@furrypaul Thanks for sharing this, it sounds very familiar and it sounds like you’re tweaking away in the right direction.
Re IV prep, I chose not to use them based on the logic of thinking that as I’m otherwise healthy with reasonable glucose levels I think my body should be able to fight off a bit of muck and the challenge to my immune system will do it good. Sheer laziness came into it too. I’ve never had an infection at a site (touch wood, clutch rabbit’s foot etc) which proves nothing, but means I continue to run the bacteria gauntlet without the aid of antibacterial gunk.