The USA National CFIDS Foundation prominent member's fascinating report on successful recovery from her desperate and bedridden state on Dr Petrovic's CFIDS Protocol ! Sandra Timmermans is a non practising clinician from New York who has been closely involved with all USA National Research Projects on CFIDS. Her amazing professional report follows. (November 2008)

Hi Dr. Petrovic,

I want to share my experience with your CFIDS protocol with others who are looking for a way to recover from their illness.

I am a 49 year old non-physician clinician (PA) in the USA. Like many practitioners, I had a few patients with CFIDS come to see me in the Family Practice that I worked with. I knew something was wrong with them. I knew they weren't simply depressed and I suspected that they had some kind of viral infection that was persistent. But I never understood just how ill they really were until I became ill with CFIDS myself!

In 1996, at the age of 36 I became so ill that my family and friends thought I was going to die. I was totally bedridden, living with my parents and unable to care for myself at all. I was so weak that I could barely feed myself or even brush my own teeth. I had to take breaks and rest several times in the process of doing so. I rarely was able to even shower and when I did so I would need to sit since I would nearly faint if I tried to stand in the shower. I never left the house except to see my physician and then I had to use a wheel chair. I had very frightening neurological symptoms such as partial paralysis of the muscles in my eyes, blinding bursts of light in my eyes upon falling asleep or awakening, a shaking sensation inside my head, a feeling that my legs were no longer attached to my body, urinary incontinence, vertigo,severe anxiety, tingling, itching,numbess, electric shocks in my teeth and a sensation of ice water on various parts of the body. Additionally, I had severe chemical sensitivities and allergies to just about everything, nausea and other digestive problems, extreme hormone imbalances and short term memory loss issues.

It was a few months into my illness when I learned about nutritional therapies. I began to eat healthy foods and take various nutritional supplements and about 8 months later I able to move back to my own home. I was not well but at least I wasn't confined to bed any longer. I was able to do small things if I paced myself. About one year after moving back to my home I tested positive for mycoplasma fermentens incognitus and mycoplasma penetrans. I took long term antibiotics for these pathogenic mycoplasma which are typically found in patients with CFIDS, Gulf War Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. After this treatment I was functioning much better but still unable to return to work.

In 2003 I had a very severe relapse. I was much more ill than I had been back in '96. I was being transported to the Emergency Room a couple of times per week with a weak, non- palpable pulse and a sense that I was going into shock. Afer many months of no improvment at all I was so ill that I could only eat about 12 different foods. I could not tolerate any nutritional supplements. I would have horrible neurological reactions to them. I was in a real predicament!! Being a Christian, I asked the Lord to lead me to a treatment that would work for me. One day while I was looking on the internet for some possibilities I found Dr. Petrovic's website. I was excited to read that even people with more serious cases who had been bedridden were getting better with his treatment. I have to admit... this seemed too good to be true. For the next few months I corresponded with Dr. Petrovic regarding my illness and he reassured me that he was very confident that he could help me get better. He was very patient with me and also so supportive and encouraging. I felt this was the answer to my prayer so I ordered the treatment and got started.

It took only a few weeks for me to realize that something positive was happening. I wasn't running any races... but I sensed that this treatment was going to work. It took many months of the treatment before I was even able to stand up on my own feet again. Progress was very slow for me since I was so incredibly ill. But little by little I began to see my symptoms recede until finally I was able to get up each day, shower, get dressed, make simple meals and go outside again. This was a huge accomplishment for me. Truthfully, I thought that I would be bedridden for life as many other seriously ill CFIDS patients are. But after three and one half years I had a life again. I am still unable to work due to residual symptoms but I recently remarried and moved to my dream house and have a life that I could never have imagined being possible during those difficult years. I am so thankful to God and to Dr. Petrovic for giving me the ability to be able to have some quality of life again.

As an interesting side note, I am a member of the National CFIDS Foundation and have been part of thier ongoing research projects. A few years ago it was discovered that people with CFIDS have an epitope of ciguatera. My blood tested positive for very high levels of this epitope. Just recently I discovered that Dr. Hokama, who designed the tests for ciguatera, has proposed antioxidant treatment for chronic ciguatera poisoning from ingestion of toxic fish. Although persons with CFIDS who tested positive for the ciguatera epitope did not aquire the epitope from eating fish, the epitope acts nearly identically to the fish toxin and produces many of the same symptoms.....sypmtoms which we recognize as CFIDS symptoms. Some researchers have proposed that ciguatera produces large amounts of free radicals. Perhaps this is another explanation for the improvement that so many people with CFIDS experience with Dr. Petrovic's Antioxidant Protocol. Whatever the scientific explanation, the important point is that Dr. Petrovic's protocol is both safer and, in my experience, more effective than other treatments currently available! I hope people suffering with CFIDS will give this treatment a try.

Sandi Timmermans, RPA
Sandra Timmermans

sandi.timmermans@gmail.com
Tel: 607 527 8009