From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel
Subject: Re: Travel Costs
Message-ID: <gq84pu8htl7h3fp63kci76e5efc5knkj6o@4ax.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 17:10:45 -0400

On 25 Sep 2002 02:13:55 GMT, rvnnow@aol.com (RVnNOW) wrote:

>
>My working days are over. I spend too many hours on exercise/rehab trying to
>keep the Fibro Myalgia and joint/muscle deterioration at bay.

Lon,

There's an institute out there (they have a web page but I can't seem to find
it right now) whose doctors have developed the theory that Fibro is caused by
an infectious agent.  I tend to agree after my experience.  I developed
symptoms about 10 years ago.  My wife had had them for 20+ years.  I had been
thinking that somehow I had "caught" it from her even before reading about
this work.

The institute's treatment is long term antibiotic treatment, a year or more,
using simple antibiotics like amoxicillin.  When I read that, something
"clicked".  I had noticed that whenever I had to take a strong round of
antibiotics for a sinus infection or whatever, the fibro symptoms went away
for a few weeks.  I decided to try the treatment on myself.  I started out
using veterinary amoxicillin before I convinced my doc to prescribe for me.  I
decided to try it for 6 months and see what the results were.

Long story short, that was 2 years ago.  I have been completely symptom-free
since about a month into the treatment.  Cured a chronic gastro problem that
has been misdiagnosed as IBS.  I discovered that I could re-ignite the gastro
symptoms by eating rare steak and they'd stay around until another round of
antibiotics (just the normal 2 week round in this case.)  Since giving up rare
steaks (sob!), I've been completely free of gastro problems for over a year.
Frankly I haven't felt as good as I do now since about high school.

That institute has developed a blood test for the bacteria but it's expensive
so I decided on a more practical option - treat the assumed problem and see
what happens.

I have a feeling this is going to be just like the H. Pylori and ulcer
situation, where the "establishment" refused to consider the linkage for over
10 years because an un-credentialed general practitioner developed the linkage
and the cure.  Doreen's rheumatologist, a perfessor at UT's medical college,
told me I was crazy.  Strange how I'm cured but wifey, who's still under his
care, isn't.