For this colonic I was not constipated however I seemed to have enormous amounts of wind, it is very difficult for the water to get past bubbles of wind in the colon, so the session was not as good as I had hoped. I vowed to make my last session exceptionally good.
Annette said that what she was looking for was a good flow, with no hard faeces.

Later on I passed a large blob of yellowish mucous – so that was good…

I decided to try ridding myself of any possible parasites, I started taking Malcolm Harker’s ‘Verm-ez’ from HealthPost. It contains Wormwood and Green Walnut, I actually thought it contained Black Walnut.

For two days I took a half dose (10ml) 3 times/day, my stomach was a bit sore. I then increased it to 20ml 3 times/day. I got the sore stomach and mid back pain back again. I don’t think I really had any specific die-off symptoms.

The course is two weeks for parasites but I stopped after 1 week, I don’t think I have parasites.

Horopito is a New Zealand shrub that has been shown to be more effective against candida than many other fungicides, it contains a compound called polygodial. I took the recommended dose of 1 tablet after food twice a day. The brand is HealtPost’s own BioBalance ‘Yeast Balance’.

I found that my main reaction to it was my stomach became sore and the pain across my back returned. It is possible that this back pain is due to a leaky gut. There is a caution on the website that people who are sensitive to peppers may not be able to tolerate it, I perhaps needed to increase the dose to get another die-off, but I wasn’t keen to. I am still having to work fulltime while I am doing these treatments, so I do need to fit them into my life.

I was not feeling at all well, I probably was having die-off but at a lower level than previously. I felt very agitated.
The constipation was much reduced.

My HealthPost order arrived, I started taking Bentonite with the Psyllium to try and drag toxins out of me. Bentonite is a clay that can absorb toxins in the digestive tract, Psyllium behaves like an internal broom, they work well together. I mix up 1 tsp Psyllium into a large glass of warm water, I then stir in 1 Dsp of Bentonite liquid and swallow it down. It is not difficult to eat, it is important to have it an hour away from food, I have one first thing am and last thing pm. I try to have another during the day.

I also started taking a Milk Wood liver tonic to help support my liver during these difficult times.

I wasn’t convinced by the Horopito cure.

Well firstly, the weirdest part about having a colonic is only the first 10 seconds or so when everything is put in place. I went and saw Annette at Body Systems in Thorndon and she was lovely. I paid for three sessions in advance, they cost about $100/session.

The process involves flushing warm water into the colon to wash out faeces and mucous build up. It is very rehydrating, you feel great afterwards. As the water goes in, the pressure guage on the machine will rise as it meets an obstruction – this could be stools, a bend in the colon, or as in my case, wind.
The pressure buildup can be disconcerting at first, Annette was very careful and listened to me if I wanted to release pressure.
We did some cleaning out and some mucous was flushed away as well as the constipation. Candida lives in mucous and creates a mucous shield around itself, it is very good to get rid of mucous out of the colon.
We talked about diet and she suggested eating sauercraut and wizzed up green smoothies. She said that she could see that my diet was good

That first session was close to 2 hours long. At the end of it I felt very ‘spacey’, she gave me a probiotic and I booked in for the following Friday.

That afternoon I was very spacey again – the ‘sense of unreality’ and then I crashed, very very tired. My eyes were hardly open.

Candida makes 78 fdifferent toxins that it releases into your system, it also behaves like a mini distillery, taking the sugar and converting it into alcohol – inside your body. This is why you feel so vague and cannot concentrate when you have candida. The spaciness is a definite candida symptom. Meanwhile, your poor liver has to constantly process all of this alcohol and these toxins. I decided that my liver needed support.

The next morning, I woke up feeling very well, transformed, I felt better than I had felt in months, I was very impressed.

Monday, back at work after a very quiet weekend, my symptoms were restricted to mainly feeling bad in the afternoon and evening. Am having 3 Nilstatin/day until Friday morning. I am still struggling with constipation, the Psyllium helps a little. My big die-off confirmed to me that I definitely have Candida.
Booked a colonic for Friday. The idea with a colonic is that you wash out the candida and other pathogens before they have a chance to die inside you and overwhelm you with their toxins. I would have liked to have a colonic earlier, but I had to get started with treatment because I was very sick.

I had shooting pains down the left side of my neck, my arms and shoulders were throbbing, I felt like I was getting the ‘flu. I had a ‘feeling of unreality’, I avoided driving. I was anxious and felt like I couldn’t cope. I had hot flushes that felt like I was being pricked all over with pins. I work in early childcare, they were difficult days, 13/09/12 till approx 16/09/12.

I bought organic cold pressed coconut oil and did ‘oil pulling’ toxin therapy in the evenings. I found this helped alot, it made my sinuses drain and took away headaches, it was a great relief. Oil pulling is an Ayurvedic cleansing method, it relies on the large blood supply in the mouth to pass toxins across to the oil that you swish around in your mouth for at least 15 minutes. It does work.

The problem that I can see with treating yourself for Candida is that as you kill them, they release more toxins and make you sicker. You have to find ways to detoxify yourself and you have to pace your treatment so you don’t kill off too many at once. If you have too large a die-off the toxins can overwhelm your immune system and then the candida will grow back, stronger than ever.

For that reason, it is also very important that you completely restrict all sugar and refined carbohydrate intake. And no fruit, otherwise they’ll grow back as you are coping with their mate’s deaths and you will get super sick.

I also began ‘body brushing’ using a dry natural bristle brush. Before my morning shower, I would brush at least twice all tover the body in short strokes leading towards the heart. I did it in front of the heater to keep warm You’re then meant to turn the shower to cold at the end, but I really can’t bring myself to do that!

The first two days on Nilstat (3/day) were uneventful, apart from constipation. I needed to be regular however, otherwise the Candida would be using this as food.
Ī bought some Psyllium husks and had 1/2 tsp in a large glass of warm water a couple of times a day. I drank more water, I felt like I was exploding.
I warned them at work that I would start to feel unwell.
I went through all my cupboards and the fridge, I got rid of everything with sugar in it – sauces, pickles, the gorgeous raw organic chocolate I had just bought (sniff). Distributed all this amongst workmates and family.
I started working on a large order from HealthPost, I was going to buy every Candida cure that they had. I had read that the fungus can mutate in 3-4 days to become resistant to whatever cure you are using.
After the Nilstat was finished, I was going to rotate my cures on a four day basis.
I was tired, but feeling positive, I thought at last I was on to something.

I explained to my GP all of the symptoms and the positive spit test for Candida http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NavoSAeyMuc&feature=related

I also told him about the white ‘packages’ from my sinuses and I said that I thought I had Candida in my gut and in my sinuses. He agreed with me.

He said that my recent Iron test showed that my Ferritin levels had gone down, despite the Iron supplementation. My level was now at 11, I was anaemic.

He prescribed me 10 days of Nilstatin, 3/day and a strong Iron supplement.

I was tired and sick, I took the first Nilstatin that morning, I had 2 that day.

My stomach immediately began to feel better and the pain across my back stopped.

I went home and started looking online for info about Candida.

I’m vegetarian/vegan, I’ve had years (20 years at least) of stomach problems, where my digestion just seemed to ‘shut down’. I would lose energy, burp a lot, get intense pain across my middle back and end up in bed with reflux.

After a trip to Morocco in 1994 where I came home sick and was sick for 6 months, I was told by a Harley St nutritionist to eat an anti-fermentation diet – no wheat, sugar or fruit and supplement with digestive enzymes. It slowly made me well and it seemed I had found a way to control my strange affliction.

2009: I continued to have problems with digestion and so gradually added enzymes so I was having them with every meal, as a way to stop the digestion breakdown.

2010/11: I twice had intense pain in the corner of my left eye. I would massage the area and use pain killers and after 5 or 6 hours it would release. On one occasion I swallowed a lump as it went down my throat. I was tired.

2011: A Winter of grinding sinus infections, feeling like someone had hit me on the face with a hammer. Two courses of antibiotics and then 20 days of steroids helped. Whilst on the steroids I identified wheat as a possible allergy so I stopped eating gluten and the sinuses became much better. I was also having no dairy (I have an intolerence of it) and I reduced sugar intake. I was looking to cut out all things that reduced mucous production, I was desperate. I was tired.

I got a very itchy spot on the top of my left foot, I had to scratch it over and over every night. I eventully put some Canestan fungicide on the spot and it stopped. There was nothing to be seen on the surface of the skin that made me think I might have a fungal infection however.

Spring: I had a Thermography breast exam, a ‘hot spot’ was revealed on my left breast and I was advised to have an ultrasound examination, this was negative. I began an intense course of Iodine supplementation, rubbing Iodine into my breasts each morning and weekly/fortnitely lymphatic breast massages. After 6 months I had another Thermography and was told that the hot spot had reduced markedly. The breast massages continued, during the massages my left breast felt more tender than my right breast, and more dense. I continued putting Iodine on my breasts. I was tired.

2012: Summer, while driving North with my Mum another of those ‘lumps’ came out from behind my left eye and I managed to stop it from being swallowed. It looked like a small dense package of white, wrapped up in mucous. When I cut into it with my thumbnail the white interior had the consistency of wet flour. I thought it was very strange and neither of us knew what it could be. I couldn’t keep it, we were on a long drive. I was tired.

I treated myself with a single dose over the counter anti-fungal for what I thought was a small bout of digestive candida, I followed this up with ‘Self Heal’ Horopito tinture after each meal, for two weeks. I felt OK again.

I had an Iron test and cholesterol test, my Iron was low (15) and my LD lipids were high-ish, but HD lipids were high also. I began Iron supplementation with Spatone.

Winter, sinus infections again, without as much pain now but replaced instead with a constant stream of infected mucous flowing down my throat, upsetting my stomach. I constantly felt ‘poisoned’ by this flow. The left sinuses seemed to be more affected than the right, sometimes the right seemed ‘normal’, but never the left. I stopped having a whey powder protein drink, and that seemed to help the sinus reaction, but not stop it. I was very tired.

Spring, It seemed my sinus problems were worse after I ate, I asked my Doctor for allergy testing to find out why my sinuses were infected. All my results for environmental allergies were negative – dust, pollen, dog hair, everything. I decided I had to be allergic to my food, I began to think about leaky gut. I knew that leaky gut could be caused by Candida.

My stomach was very upset, I had reflux and I had pain across my back. I also was having wild dreams and was having a lot of trouble relaxing my muscles in bed at night. my legs and arms kept jerking.

I was advised to do a spit test for Candida: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NavoSAeyMuc&feature=related

10/09/12: My result was very positive, I had a ‘very active fungus”

I was really shocked.

I Googled sinusitis and candida and got very worried – I had yeast growing in my face.