Here's the story:
My life partner, Shay, had taken an apartment in San Diego in order to be close to a doctor in Tijuana who was treating cancer with a new aggressive form of chemo-therapy that was not FDA approved. Shay had been diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer, and rather than continuing to commute from Portland, she opted to move to San Diego, where she could also attend courses and participate in regimens at the Optimum Health Institute in Lemon Grove.
Meanwhile, I was holding down the fort in Portland, running the online health products business, taking care of two houses (one rental), and playing drums nights in various bands, with the occasional tour.
Shay was not doing well, and finally called to say she couldn't do it alone anymore, and would I please come down to assist. I loaded up the RV with items she wanted from the Portland residence, and packed a bag for myself.
Once situated, I commenced driving her back and forth over the Mexican border a couple of times a week. At some point, her condition deteriorated to the point where she needed hospitalization, so she was admitted to the Tijuana hospital where her doctor had been administering her chemo treatments.
Initially, she was admitted to treat a bad case of pneumonia, and had surgery to insert a drainage tube into her lung. On the day of her surgery, she had a couple of visitors who had come in from San Diego and her sister who had come down from Portland, for moral support, so we were all sitting around her hospital bed, joking and reminiscing. I suddenly began to feel sick--a slowly building nausea, that ended with me hunched over a toilet, puking my guts out.
It felt like an extreme version of stomach flu--although I'd never had it that bad before. I decided to go back to San Diego to recuperate, and Shay's sister decided to go with me, as her flight was leaving the next day. It was a miserable drive back to the apartment, since the traffic line at the border was always a long wait--and with stomach flu--well, let's say I don't ever want to do that again!
The "flu" lasted about 36 hours, and I was having trouble even keeping water down. After a couple of days, I was still shaky, but able to eat.
I went back down to Tijuana, and remained there until Shay passed a few days later. Although it was expected, her death was still a big emotional blow for me, and contributed to compromising my immune system, setting the stage for what was to come for me physically.
After her death, I opted to remain in San Diego, taking over her rental, and beginning a new life without Shay. After about 8 months, I began getting extreme pain in my left shoulder at night, which then migrated to my right shoulder, making sleep difficult and intermittent. These shoulder pains would come and go--some nights be absent altogether, other nights I'd be up all night. Aspirin didn't cut it, and I was getting anxious about what the hell it was.
Then, it seemed to subside, and I was relieved. It was just in time to go to Burning Man! It was my first time, and was a great experience.
Upon my return, the pain came back, but now had spread to my knees, with swelling and aching. I was doing daily yoga at the time, and it got the point where it was just too painful to continue. I started getting regular massages, and that helped.
Over the next 5 years or so, I saw healers, naturopaths, acupuncturists, and shamans. I have always been a spiritual person, and this "condition" took me down a deep rabbit hole of conscious awakening, self-discovery, and put me face to face with the darkest parts of myself. And for that, I am grateful.
However, I'd sure prefer to not experience my body AS PAIN.
The condition has left me with 50% less muscle mass, shrunken cartilage in my shoulders and knees, and an inability to stand fully, due to pain. I can't "walk" (hobble really) or stand for more than 15 minutes, without pain getting to an "8" (my own scale where 8 is involuntary vocalizing). Symptoms are much worse upon waking, with sharp pains in both wrists and elbows joining sharp pain in shoulders, knees and ankles.
As I have scanned the past 6 years every day, I always come back to that Mexican flu. I believe now that whatever bacterial infection that was, it got established in my joints and is reflecting back as "bacterial arthritis". I was susceptible to this due to continuing battles with dental dysbiosis--gingivitis and at its worst, periodontal disease--which had become systemic in my 40s, but with diet and focused dental care, I was able to control it. However, the channels had been set up, making the body a prime candidate for bacterial overgrowth, which I now know is what is going on.
I never did anti-biotics, instead opting to do probiotics, but now I see that the level necessary to get to a deeply ensconced bacterial "fortress" has been woefully inadequate.
I began a course of Source Energy Medicine--the system developed by Stephen Pollitt, applying theories of "programmed water" developed by the late Masura Emoto.
Now, after nearly 4 months on the program, my body awareness and communication has increased to the point where certain vital information is finally coming into my consciousness about what my body has been trying to tell me all this time. One of the "programs" in Source Energy Medicine is bacterial infestation, which is something I occasionally wondered about, but now realize THAT is what my body has been me to laboring to get me to understand.
As of today, I've begun "phage" therapy with bacteriophage cocktail from Body Ecology, and have doubled my probiotic intake, and for the first time in over 6 years, I'm feeling some relief from the body finally giving me a "thumbs up" for this line of treatment that I haven't had since the genesis six years ago/
Stay tuned!
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