Tula was thriving and we decided to increase the amount of probiotics, going up to forty billion CFUs, along with the kefir and cultured vegetable juice. She began acting anxious again, our clue that she was having another die-off. But she was doing so well behaviorally and developmentally—did we really need to increase the probiotics at this point and rock the boat? I asked Dr. Compain and he said she was peacefully coexisting with the yeast and that we should still be increasing the probiotics. So we prepared ourselves again for the die-offs and her elevated anxiety and did what the doctor ordered.
Despite all of the progress Tula was making, there were regressions when she needed antibiotics. When she and Thalia got strep throat and were placed on antibiotics, I was feeling like a crazy person trying to get more probiotics in Tula and praying for the best. A couple weeks after they both finished the round of antibiotics, they both got strep again! During this second round, I noticed Tula start to stim (stimulate) again, repeating some of her words and having extreme anxiety, anxious to the point that she couldn’t go to the bathroom without me or be in a different room from me, even if she could still see me. It was exhausting. During these regressions, I was always terrified she would regress for good and I wouldn’t be able to get her back to her healthier state. It became quite clear that even with the diet and kefir, antibiotics could wipe out anyone's system for months. Consequently I had to be extra vigilant to get their little guts back on track.
After months of trying to reheal Tula’s gut, I became the anxious mom who wanted to avoid antibiotics if at all possible. Shortly after this episode, Tula was standing on a kitchen chair. She fell down and started crying, but I found no cuts or bleeding. A few hours later, I found blood in the toilet. She was taken to Urgent Care where a kind and sympathetic doctor examined her vagina, which had been cut, and consoled her that it would heal on its own. He asked for a urine sample and the results showed there was bacteria. The doctor prescribed antibiotics for a urinary tract infection he “happened to catch.” I went into panic mode and asked how he could find a UTI when she hadn’t been complaining of the usual symptoms. I kept thinking this had to be related to her fall. But as soon as I started questioning, the doctor became frustrated with me. I asked if he could do the twenty-four-hour urine culture test to be sure that the bacteria were growing and that it was indeed a UTI. He raised his voice at this point and told me that I could be risking the infection going into her kidneys if I waited. I thought I should be honest with him and said she had a systemic yeast infection and did not do well with antibiotics. At this point the doctor yelled, “Does your pediatrician agree with this notion??” My mom was there with me and felt just as uncomfortable as I did. She leaned over and said, “Just do what the doctor says!” I took the prescription slip knowing I would not fill it as I wanted to wait for the twenty-four-hour results. The next two days I was a wreck. My parents were on my case about making the wrong decision and it made me distrust myself. What if I was actually hurting my daughter? What if she did get a kidney infection all because of me? More than twenty-four hours went by and I hadn’t received a call. I couldn’t take waiting anymore and called the facility myself—and sure enough, no infection. What a relief! I needed to trust my intuition and not other people’s fears, but that is easier said than done when you have children.
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