I am a 61-yo old woman with a long history of (undiagnosed) bacterial infections. Bartonella/cat scratch fever at age 6 (nearly died, and developed epilepsy five years after and irritable bowel syndrome from my teens onwards (big correlations)), multiple pneumonia and bronchitis over the years (nasty antibiotics), Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (rickettsia) tick bite in 2015 (that went undiagnosed despite fainting, vertigo, skin lesions, anxiety etc.), and Lyme disease in 2016 (which was not properly treated and resulted in SIBO and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis) I finally got treated for a year with antibiotics by a knowledgeable tick borne diseases infectious disease doctor, but completely destroyed my gut biome in the process. I put on 30 lbs from the antibiotics (normal, apparently, as that’s why they give antibiotics to cattle – to make them put on weight, and why the population is getting heavier and heavier, but I digress). I could not lose the weight. I was also diagnosed with SIBO (both kinds) and had serious bloating and constipation. I could not lose weight no matter how much I worked out, restricted calories etc. I also had skin lesions that would not heal – I think it was from inflammation in my body after the antibiotics.
I bought my transplant from Gezonde-darmflora.nl as I liked that they had only a few donors, that they were all personally met and interviewed by Marco (other clinics do NOT meet all the donors), that they had repeated tests going back months/years so I could see when the donor had covid, was sick, etc., and could research all their various gut biome test results to try and pick the best donor for my needs. The US only approves FMT for C-difficile, even though research shows that it can fix a whole bunch of root causes for many modern ailments. Marco was extremely responsive and answered every question that I posed, usually the next morning (I am in the US). The package was shipped promptly, and arrived two days later, dry ice all intact. He uses very good quality dry ice – it lasted about a week. I bought some dry ice in the US to keep things frozen for a bit longer, but it was not as good quality and evaporated within a few days!
I prepared using colonoscopy prep (luckily, I had one left over), stopped eating for 24 hours, and followed the instructions carefully. I was nervous because other recipients on other platforms/sites complained of side effects – pain, diarrhea, cramping, fever, etc So, I was not sure what to expect. I did tweak things a bit according to my own personal research (not going to share here). However, I did not have ANY side effects. Nothing. I started eating normally (and I mean, really healthy food), and started having morning BMs without the use of laxatives. It’s been nearly three weeks now, and it looks like it’s beginning to settle in. More solid BMS, but Bristol 4. At first, my sleep patterns were completely crazy (waking up at 4:00 a.m. WIDE AWAKE), and I seem to have an aversion to crappy food!!!! I look at fast food or chocolate, and just do not want it. I am also eating less, and have lost 5 lbs since the transplant. I am hoping to lose more weight now. My skin has healed almost completely, no constipation (so far), and no bloating!!! I will talk to anyone about FMT now – trying to persuade my (overweight) daughter to try it as I KNOW she has destroyed her biome with fast food.
I figure I may need to do this on an annual or biannual basis – so we will shall see how long good diet and good health practices keep this going along. But, so far, I am thrilled with the results and can attest that there is something good in my donor’s poop that helped me. Thank you Marco!
