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Today is 3 days since getting reinfected. Yesterday, I woke up very happy. But by mid-morning, a bone-settling fatigue set in, but in a nice way. I just wanted to lie on the ground next to the chicken coop, so I did. I was very, very relaxed. It felt like my bones were soup. I lay there until I had to get up to meet someone over a new job, and walking downtown with my computer strapped to my back was a challenge. Caffeine didn’t help.

My husband is sick with a cold, as are my daughters. So I may be fighting a virus on top of the hookworms. Always compounding variables when it comes to me.

I’m very afraid that it’s all going to stop working, reinfection be damned. All I can do is wait and see. I’m trying to think positively – why not think it is going to work, and I just need to be redosed every 4-6 months? If I feel this good every time, I will be delighted to take my “medicine”.

Now we’ll see what the day is like. Will I accomplish anything? Or just sink back into the ground? Thank God I’m not a firefighter or something. I wouldn’t want to rely on me.

Aaaah, the hookworm high. I feel like a heroine addict getting her fix. About 1/2 an hour after skin entry, I felt a little giddy – laughing over nothing. This went away, and nothing really happened until the next day, except immediate cessation of nausea, more energy, and an appetite for specific foods. (Thai food, sushi. If only I could actually afford eating out, I’d be very, very happy. If anyone wants to send funds for financing the first woman with Crohn’s disease to write about hookworm therapy – please contact me. )

How to describe the hookworm high? It’s not dramatic. It’s a feeling of “aaaah”, like something you’ve been missing has been added. I feel calm and grounded. The best way I could describe it is for regular meditators – that feeling of calm and peace, energy balanced, after you’ve done a good meditation or long, relaxing prayer. Or exercised at the beach, swam in the waves. I just feel more at peace and one with the world.

My bowels still hurt, and there are no improvements – I’ve never been the kind that their symptoms go away for a week. And I know this feeling’s not going to last.

But for now, I’m milking it for all it’s worth. I think I’ll get infected quarterly just for my dose of wellness. Or perhaps before an important event, if I need a boost of calm. Who needs Lexipro when you can have hookworms?

Hookworms: the next Prozac. Line up, folks. I know this sounds bizarre, but mmmm, worms swimming in my bloodstream = happiness.

Update: soo relaxed, but very, very tired. I just want to lie down in the dirt. Is this mind control by the parasites? They don’t know my dirt is practically sterile. I want to be next to the chicken coop. I want to melt into the earth. I wish I could sleep.

http://www.immunologica.eu

Their English website is pretty horribly translated. If you can read Spanish, though, there’s some interesting information. There is an address in Spain for both clinic and lab, so they’re not being secretive about their location.

Update: I just called Spain. They plan to begin commercial operations in January.  Price will be 2,500 Euro. (I’m assuming this is for a single dose.)  2500 euro = $3394 right now, so more expensive than AIT.  You must travel to the clinic in Spain to be treated.  Call Tel: +34 911018272 for more information.

My family homeschools, and has for the last 6 years.  I have two daughters – one almost 12, the other 8, and the first went to a private Kindergarten, but that’s it as far as “normal school” goes for the two of them.

Last week, we decided to try public school, to see what we’ve been missing.  It was a reaction to the “back to school” buzz that is hard to avoid, and the weird sensation of all of the children over 5 disappearing from the public streets.

People are experimenting with the hygiene hypothesis, putting worms back in to balance the immune system, changing their diet to pre-industrialized fare, but no where have I seen someone examine the extraordinary strangeness of sending one’s children to school. Read the rest of this entry »

For the last week, my symptoms have worsened somewhat; more mucus, more frequent stools, pain in my intestines.  There’s always the wonder, “Do I still have worms?  Have I lost some?”  I need to do an egg count and assess; it’s really the only sure-fire way to know if they’re still in there, since a few months ago I got a 0 on my eosoniphil count; the next month it was 192.  Lab error, or ?  Standard labs don’t always catch light infections, though I admit, I haven’t sent in a lab sample since December.   So an egg count is on my list of to-do’s again. Read the rest of this entry »