Notes from emails titled "Iron-Loving Bug"

Email 1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudomonas_aeruginosa

Well-known to cause problems for CF patients, prone to infecting the outer ear, needs iron to grow, known to spread by contaminating equipment (but also by human contact), prefers moist environments, steals iron from mitochondria (primary source of energy for cells), makes biofilms on basically anything, likes to hang out in human mouths, can grow in diesel fuels.

Smells like grapes or fresh tortilla.

I think this is our primary culprit for things like 'cars are evil', our issues with contamination when eating, and our electronics dying quickly historically. Current science doesn't really know how to cope with human infections because it's antibiotic-resistant, but clearly we've come a long way.

Email 2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alginic_acid

A key ingredient in Pseudomonas Aeruginosa's ability to form biofilms -and is used by humans as part of dental impressions (And indeed for all kinds of impressions; if you get a cast, this stuff is probably involved), for fireproofing and waterproofing fabrics, as a 'thickening agent' in drinks/ice cream/cosmetics, in the manufacture of paper and textiles, and in wound dressing products.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynorphin

Natural opioid (Yes, as in cocaine) the body produces, concentrated in the brain, spine, and to a lesser extent the larger nervous system, important in appetite management, sleep cycle management, pain response, body temperature management...

... and it can penetrate PA's cells and end up promoting production of the elements that lead to biofilms.

That last link says iron chelators help break down biofilms. (Naturally, the Wikipedia page on chelation emphasizes that chelation is only useful for dealing with heavy metal poisoning and all other purported uses are false...) It also indicates PA struggles to form biofilms on silver. (I guess PA is a werewolf) And that Zithromax is effective at fighting PA in patients with cystic fibrosis, though no details.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9905436/

Says 18.8% of bottled water is contaminated with PA. (Cite says as of 2016) No wonder we avoid water bottles. Also says pomegranate, peppermint, and some other stuff we don't eat (I've never even heard of Japanese Honeysuckle before) are relevantly effective antimicrobial plants. Also walnuts have something in their husks that is effective, and honey is effective at beating up PA biofilms.

Email 3

PA starts trying to form biofilms basically instantly if it deems its new environment unfriendly, consistent with our experience of how contamination hazards tend to work; previous stuff I'd read about biofilms consistently presented tham as a late-stage thing, not something a biofilm-maker would break out on a moment's notice.

Comments

So I made a stub recently titled Little Metal Spiders and may have jotted down some notes and like the SAME DAY I think my son begins emailing me stuff about PA sort of out of the blue. He's like that. He gets curious and goes digging and then I get random emails full of research notes that are broken down for his "dumb" mom because he knows more about science than I EVER will and this has played a significant role in our ability to get better.

I homeschooled him and he tested at the senior in college level for science at age 11 and I later learned he ceilinged the test. In other words, that's as high as the test goes so you can assume that's a floor for what he knows.

He was accepted for taking classes -- not for full-time enrollment -- at a homeschool-friendly community college when he was thirteen. He has big strengths and big weaknesses and when his two classes fell through he told me "Mom, I don't really want to go to college. I want you to keep teaching me." so I sighed deeply because he was already kindly explaining Einstein's Theory of Relativity to his poor, stupid mother and I wasn't qualified to keep teaching him in some subjects, though I certainly was in others, and I went asking around how you homeschool a kid who is so over your head and we continued homeschooling.

At the age of thirteen he also had someone tell him in an online forum they were shocked to learn he was thirteen because they thought he had a PhD. So he's a handful and snarky and doesn't care what YOU think because he's right.

Anyway, I am back to hearing multiple times per day "You are an awesome mom" and the reason given is "We are treating FOUR things current medicine doesn't know how to treat: cystic fibrosis, hexavalent chromium poisoning, trypanosomas and PA."

Before we went homeless, we threw out all our dishes and began using disposable dishes for germ control because we developed a condition we dubbed toxic mouth syndrome and he thinks biofilm from PA is the explanation and our toxic mouth syndrome is getting better here lately after years of being a big problem.

When I wrote the stub titled Little Metal Spiders I planned to write about mailing my Aflac ID back to the company and how strongly we reacted to that and that night I dreamed of little metal spiders. I think the ID somehow used tech that promoted metal-loving germs and me and my kids were talking and I was going to write about some other things, like plugging stuff in ONCE at my ex-husband's house and then I kept having to replace the plug to my tablet until I finally ordered a whole new cord, not just the plug part, and I mean it was FALLING APART like it was rotting or something.

I'm thoroughly convinced there are microoganisms in the environment that eat plastic and metals and can tear up your tech if it gets exposed. And people with CF are playgrounds for such bugs more than most people and our tech SOMETIMES -- not always, but SOMETIMES -- goes to hell SUDDENLY and we think it's being munched on by microoganisms.

Some of the infections that KILL people with CF that do NOT normally infect humans, when you google their names you come up with articles about remediating oil spills. They eat petroleum and I think this is part of why giving up my car made such a big difference. I think people with CF soak up petroleum and are more prone to metal poisoning than average and eventually become tasty little snacks for such bugs and giving up my car means I no longer go to gas stations, among other things.

This plan to write about this was kind of kicked off because my metal desk chair broke and we replaced it. Me and my son with CF go through metal chairs faster than my son who is only a carrier because they break more and we think this has to do with us carrying germs that eat metals to a greater degree than my other son.

This has held true under circumstances where by all "normal" logic, his chair should have been getting the greater wear and tear because he was in it more, he's heavier than his brother, etc. and YET his chairs last a lot longer than ours do. Ours go to hell periodically and have to be replaced because they just start coming the hell apart.

So I keep coming back to "I made this stub and he was talking about related stuff and then began emailing me out of the blue" because it has been our experience that when we start reminiscing about blah or yadda, very often we are having die-off of the infection we are discussing. It's like a Freudian Slip of sorts.

It's like subliminal perception of what is going on drives the topic of conversation.

And SOMETHING has changed recently in our health status. Some recent events where life got in the way and we had to delay lunch or whatever have not been as much of a hardship as we expected them to be. So we are more resilient than we've been -- more able to put off meals, etc.

And it's possible -- it seems likely to me -- that PA dropping below some threshold in ALL three of us is the explanation for this sea change.

For the record: NO, no doctor has ever tested me and concluded I have PA.

THIS IS A BLOG. THIS IS MY FUCKING OPINION.

You got an issue with that? Get off my fucking lawn.