At Home in Albuquerque
November 9, 2000

I just thought I would let you all know what I have found out about my past season.

After many months of medical poking, prodding, and testing at various doctors throughout Albuquerque, I finally found a doctor that was sympathetic to what was going on. He, Dr. Weiss, is a Western and Eastern doctor combined. He graduated from regular medical school plus he's a herbologist and homeopathic doctor. He was the first doctor that was interested in (rather than cynical about) doing a parasite test.

I do have parasites and candida. Symptoms for both are fatigue (often misdiagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome), insomnia, irritability, mental cloudiness, bloating, immune deficiency, hormone imbalance, adrenal gland imbalance, depression, bad breath, heavy coating on tongue, excessive weight gain or loss, constipation and diarrhea, blurred vision, disorientation, lack of concentration, muscle pain and weakness, nervousness, eczema, and rashes. There's more but that's plenty. I suffered with much of this. For the first time, I had trouble cornering, I had trouble going around barriers on the bike path here in Albuquerque, I had no interest in reading anything more difficult than mystery stories. My heart rate remained low no matter what my level of effort. I was crabby. I was weak and lacked any sort of power on the bike.

For almost three weeks, I have been taking an herbal parasite medication. (The Western medicine can cause neurological damage; "If you feel numbing in your hands or feet, stop taking the medication." I decided not to take it all.) I'm also on a very restricted diet for the candida. The change has been astounding. I see visions of my old self -- both on and off the bike. No longer do I want to spend every day curled up in bed. I can get my heart rate over 120 without wheezing.

The biggest breakthrough in my recovery process was finding Dr. Weiss. My mother first questioned my decision. "Don't you have a regular doctor?" Well, he is a regular doctor. And yes, I had plenty of regular doctors: "Wait until spring and see how you feel." "Let's do surgery because there's a chance you have breast cancer." "I don't have any appointments this week. How about in three months?" In the long search for the truth I have also found a few other support health people who kept me sane through the whole ordeal.

Between now and the end of the season I've done very little. I started training before the parasites and candida were found. I had to stop because my heart rate remained low and I became exhausted after a week and a half. I have started training again and all seems well. I do have bad days that are still quite bad. They remind me to stay on track with proper eating. They remind me how bad I've felt for an entire year. They remind me how exciting it is to have a good day. On good days, every moment is wonderful. The first good days of riding I spent the hour on the bike in awe. I couldn't believe how great I felt.

I don't know where I got the parasites. It's been years since I've been to South America. No matter what, my body had to be a hospitable environment for the little buggers. Possible causes of candida are parasites, excess use of antibiotics, over-eating of sugars and yeast products, stress, overuse of anti-inflammatory drugs, toxic metals and chemicals (including mercury tooth fillings), hormone imbalance (birth control pills, pregnancy), alcohol, and/or immune deficiency.

In another week I will take the parasite test again to see how things are going. It's possible that it will take two to three months to get rid of them completely. I don't know how long the candida will take to get rid of. The only estimate I've found is that it takes one month for every year that I've had candida. The same source mentioned that serious signs of candida take two years to show up. So, the candida purge too, could require two to three months. The good news is that it's possible to get rid of both.