A Total Gut Reset

We are currently in Mexico for Theo’s Fecal Microbiota Transplant. We need to catch our medical taxi back to San Diego and then catch our flight home later today. I thought while I have some downtime and can’t sleep, I’ll put some notes and thoughts together for people wanting to know more about the experience. 

We did the FMT with Dr. Jason Klop. I will be posting a video interview we did with him today to summarize the procedure and what it’s benefits and risks are known to entail. 

I just want to start out by saying that we are so very grateful for all the people that helped get us here. We ran a fundraiser with the help of our good friends  Garret and Arial Jonnson. We would not have been able to make it this year without them and the 300+ people that donated to pay for the procedure. We want to thank everyone immensely. Theo is loved so deeply and greatly and we can feel that energy coming from all different directions. 

Now I am sure that you are all dying to know how it has all gone. So let me break it down for you. We arrived in Rosarito, Mexico on Monday night. We arrived via a medical taxi that picked us up at our hotel on Coronado Island in San Diego. Driving across the border was quick and simple and it took about 45 minutes to drive from San Diego to Rosarito. 

Tuesday afternoon we had a consultation with Dr. Klop and Dr. Santiago. We mainly covered the medical history of Theo and both us parents. We also had an opportunity to ask any questions. 

Wednesday and Thursday night we had our main “loading doses”. Basically they had an enema full of feces from a healthy donor. Picture a squeezable tincture bottle that was inserted into Theo’s rectum and squeezed into his colon. We did it around 8:15 pm each night. The idea is to get the enema administered and then get him to sleep. The goal is to keep the feces in him for 4-5 hours. This will allow enough time for bacteria to travel up into the digestive tract of the small and large intestine to repopulate the gut with good bacteria. Theo and the kids just poop it out, like a normal bowel movement later on.

Now keep in mind that prior to coming to Mexico we were on a 14 day cleanse protocol. Theo was on vancomycin and other antibiotics to clear out his digestive tract. That way it would leave a clean slate for the new good beneficial bacteria to graft to the walls of the digestive tract. 

Now going home we have a continuation of the treatment for the next 16 weeks. We will be giving Theo a small oral dose daily to help bolster and strengthen the new bacteria that we have introduced into his body. 

We will try to keep you posted as the weeks progress. The results from parents have been very mixed. One mother told us today that the biggest benefit she saw from FMT was being able to get a jacket on her kid. While other parents have told us that their kids started talking and their vocabulary blew up just weeks after the procedure. We don’t know what to expect, but we are hopeful that this will help Theo greatly. 

So far we haven’t seen any changes or benefits for Theo. But let’s give it a couple days or at least a week before we start really evaluating. 

Here is the video interview with Dr. Klop. 
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCuXFW2p0xa/?igshid=1d0v11jam5mha

I have read and heard recently that 70% of our immune system is located in our gut. The gut being the digestive tract between the large and small intestine. I thought I would include an excerpt from a book I finished today that talks about FMT. Notice the synchronicity. 

Dr. Judy Mikovits says the following in her book Plague of Corruption:

• “In 1998, Andrew Wakefield and twelve colleagues published a case series report in The Lancet describing mild to moderate inflammation of the large intestine, as well as swelling of the lymph glands in the intestinal lining of the small intestine in twelve children with autism spectrum disorder. Nine of the parents noted the appearance of BOTH the gastrointestinal problems and autistic behaviors in conjunction with a measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) shot. This is the first known scientific description of what later would be called the “gut-brain” connection in autism. Whatever you may think of Andrew Wakefield, it is one of the most important contributions in autism research. 
• From my background in HIV-AIDS research, it made perfect sense. Retroviruses love to hang out in the digestive tract. A great deal of the immune system is found in the digestive tract. So, if you’re are retrovirus and you want to disable the immune system, the gut is where you want to go. Not hard to make the connection, right? That’s not rocket science. It’s just common sense.
• If these retroviruses are affecting the immune system of the gut (and by extension the brain), you’d also expect to find abnormal bacterial populations as well. This has become a fascinating area of scientific research, and these bacterial populations in the digestive systems have become popularly known as the “microbiome.”
• Probably one of the best thinkers in this area today is Dr. James Adams of Arizona State University. He’d been intrigued by reports that when children with autism and gut problems were treated with an antibiotic, vancomycin, both their autism and gut problems improved, sometimes dramatically. However, when treatment was discontinued, the children relapsed. Adams theorized that the children had an abnormal microbiome, and these bacterial populations were not creating the chemicals necessary for the proper functioning of the body and mind. It might make sense to treat first with vancomycin, then provide material from a person with a healthy microbiome. This material would come from the purified human feces. Feces are about 50 percent bacteria. A 2019 article from Smithsonian highlighted this area of research, as well as the work of Dr. Adams. “
  
  

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