Noir King's Recovery Log

[AltRoute]

Well,to update, since getting sick last week, I've finally regained my baseline health. I was out of commission exactly 1 week. Went back to working out today, and fell a little short of my usual routine, but I think I'll be back to 100% next session. I probably lost a couple of lbs over the last week due to curtailing my caloric intake, and I fasted for the first 2 days of the illness as well. I kept taking my herbs, and took royal jelly and shilajit every day of the illness as well. I took minimal amounts of ibuprofen and mostly toughed it all out. I avoided cough drops since they contain menthol, and yes, I'm really that particular about avoiding testosterone inhibitors right now. The ibuprofen was necessary to get any sleep a few nights, however, and of course sabotaging my sleep would wreak havoc on my test anyway, so I figured it was a decent trade off. All in all, my sexual functioning has bounced back to where it was before I fell sick, and I just have to regain a small amount of lost ground in strength training and energy levels.
Anyway, although I was getting bummed out when I first fell ill, I'm just here to let everyone know it isnt necessarily going to destroy your gains, and in fact you can look at it as a good sign that your androgen levels are high enough to GET sick in the first place (see previous post), so nothing to fret about.
Onward and upwards!

Yeah I was going to say that getting sick in this state is a good thing considering a number of people have mentioned that getting a cold or sickness sometimes is a precursor that they are on their way to recovery. But happy regarding the progress

[lastnoirking87]

Yeah I was going to say that getting sick in this state is a good thing considering a number of people have mentioned that getting a cold or sickness sometimes is a precursor that they are on their way to recovery. But happy regarding the progress

Right you are! At least, as far as I can tell personally, this certainly seems to be the case. Libido and over all sexual functioning first returned to where it was before the sickness, and has been improving even more since then. I feel like I'm so close to recovery that I can taste it. Have had a few days lately where I was totally 100%. I'm debating whether or not a prohormone run is even necessary, or if I should just stick to the herbs, since things are moving along so smoothly. I'll be at 2 months on the herbs and everything else in a couple of weeks, so I'm thinking I'll wait until the 3 month mark and see if progress has stalled. If so, I'll go ahead with the prohormone plan.

In other news, I recently added catuaba bark to my herb rotation as well.

[Cdsnuts]

Right you are! At least, as far as I can tell personally, this certainly seems to be the case. Libido and over all sexual functioning first returned to where it was before the sickness, and has been improving even more since then. I feel like I'm so close to recovery that I can taste it. Have had a few days lately where I was totally 100%. I'm debating whether or not a prohormone run is even necessary, or if I should just stick to the herbs, since things are moving along so smoothly. I'll be at 2 months on the herbs and everything else in a couple of weeks, so I'm thinking I'll wait until the 3 month mark and see if progress has stalled. If so, I'll go ahead with the prohormone plan.

In other news, I recently added catuaba bark to my herb rotation as well.

Great posts and very informative updates. You're coming along nicely my friend. If I were you, I would run the cycle. it's just going to bump you closer to where you want to be. Run it. And good job bro. Keep it up.

[lastnoirking87]

Great posts and very informative updates. You're coming along nicely my friend. If I were you, I would run the cycle. it's just going to bump you closer to where you want to be. Run it. And good job bro. Keep it up.

Well, you havent steered me wrong yet, so I think I shall take your advice here as well. Can you tell me how many bottles of UH will be needed to cover a full 6 week cycle at 5 pumps a day? Also, if I were to buy UH a few weeks before I plan to run it, does it need to be stored in any special conditions, like kept cold or out of sunlight or heat?

[Cdsnuts]

Well, you havent steered me wrong yet, so I think I shall take your advice here as well. Can you tell me how many bottles of UH will be needed to cover a full 6 week cycle at 5 pumps a day? Also, if I were to buy UH a few weeks before I plan to run it, does it need to be stored in any special conditions, like kept cold or out of sunlight or heat?

2 bottles, store in a cool, dark place

[lastnoirking87]

Hit some turbulence last few days. Had a solid week of feeling totally great, probably 5 of those 7 days at what I believe to be 100 %. The whole 9 yards was back, including morning wood and random penile stiffening throughout the day (I guess some call it random erections, but I havent just popped full blown erections randomly throughout the day since I was maybe 15), visual arousal
and libido at what I remember it to be/so damn close that I'd be the happiest camper to be able to stay there. Erection quality was totally back as well, including maintenance, and lack of premature ejaculation. This was the week immediately following my week long illness, so very interesting. I'm not gonna lie, for a few days there I was wondering if I was spontaneously cured. I mean, that is how normal I felt. This was undoubtedly the best I've felt, and the longest, since PFS hit 6/7 months ago.
Those improvements have gradually faded over the last few days, however, so here I am back at a sub-par level sexually and energetically. While it is of course demoralizing to come down from a high like that, I can at least take comfort in the fact that my upswings keep getting more and more dramatic. Prior to this previous upswing, I considered it a major achievement to maintain a calm, clear headed, and confident mindset along with vigorous physical energy for a week straight, so this last upswing is pretty noteworthy on all fronts.
As you can see from a recent post I made regarding prohormone questions, I am planning on running an Ultra Hard cycle in about a month. This recent upswing has me feeling like it would be best to wait till the 3 month mark for prohormones, since it feels like my body is just now starting to massively respond to things, and I dont want to overwhelm my system all at once. Additionally, I want to see what other upswings I can squeeze out of the current regimen.
Other news, I'm awaiting arrival of Lost Empire brand Cistanche and Barlowe's Herbal Elixirs brand Maral Root, which I'm looking forward to since getting so into the body building aspect of all of this. On that front, I've never looked better in my life. Muscles seem to grow visibly each week, and I'm noticing vascularity is really beginning to show, not only during and immediately following workouts, but permanently. I've read that this is an effect of elevated dht (?), so hopefully it's a good sign in that direction.
Just wanted to also add that I've made raisins a staple in my daily diet, typically later in the day, and moreso on backloading days, due to their boron content/the fact that I love them anyway.

[lastnoirking87]

Experiencing some irritability today and yesterday along with increased appetite. I'm fine with the appetite, since I think it's one of the things to have been a little muted since PFS started, and I generally correlate it with feeling better (in the past anyway). Also, eating more can only help me with the muscle building side of things. I'm not sure what to make of the irritability however. I've taken a bit more pine pollen powder lately, and started occasionally taking one dropperful of pine pollen tincture a couple days this week, but I dont know if that would really be to blame. Also not sure if I should view the irritability in a positive or negative light. I know prohormones sometimes enhance irritability, so maybe it's just my androgen levels shooting up and catching other parts of my system off guard. Thank god I work from home and dont have to deal with traffic. Still more or less in a downswing state, sexually dysfunctional but with sexual thoughts and some libido. I must be a rare case to see my libido and sexual brain activity returning this early, and erectile function lagging behind. I am accustomed to reading logs wherein these things happen in the reverse order, but I guess theres no strict script with all of this.

[lastnoirking87]

All I'm gonna say in this quick update is that my swings are becoming more dramatic. Being that, prior to starting the protocol, I didnt even have swings, but just extremely slow, almost indecipherable, progress in symptoms, it's really clear to me that hitting this protocol is like snapping a whip over PFS. It gets things moving along at a giddy-up pace. Sure, the downswings suck, but I'd rather be ricocheting up and down, and at least tasting normalcy, rather than trudging along in the mud. All this back and forth can wear you out if you're over-analytical, but now that they're really picking up pace, I think I'm learning pretty quick to ignore the bad moments and enjoy the good ones. I get frustrated at the bad stretches, sure, even irritable, but I just use that as fuel to go harder.

[lastnoirking87]

I've been experiencing wide fluctuations in sexual symptoms over the course of a single day. Today, for instance, I had strong libido and erection quality for a few hours. Felt like 98% normal. Then it faded over the last few hours. This has been happening a good bit lately, in the course of a single day. I'm occasionally getting these glimpses of being norma or near-normall, then falling back off hours later. Hard to say how this fits in with the upswing/downswing pattern, as its so fast-paced. I wonder if my sexual status will level off somewhere in the middle here for a while, or if I'm going to be swinging up and down, day in and day out, for a long time to come. I literally have no idea what to expect from myself sexually at any given moment until I give it a go. I could be a 10, or a 1. One thing that is for sure, when there is notably heightened libido, sexual functioning is always closer to normal. This fast-paced fluctuation is pretty new to me, but I suppose it's better than trudging in the mud. I hope I'm interpreting the constant swinging correctly in seeing it as evidence of healing taking place. The only user who I saw make specific mention of this sort of thing was Rahaysa, who said near the end of his journey that his sexual functioning was fluctuating throughout the course of a day. Quite possible others have experienced this but simply didn't see it worth mentioning. Really trying my best to not get obsessed with it, but it's more of a positive thing I think....

[lastnoirking87]

Today us the first time I can say the tongkat really showed it's true form to me. I had noticed it in a subtle way before, but today it just kicked me in the face. Shot my libido, strength, and energy through the roof after my first dose of 2 scoops (with the mini spoon provided by Lost Empire). My second dose of the day was a little over 1 scoop. I think I've finally found my personal dosage for this one. I had previously been doing a single scoop twice a day. I think theres a little more going on than just upping my dose, however, because another point I wanted to make in this post is that the herbs ALL continue to hit even harder than before. This tells me a lot of (presumably) good things are going on beneath the surface and allowing these herbs to shine forth.
On this note, I want to update my herb rotation list, as I've added new things and switch hedy around some of the ordering. I know it's probably not really important, but I do like to have a reasoning behind my ordering. For instance, I want to spread out herbs that function in a similar manner over the course of the whole run rather than place them back to back, if I can. Anyways, heres the current rotation in order, all Lost Empire unless specified otherwise...

Horny Goat Weed
Dopa Mucuna (NOW Foods)
Pine Pollen tincture
Gelatinized Black Maca (Nourishing Nutrients)
Ant Extract
Tribulus (MediHerb)
Schisandra & pine pollen tincture combo
Tongkat Ali (2 days in a row)
Catuaba Bark (TerraVita brand)
Cistanche
Maral Root Extract (Barlowe's Herbal Elixirs)
He Shou Wu
Cordyceps
Ashwagandha
Rhodiola
Butea Superba (SMS brand)
Shilajit has been a daily thing for about a month now, only occasionally taking a couple days off
Royal Jelly has been 4-5 day a week thing for about a month as well, usually just taking one capsule a day