@Emilia My progesterone levels were actually low, so I've recently started supplementing it. Do you have personal experience using it, and if so, what dose typically works best for you?

@Emilia Yes, that's a good point. I should look into getting tissue levels of estrogen tested for. Some of the things you mentioned, I have already tried, but probably need to be more consistent with it.

@basebolt GFR and lactate were normal. What you mentioned about dehydration may be the case. It seems as though, interestingly, I can get hydrated, but also dehydrated relatively easily. My theory, although I don't know how plausibly it is, is the skin has gotten so thin that it's losing water through evaporation more quickly than what would be normal. Anyway, thanks for the info!

@BartL Hi, Im sorry to hear you're going through something similar. I would be curious to know if you have been diagnosed with ehlers danlos or just have a similar set of symptoms that you haven't received a diagnosis for? You're right about getting enough calories, but that's easier said than done lol. Nonethless, discipline and patience is probably key in this healing journey.

Thanks for all the great information you all provided. Culture turned out to be positive for a relatively common and most often benign skin bacteria, so it was most likely a false positive/contaminated sample. But, this is all useful information nonetheless.

@DavidPS Thanks for the great info. I actually bought the test myself, so I'm not under current medical supervision for this issue. It was one of the few labs left to provide any sort of clarity to my situation and has been ongoing for years, so might as well wait it out until the results come back.

@yerrag Glad to hear it worked out for you. I think partly this is what happened in my case, with my body just being too weak to maintain proper balance of organisms. I was more so concerned about a systemic fungal infection as I had reason to believe this was the case, but from what I've read the culture would have picked up on this. Regardless, I'm glad to finally get some answers. Probably best that you avoided the cipro, that's essentially the kind of info I'm looking for in case hospitalization is required. Procedures or medications to avoid if recommended by conventional doctors. I assume a hospital visit will be recommended as I've been experiencing pretty moderate neurological symptoms also.

Do you or anyone else know if theoretically bacteremia can be sustained for a chronic amount of time, as I've been having symptoms associated with this issue for years at this point?

@AkJono Culture was positive for gram positive bacteria but the identification process is still in progress. That sounds like a nasty scratch, glad it turned out okay!

Anyone familiar with how this is typically treated and what types of antibiotics are commonly used? How safe are these specific antibiotics (I know some antibiotics are more favored than others by this community)? Any tips for how to go about treating this?

Does anyone know of any more obscure mechanisms of vitamin C and its role in the body? Why would taking it (even from natural sources) worsen symptoms? In particular, autoimmune like symptoms, as my understanding is that in the bioenergetic theory autoimmunity is actually just tissue damage from stress hormones and the body's attempt to clean this mess up? I know one of the main mechanisms is its enhancement of iron absorption. In my case, ferritin is low and other iron levels are normal, so I don't understand why this would worsen symptoms, and am looking for other mechanisms.