I would like to share my story regarding my battle with eradicating blastocystis and d. fragilis in hopes that someone will benefit from this as well as generate discussion around other people's experiences with these two parasites and treatment plans. In January 2013 I visited India and a few weeks later began to feel bloated and over the next few months developed the following symptoms: constipation, 24-7 bloating, chronic rash on my legs (cortisone creams did not work--though I had existing eczema, this was much worse than I had experienced in the past), fatigue/brain fog, dry mouth/white tongue, and intolerance/allergies to foods such as wheat, bananas, lentils, peanuts.

For months I could not figure out the cause, in the US, the doctors wanted to just give me Antibiotics without properly diagnosing me. My blood work came back fine, except for low levels of zinc (which I later found out is normal with blastocystis). Finally by end of March my dermatologist properly diagnosed me with Blastocystis by giving me a stool test. By this time, I was extremely fatigued and was very anti-social and developing depression. He prescribed metronidazole and I took it for 10 days. It made me pretty ill, but i felt great for 3 weeks post treatment, but then my symptoms slowly came back. I had read about the ineffectiveness of metronidazole after the fact and if I would have known it is basically useless in treating blasto I would have never taken it. I retested and was still 'moderate' for blasto. I began to work with a dr. overseas (in South America) and he prescribed me Seznidazole for 2 days (1 pill a day for 2 days). This short treatment made me extremely ill for those two days (nausea, vomiting and weight loss), but post treatment my energy was back and for about a month I felt great. Then slowly symptoms came back, mainly constipation and bloating. Rash and fatigue were banished. I retested by taking a stool test 3 days in a row and they found d. fragilis this time (no trace of blasto) and endolimax (the latter is a harmless parasite so I did not care). At this time I decided to finally work with CDD in Sydney as I did not want to waste any more time with the doctors in the US.

I decided to fly to Sydney in August to get the Antibiotic infusion. I decided to forgo the triple therapy treatment orally, because I was so ill from taking seznidazole for two days. I am only about 100 lbs so I did not want to put myself through a 10 day Antibiotic course. The Antibiotic infusion is only over the course of 2 days and the side effects much more mild. In addition effectiveness rate is about 10% higher than the pill version. I am about 2 weeks post procedure and feeling ok. I am still a bit bloated and have a metallic taste (dry mouth/white toungue) in my nouth, but otherwise I am feeling pretty good. The procedure has been thus far 96% effective so I am very hopeful. The stool test they took during the procedure only showed low levels of blasto, but no d.fragilis. Which goes to show that even the 3 days in a row stool tests don't always capture these difficult to diagnose parasites. I will post again to report back on my progress. If anyone has any questions, please ask! These message boards have been so helpful for me in the past 8 months so I hope I can give back to people in return.