Could this be Candida?

Hello everyone.

My name is Matt. I’d like to thank everyone on this site offering advice and wisdom to people. I hope to do the same for others lather on in my journey. I believe that I have a gut issue that is causing several health issues and would like some others to help.

Before getting to my Health issues I’m going to quickly outline my past diet and lifestyle. I had a very good and health childhood. I gained 15-20lbs per year for my four years of college and my diet at that point was not real healthy (lots of burgers, pizza, and so on). Luckily I never really had the money to maintain a steady alcohol habit but I did drink twice a week.

About a year or so after graduating I bought a house and for the first time in my life my diet was truly in my own hands. For the next four years I ate mostly processed foods, red meats, Deli sandwiches, bacon, eggs, and frozen pizzas). I didn’t have much in the way of fruits and vegetables (maybe 10% of my diet overall). During this time I became a textbook functioning alcoholic. I would drink a six pack every single day, double on the weekends. I was a functioning alcoholic, after 6 beers I wouldn’t appear to be drunk. Not sure if it’s relevant but about 8 months prior to getting sick I change my daily go to from Milwaukee’s Best Premium to Busch. Oh I was also a smoker, two black and mild cigars a day and I inhaled. I staple of my diet was Johnsonville Beer Brats and large curd cottage cheese, I would eat 3-5 brats and a who small container of CC and that would be my dinner. I also admit I had a ranch addition – or rather an MSG addition.

This is where things took a turn for the worse for me. It started on a Sunday where I was feeling really lightheaded and didn’t have the energy to do anything. By lightheaded I do not mean dizzy, I’ve seen people on the net call it Brain Fog but I don’t think that term does the symptom a justice. My hands and arms had a terrible sensitivity to cold things like metal. I touched the bench vise in my workshop and it was the strangest numb/tingly and scary feeling. This brain fog was more severe at some times and less severe at other times. It came back pretty strong every day at work which was really scary, I made it until Thursday and then I made the call that I had to go to the hospital. I checked myself in to emergency they gave me an IV and took an EKG. Everything looked fine medically and they told me that I was just dehydrated (which didn’t make sense because I drink plenty of water). For that whole weekend i was convinced that I had MS and my live had changed forever. Saturday evening was the last time I drank beer. The next week I tried twice to go to work but went home sick. This was by far the worst week of my life. The next week I felt better but I could tell I was not cured from whatever hit me.

For the past 8 weeks the symptoms have been better at times and worse at times. If you asked me on a good day how I was I would say that thinks are getting better slowly. On a bad day though I would tell you that things were hardly better at all.

Since being sober for about 2 months I’ve noticed that I do actually have some other symptoms. Most of these come and go as well on their own but here is a short list:

• Stomach/abdominal aches or pains (common)
• Severe sharp pains lasting 5-10 seconds in my digestive system (rare)
• Constipation (1 bowel movement every 2 days)
• Soft stools and sometimes diarrhea (fairly common)
• Floating stools and sometimes incomplete digestion (all the time)
• Tinea on my chest/back/arms/junk
• Lightheadedness / brain fog / feeling spaced out or not all there
• Anxiety and tightness in the chest
• Mild headaches
• Cold sensitivity to my hands and arms – tingle/numb (seems to go hand in hand with the brain fog attacks)
• Itchy/painful anus
• Thrush – it used to be a lot worse when I was a smoker
• Slight sensitivity to light (rare)
• Itchy legs that really hurt after scratching them
• Itchy eardrums – nothing like a good Q-tip eargasm
• Bleeding gums

My doctor sent me for blood work to check my vitamin levels and everything came back normal. At this point I think I could have a fatty liver, underactive thyroid, IBS, leaky gut, or candida or a combination of all of these. It’s been about two months since I got sick and I don’t think I’m getting better (today was not a good day lol).

There is so much I’m sure I left out but if anyone has stuck around to read all of this then I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thank you.