Lynne – yeah, wasn't I!  LOL – I was about as freaked out as a person could be being diagnosed with this crud.   This is why the RB is so important, because when you're scared, and your rheumies (in my case all 10 of them) keep telling you it 'won't work', you can sit here and watch others wrestling with what it's going to take to heal.  And you have somebody here to hold your hand while you figure it out.  Nothing is more important than that, IMHO. 

If it wasn't for the RB, I wouldn't have absorbed all the talk about yeast, so that when we moved, and I forgot my probiotics for 6 weeks, and gave myself the yeast infection from hell that I'm still dealing with to this day, I wouldn't have known to come back here and get some help for mastering yeast.  AP would have failed.

If it wasn't for the RB, I wouldn't have the AP doc I have, who saw my strep titres rise while my other myco titres were dropping – eventually AP would have failed.  The RB made me realize we probably have co-infections (and I do) and sometimes to keep it going you need different abx. 

If it wasn't for the RB, I wouldn't have gone to the various Dr. Chat's people would post about and wouldn't have realized my stubborn RF was probably protozoan infection, and wouldn't have known how to deal with that. 

If it wasn't for the RB, I wouldn't have absorbed the info on various malabsorbtion problems, and wouldn't have realized my HBP was directly related to myco's 'cell jacking' needed nutrients which I've managed to address with research about supplementation. 

I've dodged a bullet many times and didn't even realize it.

Sue and Spacehoppa – don't settle, please.  I think that's a trap we can fall into.  It's not working fast enough or the improvement is glacial.  The body is an amazing thing, it knows what you need to heal, all you have to do is figure out what it wants.  I know of one woman who went Gluten free – and got worse.  Gluten wasn't her answer, no matter what her doctor said.  Others swear taking gluten out saved them.  Yes, it's hard to do some of the things we need to heal, but it's harder, much harder, to do the traditional meds.

If you ever doubt AP, I suggest you hang on a non-AP board.  Just lurk.  Track the people starting the regular meds.  And watch how long they last on them.  Watch them getting more and more 'severe' as their docs tell they now have more and more secondary diseases, and at the end, when they're out of options, telling them they have to 'learn to live with the pain'. 

Hugs,

Pip

PS – Joe, I know Michele had a great response to traditionals, but she's an exception.  All I'm saying is for them to lurk and come to their own decision.  I know when I watch it keeps me determined to keep AP going no matter what.

Nancy –  I have no idea what kind of protozoan infection I have, I'm just doing process of elimination.  I went to a Dr. Chat awhile back with Dr. A and no matter what anybody said, he was 'flagyl'.  OK, I'm joking here, but that was the distinct impression I got.  This was in response to people having certain markers not come down.  In my case, all my markers are normal now – my SED, ESR, CCP, whatever else you can think of, except my RF which is still sky high at 300+.  A couple other people I respected from the RB mentioned recalcitrant RFs which they treated with flagyl, and when I factored in my sushi intake (LOL) I'm like, makes sense! 

You are luckier than most of us as at least you know (some of) what you have.  On paper I look fantastic with just c pneumonia and strep to worry about.  But 3 years AP and a RF that's stuck in the 300's makes me think something else is going on. 

And to think when I found AP I was so convinced that 'science' and 'testing' would help me.  I remember John McD telling me 'what are you going to do if the testing comes up negative, are you still going to do AP?' and being stunned, absolutely stunned that that was even a possibility.  But I knew I would.  From that decision, and later on the RB, I realized the key to healing is the extrapolation of available data.  And oh, and this is going to take a lot longer than I originally thought based on what I did test positive for. 

So, I asked Dr. F about it and was told 'that's a anti-protozoan'.  A second doc said it was a different class.  And a third one said it was 'both a _______ and a antiprotozoan” and my knee jerk response was “gee, they don't even know what these meds do”. 

And now you know what my rheumy doesn't know about.  That flagyl sitting on the kitchen counter.  I feel I've waited long enough to start addressing this but he's more concerned with the Zith and the Mino and I've waited over a year for movement in the RF when everything else is 'normal'.  Which is not something I'd suggest to you as you haven't been on the protocol for very long at all and you have many more things that need to be addressed before you get to this point.  I do know I need to continue my research before I actually start it as I'm pretty sure it's way too many abx (one has to temporarily go) or the yeast is going to get even more of an upper hand.  And remember, I didn't test positive for anything – you did.

AP is a balancing act.  We do the best we can with research (I live on Pubmed), with our doctors, with our meds and with learning how to listen to our bodies. 

Possibly at your next AP appointment, you can ask the doc why he thinks dealing with the protozoan infection is not as important as the other stuff.  He'll tell you.  He explained, in detail, why he didn't think I should have the Clindy IV's.  I didn't agree with him at the time but 'complied'.  I'm glad I did. 

Have you thought about a cleanse?  Tons of info on the RB on the how's and why's and wherefore's of it and it might help you lower the infection while you deal with the other issues.

Ok, I'm late for running out the door – will come back and answer the malabsorption issue later this afternoon.

Cathy – thank you sweetie!

Sue – ain't that the truth!

Pip