my mother telling me all throughout my childhood, "Life's not fair.") Minifob's been on the right diet, the right probiotics, the right fish oil, and the conventional meds, for years. He's been on the even more right diet, agreed by mainstream and alternative sides to be the absolute best it could possibly be, for one year this month. He's been on the Methotrexate for almost as long. He's better, don't get me wrong, leagues better than he used to be. But it weren't no six-week treatment for us, and even now we still have no idea if we'll ever be able to wean off the Methotrexate, or let him have raw produce, or more than one serving of fruit a day... Don't even get me started on Minifobette.

Sigh. Right. Having a cheery demeanor. (Not cool, Robert Frost!) I know better than anyone that improvement can spring from around the corner when you least expect it. Right now we're waiting for him to vomit in April. If he spontaneously vomits in April for no reason, as he did first in October and then in January, then that will be a very, very good sign. Then a colonoscopy in June, and then a fecal transplant. Still gotta find an appropriate donor for that shit. (Get it? Ha... ha... ha.)

I think I've had only the smallest fraction of your frustration during our lead adventure.
I read about fecal transplants recently and although sketchy sounding, they make sense, especially after a boatload of antibiotics. From an evolutionary standpoint, and considering children and their propensity to put things into their mouths, it seems likely that we must have ingested at least some fecal matter (I'm sure a little goes a long way) in our lives, individually and as a species, and if that is the case then it makes sense that we evolved to need it or at least accommodate it in our guts.

Why the spontaneous vomiting in April? I must have missed another plot point when I ran out to get another beer.

[Griff]

word

[glatt]

I'm glad you can laugh!

[orthodoc]

Hang in there, Clod. There are still more answers to figure out ... but it's truly good news that minifob has improved so much. Does minifob have one of the types of juvenile arthritis as well? I missed that ... I can understand your desire to wean him off the methotrexate. Also missed the part about vomiting in April ... not trying to be intrusive, just to understand. I like your blog very much.

[footfootfoot]

In looking up methotrexate I found this entry about the guy who invented it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellapragada_Subbarao

Amazing. It makes me wonder how much more innovation is hidden or destroyed due to people's greed and egos.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I think they could find a more appealing name than fecal transplant.

Eat shit and LIVE!!

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

I read about fecal transplants recently and although sketchy sounding, they make sense, especially after a boatload of antibiotics. From an evolutionary standpoint, and considering children and their propensity to put things into their mouths, it seems likely that we must have ingested at least some fecal matter (I'm sure a little goes a long way) in our lives, individually and as a species, and if that is the case then it makes sense that we evolved to need it or at least accommodate it in our guts.

One of the weird but well-documented symptoms of autism is playing with one's own stools, and sometimes compulsively eating it. The medical term is coprophagia. No one's ever studied it, but my personal theory is that this is an instinctive attempt to correct the gut flora, but we live in a society where the only stool they have access to is their own diaper, so it doesn't help them. I think it was Zen who mentioned once that mother kangaroos mix up a special goo of saliva and their own poo and feed it to their younguns before they leave the pouch, which is what establishes their first good colonies in their gut.

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

Why the spontaneous vomiting in April? I must have missed another plot point when I ran out to get another beer.

So, the diet that he's on is designed to completely starve out pathogenic bacteria. Several of these species have the ability to hibernate when food is scarce, that's known for sure, and they say, anecdotally, that the hibernation cycles tend to go in three month intervals.

So the first two weeks you're on the diet, things are violently dying left and right, and you usually feel pretty ill, like a bad cold. Then the survivors go into hibernation, and you feel better. This is the point at which most people start having solid stools and minimal pain (for the first time in years, in most cases.) Then you have to just remain steady, until three months later the pathogens can't hold out anymore, and you have another round of die-off, usually involving a bit of vomiting or diarrhea with no other logical illness accompanying it. The guess is that some portion of the remaining pathogenic species are able to feed on the ones that died, so they're good to drop back into another 3-month hibernation.

This 3 month cycle is very predictable, according to people who are doing it. Minifob started in February, so he should have in theory had a round of die-off in May. BUT right at that time, his gym teacher taught the class how to make "healthy" smoothies that involved some sweeteners (i.e., bacteria food,) and he inexplicably grabbed one and gulped it even though he definitely knows better than to eat food he isn't supposed to have. (Some would claim this was an intense craving caused by the bacteria that was about to die.)

Then one day in July, he suddenly started vomiting for no reason. He's not generally a puker. No other illness, and he felt fine once it was done. Didn't think much of it until he randomly puked again in October, 3 months later. And he just did it a few days ago, in January. Potentially, we're on a cycle that got delayed by roughly two months with the accidental ingestion of that small amount of sugar. If so, he should puke again in April. And if he does, that will presumably be the true one-year mark of being on this diet, and we should (again, anecdotally,) expect a big improvement as the 12-month die-off is said to be a big turning point for most people.

Then again, he's not most people. He's still only having solid stools about half the time. So I guess we'll see in April.