So apparently, two days of not supplementing with arginine is enough to bring my chronic pain up a couple of notches. It greeted me this morning for the first time in many weeks.
This week I get to do a challenge diet: high protein (verging on proper low-carb) for several days, then a blood test for plasma ammonia. Going off of the arginine was to make sure that my system breaks rapidly when confronted with that much protein, and I get to keep it up long enough for the ammonia to accumulate. I'm figuring four days should do it.
I devised this plan without any real apprehension, and when I look at it a little nervously now, I can remind myself that all the factors are in my control: if it gets to be too bad, I can ease off the protein, or cut the experiment short and go in for the test early. Most of all, the chronic pain is not something I'm actually afraid of. I lived with it for forty years, after all; it's a familiar demon. I cleared my schedule this week so I wouldn't have to worry about commitments if I felt like hell, but really, I'll probably be reasonably functional most of the time. After I'm done, I can get rid of the pain even faster than I did the first time.
I'm looking forward to the results, too. I had a baseline taken a week ago, which placed my ammonia squarely in the middle of the normal range. Given the behavior of my chronic pain in relation to diet, I'm almost completely certain that hyperammoniasis is what's going on, but this is my chance to test that hypothesis. It could, after all, actually be something even weirder going on... I certainly have a history supporting that.
So here's to being in another medical experiment... wish me luck.
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