An Unusual Case of Infection Finally Explained

Bacteria in a petri dish

How on Earth did I come down with this again!?

I'm at the end of being laid low by an intense infection that had me bedridden, peeing blood, running a fever and unable to eat. I won't attempt to describe how unpleasant the experience was, especially trying to pass blood clots. So, let's say, "Give me COVID any day!"

Before you read on, please read this article from four years ago which describes the identical infection, including exact circumstances leading to being laid low with what turned out to be a UTI e-Coli infection:

https://www.garymoller.com/post/2018/03/02/did-the-drink-bottle-do-it

How the Infection Showed on my Vital Signs

I've been monitoring some of my inner workings with an Oura Ring. https://ouraring.com/

Here are some screenshots from the app:

Ready for a great performance on Sunday but plunged to an all-time low Wed. Close to full recovery by Sun.

HRV at peak for the race on Sun, then infection set in; extremely low on Wed, recovery nearly complete by Sat.

RHR showing signs of infection, peaking Tue; recovery almost complete by Sun.

RR low Sat, then peaks Tue, back to normal by Sun, indicating course of infection.

Temp indicates a fever Mon through to Sat and normal by Sun.

Note: I went through this process without the use of antibiotics for two reasons:

1. By the time I realised it was an infection rather than injuries, my vitals indicated that the infection was abating.

2. When I contacted the Dr for an appointment on Thursday at the earliest, I was told it would be in the basement car park since I was not jabbed. I refused because I am sick and tired of being treated like an unclean sub-citizen.

The management of the infection was by:

1. Fluids.

2. Rest.

3. Various vitamins, minerals and herbal remedies kill bacteria and parasites.

4. Confidence in my own immune system.

This worked a treat.

Common Factors around each Infection

1. A bike race.

2. A fall during the race. The first time, there was no damage, whereas the latest involved skin abrasions, but these must become infected, and then somehow the infection must make its way to the bladder. This process takes days, not hours, to happen, if ever.

3. On both occasions, I woke up the following day feeling unwell and then urinating blood. The first infection was diagnosed as an e-Coli bladder infection and treated with antibiotics.

How the e-Coli bacteria got into my bladder has always been a mystery. I thought it was the drink bottle four years ago, but even that was implausible. With repeated infection and no drinking involved, we can eliminate the drink bottle theory and take out riding a bike for an hour. Of course, all that leaves is to focus on falling off the bike, but how can a fall trigger a full-blown internal infection with symptoms within 8-12 hours?

Here's the theory!

Let's say I caught a good dose of e-Coli from either contaminated food or water. This might have been many years ago. I've had several gastro infections when cycling around places like Fiji, Bali and other parts of the world where sanitation is less than perfect. Let's assume I got over the illness on each occasion. Still, after one, there remained a residual bacterial population which was controlled by my immune system. So a stalemate ensues, similar to the trench warfare of WWI. Let's assume this stalemate is confined to my bladder. Due to this low-level eternal war, the bacteria becomes sequestered in what are called "cysts", and let's say I now have several.

This theory is supported by almost 20 years of Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) which indicates a sub-clinical infection of the bacterial or parasitic kind. Despite constant searching, I never found the source - not until now.

The final clue came when a woman informed me she had suffered a similar e-Coli infection after falling off a horse and peeing blood the following day. After a few days, she noted the painful peeing out of what looked like the remains of a tiny pus-filled sac. She felt immensely better after that, including with the assistance of antibiotics.

So, assuming there are one or more bacterial cysts in my bladder and I get violently body-slammed while falling off a bike, what might happen? I'll assume that a cyst or two is dislodged or bursts, thus ejecting the pus contents into my bladder, causing an almost instant full-blown infection!

This scenario makes sense, so the challenge is to confirm it and eliminate other possibilities I will not go into here. The obvious next move is to get a referral to a urologist, and I'll do that.

I'll let you know how we get on and what is found.

Photo: Lisa Ng Photography

Accentuating the Positive

The keys to a long, healthy, productive and satisfying life include keeping free of disease. Unless you are run over by a bus, the kind of diseased that get us down are the ones that creep up on us over many years, sometimes decades. We're talking about diseases like dementia, arthritis, heart disease and cancer. With all of these conditions, modern medicine is an abject failure: Other than resuscitating and patching you up after being run over by the bus, of course! The key to preventing these degenerative diseases is to pick up the tell-tale hints 20 or more years before they become medical issues and knock them on the head.

Setbacks and failures, including illness, may be unwelcome, but they are the best teachers only if one is open to receiving the wisdom they bring.

So, if I had not fallen off my bike, I would never have known of the possibility of cysts, or something like that in my bladder, gradually wearing me down and sucking out my vitality. I would have put the aches and the slowing down to merely what is inevitable with getting old, and how wrong that would have been! Instead, I know there is an infection in my bladder, and my challenge now is to find out exactly what it is and then eliminate it 100%. And you know what excites me even more? Well, eliminating the infection completely will surely mean an improvement in energy and vitality. What a great way to enter my 69th year!

So, how did the bike race go last Sunday?

Photo by Lisa Ng Photography

The gun went, and five seconds later, I was lying on the ground, groaning in pain: I'd clipped the front wheel of the rider in front and hit the deck. That left me in last place, and the thought ran through my mind to pull out. Instead, I decided to push on while figuring out what the damage had been and give time for the pain to settle. I came right and settled into working my way carefully through the field of 38 riders. I was going well until a rider alongside me slid down a slope and into my path. While I managed to avoid him, I clipped one of the poles marking the course, and it locked my front brake. I did a somersault over the handlebars, landing heavily on my back! Twice in one race was getting to be two too many, and the thought of giving up again crossed my mind. However, I continued despite the pain and again lost some hard-won ground.

The final result was surprising: 10th out of 38 in the A Grade is nothing to complain about.