I’m glad that’s over. Yesterday – Wednesday – after the swim at Manly, I started preparing my insides for the colonoscopy and antibiotic infusion due today. It meant I had to work from home which is always a bit of a lonely experience and ended up at the end of the day really dehydrated. Catherine picked me up at 630 this morning for the drive to the clinic at Five Dock. I felt washed out, throat raspy from dehydration and a splitting headache. I hadn’t had any food the previous day – hadn’t eaten since Tuesday night and it was now Thursday morning so I was big time hungry. Interviewed by Dr Tony Wettstein and we talked about the procedure and I tried to get my head around the chemistry and how hard it is to shift Blastocystis hominis and Dientamoeba fragilis  out of your gut once they take up residence there. An Asian gift to Australia. We talked about the procedure being something of an experiment with no peer reviewed clinical trials done. He has had great success with it though. About 2,000 patients treated successfully. He gave me the option of backing out. I declined.

Gastroenterologist
Dr Tony Wettstein

I was then wheeled into the theatre and knocked out with anesthetics. I remember very little following that other than being woken up and subsequently deciding I was too tired and curling upon the floor in the doctor’s room while waiting for the post-procedure interview. Catherine found me on the floor curled in the foetal position and not moving. She thought I was dead. I’d actually just fallen back into a very deep sleep and decided I was safer on the floor than sitting in a chair. I remember very little of the drive home. Catherine said I had a craving for chocolate milk. Also remember being extremely hungry. I now have three different types of antibiotics, at five times the normal strength, sloshing around in my stomach. I feel very sick. But if it cures the parasites inside me and the lethargy and fever I’ve experienced over the last year it will be worth it. I don’t think I’ll be able to do the Palm Beach to Manly swim unless I’m in absolutely tiptop shape. Another 10 days of oral antibiotics but it wont stop me swimming.