Stupid YEAST!

It has been nearly 5 months since my last post - yikes!  Well, we had an uneventful Summer...as far as medical/health stuff goes.  The kids felt great!  We had to treat Tootsie for SIBO and yeast in June, at the end of the school year...and we are thinking it might be time to do it again.  She is starting to show symptoms of burping, gas, and mild constipation.  We are going to hold off on treating for now. We'll see if symptoms worsen over the next few weeks.

We did have an exciting Summer though!  We sold our house on 4 acres and bought a lot in a development on 2/3 of an acre.  We decided we didn't need the acreage.  The kids would much rather have neighborhood kids to play with, and we would like less to mow.    We are excited about starting fresh and making some changes to our kitchen layout!  So for now we are camped out in a rental, just a 1/2 mile from our building site.  It's great to be so close...we can pop over easily and check on the progress.

Taking a break.

Throwing sticks for the dog.

Wild monkeys in the backseat.

The new house so far.

Now back to the medical stuff...

Buddy had a rough start to the first two weeks of school and was only able to attend 2 days.  He was having free-floating anxiety, brain fog, inability to focus, depression, an itchy throat with a dry cough, an itchy bottom, tummy pain and weight loss.  I took him down to see his GI doctor to see if we could test for SIBO...I knew something was going on with his gut.  Either SIBO or yeast overgrowth.  GI didn't think the symptoms were related to SIBO and prescribed an anxiety medication.  He thought it was normal anxiety due to starting a new year of school.  I didn't agree, but went along with it.  I went ahead and filled the medication and gave it to Buddy the following morning.  It made him act silly and once we got to school, it did nothing for his anxiety and we had to come home.  So we discontinued the medication.  Our Naturopath had ordered a stool analysis kit back in May so we decided to go ahead and test him to see if it would show yeast.

In the meantime, we met with Buddy's therapist to see if she could help with coping skills to get through the anxiety.  She felt like we needed to get to the root of his digestive issues for her therapies to be helpful.  So while we were waiting for the stool test result to come in, we went ahead and treated for yeast overgrowth based on symptoms.  We used fluconazole (150mg, once a day for 7 days).  We got the results today which showed he did in fact have moderate levels of yeast in his stool.  His Naturopath made a diagnosis of leaky gut & brain.  She felt the toxins being thrown off by the yeast was crossing the blood-brain barrier and giving him the neurological symptoms (just like what happens to Tootsie).  After 3 days on fluconazole he was back to his confident, happy-go-lucky self.  He even ran for class representative and won!  Way to go, Buddy!  He has been going to school for the past 2 weeks now, with no episodes of anxiety and he's doing great in class.  We are so happy for him!

The new 4th grade class representative.

So our plan for now is to meet with the naturopath monthly and follow her advice on healing the gut. She sent us home with some new herbal meds and supplements to add to list.  #1. OrthoFlora to support a healthy balance of intestinal flora.  #2. GI Integrity - gives fuel for intestinal cells and connective tissue nutrients to help heal the leakiness.  #3.  Quercetin - a potent antioxidant.  He will continue to take Thorne Children's Basic Nutrients, Cod liver oil, Vitamin D, and Simalase digestive enzymes & Innate Response Flora 20-14 probiotics.   He also takes UNDA Numbered Compounds - a homepathic preparation.   Now how's that for a mouth full?!  Cheers to healing!

Off to school!