I guess depending on how you look at this, it can be good news AND bad news. It wasn't 100% of the news that I wanted, but the end results are that my PFT's have went way up, so that is a very good thing regardless what the culture says, though as I said before, i would have REALLY liked to have shown no pseudo overall. Because i'm honest with you guys, I share my results both good and bad.
The results:
She said I had heavy growth of normal flora (What should be present in normal peoples lung systems, but often is either light or sometimes non existent in most CF patients, probably due to all the antibiotics we do...I'm only on collistin atm, and plan to not do prophalactic antibiotics so I don't develope resistances, for when I really need them). This in itself is good news. The other good news is that my PFT's shot WAY up after doing the oregano oil, when the best they could do for me was get me about 84% with gunk still in my chest, and a "unidentified organism" in my culture, which was more than likely the result of them pumping MASSIVE amounts of antibiotics into my system. Trying to get information out of them while in the hospital is nearly impossible, but the unidentified organism turned out to be a fungus, if my memory serves me right, which the doctor himself said "Probably due to all the antibiotics".
Now for the not so great news (and partial good news): She said that I still showed Pseudo, but the culture was "very light", and just like before on previous cultures, was only resistant to Aztreonam and mezlocillin. I don't remember ever being givin those antibiotics, but it obviously happened to get the resistance. My pseudo is (quote) "Very weak to many antibiotics", so I should be thankful for that (and continue not to take prophalactic antibiotics so I don't develope more resistances).
Now for the two parts that concern me: She also said I had Serratia Marcescens. Which is something I had never heard of before, and on the report it was described as just "rare" in amount and type. After looking around, I found out that this microbe was present on many "sterile petri dishes" in labs...Maybe the petri dish was already contaminated with it (I hope)? The bacteria used to be used heavily in schools and by the military for experiments, because it was felt to be harmless. What makes me kind of angry, is this bacteria has actually been found to be growing in "sterile" saline medical solutions, and in other "supposedly sterile solutions". I more than likely got this bacteria from the hospital, due to it's heavy presence in such environments. It has also been reported by ABC news that this bacteria had contaminated the 2004 US flu vaccine supply (of which I got one)...So joy to that. It is considered a "nosocomial infection", which means it is highly likely that I got it just from being in the hospital.
(taken from answers.com...It was said to be common in the respiratory tract of adults...So I guess it's not a total doom and gloom scenario)
"S. marcescens can cause conjunctivitis, keratitis, endophthalmitis, and tear duct infections. It is not uncommon in the respiratory and urinary tracts of adults and the gastrointestinal system of children."
Here is some info on it: http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/dlc-me/zoo/microbes/serratia.html
http://www.sunysccc.edu/academic/mst/microbes/23smarc.htm
http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=8l3bi4djqje5f?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Nosocomial+infection&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1&sbid=lc02a&linktext=nosocomial%0Ainfections
The second part of my "bad news": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staph_aureus
She said I had "Light Staph Aureus", which again, is another bug that is predominately acquired via hospitalizations. I had shown staph before a VERY long time ago when I was going to the CDC to do some studies, but since then it had gone away somehow, because my culture before my last hospital stay only showed my pseudo.
So here is what I know: My previous culture before my last hospital stay only showed medium pseudo (mucoid) colonization. I went into the hospital in very bad shape (49% overall PFT, and I usually ran close to 100% when not sick). The very first culture I produced for them (the day I went into the hospital) came back showing just the pseudo (with the same resistances). After being in the hospital a while and being pumped full with crazy amounts of antibiotics (and feeling like I was going to die), the doc came in one day (maybe near the end of my admission) to inform me "I have an unidentified organism in my culture". A day or two passed and I guess they got concerned, and then they said it was a fungus or something, probably directly related to the heavy antibiotic use.
I went home for 10 more days of heavy IV treatments. Got back up to about 83% overall PFT, and still felt like crap and had a ton of goo in the center of my chest that absolutely wouldn't go away no matter what they did for me. That is when I started to use the oregano oil products. After a period of time the goo in the center of my chest went away, and I started to feel amazing with very clear lungs, on next checkup afterwards, thats when I blew the 99% PFT, which was a large increase, and put me back to where I used to be when I was younger.
I personally think that I picked up the staph and the serratia in the hospital, due to them being notorious hospital bugs, but of course, anything is possible, but I did only have pseudo up till that hospital visit, then had that weird organism in house, now I show staph and serratia.
I started to slack off on some of my oil treatments due to how I felt (great), so I generally stopped the pills, and pretty much completely stopped the multi oil facial sauna inhalation. Knowing what I know now (my two new bugs), i'm going to hit it harder, and be more vigilant, and see if my next culture shows either elimiation (hopefully) or much lower levels. I'm also going to start hitting the monolaurin hard again.
Anyways, just thought i'd share...Both good news and bad news. I feel great with real high PFT's, but now I have two new hospital oriented bugs. I will let you guys know of any changes.
/your stalwart guinea pig,
Sean
The results:
She said I had heavy growth of normal flora (What should be present in normal peoples lung systems, but often is either light or sometimes non existent in most CF patients, probably due to all the antibiotics we do...I'm only on collistin atm, and plan to not do prophalactic antibiotics so I don't develope resistances, for when I really need them). This in itself is good news. The other good news is that my PFT's shot WAY up after doing the oregano oil, when the best they could do for me was get me about 84% with gunk still in my chest, and a "unidentified organism" in my culture, which was more than likely the result of them pumping MASSIVE amounts of antibiotics into my system. Trying to get information out of them while in the hospital is nearly impossible, but the unidentified organism turned out to be a fungus, if my memory serves me right, which the doctor himself said "Probably due to all the antibiotics".
Now for the not so great news (and partial good news): She said that I still showed Pseudo, but the culture was "very light", and just like before on previous cultures, was only resistant to Aztreonam and mezlocillin. I don't remember ever being givin those antibiotics, but it obviously happened to get the resistance. My pseudo is (quote) "Very weak to many antibiotics", so I should be thankful for that (and continue not to take prophalactic antibiotics so I don't develope more resistances).
Now for the two parts that concern me: She also said I had Serratia Marcescens. Which is something I had never heard of before, and on the report it was described as just "rare" in amount and type. After looking around, I found out that this microbe was present on many "sterile petri dishes" in labs...Maybe the petri dish was already contaminated with it (I hope)? The bacteria used to be used heavily in schools and by the military for experiments, because it was felt to be harmless. What makes me kind of angry, is this bacteria has actually been found to be growing in "sterile" saline medical solutions, and in other "supposedly sterile solutions". I more than likely got this bacteria from the hospital, due to it's heavy presence in such environments. It has also been reported by ABC news that this bacteria had contaminated the 2004 US flu vaccine supply (of which I got one)...So joy to that. It is considered a "nosocomial infection", which means it is highly likely that I got it just from being in the hospital.
(taken from answers.com...It was said to be common in the respiratory tract of adults...So I guess it's not a total doom and gloom scenario)
"S. marcescens can cause conjunctivitis, keratitis, endophthalmitis, and tear duct infections. It is not uncommon in the respiratory and urinary tracts of adults and the gastrointestinal system of children."
Here is some info on it: http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/dlc-me/zoo/microbes/serratia.html
http://www.sunysccc.edu/academic/mst/microbes/23smarc.htm
http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=8l3bi4djqje5f?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Nosocomial+infection&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1&sbid=lc02a&linktext=nosocomial%0Ainfections
The second part of my "bad news": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staph_aureus
She said I had "Light Staph Aureus", which again, is another bug that is predominately acquired via hospitalizations. I had shown staph before a VERY long time ago when I was going to the CDC to do some studies, but since then it had gone away somehow, because my culture before my last hospital stay only showed my pseudo.
So here is what I know: My previous culture before my last hospital stay only showed medium pseudo (mucoid) colonization. I went into the hospital in very bad shape (49% overall PFT, and I usually ran close to 100% when not sick). The very first culture I produced for them (the day I went into the hospital) came back showing just the pseudo (with the same resistances). After being in the hospital a while and being pumped full with crazy amounts of antibiotics (and feeling like I was going to die), the doc came in one day (maybe near the end of my admission) to inform me "I have an unidentified organism in my culture". A day or two passed and I guess they got concerned, and then they said it was a fungus or something, probably directly related to the heavy antibiotic use.
I went home for 10 more days of heavy IV treatments. Got back up to about 83% overall PFT, and still felt like crap and had a ton of goo in the center of my chest that absolutely wouldn't go away no matter what they did for me. That is when I started to use the oregano oil products. After a period of time the goo in the center of my chest went away, and I started to feel amazing with very clear lungs, on next checkup afterwards, thats when I blew the 99% PFT, which was a large increase, and put me back to where I used to be when I was younger.
I personally think that I picked up the staph and the serratia in the hospital, due to them being notorious hospital bugs, but of course, anything is possible, but I did only have pseudo up till that hospital visit, then had that weird organism in house, now I show staph and serratia.
I started to slack off on some of my oil treatments due to how I felt (great), so I generally stopped the pills, and pretty much completely stopped the multi oil facial sauna inhalation. Knowing what I know now (my two new bugs), i'm going to hit it harder, and be more vigilant, and see if my next culture shows either elimiation (hopefully) or much lower levels. I'm also going to start hitting the monolaurin hard again.
Anyways, just thought i'd share...Both good news and bad news. I feel great with real high PFT's, but now I have two new hospital oriented bugs. I will let you guys know of any changes.
/your stalwart guinea pig,
Sean