I wanted to write this blog about myself because these incidents just happened to me in real time but I thought it was relevant to Tula’s story. While reading this keep in mind that my situation is unique. The following is not meant to deter you from considering fermented foods. I also believe there are certain people that shouldn't have these foods, such as someone with SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth), which I will discuss later on.
I had recently had my second kidney transplant and was doing great! My calendar was still filled with follow-up appointments and I was in the mode of being under a doctor’s care. I got a urinary tract infection (UTI), which was the first one I had had in years. I had been off of kefir and fermented foods which I will explain later. In the past a round of antibiotics would clear it up right away but this time the UTI went away with medication but returned after a few days. I went on a second round of antibiotics, the UTI went away and returned immediately after I was done. After the third round of antibiotics didn’t work I was referred to a urologist. I had scans of my bladder and kidney which all came back normal. I wasn’t resistant to any antibiotics either. A fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh round of different antibiotics and now it had been almost 3 months of treatment with no resolution. I started getting weekly heparin bladder instillations which wasn’t helping. I was getting scared as to how all of these UTI’s were affecting my brand new kidney and worried about the 3 months of antibiotic use and how that was affecting my gut! My urologist had other patients with chronic UTI’s too but still didn’t have any explanation as to why they didn’t clear up completely.
I went to bed the night before another appointment feeling very frustrated and asked for help. I prayed that my doctor would have the solution at my appointment the following day. I had a dream that night where a voice said to me “You’re superpower is that you always figure things out on your own.” I woke up more frustrated. That’s not the solution! As Mike and I were joking about my dream, I left for the urologist and kept praying the doctor would know exactly how to help me. Leaving the appointment I felt completely deflated because once again the solution was to keep doing what wasn’t working. I sat in my car in the parking lot and decided to research UTI’s. One of the first articles that came up was a woman who had numerous UTI’s that eventually got a fecal transplant! All of a sudden my knowledge came rushing back to me and I got chills knowing this was all about the microbiome! (I even mentioned UTI’s in a previous blog and how kefir was my solution).
I had temporarily stopped drinking coconut kefir because after my kidney transplant I was put on high immunosuppressive drugs so I wouldn't reject the kidney, therefore being more susceptible to bacterial infections from unpasteurized foods. My doctors wanted me to hold off for a bit before resuming those foods. Also, one of the drugs that I was on made it difficult to tolerate the kefir and I was waiting until the dose was decreased. Once the medication was decreased and enough time had passed, I was still out of my routine of drinking my daily kefir.
I had been on probiotic capsules this whole time but obviously it wasn’t enough. I went straight from that parking lot to the grocery store and picked up young coconuts for fermenting and celery juice to start juicing first thing in the morning (which I had done in the past but not for a long time). https://www.medicalmedium.com/blog/celery-juice. I took my probiotic capsule (50 billion CFU’s) along with about half a cup of coconut kefir at night on an empty stomach. And you know what? My UTI (that was just starting to come back AGAIN) went away and at the time of writing this has not returned! Another win for a food-based approach!
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