Diarrhea

I had tetanus. I got it on August 15, 2004. (this is background) The ER
diagnosed me as Paranoid because I was screaming from the muscle
contractions which they couldn't see, and the site of the injury was not
swollen and didn't indicate the severe problem within.

So, it took me nearly 6 months to get adequate Metronidazol to kill the
clostridia bacteria. Metronidazol is the specific antibiotic recommended for
tetanus, particularly if the person is allergic to penicillin as I am.

The delay and interim doses which were not adequate showed me something
that I want to share with you.

The ER prescribed on October 7, 2004, a week's worth of the antibiotic
Erythromycin. They later said they did that to calm me down, not because
they thought I had tetanus. It helped. But it ran out and it took me quite a few
days to get more. When I did, I again improved, but ran out before the
symptoms were totally gone, and I couldn't get more. The dose had been
about half or less of what is recommended for Tetanus.

Then in February I got some more, but again only a fraction of the
recommended amount.

Finally at the end of March, 2005, I had 17 days of the 500mg Metronidazol
every 6 hours, prescribed by the doctor for the homeless, whom I was able to
see because the privy pit caused my home to be foreclosed -- (I'm praying for
a miracle).

Okay, so ever since the full course of Metronidazol I no longer have the
diarrhea I have had for about a dozen years. (An excellent nurse practitioner
whom I saw in 2003 said that with the kind of B12 deficiency problems I
have, I could expect to have diarrhea for the rest of my life.)

Each of the small courses of antiobiotic changed the texture of my stool (this
is so gross, but it is also the only way of telling you this) but the changes didn't
last.

This last course of Metronidazol has changed the texture, and it has lasted.

Okay, so that means that among other things, when I eat corn now, it no
longer comes out looking exactly like corn.

And, I seem to be regaining some balance and not bumping into doorways as
much.

But, regaining balance could be because the homeless doctor also put me on a
B12 shot a day for about two months because after the metonidazol/tetanus I
had a lot of trouble with my feet going numb and feeling like they weren't
touching the floor, which made it feel as if I was falling.

The B12 helped enormously, way more than I would have thought possible,
even being a major believer in B12.

So it could be that I'm not bumping into walls and doorways as much because
the B12 is restoring my nerves... or... maybe it has to do with killing
something that was living in my gastro-intestinal system.

I asked the doctor if he thought I could have had h.pylori. He said, no, that
h.pylori tended to be associated with ulcers, which he didn't think I'd had.
But, he added, there were other things rather like h.pylori that it could have
been.

Here's my point, I had three small courses of antibiotic that did not affect the
h.pylori or whatever in any lasting way. It was only when I had a really major
course that there was a significant change for the better. The problem is that
doctors overall, at least in my experience, are not keen to prescribe antibiotics,
much less large doses of them.

What if, I wonder, there was something like h.pylori that was causing all my
neuro symptoms??? And, what if my mom had it, and it was the reason she
was diagnosed in later life with pernicious anemia?

I don't know the answers, but I saw an article somewhere that said they were
looking at antibiotics in relations to ALS... this experience of mine made me
really start thinking about that.

           Karen Kline August 6, 2005

Post Script: If you have had diarrhea a long time, then you might benefit as
much from taking B12 as I did. (By that I mean that the nurse practitioner
appeared to view my diarrhea as a symptom of B12 deficiency.) And, for the
record, methylcobalamin lozenges are just as effective as B12 shots. (I added
this because I was surprised at how many people were visiting this page.)

           Karen Kline August 16, 2005

Also worth considering - During the time that I couldn't get any more
antibiotic and I was still having tetanus symptoms (luckily not the muscle
contractions in my back which I found I could keep from happening by
staying really still) I was taking 12 to 15 of the 500 mg vitamin C with rose
hips, the cheapest variety at Wal*Mart because I was so impoverished, with a
huge mug of tea and saltines and additional water, three times a day. So that
was about 18 to 23 grams a day. That much vitamin C causes diarrhea, so it's
a bit daunting to take that much once you realize what's going to come of it.
But, here's the thing: those large doses of vitamin C also caused a change in
the texture of my stool. (At the time I had no idea what that meant, or if it
meant anything at all. I just happened to notice.)

Okay, so then a woman wrote to me who'd seen some of the things I'd posted
on a homeopathic site, where the people had been major rude to me, I forget
why, maybe because they expected me to improve from homeopathics, and I
didn't.

The woman wrote saying that a friend of hers had gotten tetanus and had
been treated immediately, and was vastly better, but had some lingering
problems from it.

She was (and is) a herbalist, and was worried about me when I told her what I
was still experiencing. So, she sent me this huge box of home grown oranges,
grapefruits, kumquats, HUGE lemons, two jars of their honey, a tiny bottle of
Oil of Oregano, and a small packet of propolis.

She said that the Oil of Oregano is a natural antibiotic, as is the propolis. Bees
make propolis to protect their hives.

I forget what she told me to eat with the Oil of Oregano, but I did... it tasted
really Italian, like pizza or highly spiced spaghetti. She told me to have the
propolis with honey.

Okay, so when I took the doses she recommended the red lines under my
fingernails faded, except for the thick one on my right thumb and the bright
one on my left ring finger. The fading was such a relief. (The lines, as I
understand it, are called "splinter hemorrhages" and reflect blood infection.)

I also had red lines (they were not bright, but more a taupe/red) under my toe
nail where the darning needle puncture had been. They too decreased a bit. I
began to feel better. But, even though I was still soaking my foot in Epsom
salts and using compresses of Epsom salts, both of which clearly helped, all of
this did not totally get rid of the lines - or the infection which the lines
apparently indicated. (The line on my right thumb had a reddish spot near the
top of my thumb that was about the size of a lentil.)

When the homeless doctor gave me the Metronidazol, the lines faded a great
deal more, but the lentil sized spot did not go entirely away, though it did grow
smaller, and the line became wider and less distinct.

But, I continued to tire easily and my eyes would burn a lot, which I associate
from childhood with infection.

About this time a friend of mine sent me an article on Linus Pauling and
Vitamin C. The article was saying that vitamin C could cure some types of
cancer. I was open to believing this because by this time I'd found a study
done in Bangladesh in 1984 that showed that vitamin C, when given to people
with tetanus, reduced the severity of the symptoms and none of the people
who had the vitamin C died of tetanus. Tetanus kills about 40% to 60% of the
people who get it.

What I learned from the Linus Pauling article that surprised me, was that the
amount of vitamin C that I had been taking was not really enough. The article
was suggesting about 26 grams a day. (I think this varies in relation to the size
of the person.) I'm huge, I'm six feet tall and by this time I'd gained quite a lot
of weight from hardly moving at all for about a year, so the amount of vitamin
C I was taking was short of being enough by several grams.

I decided to try taking a full 30 grams a day for 5 days, to see if that made a
difference. (Two of the 500mg tablets equal one gram.)

It made a difference. My eyes stopped burning and the remaining lines got
really faint. They still aren't totally, completely gone, but they are not so
visible that anyone who did not know where to look could see them.

So, what I think, what I really think, is that if I had taken a larger dose of the
Oil of Oregano and the propolis, or taken a full 30 grams of vitamin C for five
days or maybe even a week, that it would have killed the clostridia and the
blood infection and I would not have needed the Metronidazol.

The reason I think that is that the vitamin C appeared to control the tetanus. I
had to keep taking the vitamin C because when I stopped the symptoms
worsened. Plus, at one point I got a horrible toothache and infection where
my dental implants were: I had completely failed to brush my teeth during the
months when I couldn't stand long enough for that kind of thing. (You would
not believe how dirty I was after the months of not being able to shower for
more than a minute or two because of how my muscles would tighten in this
really frightening way. A minute is not enough to wash my hair and body! I
was crusty dirty.)

Okay, so the pain from the swelling and the infection in my gums was terrible.
Ibuprofen didn't knock it out at all. It helped, but it didn't knock it out.

This is when I learned that Vitamin C got rid of the swelling and that meant it
must have been getting rid of the infection. So from then on I took the 12 to
15 tablets of 500 mg vitamin C regularly to keep the infection away, up until I
had the Metronidazol.

The homeless doctor said that much vitamin C could be dangerous. Strangely
enough he didn't seem nearly as worried about the huge amounts of Ibuprofen
I was taking. (If you ever have to take a lot of Ibuprofen, be sure you take it
with at least a couple of Saltines and a lot of water and tea and other liquid. It
is really important to do that because otherwise you can have a really health
devastating reaction to the Ibuprofen. I think this is true of all pain killers. So,
be sure to remember to take pain killers with some food and LOTS of liquid.)

The upshot of this is that I now have a supply of several bottles of vitamin C
on hand because I am sure, I mean SURE that if the bird flu hits, the vitamin
C will work much better than Tamiflu or any other new drug or vaccine that is
around or in short supply at the time.

I think it is wise to have such a supply and I started a page on the bird flu, but
I have had so much stress recently because of the foreclosure of my condo
and its sale without any notice to me of the foreclosure judgement or sale, that
I haven't completed the page. Basically, though, this page, right here, tells you
why I believe vitamin C could be a life saver, especially if things grind to a
halt and getting any kind of help to include healthcare is nearly impossible.
(Like it was impossible for me to get help with my tetanus for so long. But I
survived.)

Remember, if you are a smaller person than me, which most likely you are,
you should take a proportionately smaller amount of C. But I don't know
what that amount would be. You would need to work it out. As you do that,
as you work out what amount is best for you, do it gradually, and keep notes
so that you can see what you did and the effects. (I'm six feet tall and I
weighed about 280 pounds. So that is pretty huge. You should not take as
much vitamin C as I was taking if you are smaller than me. Equally, if you are
larger it doesn't mean you should take a great deal more. The difference for
me came when I took 60 of the 500 mg vitamin C a day, instead of 45.
Pauling's article had suggested the equivalent of 52 a day.) Also, I understand
that the way vitamin C works, is that it combats whatever... so don't take it if
you are well, because that would be bad for you because there would be
nothing for it to combat. Do you see what I mean? This is really important to
remember. Do not take it in such large amounts in an attempt to stay well,
because that is not how it works. Taking it that way could make you sick.

I believe the amount that Pauling himself took daily was 3 grams. He lived to
nearly a hundred.

Finally, I wonder if Vitamin C would kill h.pylori or similar things. Or did I
already say this. Sorry, I can't remember. (I still have some brain damage.)

           Karen Kline   7/1/06