Some of our friends reported about a wave of flu like virus infections in their neighborhood where many people had fever for about a week and various symptoms ranging from diarrhea to rhinitis and respiratory problems. I was forewarned and made sure that I would not miss a dose of my 4.5g VC taken 5 times a day on a four hour schedule. Usually this was enough to prevent me from catching a regular cold virus and it was close to my bowel tolerance level. Apparently it wasn't enough to completely prevent this infection.
I started to feel something coming on at about 8 PM on Thursday. I added an extra dose of 3g C and 1g liposomal VC and after 30 minutes another 4.5g C. By 8:45 PM it was clear to me that a fever was starting, even though the temperature had only minimally risen to 37.2 degree Celsius. I was forced to lie down as I suddenly felt weak and ill. I increased the dose to 6g C every 30 minutes, taking 4 times 6 g until 10:15 PM. Now the temperature had risen to 37.8 - clearly a fever.
After the second 6g C dose, I began to have terrible continuous painful watery diarrhea, which would continue on for hours. Having experienced mild painless diarrhea from high dose VC before, I was not quite sure whether or not it was the virus causing the diarrhea. Thus I took 2 doses of 1g liposomal C until midnight (assumed to be equivalent to about 2 x 5 grams of regular VC). The intestinal cramps were getting worse and the fever continued to rise to 38.3. My head was incredibly painful and I was feeling very toxic with a heavy brain-fog. Concentration was virtually impossible beyond the simplest of tasks. I was getting worried, that this might be dengue fever, which I had experienced 6 months earlier. There were none of the typical cough and cold symptoms, except a slight pain in the neck.
I determined to stay awake until I had fought this thing off, even if it would take more than a hundred grams of VC! Between midnight and 4 AM, I continued with about 6g VC per hour. By 3 AM the fever had risen to 38.8 and my head started to feel like it was exploding. Running to the toilet multiple times per hour did not improve my condition either. To prevent dehydration, I was drinking lots of fresh local coconut water which provides a balanced proportion of potassium, calcium, magnesium and sodium.
Then at 4:30 AM the most amazing thing started to happen: within a few minutes the intestinal cramps ceased and at the same time the toxic brain-fog lifted and the headache disappeared. It felt as if someone had pulled a switch. My body temperature went down to 38.0 and within an hour had gone down to 37.2 degrees. I knew, that by this time the virus had been basically overcome. I got some sleep, but continued with about 4.5g C every 4 hours to clear out the infection completely. By 8 PM Friday, 24 hours after the start of this little battle, I had taken about 80 grams of VC (including 3 g of liposomal C) and continued to maintain normal body temperature below 37.0 degrees. On Saturday I was able to eat three regular meals again (after having been on a vegetable soup diet on Friday) and I took about 28g VC split into 7 doses.
I'm glad, that I was able to get back to almost normal within a day and a half, whereas usually (with lower doses of VC) I would have taken much longer. If I'm overcome by a virus infection for a week or more, it often triggers atrial fibrillation and I end up in hospital.
The doctor diagnosed a probable viral gastroenteritis after checking lab tests including CBC and stool. This internist then prescribed 500 mg Vitamin C per day... yeah, really 0.5g!
One thing which I had never experienced in previous (even severe) viral infections was the visibly thick swelling of the lymph nodes on the right and left front-sides of the neck. Running the whole height of the neck, these were very painful on Saturday morning and sensitive to touch. Without Vitamin C my lymph nodes hardly changed - with high dose Vitamin C my lymph nodes were quickly massively swollen. They are almost back to normal now (Sunday morning in Asia).
I'm aware that lymph nodes are garrisons of B, T, and other immune cells. Could it be that the high blood level of Vitamin C helped to mobilize my immune system to such a degree, that the lymph nodes were producing many times more immune cells than I had been used too? Has anyone here experienced similar changes in the way their lymph nodes react to infections in the presence of high blood levels of VC?edit: minor clarifications
