The Banderol and Samento arrived on Friday (my birthday gift! haha) and I started both of them Saturday morning.
My dosing schedule is 5 drops of each in the AM and 5 drops of each in the PM. I have to take them 15 minutes apart on an empty stomach either 30 minutes before any other food, medication or supplements or two hours after. That’s no easy task to get them spaced correctly, especially since I have other supplements and medications that have to be taken on an empty stomach and also have to be spaced apart from each other! I mix the drops in a few ounces of water and let it sit for a minute and then gulp it down.
It definitely has a taste to it but I’m not quite sure how I would describe it. Not horribly bad but it certainly doesn’t taste good either. The taste of the Samento is much stronger than the Banderol. I’m hoping I will get used to it as time goes on because I have to add one drop to each dose every other day until I’m at 20 drops. So I’m sure at 20 drops, the taste will be quite strong if I’m not used to it yet. But I have two supplements I take that tasted horrible when I first started taking them and I don’t really notice it now. Hopefully this will be the same way.
The first day I took them, I felt about the same. The exhaustion is still hanging around and I was definitely more tired but nothing I can’t handle. Today, I took a nap in the middle of the day, which if you remember, I rarely do. The last time I did that was when I was accidentally exposed to gluten. And before that, I couldn’t tell you when the last time was. I had several episodes of the foggy feeling that were fairly quick but much more intense than I’ve had in the past. That didn’t happen until this afternoon for the first time, so after my third dose. But none of the other neurological symptoms with memory, word recall, etc.
So I’m just going to have to see how this goes as far as increasing the dosage. If I have a major herx with it, I either have to back down or just maintain at that level until I feel better. Hopefully, I’ll be able to ramp up to the 20 drops 2x a day on schedule.
And just so I can keep up with it, the schedule should be:
6/1 & 6/2: 5 drops
6/3 & 6/4: 6 drops
6/5 & 6/6: 7 drops
6/7 & 6/8: 8 drops
6/9 & 6/10: 9 drops
6/11 & 6/12: 10 drops
6/13 & 6/14: 11 drops
6/15 & 6/16: 12 drops
6/17 & 6/18: 13 drops
6/19 & 6/20: 14 drops
6/21 & 6/22: 15 drops
6/23 & 6/24: 16 drops
6/25 & 6/26: 17 drops
6/27 & 6/28: 18 drops
6/29 & 6/30: 19 drops
7/1 & 7/2: 20 drops
So, as you can see, it’s going to take a little more than a month to work up to the full dose. Typically, it will take me two bottles of each to make it through the month but with this ramping up dosage, one bottle will last me through the 27th. Technically, I can go up to 30 drops if I’m not seeing enough of a difference but I’m hoping that won’t be the case. If all else fails, I can add the Doxy back in after the summer for the rest of the refills I have left.
And hopefully, I will have a back-up plan in place by then for someone to treat me going forward if I need it. Fingers crossed that I can get into remission on my own though and these herbals are going to mop up what is left after all the Doxy and Rocephin I’ve been on!