Geotrichum

Is Partial Plausibility the Same Thing as Impossible?

Challenges, Health, Engineering & Fabrication, Love / By / / Leave a Comment
Lenticular Cloud over Harold’s Cross Dublin Ireland, Omnisource5 – 2015

My friend Bee,

I hope that you are beginning to see that this entire enterprise truly is all about you.  Is it evident to you that I am not trying to glorify myself?  This is all a pretty strange way of going about things, if that was my intent.

Please understand that I have never wanted to cause you stress, anxiety, fear, anger, or any other unpleasant feelings or emotions.  I know that many of the things that I have written to you have caused you grief, sorrow, and pain.  There are certain things that I knew at the time that I wrote them would be a discomfort to you, but there are other things that I have written where I did not foresee tears in your eyes.  However, I have always been careful to be as truthful with you as I could possibly ever be to anyone.  I have leaned very heavily upon God to lead me as I write to you, to be certain that I really am being truthful with you.

This is the problem.  Often times, the truth can be painful, but it is only by facing up to the truth that we can understand what is wrong and where the deception, the lies, and the subtlety exists in our lives.  The truth is a light that reveals the darkness.  Without the truth, we are unable to see the darkness in our lives.

In all soberness and sincerity, I have never knowingly allowed myself to say anything to you that I thought would cause you pain unless it was for the specific purpose to help you understand the truth.  It is out of love that I have thought to cause you to suffer, so that you might know the truth and to be able to see the darkness and to be free from that darkness.  Is it not better that you suffer sorrow and pain for a season in order to discover and to take hold of eternal joy and light, than it is to live in an undisturbed darkness until you finally realize that you will never ever be free from that darkness – a adarkness that continually becomes ever more dark?  I have only ever wanted you to be happy and filled with joy, but you will never be able to find true happiness and to live in untethered joy as long as you are living in darkness.

…

Is Partial Plausibility the Same Thing as Impossible?Read More »

Is Partial Plausibility the Same Thing as Impossible? Read More »

Science is a Wherry

Challenges, Health, Challenges, Nautical, Circumnavii, Route Plan & Selection, Engineering & Fabrication / By / / 1 Comment

When I first began this blog, I did not anticipate that my struggles with my health and my diet were going to be quite as extreme as they have been.  Neither did I expect the Bible Study effort to be so all-consuming.  Do not get me wrong. I fully anticipated that both of these aspects were going to be exceedingly difficult to handle, yet they both turned out to be far greater challenges than I expected.

I knew that the battle with my gastrointestinal affliction was going to be exceedingly difficult.  After all, I have been battling with this affliction for 20 years.  I knew that it was going to be insanely difficult, but I had no clue that, in the process, I would be uncovering this long-standing body-fluid balance issue.  The whole situation has been a huge surprise to me. It is an incredibly complex problem, and it is not a situation that can be resolved quickly by any means.

With the Bible study, it just never occurred to me that the beginning of the Scofield Bible would contain so many comments to grapple with, as well as comments of such complexity and depth.  With the Scofield Study Bible, well over 10% of all the comments in the entire Bible are contained in the book of Genesis.  Moreover, some of the most complex and comprehensive comments that Dr. Scofield includes in his Bible are situated in the first half of the book of Genesis.  Therefore, the effort to produce these Bible studies, here at the beginning, has been about three times as great as what I anticipated.

As a result, I have had no choice but to completely neglect the care and feeding of my blog, and, more importantly, I have not been able to focus my attention on you as I feel that I should.  As I stated in my most recent blog post, “The Waiting Drives Me Crazy,” God has let me face these difficulties for very definite purposes.  There are reasons why these difficulties have come about, and they are very good reasons.  Furthermore, they are all reasons that need to be explained; however, I cannot explain them to you until you understand more about the quest itself.

…

Science is a WherryRead More »

Science is a Wherry Read More »

Dale’s Recovery – Status

Challenges, Challenges, Health / By / / Leave a Comment

Sorry for the delay in updates! I was finally able to get most of the information updated, although I am missing observations for a lot of days. The Bible Studies have been a lot of work. If you have not yet listened to any of them, please take a moment and check out the most recent study: Bible Read & Study … especially Program 0003! I you have not listened to the third Bible Study, I urge you my friend … please listen to it: Program 003.

4/30/2020 … I’m still praying for you … more than ever!

After four weeks of fasting from food, I finally began eating on March the 23rd of 2021. The charts you see above include the fasting portion of my treatment for the fungal infection in my intestines. However, the tables below do not contain the data for the fasting portion of my fast. If you would like to see the detailed figures behind the fasting data in these charts, please refer to the previous post, “Dale’s Fast – Status.” For a background and an explanation of that fast read: “The Great Physician.”

The following table shows the aggregate values for the different indicators of the recovery portion of this healing process, beginning with my first meal following the fasting portion of the healing process. The counters are all pretty much the same as they were for the fasting portion of the process, with a few tweaks here and there. For background on this whole ordeal with my gastrointestinal issues, begin with the post, “Spilling my Guts.”

For more detailed information, simply click on the column heading descriptors which will take you to the detailed table from where the aggregate values are derived. (See the legend below.)

DayDateWeightVigorVision
/Rest		Gut
Score		Body
Function		Inflam-
mation
/pH
38Thu, Apr 29, 2021155.5 lbs.8.2“8”/20/24
/4:25/8.0		0.90.10.3
You can see by the chart that most everything appears to have stabilized; nonetheless, most everything is actually still improving. The improvements are in significantly smaller increments. In fact, many of the improvements are smaller than my scale can register; therefore, it appears that there has not been any improvement for several days on a particular reading when in reality there has been. One of these areas is my gut readings. I am still experiencing improvements. This is rather remarkable. I am definitely eating more calories each day than my body is able to burn, which is why I have been gaining weight so rapidly. In the last twenty years, I have never been able to sustain consistent weight gain for several days without my symptoms getting worse. Yet now I am gaining weight, and my symptoms are continuing to improve. I wish that they would improve faster, but how great of a blessing it is that they are even improving at all!!! God is so good to me! I am just a worm! I am not worthy of the smallest of blessings imaginable, yet for some reason He is slowly moving me towards a new lease on life. It’s funny too; because, the main reason why things have been going so smoothly in the last several days, is somewhat of an accident. (Not to God, of course, but to me it seems like an accident.) I wish that I had time to explain. Unfortunately, that explanation will have to wait, but I will tell you what it is. About 10 days ago, I started increasing one of the anti-fungals that I have been taking for years now. It is a supplement called Undecylenic Acid. I slowly starting increasing the dosage from the original 450mg/meal, and now I am up to 5,400mg/meal, with room to increase even more. Ever since about the third day that I started increasing the dosage I have seen notable improvements pretty much every day! All of this is even more amazing, when I consider how much time and effort I have had to put into producing the Bible studies. (Bee … :-b … speaking of Bible studies, you should listen to number 14. I realize that it is the longest one of all, but I think you would really enjoy it. I get into some deep discussion about the origins of the universe, quantum physics, and the actually length of the days that are in the account of creation in the book of Genesis.) Anyway, ever since I started working on the Bible studies (about 35 days ago) I have only managed to average 5:20 of sleep each night. But despite the lack of sleep and despite the overwhelming workload from the Bible studies, my health and my gut is continuing to improve! … I just … I simply do not have the words that can possibly express how blessed I am feeling right now. Jesus is worthy! He is worthy of all praise and glory!
…

Dale’s Recovery – StatusRead More »

Dale’s Recovery – Status Read More »

The Great Physician

Challenges, Challenges, Health / By / / Leave a Comment
The Brazen Serpent, Johann König, 1601-1642

My dear friend,

In part two of the explanation of my gastrointestinal issues (titled, “Not by Bread Alone”), I wrapped up the story of my sore tummy and how I arrived at my current condition.  I also introduced the prescription that God has given me to treat my illness and prepare me for my trip around the Globe, a fast.  The interesting thing is that He has not told me how long I am supposed to be on this fast for.  As of today, I have been fasting for nine straight days.  For some reason, I suspect that I will be on this fast for a total of 21 days, but God has yet to confirm that notion.  For all I know it could be 40 days.  Perhaps, He does not want me freak out at the thought that I have 32 days more to go, so He simply is not telling me.

I find that God does that very thing quite often with me.  There are facts that He will not give me until the very last minute; because, He knows that it would crush me if I knew certain details any sooner than necessary.  It is a great comfort to rest in God’s infinite understanding and knowledge, and to trust that He always knows what it best.  When I am truly following His will, I never have to worry about dark the path that is ahead of me.  He provides a path through the menacing gauntlet every time!   Yet I do not understand why it is, but I often worry and fret regardless.  God has been faithful to deliver me time and again – practically every day of my life – and I still cannot seem to remember that fact, until I stop for a moment, pray, and reflect on all His goodness.

In my last post I mentioned the fact that the fungal infection that I am fighting against is an outbreak of Geotrichum candidum in two different areas of my large intestines: in the cecum and in the descending colon.  I also mentioned that I have tried many different treatment protocols over the years, and that none of them have ever been effective enough to overcome the outbreak.  This is true even after I made adjustments to target Geotrichum candidum specifically, and my supposition for this condition is that the infection has taken up root in my appendix.

The problem is that there is no way to delivery enough of any anti-fungal agent to the areas of infection in order to completely wipe it out.  I have come remarkably close a few different times, but in the end, I simply cannot get to the foothold that it has established deep inside my appendix.  What I have determined is that the only way it can be fully exterminated is to starve is out.  I have to stop feeding the fungal colony, which means that I have to stop eating.  Moreover, I must be very careful not to drink any more water than necessary, as water aids in the survival of the fungus.

…

The Great PhysicianRead More »

The Great Physician Read More »

Dale’s Fast – Status

Challenges, Challenges, Health / By / / Leave a Comment

For a background and an explanation of this fast read: “The Great Physician.”

The following table shows the aggregate values for these different indicators of my health and the progress of the effect of the fast (and the accompanying treatments).

For more detailed information, simply click on the column heading descriptors which will take you to the detailed table from where the aggregate values are derived. (See the legend below.)

DayDateWeightVigor
/Vision
/Rest		Gut
Score/
Cramp		Herx
Score		Inflamm-
ation
/pH		Detox
Effect
27Mon, Mar 22, 2021127.0 lbs.6.8
“8”/20/28
/7:35/8.0		1.0
/0		0.81.4
/6.2		80%
Everything has progressed even better today. I was slow, groggy, and weak in the morning, but better than I was yesterday. The treatments all went well, and the pain and irritation of my gut was less all day long. Moreover, the overall body pain was less, and I have had more energy, especially at the end of the day.
You will notice that the weight is much less today. I think there are a few contributing factors for that. Primarily, I was super hydrated when I weighed myself yesterday. Secondly, I believe that I must have had more edema over the last few days than I thought. I clearly have no edema at all today. Finally, there is the fact that I have had two substantial bowel movements since I weighed myself yesterday.
I am thinking that the potassium carbonate and the magnesium carbonate that I have been taking have been contributing to the frequent clogging of my ears, as well as the lingering cold symptoms. I have also had a linger case of tonsillitis in my left tonsil that I failed to mention before. I suspect that this may be related to the potassium and the magnesium, as well. I will see if there is something I can do about that tomorrow. All praise be to the Lord that things are continuing to improve.
…

Dale’s Fast – StatusRead More »

Dale’s Fast – Status Read More »

Not by Bread Alone

Challenges, Challenges, Health, Prayer / By / / Leave a Comment
Lord’s cup and bread and bible, John Snyder, 2013

My dear friend,

When I last expounded upon the details of my gastrointestinal issues in one of my previous posts (titled, “Spilling my Guts”), I was only able to tell you half of the story.  Now I would like to take the opportunity to tell you the other half of the story, and to introduce the plan that God has for my deliverance from this affliction.

In the post, Spilling my Guts, I explained how the doctors that I had seen over the years were limited by their own system of pathophysiology (or pathology, take your pick), and how that became the primary obstacle preventing them from properly diagnosing my issue.  Furthermore, I explained how I was blessed by God to meet a doctor that could help me, the late Dr. Vincent Marinkovich.  Dr. Marinkovich was able to properly diagnose the problem, but then he died before I could be appropriately treated for my illness.

Nonetheless, God was faithful in leading me to finding a solution for the original problem that I had, which was Candidiasis (aka overgrowth of Candida albicans).  However, this was a process that took a few more years.  During that time of self-treatment, I was able to get rid of the Candidiasis, but there was a different fungus that moved in and took up residence in place of the Candida albicans.  I do not have any clear notion of when this happened.  For a number of years, I thought that I was still fighting the Candida albicans, when in reality I was fighting this new fungus, Geotrichum candidum.

…

Not by Bread AloneRead More »

Not by Bread Alone Read More »

Scroll to Top