My six-month blood test came back, and drumroll please….it is perfect! Nothing out of range, which is amazing considering that almost never has happened in the last 20 years. My CRP is 0.5!! (Normal being less than 0.8) ESR was 9 (normal < 20) My eosoniphils are 2%, or 126 (normal 15 – 500) showing that for some people like me, we never get eosoniphelia, but I was 0 and 0% before hookworms, so it is elevated from that.
I’m still waiting to hear back about the MRI; I’m hoping no news is good news, but I will feel much more relaxed once I know for sure I don’t have brain cancer. (Update 8/17: MRI is normal! Yeah!)
I’m walking around in a state of shock, really. I haven’t trusted that this was going to work again, since last year was such an up and down disaster. I’ve decided not to redose right now, since my last egg count showed plenty of eggs, and I didn’t have to do dental anasthesia, so I haven’t lost any efficacy. Maybe more worms would make me even better, but since my inflammation is normal, how much better could I be? I’m more afraid that it would make things worse, or stimulate an immune response that made me lose my existing worms. I don’t know, and I don’t care to find out currently. I’ll probably redose yearly, provided I keep the worms that long and notice a decline in embryo population. (Although the egg count is supposed to peak at 6 months then drop about the year mark, so I will also be looking at efficacy and blood inflammation readings to decide.)
These last few weeks, things have been improving still. I’m going to the bathroom mostly in the morning now, usually 2-3 X. I’ve had a few occasional days where I don’t go at all. They are mostly solid now, depending on what I eat. My pain is minimal, and usually related to gas or fiber making its way through the ileal-cecal valve, which has some scar tissue. I can eat most everything – my latest addition is a little 1/2 and 1/2 in my tea. Delicious!
The only negative is I’m always hungry. I just hit 160 pounds! I started this hookworm journey at 137, which is my sick weight. 150 was my weight before I was diagnosed with Crohn’s, or up to 155. I’ve only reached that once in the last decade, the year after my surgery when I was in remission and inflammation free. But I was also on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Now, free bread from my neighbor is adding up to a round stomach, and I am going to have to either cut back or increase my exercise. I’m almost 6 feet tall, so this is a perfect weight. I’ve always wanted to be very muscular, and was athletic before this disease crushed my health. So my next goal is strength. I want to feel like I can lift anything, run anywhere, climb! I want people to look at me and think, “Wow, that woman is strong!”
I always prayed, when I was at my worst, that if I were ever well, I would get up at dawn every day and run on the beach. So I went yesterday. Biked to the beach, then first walked up and down with my feet in the water. Then I’d sprint as fast as I could until I couldn’t take it anymore, then walk. Run, walk! Of course, I got the flu the next day, so I haven’t been back, but it was all very inspiring.
But here I am, in remission according to blood tests, getting there according to symptoms. Weight wise I am strong and healthy. Is this it? Have I finally found the cure? Am I done?
I always wondered what it would be like to knowingly have something that works and is safe. Well, here I am. Stunned.
However, next I will learn incubation. I will not feel safe until I figure out how to reinfect. I don’t want to be dependent on another company or person. Once I am free and have my own source of additional worms, I will feel more calm. After that, and a decade of remission, I will at last believe; “I’m done.”
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