Update

I've written about the bacteria issues I have with my digestive system, ad naseum some might say, wondering why I dwell on it, besides the obvious I have to live with it until it resolves itself. And so here's an update from the last entry last December.

Two weeks go I finally had the colonoscopy the gastroenterologist was supposed to do last June but didn't because he wasn't satisified with the preparation. So this time I had two days of preparation, one two days before and one the day before. Even with that he wasn't satisfied but did it anyway, and the photos show a clean colon.

In the end he didn't find anything, but then I didn't expect him to find anything since the problem wasn't physical but bacterial, which was all flushed out with the preparation, so there wasn't any signs of it for him to see or take samples for biopsies.

And that's the end of the tests, besides needing and a new one because the gastroenterologist is leaving to be the director of another clinic. What I've needed is, as a gastroenterologist wrote, a gut bacteria specialist, but as the person also wrote, they don't teach that in medical school.

It goes back to the premise gastroenterology is about the physical side of your digestive system. They also understand the physiology of it in relation to the whole body, but are uninformed about the bacteria said outside of knowing what good, or what they said is good.

They have a few limited tests for known digestive diseases, infections and overgrowth because, again, the signs are obvious and there's lots of people who have experienced it, so there's a wealth of knowledge. But there is a dearth of knowledge about other bacteria which cause adverse conditions which aren't obvious.

That's shown up when the labs could on identify the bacteria which seems to the cause of my problems as "aggregate bacteria", meaning they don't know outside the fact they're bacteria. It doesn't phase them these bacteria are either not supposed to be there or not supposed to be in such huge numbers.

What's ironic is that one gastroenterologist suggested what I hear most common, try probiotics, under the assumption, "Good bacteria will drive bad bacteria out.", which isn't proven and some have said is pure nonsense, especially from gastroenterologists.

That's because probiotics, if it's the right kind for your digestive system, will only proliferate more bacteria and can or will worsen the problem, especially if it's the wrong bacteria for your digestive system, like adding reinforcements to the enemy, the last thing you need.

And that's where it's back to the old adage, "Patient heal thyself.", and leave to the body to find a way to get the bacteria in check or flushed from the system. And that's the reality. It's up to the body now unless sometime my PCP prescribes anti-biotic for another problem and it also solves this one.