MS mimic - ciguatera

Hi all

I am seeking to make contact with anyone who has experienced ciguatera toxic poisoning or can point me in the direction of any medical experts. In particular I am keen to make contact with anyone who has experienced persistant and long term neurological symptoms or who recovered from the initial poisoning, however has redeveloped symptoms in the future and suffered from relapses.

Thanks in advance

[Sharil]

Contact Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker of Pokomoke City, Maryland.  He has a book entitled Desperation Medicine, his website is www.chronicneurotoxins.com.  

He has treated me for a chronic neurotoxic disease to great success - although a lot of the damage is irreversible.

[brusha]

Thank you Sharil for your response. I will check the website now and try contact Dr Shoemaker.

Would love to hear more about your story and experience with chronic neurotoxic disease - was it ciguatera? What were your symptoms? How was it treated? Are your fully recovered / cured? What sort of damage has remained irreversible? Sorry if I sound nosey, I am just so desperately in need of answers.

[Sharil]

I have what Dr. Shoemaker calls the dreaded gene, which means I am multi-susceptible to a variety of toxins.  My worst enemy is a toxin produced by mold spores.  I am not allergic, mold spores produce a toxin that is odorless, tasteless and invisible.  I do not produce the antibodies to fight off the toxin. As you can imagine, it is impossible to tell if a building, whether it is someone's home, church, supermarket, business, etc., is contaminated, therefore I take a "hit" every once in a while and relapse.  Each hit can set me back, and I do not recover to the same level as prior to the relapse.  In other words, it can get progressively worse.

My symptoms are many but the most debillitating are pain all over, but particularly in my fingers,wrists, elbows, knees,legs and feet (I am rarely without pain),  chronic fatigue is an issue, as well as depression, easily becoming out of breath and suffering lack of restorative sleep.  It effects the central nervous system, so nothing goes unscathed.

Dr. Shoemaker was able to start me on a protocol which eliminated the toxins that were in my body - I go back on this protocol each time I take a "hit."  He has also successfully treated the pain - NOT with narcotics, which doesn't touch the pain.  However, my insurance, at the time, began refusing to pay for it since it was prescribed off-label, and the pain is back as bad as ever.  The prescription would cost me around $3,000 per month! I am currently unemployed and do not have insurance, so I haven't been able to keep seeing him on a regular basis, however, he is always available through his nurse.Dr. Shoemaker continues to study the field of Biotoxins and hopefully he will one day be able to provide more permanent relief.

Quite honestly, I am not sure about his protocol for ciguatera, but I know that it and pfisteria were where he began his discoveries.  Good luck and please feel free to ask me any questions.  I will help as much as I can.

[brusha]

Thank you so much for yor post Sharil. I am un the process of looking into Dr Shoemakers stuff and will let you know how I go.

Great to hear you have found some relief with him and I hope everything continues to look up for you.