h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"the chance of me having any microbes left alive in my guts... after the quantity of antibiotics they threw into me, the last four m onths... is pretty damn low" [2Legs]

I suggest you read "10% Human." There's quite an extensive chapter about a chicken virus that was found to make chickens fat in the 1940s, just about the time that antibiotics were getting popular. Livestock is pumped full of antibiotics these days to speed up growth. In some countries, people average one course of antibiotics per year. Fat people and thin people tend to have different microbes in their guts. My theory is that the chemicals you've been taking have killed off most of your *thin* microbes, leaving the fat ones. You're in good company.

that certainly sounds about right! I was on.... oo.... at least four courses of oral ciprofloxacin (I think), oral antibiotic, plus some antibiotic eyedrops, a couple times, and ... oo... buckets of IV antibiotics, and that's not including the actual kill every living cell in teh vacninity drugs, I was being pumped full off..... - just lucky there's anything of me left TBH Hmm.... pity it didn't kill more fat cells minds

Here's what it says about ciprofloxacin:

"Just five days of [treatment]...has a profound and rapid impact on the microbiota, altering the composition of species on the gut within 3 days."

The effect on bacteroides, which specialize in digesting carbohydrates, is profound. Killing off this group alters your metabolism, and they may never recover.

"never recover" is a phrase I'm getting gradually used to accepting... in oh so many ways yeh... all one can do is about it really : I was on at least 4 courses of that antibiotic; two were for a fortnight... - following after on one case, a 24 hour stay in hospital, with 4-hourly I.V drips of a differnt antibiotic - oh... so fun - sod it... I'm off to investigate the bread-crumb tray underneath my toaster... surely it can't be that frightening compaired to ... some things one could od

You can probably survive with a bit of extra weight. Maybe someday they'll figure out how to rebalance your microbiota.

Well, I had dropped from 17.5 stone, down to my all time low of 11 stone 12 Lb, by the end of last year, and now at 13 stone, I'm probably not considered wildly overweight... - I'll be below 12 stone again be before Christmas though. microbbial flaura/fauna in my gut or not. Its just portion control if it worked before... it oughta work again - I'm sure it'll repopulate itself given time, and a sufficiently variated diet guess I culd think about those probiotic or whatever stupid food things... though I'm still avoided them at the moment, as one is advised to do so during chemo, and although I'm finished with the chemo... not sure I'm utterly immunologically safe yet - a trip back to my parents, oughta be a good check if I am or not... so many wild animals, pets, and wild children about the place its... hectic and not exactly a sterile environment failing all else... I'll just get a tighter corset

There are books that list foods good for repopulating your microbiota.

yeh. I'll have a look in to stuff like that properly... once the hospital and my sadistic oncologist and radiologist have properly finished doing unspeakibly horrible things to my body - not long now.... less and less bits of me left to wreck - gotta get some fitness back too once I'm all done (in)... for a so-called 'cure' this fun and games certainly knows how too.... wreck one entirely both physically and mentally.... - as if I wasn't enough of a physical and mental wreck to start with, mind ; I gave them a headstart at least Mind, if all goes to plan, I've an exercise plan starting during radiation.... ; walking to and from the hospital; the bus fares for three weeks solid treatment would be insane I'm sure the concurrent relience on bought food; sandwichs and takeaways and the like, will do nothing for my already well-obliterated digestive tract its all fun and games, until someone gets hurt... then the fun really starts

I feel really bad for you, 2Legs. yesterday I was in Barnes & Noble, looking at books in the wellness section. There were a couple of books that aimed to help people lose weight by restoring the balance of their gut bacteria. If I remember correctly, the foods that were most often mentioned were beans, nuts, ginger, turmeric, chia berries, kale, oats, avocados, and green tea. No fried anything on the list. No fast food. No soft drinks, not even artificially sweetened varieties. Your great-great grandparents were likely to grow many of the foods they ate, and they used recognizable food items like apples, potatoes, chickens, etc. Nowadays at least half the stuff in supermarkets comes in cardboard or plastic wrapping, and has been heavily processed.

Also, people in your great-great-grandparents' generation had low rates of obesity, autism, auto-immune diseases, coeliac disease, even acne. Did you know that 40% of people 25 to 40 have acne? That was unheard of 150 years ago.

I useually eat quite healthily... ; rarely fry, cept stir fry, never useually eat processed pre-made food, or do takeaways, etc; its only when I've been ill, I've eaten suh a rubbish diet!; was too bleh to cook properly half the time!; mainly living off salads at the moment!

Salads are probably the best choice for you, 2Legs. Don't despair. We're rooting for you .

me? dispair?! nah. I've too much weird still left undiscovered - heck, I guess I'e windged at times... (I know William got a lot of it), but, honsetly, I'v ebeen so lucky throughout treatment. - clear pet scan, half way through chemo; not one drop of sickness or nausea, - pain I coped with entirely without pain killers/tablets etc, and, I've giggled and laughed more during the period since diagnosis than I have at any other time in my life, seirously
OK. sometimes it all gets a bit too much, and I get really rather angry with myself, when my hands; suffering with this lose of sensation that may or may not be perminantly, don't work well enough to do daily things I just used to take for granted; and, true enough its kinda weird; picking up a mug, and feeling it as being larger than I know it is; and it feels a differnt size, weight, temp etc, depending on which hand I use; and, knowing I just can't trust my senses anymore to give an accurate representation of the universe/world; but, I've gotten off so lightly. so far at least. - and, if needed, I'll carry on doing so. Radiotherapy might as yet make me rediculusly more ill than I have been. if so, then it is; that'll only last for three weeks of treatment anyhow... and, if, after all that, its not worked. then things get more serious... and I'll be hidden away for a period, have wildly painful chemo, and radiotherapy to whipe aout my entire bone marrow, and ahve to have a bone marrow transufusion. I must admit... I'd kinda really rather like to avoid that.. but.. if the docs eventually want it, I'll do it. It'll only be a period of unplesent pain, and ... pains only pain at the end of the day - throughout treatment so far, I've rarely not been able to enjoy food, drink, and... err... the company of William, etc... - worse bit, if anything is just being held captive in teh city!; not being able to get away, go elsewhere etc; I know its only a couple day trip away; this is why I'm so* looking forward to W and I escapeing away for the little break, even if its only a few days, and not exactly to anywhere a million miles away - I've learnt so much about myself throught it all, and, at every step had two amazing people supporting me they if nothing else, means I can face whatever the doctors wanna throw at me; and laugh my way through it, as I go - I never stopped cracking jokes, even when I was in with the infection, for the inpatient stay; I was less than 24 hours from being dead at that point... - kinda trying to avoid teh death thing... for as long as one can... but... afterall its kinda inevitable, eventually, and, certainly not anything I've ever worried about, particularly...
But... mainly... - I've far too much weird left to discover yet, so life.... of whateer sort it ends up being... cna't be stopped just yet anyhow... I've got a potential trip away flying off in October...

Who ever they are they are not ready for you yet... perhaps the only normal person here free of the hang ups of the rest of us

Maybe but... right... back to breadcrumbs.... I've still not musterred the braveness, necessary to investigate this mysterious compartment uner my toaster

Toasters are not supposed to have compartments. Something is fishy. Is Rod Serling standing in the corner?

they're not? its got two; the little one, of course, in the side, where the pixi lives, and then this odd one underneath.... where I think the crumbpets live.... - I can hear them in it, sometimes, at night.... moving about, slowely and quietly chattering and chirping to each other; whispered voice of the pixi over, saying 'shhh' to them, and hushing them down, until they go to sleep... - mind, its not their fault; often the cow in the fridge, makes noises at night, and I thnk that wakes the crumbpets up; I know the pixi in the toaster, gets annoyed with the cow trapped in the fridge soemtimes.... - I've tried to release the cow trapped in the fridge, but... it never wants to come out... very odd; the last fridge didn't have a cow trapped in it; just a slightly bermused looking and sounding elk, which lived in the cheese compartment. <

Every proper toaster I have owned had a crumb shelf!

Where else are the poor little thing to live?

Dropped mine the other night and the dog got them

Oh the humanity the Cmubinity.

Me wee crumbs

I do have a container from the store, but they are only adopted

At least with a cow in the fridge you should have a good supply of milk. Never did acquire a taste for Elk's Milk

F S

SAdly, the cow trapped in the fridge never seems to produce milk. do get odd puddles appear sometimes on teh floor though.... but that looks.... kinda like water... useuallyl - I think the cow trapped in the fridge, might actually be trapped sinide inside a compartment at the back, somwhere... but I've never found it; I keep thinking I ought aphone the RSPCA to come round; see if they can realsee it.

I'm scared of phoneing them, after what happened last time. - They tried to take me into their care, and put me up for adoption.... well.... just because I happened to have a collar and leash on at th etime....

aww! poor ickle crumbs - mine seem quite happy where they are... they've been undisturbed since.... hmm.... circa 2008 I think

Oh, wait, there's a tray on the bottom of my toaster oven where the crumbs collect. Maybe that's what you meant.