Doh! - またしでかしてしまった。。。

I wanna cry, too, bunny.
私も泣きたいよ～。

I'm just not good at sitting still and healing myself...

After months of dealing with spotty tonsils and flared-up mono, I was finally feeling up to taking up a role in our Toastmasters meeting -- i.e. I was dying to go out and do something. (Never mind it took an IV/massage/acupuncture/qi-gong blitz on Wed/Thurs/Friday.)

Well, the ending result is a bleeding throat. Doh! So much for dreaming maybe I'd be able to catch a chat with a friend over tea some time soon. (I guess I still could -- I just have to be a really good listener and not so much a chatter. Or I need a chalkboard.)

I talked to my doc last week, and we'll do another 3-month round of chelation therapy to rid of more mercury/heavy metal in my body (I was taking a little break to rest my kidney), and we'd try double-dosing immunoglobulin shots this time along with the anti-viral IVs in an attempt to boost my immune system.

So the saga continues... I guess the fact I can be up and typing is an improvement from a month ago, though. :-)

-A

P.S. A thought: Maybe I should enroll in some miming classes, so I can learn to communicate without talking.

じっと安静にしている、ということがとことん苦手なようです。

２ヶ月ほど水玉もようの喉と、悪化した単核球症と
共存して、出かけて何かしたい症候群になっていた私。
水・木・金と点滴、マッサージ、鍼、気功と、
手を尽くしてトーストマスターズのミーティングに
久しぶりに参加することができました。

結果は、、、焼けるような喉と熱。
あーんとしてみたら、白かったところが今度は赤い。
（紅白だから縁起は良い？！）
うがいしてみたらやはり・・・血が出てます。

あーあ。　もうちょっとで、お友達とお茶でも飲んで
お喋りでもできるかしら～と思ってたのに。
（話を聞く側にとことんまわればいいのかな。
それか、小さい黒板を持参して筆談？）

先週、線維筋痛症・慢性疲労症候群クリニックの
お医者様と話して、また３ヶ月、DMSAを飲んで
体内の重金属をもう少し排出する治療をすること
（飲み続けると腎臓に負担がかかるので
ちょっと休んでました）、あとはまた抗グロブリン注射、
ただし今回は一回の量を倍にして、毎週点滴も続け、
しつこい慢性感染・免疫不全に対処することになりました。

そしてまた冒険は続く。。。　でも、こうして起きて
更新できるだけ、一ヶ月前よりは良くなってるという
ことですね。 (^_^)

-英

P.S. しばらく喋らなくてすむように、
パントマイムでも習うべきかしら・・・。

Aki Matsuri is here again! - 今年もやって来た秋祭り！

↑ Aki Matsuri poster --

once again designed by my wonderful hubby!

Time flies. It's that time of the year again - Japanese Fall Festival (a.k.a. Aki Matsuri) is coming up this weekend (Sept 6, 7)! I can't believe it's been a year already.

There will be exhibitors, nomi-no-ichi (flea market), martial arts demonstrations, photo ops with Hello Kitty, awesome puppet shows, festival food (yatai), etc., etc.... Fun times.

An astute reader such as yourself probably noticed that this is my first post in a long time -- and that it probably means I hadn't been feeling well.

Ding-ding-ding-ding! You are correct! Sorry, I don't have a prize.

Okay, I'll admit now that taking that trip to Vancouver might have been a bit much. I'm still recovering from it, and that combined with the renewed anti-viral therapy combined with the mercury chelation therapy with DMSA, I've been feeling like I have mono squared.

Then there was a confluence of wonderful family visits -- my parents, Daniel's parents, Daniel's brother Brent and his always wonderful wife Kathy -- all of whom I wanted to spend more time with, but much of my summer was spent in bed, spiced up with few outings. :-/ It was wonderful seeing everyone, though, and I'm so grateful they came to Seattle, we got to be with them, and our parents were all so helpful and easy-going. (Thank you for all the goodies you brought back from the farmers market! Sorry I couldn't go with you -- I'm still enjoying the currant jam and ikura, though!)

So the summer is almost gone, and I'm hoping all the feverish, dizzy, painful days are somehow helping me get over my chronic infections. We'll have to see. It's always dark before the end of the tunnel... right?

I'll take a break from the anti-viral therapy this week, in the hopes that would help me have enough energy to carry out my volunteer duties. I'd be interpreting the lecture to be given by the special guest from Japan, and I'm hoping I'll have some leftover energy to sell the festival T-shirts to raise funds for the organization. This year's T-shirts are really cute! (Daniel did a rockin' job, I think. It features the same cute Darumas seen on the poster above.)

Please come by Bellevue Community College if you're in the area, and say hello.

-A

Another piece of puzzle, found -- また見つかった、パズルのヒント。

If I were a medical detective, I might have found my case to be quite intriguing and fun.

Most doctors don't have that much time to spend on one patient to unravel the mystery that is a human body -- so pieces of information are found little by little, very slowly. Even then, finding something is exciting.

I just found out yesterday that the mercury level in my body is quite high -- off-the-chart-high. (Literally. They had a bar chart on the lab result sheet, and my result went off the "very elevated" range; the doctor said it was the highest level she'd seen. This is one of those times where you really don't want to come in on top.) I also have an elevated level of lead.

I don't really know how this happened, because it's not like I ate more tuna than an average Japanese person. It's not even my favorite fish. :-/

One thing Daniel and I could think of was the old form of dental amalgams. Most likely due to celiac disease, I had very little enamel on my teeth as a child and as an adult, so I'd had basically melting teeth and extensive dental work all my life. Needless to say, I've had lots of metal in my mouth, though all the metal crowns have been replaced now.

Signs of mercury contamination can include fatigue, lack of physical endurance, headaches, and immune suppression, possibly immune dysregulation. It can advance to tremors and incoordination, anemia, psychoses, manic behaviors, possibly autoimmune disorders, renal dysfunction or failure. (In other words, it's a good thing I found this out now.)

Hmmm. Suspicious, very suspicious! It would make sense, if one of the reasons I couldn't get rid of my chronic infections was immune suppression from mercury. I was frustrated recently by the fact my white blood cell count keeps dropping, so if I can help elevate it by getting rid of mercury, that would be good news.

I'll start on a detoxifying agent (DMSA) for a couple of months to see if that helps. (It'll make me nauseated, but oh well. No pain, no gain.) Wish me luck! The hard part will be limiting certain kids of sushi...

-A

もし私が、医学的観点から謎解きをする探偵だったら、
自分の事件（病気）はけっこう面白かったんではないかと思います。

お医者様はたいてい、そんなに一件の事件（一人の体）に割く
時間がありませんから、ヒント、または答えは、ゆっくり
少しずつ見つかるようです。　それだけに、何かまた
見つかるのはちょっと心躍りますね～。

昨日「これはどうだ?!」とやってみた検査の結果が出て、
体内の水銀汚染濃度がえらく高いことが分かりました。
（棒グラフになってたんだけど、高すぎて、グラフを
はみ出してしまった。　先生も「きっと今まで見た中で
一番高いわ～」とか。 そんなんで一番になりたくない。）
なぜか鉛の汚染度も高いそうな。

ほかの日本人よりマグロとかを多く食べてきたわけでは
ありませんし、何故かは良く分かりません。
（一番好きな魚というわけじゃないし。）

ひとつダニエルと私で考え付いたことは、
｛しかよう｝古い虫歯にかぶせた歯科用アマルガムくらい。

多分セリアック病のおかげで、大多数の
乳歯も永久歯もエナメル層がちゃんと形成されなかった
私の歯は、いつも溶けてるも同然でした。
歯医者さんにはこってりお世話になって、
口の中はいつも金属だらけだったかも。
最近全部変えましたが。

水銀汚染の症状はいろいろありますが、
｛しんたい じきゅうりょく｝少し挙げてみると、倦怠感、身体持久力の低下、
頭痛、免疫抑制、免疫調節異常、などなど。
｛きんにく｝さらにエスカレートすると、体の震え、筋肉の協調運動失調、
貧血、精神病、躁鬱、自己免疫疾患、腎機能障害そして、
腎不全などになります。　（見つけて良かったね～、ということ。）

う～む、ワトソン君、これはあやしいですよ～。
もしこの免疫抑制が、いろいろな慢性感染が治らない
要因の一つであったなら、ちょっと説明がつきます。
最近白血球が少しずつ減少していてめげていたので、
もしこれに手を打つことで免疫力が上がるなら、
そんなに嬉しいことはないです。

これから２ヶ月ほど、DMSAというジメルカプトコハク酸を
用いて、水銀と鉛が体外に出るようキレーション療法に
挑んでみます。　（気持ち悪くなるけど、良薬口に苦し、
ってことで。）　一番つらいのは、種類によってお寿司を
避けなきゃいけないことかも・・・。

- 英