# Trying DIY Fecal Transplant (FMT) - for IBS-D



## ClaireBee (Oct 3, 2014)

Hello,

I am a new member to this forum but not to IBS. For years I suffered with bloating and gas, but never really payed much attention to it. A year and a half ago I gave up gluten to try and address some joint injuries that wouldn't heal. My injuries stayed the same, but my stomach shrank, the bloating disappeared, along with stomach pain that I had had so long, I didn't even recognize it until it was gone!

Fast forward a year to last January (2014). My stomach was slowly starting to hurt again and the gas and bloating were coming back. My daughter brought home a cold from school, I caught it, and then it turned into a sinus infection. To make a long story short, I developed a sinus infection and lost part of my hearing in my right ear (sudden sensorineural hearing loss). (BTW If you ever experience hearing loss, go to an ENT right away as it is a medical emergency. You may regain your hearing with prompt injection of steroids into your tympanic membrane.) My primary gave me a round of amoxicillin and my ENT put me on a strong dose of prednisone for two weeks. My hearing never came back (they misdiagnosed me the first time, idiots), and I started eating gluten again, because I thought, WTH, my stomach hurts anyway?

About 3 months later I started developing diarrhea in the morning. Migraines, which I had always had, increased dramatically. It got worst and worst until I was waking up with an immediate urge to defecate, followed by diarrhea until 1 pm, with gas and bloating lasting the whole day. It was rare for me to NOT have a headache. I was miserable and tired all the time. When I went to the doctor they said "increase your fiber" and "this is probably all from anxiety from your hearing loss". Did I mention that they were idiots??

On my own I decided to cut out gluten again, reducing the diarrhea by 50%. I then cut out dairy, reducing a little more. Lastly, I added two probiotics, VSL #3 and Sacchromyces Boulardii (the last one was the suggestion of a naturopath who thought I had candida). After this I started forming one solid bowel movement each morning, but my stomach still hurt all the time and I was frequently bloated. My naturopath put me on a diet free of corn, soy, gluten, dairy, yeast and simple sugars, with low amounts of fruit to treat candida. This has been helpful, in reducing my headaches, but my stomach still hurts quite a bit and I feel like things aren't healing. This is also a VERY difficult diet to stick to.

After reading about the success people are having with fecal microbial transplants, I decided that it is an option I'm going to try. I don't want to be treating this for years and years if there is a possible cure just sitting next to me on my couch. My husband is very healthy, has low antibiotic usage in his life, and is easily accessible. The reason I think this will work is because my symptoms got so much worst after antibiotics and steroids making me think I have dysbiosis. Also, since I am responding to probiotics, a great dosage of pure probiotics (poop!) can only be of help. The food allergies I'm sure are from a leaky gut that I have developed over the years from frequent use of antibiotics to treat UTI's. I'm still sticking with the diet to increase my chances of my intestines healing while I do the transplants.

We are not testing his stool for parasites or bacteria which I advise AGAINST doing. We just have so many medical expenses, and I'm so tired of being sick, that we are skipping this step of the process. More on why I need to be cured, or mostly cured, ASAP on a later post.

This morning I drank 10 ozs of Magnesium Citrate in order to cleanse my colon, before we start the first implant tomorrow morning. I'm using the freeman protocol to do the transplant, found here, http://www.ibsgroup.org/forums/topic/165423-fecal-bacteriotherapy-for-ibs-d-success/ My diet is already so restricted that I decided to skip the low fiber diet for 2 weeks that some people suggest, hoping the cleanse will clear me out properly.

I will be doing the implant every day for 10 days followed by weekly implants, and pray that's enough! I have read that some people are cured after only one implant, but I believe that is the exception to the rule. In the only study that's been done to test the effectiveness of FMT for IBS, 70% of participants had improvement, BUT THE IMPLANT WAS ONLY DONE ONCE. http://www.familypracticenews.com/topics/gastroenterology/single-article-page/ibs-symptoms-improve-after-fecal-transplant.html

Three of the thirteen participants did have a complete resolution of IBS, which makes me think more implants would have been effective. Frankly, I find it kind of amazing that just one worked, considering that many people develop IBS after MANY rounds of antibiotics!

So, pray for me, and I will keep you updated as to my progress! I think it's important in research and case studies to publish success and failures, so that others can learn from them. I will post all of my results here to be of help to others.

Cheers!

Claire


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## ClaireBee (Oct 3, 2014)

After having diarrhea until 4pm from the magnesium citrate, I decided to give the implant a go at 8:30 pm instead of tomorrow morning, mostly because I was hungry and didn't want to have to wait until tomorrow morning to eat (I've been drinking clear fluids all day). I think I did it too close to the ingestation of the magnesium citrate as it was very difficult to retain. After one hour I had to pass some of it. Hopefully most of it stayed. I'm going to do another implant tomorrow morning and hopefully have better retention.

I used baby rice cereal to feed the bacteria which worked nicely because it didn't clog the baster. The procedure was, er, pretty gross, but I have a high tolerance for disgusting things so it wasn't too bad. I'm a mother of three and a nursing student, so I'm use to messy situations! : )


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## ClaireBee (Oct 3, 2014)

Today I am very gassy with painful cramping and bloating. Is this die-off or an FMT gone bad? Last night very little came out when I went to the bathroom, and today I haven't had any bowel movements. I'm wondering if I should do another FMT before I have a BM or wait until I have one (because I'm trying to do one FMT a day). I might try using my 9 year old daughter's stool as she is healthy, if my husband's stool continues to give me gas and bloating.


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## ClaireBee (Oct 3, 2014)

Or maybe the gas and bloating is from the magnesium citrate...


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## ClaireBee (Oct 3, 2014)

So I decided to go ahead with another FMT last night, despite the gas, bloating and not having a BM yet. I used less saline this time, 200 mL, but used approximately 100mL of feces. I put in about 3 tablespoons of rice cereal.It was much easier to hold this time around and easier to do. I went to sleep right after which helped hold it in because I wasn't up walking around. After getting my kids ready for picture day this morning (3 young girls, 3 full heads of hair, earrings, clothes, breakfast, need to be out the door by 8 am, you can imagine!) I came home and had a little breakfast. While eating I felt the urge, went to the bathroom and had a solid BM, bristol stool scale type 4. There was no urgency, like I usually have, just a general pressure, like I use to get before I developed IBS. Hoping this is from the FMT and not the Immodium I took two days ago. I'm still a little gassy but the cramping has subsided greatly.

My first transplant was Saturday night, my second one was last night, and I held both in until this morning, which I'm very happy about! Originally I was only going to do this for 10 days but now I've decided to do it for as long as I need to until I feel better, and then I'll do it once weekly. If that means 3 weeks - 3 months, whatever, I will do it!!!

Please pray for me that this will work. God wants us all to be well, and loving and living life.


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## Lorelei56 (Apr 7, 2014)

I hope this will work for you! I may want to try this as well.


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## Bobby.V (Oct 7, 2014)

Hang in there! I suggest getting onto a body building protein shake, got all the glutamines, magnesiums and other goodiea we need. I actually trialled it months ago and it seemed to help, but wasnt long lasting on its own, thats why I did the fmt (4 days without a BM now, a new record) and have a herbal rememdy called "iberogast" before bed with a probiotic every night


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## ClaireBee (Oct 3, 2014)

Thanks for the advice Bobby! What kind of protein shake did you use and how many FMT's did you do? I did two total, haven't gone back to it because my gas and diarrhea was getting bad again. I stopped my probiotics when I did FMT so maybe that's why. When I started back on my probiotic again I went back to "normal"..anyway, going to try again next week when I have more time. I'm looking into the Iberogast. What is the cause of your IBS? Is it SIBO? I'm going to a GI doc next week so hopefully will get some answers.


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## lookingforcure (Mar 27, 2012)

Any updates on this? How you doing?


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## ClaireBee (Oct 3, 2014)

I only did FMT and did not have good results with it. Don't know if it was because I didn't do it long enough or if it just wasn't the solution to my problem. There has been no change in my condition since doing the FMT so I don't think it's harmful to try. Since cutting out wheat and adding probiotics, I no longer have the D, but I do still have severe cramping in the morning, especially after I eat, that decreases slowly over the course of the day. Certain things make it worst, such as dairy and onions. I'm considering doing Michael Mahoney's hypnotherapy now as it's the only thing that I can see has been proven in medical studies to be highly effective at battling IBS.

Oh, and I had an endoscopy done earlier this week. The GI said he didn't see anything, but I'm waiting on the results of the biopsy. He said joyfully after the procedure, "Maybe you just have IBS!" OH REALLY! "JUST" IBS!! What a ding-dong.


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## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

Onions are also very bad for me. This is why I got interested in low fodmap. Onions are high in "oligos" and I think that might be the reason they give me trouble.


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