My Journey With Gut Issues & healing with BPC-157

I've been a perfectly healthy and fit person my entire life up until about 3 years ago where I contracted a mystery autoimmune condition. It all started when I took 3 rounds of heavy antibiotics within a month to clear up an infection.

About a week after my 3rd dose of antibiotics (Azithromycin) I attended a friends birthday part at a popular venue. I checked out online if it was alright to drink alcohol on antibiotics. Stupidly enough I trusted a random quora post and decided to drink heavily. Mistake #1.

Fast forward a week and I went to get surgery on a hemorrhoid. This clinic also did colonoscopy procedures so I’m still unsure to this day if maybe I picked up bad bacteria from a crohns patient from unwashed tools. This was mistake #2. If I knew better I would’ve ran from the office. During the operation the staff were very unprofessional. The nurse began to administer the sedative and upon the injection site at my hand and up my arm I felt immense pain as the medication started flowing into my veins. I felt it burn on its way down from my hand and into my arm. I clenched my teeth in horror as the pain got worse and worse over the next few seconds until my body couldn’t tolerate the pain any longer and I lost consciousness. I must have had an allergic reaction to the medication and they totally ignored me as I screamed in pain.

I woke up an hour later in a dark empty room as one of the few people left in the building and there was only 1 nurse left, everyone including the lobby receptionist had gone home.
I noticed I had blood come from my rear in the washroom and asked if it was normal and the only nurse/ person left in the building said no but could not give me any further information.

I went home furious wondering why I was knocked unconscious when I was so specific in my demands to be left sedated. I've had operations in the past and none have been such a horrible experience as this one. I had some pain where I had the surgery but it was manageable.

A few days after the surgery, I began having symptoms of severe acid reflux that were so intense I could not lay down without acid spewing up and damaging my esophagus. I looked in the drug cabinet and found some antacids and left over lansoprazole which was originally prescribed for my mom and I decided to try that which was mistake #3.

The acid reflux progressed so bad I went to the doctor who made an appointment for me to get a barium swallow test and do xrays. The chemicals used in barium swallow are counter productive as they typically just make your body more toxic. The xrays confirmed severe acid reflux with heavy burn damage and scarring all up my esophagus, and I was then officially prescribed the lansoprazole medication.

Within days of taking the medication I began developing severe reactions. I developed bright red spots all over my face and body (some spots are still visible today years later), I had trouble breathing, my lips tingled and the worst pain imaginable which felt similar to when I had the drug in surgery going in my veins. Throbbing in my blood in between my veins in my hands and down my arms in my legs and entire bloodstream felt like inflammation, a sensation so hard to describe but it is the most pain imaginable. My blood felt toxic. I was certain I was dieing with some terrible disease.

Other symptoms included intense brain fog, lethargy, weakness. I had a high fever and my bed sheets would absolutely soak in sweat. My stomach hurt and constantly and made gurgling noises, I couldn’t digest any food at all. I experienced heavy intense bloating, food sensitivities and vomiting. Throbbing and twitching in the veins in my calve muscles and a long list of terrible symptoms.

This went on for 3 months and the pain in my bloodstream gradually got worse and worse. I asked my family doctor, and she said these are all normal symptoms of acid reflux, and she tried to double my medication dose. At this point I lost faith in the medical system and immediately stopped taking the medication and begun doing my own research. I also found out that this drug can trigger auto-immune diseases and there are many youtube videos of peoples awful experiences with the drug.

I was slowly able to eat food without acid coming back up, but the blood pain / inflammation still persisted on and off. It would start mostly in the evening anywhere around 2pm to 7pm and last till I fell asleep. Sometimes the pain would be so unbearable I wouldn't be able to sleep for days and would just pace for hours in the kitchen to reduce the inflammation in my body. I collapsed multiple times over the course of the next 2 months. I blacked out once in my kitchen and another 2 times in my bathroom and woke up on the tile floor multiple times not remembering my own name or where I was. The pain was unbearable and my caloric intake was reaching deadly low levels from not being able to digest food or absorb minerals.

I tried altering my diet to just bone broth soups. Which seemed to help a little and relieved pain temporarily, so I could at least somewhat function during the day. If I ate any solid food it would guarantee that about 1-4 hours after consumption I would have severe pain in my bloodstream. I started having intense sugar cravings and had a brief period (maybe 2 weeks) where I begun drinking lots of pineapple smoothies, and sugary drinks thinking it would be healthy. I quickly stopped the sugar and smoothies after noticing the pain becoming much more severe. I went for ultrasound appointments where they found nothing wrong with me.

I noticed a strange color on my tongue which I later would find out was candida overgrowth. I begun scraping it off with my toothbrush every day. It became so intense that my mouth was dry and my tongue started to crack and bleed from having to scrub off the candida so much.

As my pain grew unbearable I stumbled into my broken truck that barely worked and miraculously made it to the hospital. I didn’t even care about paying for parking or anything. I left my truck and dragged myself into the emergency ward. They were confused why I was there cause on the surface level they couldn’t see anything wrong with me. I showed the doctor in the emergency my tongue with tears in my eyes I told him I didn’t know what was wrong but I thought it was thrush which he quickly dismissed. He said I was throwing around medical terms I don’t know (unknowing to him I graduated pharmacy school). I got a later date with a specialist in another ward of the hospital and was sent home.

At this time I was dealing with a spectrum of ailments:

• thyroid pain (it got visibly swollen and would throb)
• constant severe random pains in my bones of my legs, arms, hands and joints (arthritis)
• extreme weight loss down from 190 lbs to 105 lbs
• clubbed fingers and toes
• swollen joints, Swollen knees
• throbbing and twitching of my calf muscles in my legs
• water retention in my skin
• grumbling stomach
• sticky dry lips
• ulcerative colitis symptoms
• tingling and numbness in the lips
• dry sticky mouth
• heart palpitations
• Deep feelings of fear in my chest in the mornings
• eyes would bulge, dry eyes, vision loss, red bloodshot eyes/ yellow
• severe tinnitus; ringing in the ears
• rapid and severe hair loss
• intense brain fog
• dark circles under my eyes
• muscle weakness
• thrush / candida
• bleeding cracked dry tongue
• difficulty breathing
• loss of balance when walking
• swollen joints and knees

(Thankfully these symptoms were cured or severely reduced thanks to apple cider vinegar, BPC-157, probiotics and a special diet.)

Hoping the symptoms would eventually go away on their own I tried my best to continue school but could no longer attend because of the pain. I was able to do most of my coursework online and thankfully covid just started so I was able to do everything from home.

The only things that helped manage the pain at the time was chewing on ginger, pacing back and forth around the house, drinking hot water and hot baths, ice packs on my stomach area and this
only helped so much. I would be lucky to fall asleep is most cases.

I was then appointed a specialist who was able to confirm my position on the diagnoses of my thrush and prescribed me nystatin.

The medication helped slowly clear off most of the thrush, but I began getting severe symptoms which I later discovered/researched on my own was candida die off or herxheimer (the pain in my bloodstream). This is a real thing where cytokins in the immune system fire off when the candida cells die and release toxins into the bloodstream. My piss was almost a pitch black I have never seen it so dark in my life. It wasnt dehydration either as I was constantly drinking water, just I learned nystatin is very toxic to the liver. I went through xrays and dozens of blood tests over the next 6 months where they could see inflammation markers in the blood and something about the red/ white blood cell count I cant quite remember but could not officially diagnose me with anything. Extremely low testosterone levels came back in the bloodwork so it was obvious this all just wasn’t in my head.

I requested to set an appointment with a rheumatologist but the wait list was over a year. In a desperate attempt to heal back to my old self I've continued to try different diets (such as the carnivore) and food eliminations to see if it would help. I spent thousands of dollars on specialty organic meats from farms. I started drinking organic kefir and kombucha to heal my gut biome which was completely wiped out then overrun with candida.

I began a mission of searching different naturopaths out of desperation. I was pacing around downtown in the cold at 7am waiting for the one to open. She explained that the reason I had acid reflux was too little acid in my stomach, not too much. She recommended apple cider vinegar and that’s when I started seeing noticeable results my acid reflux was completely cured in a month.

I went to a few others none could come up with a solid diagnosis for my biggest and most persistent problem which was a lack for better words the pain in my blood. One was very impressive she could look in my eyes and saw I had inflamed shoulder from the arthritis which I felt all day. She diagnosed me with having ulcerative colitis and suggested some foods and vitamins to my diet.

A long painful battle begun, I did everything I could to prevent ulcerative colitis flare ups and kill the candida. Progress was slow and it was super expensive to find organic foods that wouldn't set off a flare up. All the food was so toxic in Canada. Pesticides on all the food, everything is over processed soy, wheat, GMO garbage and it's nearly impossible to escape or find alternatives. My typical day was I would eat steak and garlic and bone broth all day and that’s all I would eat for months.

My flare ups reduced from every day down to once every week which was still awful but I could at least finally function and gather the strength to take care of myself. I decided to move to Asia for more organic food, a healthier environment, and cheaper living.

I ended up staying in a quarantine hotel. For 15 days I spent locked in a tiny hotel room only allowed to leave for a nose swab a few times. I remembered seeing a TRT clinic on youtube advertised in the area. I decided to go there and the one guy I had a consultation with mentioned BPC-157 a natural peptide that specializes in healing gut issues. I remember researching it but forgot about it in the middle of the chaos. I decided to give it a try. I was done feeling like shit every day and having flareups every week. As someone scared to death of needles I still took the chance. I pinned myself for the first time and right away I felt a cooling effect wash over my stomach, all inflammation in my body immediately faded away.

I have been injecting BPC-157 subcutaneously and administering it orally as well on and off for 3 months at a time. I've done about 2 treatments and each time my condition gets substantially better. The pains come less frequently now and are far less severe. I am able to eat foods again that before would have been impossible to digest or would set off inflammation.

All listed ailments have since completely been cured and healed except blood pain or herxheimer reactions which will come if I eat pineapple or too much wheat, junk food or sugar. Even these flare ups are now down to about once every 3-5 months before a flare up occurs as opposed to every week. The flare ups are much less frequent and much less painful but still a nuisance.

I'm not 100% sure what condition I have because I have never been officially diagnosed. I believe it is either some kind of autoimmune disorder triggered by the medication (lansoprazole is known to trigger auto-immune disease) in combination with my healthy gut flora being wiped out and the other stresses on my body or it could just be candida die off persisting in my blood stream.

I will be continuing on my journey in healing my gut. Hopefully this helps someone dealing with the same problems. I know I’ve came across many people and stories where gut issues were triggered and severe and chronic life threatening health issues happened as a result of taking excessive amounts of antibiotics. I will be adding pictures and updating this post regularly and proof read it when I get some more time.