Sirosis

Medical Ignorance

2010-11-03T08:50:00.004-04:00

The Medical Ignoramus Committee got three of their pseudo-nutrition-minded wunderkind together to write a report on the dangers of egg yolks and sure enough there they were trying to shoot down egg yolks as a danger to the heart because of their cholesterol content.
Don't the poor boys know after all these years of beating that old drum that any cholesterol you stuff into your mouth has to be processed by the digestive system, if any of it is to wind up in the circulatory system, or any where else, no matter what your genetics are. Cholesterol can be made from other nutrients beside cholesterol and usually is. Even pop has a cholesterol potential, because of it's sugar content.
Surely, these Docs do not believe that eating a radish leads to rosacea because the skin of that little old radish somehow escapes the digestive system and just pops right up to the face and there you've got it. Rosacea!
If that's true, I wonder where the white part goes? Ever think of that, Docs?
I never did believe that egg nonsense, but I do not drown myself in fats either, so I digest my eggs quite well except that the sulphur component gets me some times, especially if I eat too much coleslaw, as well as my whole-egg omelet.
I gotta tell you Boys that an egg yolk also contains lecithin which is a powerful anti-cholesterol controlling nutrient.
Anyway, if you get your vitamins from foods with lots off anti-oxidants, your plumbing will not get compromised and need your liver to manufacture all that LDL cholesterol to reinforce those creaky arteries to the point where they clog.
The body needs cholesterol to manufacture hormones and renew the brain as well as patch compromised arteries. So, go ahead and eat your egg yolks. They contain an antidote for the cholesterol in them that gets the medicine people all revved up.
I'm not practicing medicine here, and you guys don't know enough to practice nutrition, either.
Get some good books on Nutrition and Biochemistry and then sit down with Dr. Google and see what else you can learn. Apparently you have lots of room for real nutritional information.
I hope you guys are not teaching another generation of doctors because you don't know that you don't know, apparently.
Telling people to eat egg whites instead of egg yolks is ignorant of the nutritional facts. Egg whites can present their own nutritional problems...
But then it was a dietitian who came up with the egg white idea in response to the doctor's report on the news. That does not absolve doctors, as some of them are also silly enough to imagine that an omelet can be made with egg whites.
You've got egg on your faces, Boys.

Plans?

2010-10-29T00:38:00.004-04:00

So much for my plans to hop onto the Master Moves and rotate judiciously.
When the frost got all the plants and the front of my white porch showed up again, the bottom board was a startling spring green. Some kind of fungus had taken it over. I could just picture that leering out of all the snow all winter, so I gave it a mould and mildew treatment and when it had hopefully dried by yesterday, I went out in gale force winds that could stand a paint stick perpendicular in a paint can and I covered the whole cheerful green mess with sparkling white.
I was almost finished when I sort of slipped on a fern root and kinked my back. I was saved by a Manitoba Maple I'd spared from my dreaded pruners. I got out of that danger zone very carefully.
I went out to do the job standing upright. I struggled back in stooped over like a rheumatically challenged 90 year-old.
Bed was pretty much a waste of time last night.
My liver was not happy because of the Master Moves from before and my back and neck were thoroughly ticked from my painting misadventures.
Typing this is painful. I quit.

Start Slowly

2010-10-27T12:03:00.004-04:00

No cramps last night.
Today, I've forgotten the pills with breakfast. By the time I'd taken my enzymes and ox bile, I completely forgot the Spirolactone.
I must get one of those pill organizers. I really must.
My feet are all puffed up with fluid and the ingrown nails the chiropodist is supposed to have fixed are bugging me.
Maybe I should get some toenails off like she suggested. I have my doubts that I'll be wearing sandals in the future, any way.
I did not have a happy day yesterday. I got too brave when I first used my new Master Moves exercise disk on Monday. True I was just holding onto a chair and twisting on it, but I did it for too long and right where my liver hides out, I have a pain.
It's not as bad today.
I got Koch's Master Moves to get some more circulation to my liver and I guess I overdid it. I didn't do nearly what they were doing on the Shopping Channel demo, but it sure hurt. Tomorrow I shall hop onto that contraption and twist a minimal amount.
Now, I get to go clean the windows outside and then paint the window sills and touch up the front of the house before winter gets here...
That gives me a window of three hours today.
Up and at it. That activity should make up for skipping the Master Moves today. And yesterday.

Talk To Your Doctor

2010-10-26T10:10:00.006-04:00

Yes!

I was right.

Those miserable leg cramps and spastic hands were a withdrawal symptom. I had a perfectly peaceful night last night...good sleep with no getting up to use an ineffective massager on my feet and legs, or to take a Magnesium capsule that didn't work very well.

I've already forgotten the pills at breakfast today, so I'd better remember at lunch. Otherwise, I might soon be very uncomfortable.

Even a diuretic can screw up your system so you get withdrawal symptoms.
I suggest that you try diuretic teas rather than pharmaceuticals if all you're trying to do is fit into your jeans or weight in at the local weight loss club.

If I find a way out of Spirolactone requirement to deal with Ascites, you can bet I'll be decreasing my intake of that drug very gradually. When they say 'don't stop taking a drug with out talking to your doctor first' I suspect they mean that I'm going to have withdrawal symptoms.

What might that infer, I ask you. Addiction?

Cancelled

2010-10-25T22:55:00.003-04:00

I hope I drew the right conclusion.

I've been extra vigilant for the last three days or so, about taking my three Spirolactone pills. The night before last and last night, I had no leg or foot cramps. So, in spite of the pharmacist thinking it was not a case of withdrawal symptoms that I was experiencing with the Spirolactone being forgotten perhaps, I decided that I was going to cancel the clinic appointment for tomorrow afternoon. I was certain that I had taken the Spirolactone the days previous to the crampless nights sleep.

Having done the cancellation, I hope I do not get cramps tonight. I rather appreciate a crampless night of quality sleep.

Here goes...nighty-night.

Spirolactone Withdrawal Symptoms?

2010-10-23T19:20:00.008-04:00

While I'm waiting for an appointment at the clinic next Tuesday, I might as well still consider all possible causes of these leg cramps at night. There is no point in changing diuretics if this is already the best choice and it may well be the best choice.
I've been considering some possibile causes for cramps other than the build-up of Potassium in my system. Once I tried to stop codeine which I was taking as a cough suppressant/'asthma' control, cold turkey when it got so that it was no longer effective at levels I was willing to put into my system.
I think everything but my heart and my brain went into a cramp during that experiment.
The doctor told me not to do it, and just like that time in the Garden of Eden when God said, "Thou shalt not..." They/I did it anyway.
If the Doctor of the Day had only told me why, I would have paid attention to that, but he was not into 'why'. Just think of all the problems Humanity could have been saved if we'd only known 'why'.
So much for Theology!
I began to wonder if I'd simply been having Freudian slips and forgetting to take my Spirolactone. Maybe that was why I was getting the leg cramps.
I asked the Pharmacist if it was possible to get cramps from forgetting to take the medication for a day or two.
He asked if I'd forgotten to take it.
I told him that if I was capable of forgetting to take the medication and could not remember taking it, perhaps I could not really say whether I'd forgotten to take it or not, but the pills did not appear to be getting lower in the bottle.
I guess I'd better get one of those pill organizers and fill it up first thing every morning so I know when I've taken my pills. I need to figure this out by Tuesday at appointment time, so I'm not asking for a change of diuretic that I may not want.
I think I'll try to get a blood test for my Potassium levels while I'm there.
I could save the Gov't. a lot of money if I could just get an App for my communication device that I could stick my finger into, have it take a drop of blood and process it right on the spot.
How economical and convenient would that be!
Maybe Santa could bring it, if it's not down-loadable.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Potassium Sparing Diuretics

2010-10-21T16:51:00.004-04:00

Could Hyperkalemia result if you take Spirolactone and eat a lot of high Potassium content foods?
Today I called the clinic and got an appointment for Tuesday afternoon to discuss this choice of diuretic. Some tests would be good, too. It would help to know if it was actually an overload of Potassium that was causing the bruising and painful night cramps.
If it's a Potassium overload unbalancing my electrolytes, I want the Medi/chemical set-up for that to stop. Otherwise, some of my favorite foods should go off the list. Some of them, I'm not willing to take off my list of possible healthy food choices.
It says, "Avoid foods that contain high amounts of potassium, including bananas, oranges, lentils, nuts, peaches, potatoes, salmon, tomatoes, watermelon."
Watermelon is a good diuretic. When the Spirolactone fails to deal with my fluid load, eating watermelon and/or taking ginger tea, or parsley tea does a pretty good job. Cucumbers are also diuretic although harder to digest. Perhaps I'll take a vinegar pill first when I eat cucumbers. Vinegar can make cauliflower edible for me. Bananas, I don't eat a lot of and I'll be careful what I eat bananas with. I'll certainly avoid eating them with meals where there are a lot of potatoes.
I've practically lived on potatoes for the last three years and I still love them. At this point I'd rather change diuretics (I think) than give up mashed potatoes with cheese. Maybe next Tuesday my thinking will be ironed out after I learn the facts of that preference.
Also, I'm starting to get excited about seeing Mandarin oranges in the stores. I adore Mandarin oranges as much as I do raspberries and blueberries which are not on the sin list. Unfortunately only frozen berries are economical now.
And that's not all I'm not supposed to eat. One thing I like that I can have lots of is water. If the Town officials would just smarten up and not put fluoride into it, my kidneys would be happier with my water-drinking.
If people want to poison themselves it should be a personal decision, not foisted on the whole town by some itsy-bitsy by-law.
I don't want night cramps, but I 'm not giving up my mashed potatoes with cheese, either.
So, Doc, what's up?

Do Your Research

2010-10-20T19:56:00.005-04:00

So! Back in 2007 when I was first diagnosed, I knew I had to take a diuretic to deal with the Ascites buildup. I was actually squishy. That is not good. It makes it difficult for all of one's organs to function in such a crowded area.
Usually I check medications thoroughly before I decide to take them.
I was desperate. Something had to be done. I could either have the fluid drained or I could treat it chemically. I decided to take the chemical route and was prescribed a Potassium-sparing diuretic...Spirolactone.
It moved several pounds of fluid out of my body in less than a month. I started off in the 170 lb range and wound up at 132 lbs over the Christmas Holiday. If only there had been a weight-loss contest for that period, I would have won the plastic surgery prize hands down with my feat of drainage. I looked like a prune with festoons of flesh hanging from my inner thighs and showing up on my stomach as well. My shoes even felt loose. I could have used some plastic surgery.
So, I've been taking Spirolactone for two years and eleven months now.
Today, I finally decided to check out the side effects. I'd been watching Dr. Oz going on about how deadly grapefruit and Statins could be when taken by the same person.
So I decided to check out Spirolactone and foods to avoid and I got an eyeful!
I learned that I should avoid foods containing Potassium.......
Now I know why all these cramps in my legs have been happening. I thought it was my fault for drinking so much ginger ale to help me burp when my digestion started blowing bubbles. I'd quit ginger ale because my digestion seems to be under control. No more bloating. So, knowing how sugar and the other things in pop were not doing me any favors, I quit.
Then I was away and had a smale Sprite with my baked potato and chicken.
My hands became spastic on the steering wheel. I hate that and sometimes my legs would cramp when I was driving. I took a Magnesium tablet to relax the muscles. Magnesium is not nearly as effective as it used to be.
Cramping is a side effect of Spirolactone use. One I've been supposed to warn the doctor about. Oh, yeah?!
Not only does Spirolactone cause cramping, it causes bruising. And it's not doing that great a job so I also have to take Ventilin and Pulmicort to control the Asthma that Ascites seems to bring along as a companion. I hate bruises all over my hands and arms. Before I go out I have to apply make-up to the bruied areas below my long sleeves.
Oh, yes! Spirolactone makea people drowsy. Nice!
Thank you, Doc. Maybe we need to talk about this.
It took me long enough to smarten up and check that diretic out.

Doubts

2010-10-20T13:14:00.006-04:00

So I asked a good question that let me know some idea of where I was with Cirrhosis, how much time I have and how to manage that time to my best advantage.
It really took a load off my mind not to have to re-home my Pooch. One does not want to sit around dogless for 10 years ...especially if you're a dog person. I'm a dog person.
Cats mystify me. They purr. They're terriffically amusing and some of them are good mousers although indiscreet about how they handle their prey in relation to their people.
Nothing ticks me off more than to set a beautiful table and see the cat sitting on one of the place settings meticulously washing it's face. I'm apt to go into orbit and have done so, just before kicking the cat out into a snowstorm and washing every plate on the table as well as switching table cloths.
It requires way to much cat-management thinking for me to live comfortably with a cat. No matter how cute they are, or how fantastically they purr, or energetically they massage, to keep Kitty where I want her instead of where Kitty wants to be.
So being at a Two, I've still got the dog, who stays on the floor, or at most sits on his chair, or my chair with me. Good Boy!
I've had some doubts about where I am on the Cirrhosis continuum.
I went to a a specialist in late June, who planted those doubts in my mind.
I don't know if my doctor set him up, or this guy flies in from another planet for office hours.
He wanted to know why I'd been diagnosed with Cirrhosis.
Really! I thought there was good evidence for that diagnosis...Ascites, digestive misery, bloating, blood tests showing the liver was out of whack and an ultrasound that indicated Cirrhosis. With all that evidence, what other conclusion could a sane person reach? I agree with that doctor. He was no kid. He knew what he was looking at. The Specialist was not in an elaborative mood about that question that he raised about my diagnosis. He could have looked way smarter if he had been been more talkative right then.
What really floored me was his report to my doctor saying he'd reasurred me that I did not have Hepatitis.
Everyone has ALWAYS known I did not have Hepatitis. How did Hepatitis get in there?
I wonder where that Specialist guy parks his flying saucer. I didn't see it...but my instincts told me that going there was a waste of gasoline and my money.
I'm trying to process it all.
Meanwhile I feel pretty good, although tired.

Questions That Work

2010-10-14T08:28:00.004-04:00

OK. I'm going to tell you that I felt so relieved and elated at the Dr.s' answer to my great question, that to rejoice in it all and calm down has taken way more processing time than I would ever have believed.
Six months is considerable time to take to wrap one’s mind around a new idea of reality.
I'd been frustrated and depressed at having no access, first hand, to my ultrasound so that I could decide whether things were progressing or regressing with the choices I was making for myself.
I could not pry anything that made sense out of that doctor and I was at my wit's end. I realized that I had no clue about where I was on the cirrhosis continuum of progress.
I didn't know whether to give my dog away the next day, or try to outlive him.
So I asked, "On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the Undertaker is coming NOW, where am I in this Cirrhosis process?”
You could have wiped me off the floor when he said "You're at a...two. How old is your dog?"
I said, "Five, but he's a Chihuahua."
"I'd say you've got as good a chance as he has. Take care,"
And he grabbed his folder and left.
I haven't been the same since.

It was the best question I ever asked and I've asked a lot of questions. Believe me.

Thought Icebergs

2010-10-13T11:28:00.005-04:00

“Say it!”
Maybe if I could.
“Come on. Say it!”
Even if there were no manners, fears, or other apprehensions saying ‘it’ can sound pretty silly.
When I try 'just saying' it, I say confusing things and people wonder how anyone could think like that. I don't know. I'm working on it.

Whole plays can be built on what is not being said.

I’ve never heard a playwright actually admit that they figured out the subtexts of the characters and then dumped them onto the stage together and let them fight it out in well timed Scenes and Acts. Playwrights are not going to say how they handle the subtext. Some of them ‘just get to know the characters and the characters work it out and sometimes surprise the playwright’.
How very diverting for them!
So…?
It’s been a long time since I put up a new post.
How come?
I intended to. One day last winter I was bashing ice off a steel roof that doesn’t get enough sun and doesn’t have enough slant for the snow to slide off. The genius contractor figured I needed an eaves trough. It did a great job of trapping ice so that it melted and ran back up under the roof.

That day the sun was shining and I was chopping with my hatchet and ice was flying all over the place. I was making minimal headway…time to hire some help.
Then it was time to go see the doctor.
I got ready. I was planning a post about something.
It never happened. I said something I’d never said to the doctor before and his answer knocked me for a loop.
It took a long time to process that new reality. Even now, I know it’s like an iceberg of thought…a tiny bit that is conscious to me. The rest of it seems to have taken up residence in the deep central parts of my cells.

So what was this idea that brought everything in Sirosis to a standstill?

Tomorrow, I’ll share that idea with you.

How To Get Depressed With NAFLD

2010-03-05T12:30:00.005-05:00

My liver has sort of given up on digesting what I put into my body. It wants a very exclusionary diet and lots of help digestion-wise.

‘Give me enzymes! Give me Ox bile! Don’t eat that, or you’ll be sorrr-eeee!'

So I tip-toe around herbs and most spices.

Watching chefs makes me paranoid. Maybe I could have tea in their restaurants and not suffer too much from their creativity.

But back to the depression thing. When I hadn’t mis-munched, I was steaming on along clearing postal clutter, and personal clutter from chairs and couch and thinking how much better it would look when I finished.

All of a sudden I didn’t want to finish. What’s the point of starting if you don’t want to finish?

So I kicked that idea around and suddenly I clued in that I really wanted to get the place tidied up and my stuff dispersed so my daughter would not have to deal with it, if I became incapacitated or died. With my physical balance that would be possible at any moment.
I thought, “Now there’s a winning idea, clean up so you can be crippled or die without a bunch of stuff cluttering up the place.”

Who wants to clean up, if that’s the next thing on the agenda?
.
It’s a good thing I have an active internal Observer to come to my rescue and jolt me back to where a positive chemical cascade is whizzing around my body.

I remember a woman complaining that her husband simply would not install the trim in the house. The trim had been piled there for more than a year. It was not really the ‘in’ thing for living room ART piled up there against the wall and sticking out at both ends of the chesterfield. So I asked the guy how come everything had ground to a halt at that stage.

He told us that she’d made a joke about divorcing him when the house was finished. I could see how that would stop anyone from applying the trim. That bit of info really jolted his wife when she heard him say it.

Having heard the trim story, I wondered how I’d boxed myself in with the tidying and re-homing deal I was doing before the depression and the balking stage hit.

Thinking one’s self into a box has never helped anyone’s liver or health.

Be careful what you eat.
Be careful what you think.
Be very careful what you say…even to yourself.

Emotional Eating?

2010-02-05T13:03:00.003-05:00

Is emotional eating just a new version of the GP’s default spout, ‘it’s all in your head’?

Is ‘emotional eating’ the specialized version of psycho blab used by psychologists, psychiatrists and other shrinks and brain-tunnellers like personal coaches, health writers etc.?

They think you should be fessing up to eating for love, distraction, masochism, victim takeover/maintainance, or you name it.

They’re convinced that if you just admit to doing this sneak eating to maintain your psyche, you can then go on some fruit and veggie diet that will free you. After all, you are now enlightened. All you have to do is stop doing that awfull sneak eating and get those horrible fat, salt and sugar junk carbs out of your house. Just flush it into a garbage bag and put it on the curb.

Holy Crap! What won’t we come up with next in pseudo science?!

Let’s get off this pathetic emotional eating kick. It has nothing to do with science! NOTHING!

I like sweets. Real sweets. SUGAR. I do not eat sugar for love, approval or any of the other psycho blab reasons.

I eat sugar to keep my bloodsugar balanced. I’m on the prowl when my blood sugar takes a dip. I have to do something about that. My brain activates my hand and I reach for fat, salty, sweet things. They work. I feel better. Some of these things can be found in things I like better than others. I’m very fussy about the flavours of my sugar sources. Chocolate cake? Yes! White cake? Why waste calories on that crap? I don’t eat white cake unless it has orange juice, pulp or raspberries embedded in it. I’m fussy about my carbs. I used to go for quantity but my liver got compromised by my gluttony.

Yes I like fat but in very small amouts..3 to 5 fries with catsup. If it’s bagged fries, in dill pickle, or sour cream and vinegar flavours, three of either of those is quite enough…with a chocolate heart.

So, you can gobble enough sweet coleslaw, fried chicken, pie, cake and tarts to completely overwhelm your gall bladder with fat and your pancreas with sugar/sucrose.
If you get more fat than your body needs to carry fat soluble vitamins around the body so the cells are not deprived, you can screw up your cholesterol and overpower your liver as well as get your gall bladder removed because you are creating cholesterol that gets stuck in the gall bladder.

You cannot digest food without bile. Your gall bladder is not useless. Don’t wait until some clown in scrubs wants to cut it out and pitch it. Cleanse your liver before you get into trouble with stones stuck in the gall bladder. Another medical clown will prescribe acetaminophen to deal with the pain until the next goof ball gets you on the operating table.

You’re never going to be the same again after that little treasure has been pitched.

More about that another day.

So your Pancreas is working straight out. You’re running through a stress test every time you eat the whole package of cookies, gobble down way too much ice cream with gooey stuff in it or whatever other sins you love that are sweet, most of which are worse than others.

So you’re pouring out insulin and you get so much of it floating around that you wind up with Insulin Resistance where the insulin is damaging the cells and interior of the blood vessels.

Guess what the liver does when you damage the interior of the blood vessels. It goes into overdrive and pushes out LDL cholesterol which gets packed into the compromised places in the interior of the blood and oxygen and nutrient transport tunnels. Your heart and liver pack on fat and get so they can no longer function properly.

Stop beating yourself up about emotional eating and get your blood sugar under control. Lurching from one sugar high to the next, gobbling fat and sugar to rouse yourself from recurring energy crashes is not the way to go.

You are not the guilty party.
The only guilty parties here are the medical schools and their pitiful coverage of biochemistry. OHIP and Health Canada where are you? Demand better!
I’m tired of paying taxes to get a guilt trip put on myself. I want some biochemistry.
There are not enough biochemists in our healthcare system. I don’t even know where to find one. This is ridiculous. Medical dogma doesn’t work any better than any other hearsay does. We need some credible science that has not been pimped for the benefit of the drug companies.

Sure! I want comfort. Comfort from sugar highs and lows. The comfort of knowing that if I get sick someone will actually do the science needed to correct what I’ve screwed up so that I can do better when I understand what is happening.

What I don’t need is another guilt trip about emotional eating or more psycho blab.

Tylenol, You Say?

2010-02-05T11:43:00.002-05:00

Doesn’t everyone know that Tylenol is no friend of the liver?

Apparently, not!

I’ve read information forms given me at the time of an ultrasound that suggested prescribing Tylenol for the pain encountered with a liver biopsy.

I was shocked.

If one’s liver enzymes are so out of whack that one is going for a biopsy, the last thing one needs is a prescription for Tylenol.

Come on people! Let’s think before we do harm on those prescription pads, or their digital replacements.

Then my doctor offered me a prescription for Tylenol after I fainted and hurt my leg. After I pointed out that I had cirrhosis or NAFLD, he gave me a prescription for codeine. I haven’t checked that out yet. I did take the codeine for a couple of weeks.

Now I go to a website on liver disease and the good doctor is recommending extra strength Tylenol? Hmmm! Now I’m experiencing a bit of doubt, but not enough to stop me from seeing what she has to say that works without nasty side effects. Even geniuses are still working on their theories. I for one am not about to wait around until they get everything right in order to appreciate and benefit from what they have clued into.

Dr. Melissa Palmer of www.liverdisease.com is knowledgeable, but I’m going to be checking everything that I might want to do that is on her site…not that I’m either infallible, or a doctor. She did point out not to mess around with Valerian as a sleep aid and she could be right.
I don’t use Valerian and if I don’t sleep at night, so what?! Other than my liver may wish I’d shut down during the early morning hours, so it could get some energy to maintain whatever function it still has, I have no problem with erratic sleeping.

Beware of Acetaminophen for your liver’s sake and research everything. FIRST. Before you take it. It’s true: timing can be everything.

Just don’t blame the doctor for what you didn’t do for your liver.

Careful With The Wishing

2010-01-20T10:08:00.002-05:00

So, you’ve had it with the status quo and you make a wish and then you get your wish in spades?

You can think you’re really spiritual if you want or, you can think that your subconscious was just waiting to put those puzzle pieces together and sock it to you.
Or you can think something else. Whatever.

OK. So about three years ago I got constipated, really constipated and the next crap that happened was I got diagnosed with cirrhosis and out came the prescription pad and lactulose went onto the paper. I was still taking ex-lax and still either constipated or I was tethered to the facilities. The lactulose was making me bloat

I was not a happy camper even if I was seated on a throne.

So I made one of those life changing thoughts like ‘I’ve totally had it with this constipation business. I wish it would quit.'

I haven’t dared go out of town since.

So, does all this diarrhoea mean I should go on a lecture circuit and tell people how to wish effectively and abundantly? My timing would have to be way better than it is right now to even entertain one engagement. Forget the circuit business.

Anyway, my wishing/abundance pulling ability coincided with my discovery of mini boxes of the cutest little mandarin oranges. I pigged out. Every time I eat those dinky little oranges, I have a very active lifestyle with very speedy movement from the living room to the washroom. I come back slower than I go, but if I turn around to go back, my speed really revs for about ten feet.

If the oranges are doing it, there goes a good career. It’s just about the end of mandarin season anyway.

If I don’t eat oranges today maybe I can go away tomorrow. We shall see.

I hope I don’t get this wrong.

Others’ Agendas

2010-01-13T14:14:00.005-05:00

Having Cirrhosis is not like having an induction range, a marble statue, or a classic car.

Cirrhosis and the accompanying Ascites fluid build-up can wipe you out unexpectedly by making you so miserable you’d like to explode when you eat something your digestive system can’t deal with and your small intestine begins to expand and expand pushing the fluid of Ascites up against organs like the lungs, pancreas, heart and eventually shoving it up until the brain experiences an effect like in-rolling waves of fluid. It can certainly freak a person out and make them skittish about anything that might cause a repeat of that very uncomfortable/scary experience.

Without a functional liver, your digestive system can’t deal with much, let me tell you. Just about any food, especially spiced, fatty or sulphur containing foods like onions and garlic can bring on debilitating bloating. Forget onion rings and orders of fries. Forget pigging out on Cherry Cheesecake, too.

You meet up with your MD or your healthcare practitioner and they have all these really great solutions just ready to shove right at you and you’re scared silly and say stuff like, “Not today!”

The MD says you’re a difficult patient………or you buy the stupid drugs, but just don’t take them. That’s a waste of money. I tell my pharmacist not to fill the prescription until I order it filled. That may not work so well for me some day. Right now though, it’s saving me money.

Then your naturopath comes up with some protocol you’ve never heard of and s/he’s really enthused about injecting you right now. If I’m desperate, I’ll likely go for it, if…I get answers I can live with.

I’m much more apt to make excuses that I hope sound plausible. I have several ready to choose from if I’m scared silly that whatever it is will set off that bloating thing that displaces the Ascites fluid and compromises my organs.

I’m no Luddite when it comes to computers and research. I’ll be researching whatever was suggested and seeing how the ideas related to the treatment resonate with me. Once I’m ready for what the treatment can do and have enough ease, faith, whatever, that I can benefit from the treatment and at least have a 30% placebo effect chance going for me, I’ll be there with my money.

Until then I hope the NP has faith in his or her words to get me feeling comfortable and ready for a new protocol.

So why wait?

People in the Health and Sickness Industry know how to treat diseases, but they most likely have never personally had the disease and lived with that experience. They really don’t know what scares me silly, or wipes me out. I know intimately how the condition impacts me and if I refuse to be my own advocate, I’m likely setting up a good game of Blame the Professional.

That is not a smart move stress-wise and thus recovery-wise.

Unqualified Prescribers

2009-12-25T21:49:00.008-05:00

I think people should stick with what they know.

People think their medicine wo/man is trained in all disciplines, understands all fields of healing and can get them well. Little do they know…just how little these paragons of hoped for knowledge really know. Some of these doctors don’t seem to have read to the end of the side effects section in The Physician’s Desk Reference for the drugs that they prescribe to control, or hide symptoms.

Why would I suspect such a thing?

When I complain about a symptom and doctors don’t recognize my complaint as a side effect of the drug they’ve been prescribing, it disillusions me. One doctor having a bad day can be excused at least once. But what happens when doctor after doctor looks as innocent as a spring lamb eating lettuce in relation to what s/he has set in motion? It’s not reassuring and they want me to trust them?

It’s enough to make me call the pharmacy and tell them to hold the filling of that prescription until I call and ask for it to be filled. Next I want to Google the side effects of that drug and read several sites and see how those side effects sit with me and my condition.

If you think that little info sheet the pharmacy hands out with your prescription lists all the side effects, you are sadly mistaken, my friend. If it listed all the side effects you might very well decide to forget taking that as an option for feeling better.

You may want to get your second opinion from some one in a different healing discipline….Some one who did not go to medical school where the medicine companies and their ideas are in control.

Before you ask a medical doctor about a nutritional/herbal solution to your physical dilemma (Notice, I said physical, not medical) ask what training s/he has had in Nutrition or whatever the field…what percentage of over-all training time in class would that be and what was the attitude of his/her instructor(s).

What if s/he had one lecture? Then s/he’s way outside her/his field of credible knowledge and perhaps prescribing at levels that compromise your health.

What if your doctor prefers coumadin to green vegetables? What if s/he doesn’t know that nattokinase even exists, but still thinks coumadin is the answer to thinning your blood? Some of them are really hooked on baby aspirins as a solution to blood problems. I thought seriously about that and dropped the idea after researching how it works and doesn't work. If you’re smart enough and know enough, or are willing to learn, you can say "No," to what you disagree with as a form of treatment. Giving up vegetables to take a poison is not smart…and the reasoning is that some veggies that cause high fibrin production could thicken your blood, too much and undo the thinning effect of the coumadin. Does that make sense to you to stop eating ALL green vegetables because some green vegetables are high in fibrin production? It makes sense in the medical thought pattern…

Humans are designed to eat food, not medicine. Medicine is only for when you mess up with your food choices and get sick. Medicine should help you feel better until you find out how to eat yourseslf well. People have gotten well without either medicine or miracles. That makes you think, doesn’t it?

So you’re taking calcium/magnesium for your bones, you think, but then the doctor says you need vitamin D, too and he wades in with megadoses of it so you don’t get osteoporosis, 30,000 International Units, no less, he thinks. You won’t get Rickets if you get 400IU per day. Too much vitamin D is not good for you. It can compromise your liver, kidneys and your heart, among other things. High doses are not good for those with suppressed bile production because of compromised liver function or challenged kidney function. Then, if your heart develops an arrhythmia, they’ll probably want to pop in a pacemaker and then watch your life change due to the precautions required with that stitched into your chest. They can have you in an ambulance and whizzing down the highway to the pacemaker pop-in depot faster than you can Google “excess vitamin D symptoms” on your blackberry, if you thought to take it with you.

I’m a great fan of Dr. Google. That’s where I go to find out what my real-life doctor knows about what s/he’s prescribing for me to swallow.

I’d like to get a good biochemist on my team. That’s the best option I can think of to get the advice I need to minimize side effects by correction of nutritional shortfalls, or excesses.
I need a good explanation of how the prescribed medicine works after I swallow it and I'm not finding that to date.

If someone is going to prescribe me a whopping big dose of any nutrient, they’d better have a good background of knowledge and training to support what they think is appropriate to prescribe.

I’ve seen what trusting gets me and I don’t like it. Too much of a good thing can kill a person, or seriously compromise their health and savings, even in Canada.

Be very careful about whom you trust. Thinking that someone must know, does not mean that s/he does know.

Itch! Itch! Scratch! Rub!

2009-12-20T14:52:00.003-05:00

I’m itchy again. My lower right arm is driving me crazy. Now it’s all red and angry looking. I was just trying to help when I scratched it. It had my attention.

I rubbed sea buckthorn oil hand lotion on it. That usually works and I have several tubes of it. Not this time, though.

I rubbed oil from a punctured seabuckthorn oil capsule on it. Still itchy. I rubbed Vick’s Vapo Rub on it. Still itchy. Vick’s stops one’s attention to insect bites, even bee stings in a matter of seconds. It did not work for this itch.

I’d just been reading about medication for itching. No thanks to that route, if at all possible. Thank goodness it was Saturday, not the most popular day for prescription writing. And just as well. I was really do-something-drastic-about-it-now itchy.

Then I noticed some aloe vera activator (finely filtered aloe juice…it looks like water and does wonders for ear aches, sore eyes and runny noses etc, even itchy spots.)

But I wanted Aloe Vera Gelly, thicker and much more viscous than the juice but de-pulped. It’s ready in a tube to be rubbed on and form a film in five minutes or less, over the affected area…my lower arm.

Ahhhh! That felt good. It lasted for nearly twelve hours before that itchy little tingle came back and I had to apply it again.

It’s like a band-aid but it’s not waterproof so your skin can breath.

Yeah! Aloe Vera!

Working Harder And Smarter

2009-12-17T11:38:00.002-05:00

Kudos to Dr. Oz for featuring Jenny Hein, who designed Squeeze It In Workshop, the genius household exercises. You addicted multi-taskers may choose to think of this as multitasking if you have to think that way in order to get some exercise in.
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We’ve been working smarter, not harder and look where that idea got us. We don’t use enough energy to eat tasty, satisfying food to get the nutrition we need.

There we are blimped out in our easy chairs that are not so easy to get in and out of any more and we’re multitasking and delegating our fat little heads off.

Our thighs are chafed. Our liver is screaming, “Enough, with the fat all ready. Stay away from that stupid drive-through, will you? You sit there in line inhaling carbon monoxide and I’m supposed to clear that out and deal with the fat, too. Well, I’m too out of shape to do it, anymore, so get your smarts on and do something before I secumb to Cirrhosis, here. Are you listening, Oh, Great Multi-Tasker, O Doer of Many Things at Once. Heh, Multi! Give me a break. Trash that individual tub of margarine that the Golden Arches pawns off as butter. Who needs grease on her muffin? Check a recipe. There is grease in the thing already. And if you’re sitting in Regina ready to butter a do-nut, don’t do it. I’m too fat already This is your liver speaking and you’d better get on the program. Moving your chosen arm toward your mouth is not enough exercise.
Got that? Well, get up and shake your, bootie, you potentially cute thing, you.

Let’s get some excitement going here.

How about a good belly dance between mouthfuls? Do the Activia Shake Down. Stop acting like a busboy and taking one big heap of dishes to the dishwasher. Take them one by one and set the dining room table far from the kitchen. Get over this convenience hangup we’ve swallowed. See how many trips to the kitchen it can take and make those trips energetic, rhythmic and fun.

Work off what you ate. At least rev up your metabolism, get some blood flowing and some oxygen circulating.

Now, do the family dance. Make it break dancing, if you want. Just, please no shattered glass. The most energetic and most artistic and original family member wins the reward.
And it had better not be stuffing his or her face. How about a prize ribbon on their door, an extra half hour on the computer…the right to video the next night’s creative endeavors in home keeping?”

If you do lunges with your vacuum, or plies with your hairdryer, or the salad spinner, or whatever…there will be more time together when you’re not dashing off to the gym to use electricity to exercise there.

Get good at this Home Slimming Plan fast and you can be a consultant for others, demonstrate to various groups who might be interested, run a one day course through your local Community College, rent a space and run your own course, or consult as a family trainer. Put a video together and put it up on YouTube. Make a longer video and sell it with a manual.

PR is fun. Put it to work for you in marketing this change of direction in thinking and family creativity and exercise. Involve your kids in the training. That would look super on their resume.

Winter, is pretty good too, exercise-wise. I like to shovel snow. I get to go outside and throw stuff around with out being bitten by insects. It’s too cold for bugs right now.
I’ve got to come up with a good insecticide that my liver can deal with for spring when this fluffy white opportunity for exercise goes away.
I know, I don’t eat the insecticide, but what you put on your skin gets absorbed and guess who/what gets to deal with the toxins.
Right on! Louie the Liver gets the whole mess in to deal with and Louie’s tired of all that crap coming at him. He’s just too fat and he’ just too tired.
Smart people…(previously) not me, are nice to Louie before that happens.

How smart are you?

Get moving!

Kitchen Farming

2009-12-15T09:28:00.002-05:00

I set out to landscape the kitchen counter. The backsplash was variegated black before. It didn’t reflect enough light, although it looked gorgeous. So I went Green and painted the backsplash a gorgeous, satiny, punchy pink with some mauve overtones. Then I had to re-landscape the counter. All this Green thinking got me inspired to start farming as part of the landscape.
Driving seventy miles to the city, in the winter to get dandelions and watercress is not all it’s cracked up to be now that my eyes are sensitive to light and sunshine on snow really makes me squint. Not good for my wrinkles, all this squinting.
I think I may go back to farming. I’ve already got a little 4” by 10” windowsill field set up with garden cress and dandelions as the crop to harvest.
Next I’m going to sprout some clover and alfalfa in jars with plastic strainer lids. Maybe not. Those seeds are pretty dinky. I’d better get some old panty hose to cover the jar top so the seeds don’t get rinsed away.
I have to soak the seeds overnight and rinse and then drain them three times every 24 hours
When I get that to work, I’ll sprout some beans and see how that affects their ability to terrify my digestive tract. I would love to make a Mock Chicken Loaf which has a mashed bean and bread dressing mixed with an egg to glue it together. It tastes great hot or cold, but it’s quite gassy. I’m hoping that sprouting deals with that problem. Some sprouted wheat bread could be fun, too.
I have no illusions that I’m going to be eating food within a hundred-mile radius. I’ve got this concept down to 20 feet from place of growth to dining room table. But, the seed comes from somewhere else and not within a hundred miles, either.
I’m not getting watercress, but garden cress is quite similar in nutrients and the chlorophyll is great. I can see that learning to farm in a new way can solve a lot of nutritional problems as well as being very economical. I can put the money I save on shopping trips to the city toward an ionic footbath.
Should I call myself a kitchen counter farmer, or an organic chef with a vertical food production system?
But first, I’d better find the panty hose. And those seeds that I bought last spring at the health food store.

Come and BYOF

2009-12-12T20:08:00.002-05:00

Come and BYOF. We’re having a party.
F?
BYOB, I understand. If I’m going to drink, you’re not going to be responsible for my behaviour.
OK by me. I’m not addicted to spirits and Ginger ale without artificial sweeteners is what I prefer. I can do that.
But, what’s this BYOF deal?
Food? Bring my own food? This is a party and I bring my own food?
Yes, it’s a party. I can’t eat gluten.
I can’t eat eggs or dairy.
I can’t deal with salt.
Spices are my problem.
I don’t eat meat.
I don’t do shell fish.
I can’t have nuts.
I can’t have vinegar.
I was going to do potluck but we might all wind up in emerge so this is a new version of potluck…a plate party. We all bring our own plate of food. That way we can have a safe party where we enjoy each other instead grilling everybody about the contents of every food in every bowl and then obsessing about every mouthful of food we take.
All that international and creative cuisine was wonderful while it lasted.
And maybe the plant engineering went well in the lab, although it’s really compromising the canary people who may just be the tip of the iceberg where food intolerances and allergies are concerned.
Next Friday there is another potluck, but will I opt to bring my own plate?
And maybe some goodies for the brave and insensitive, so I can augment my plate if I see something I think will not compromise my comfort and fun.

She Coughed On Me!

2009-12-08T14:06:00.002-05:00

In flu season, I stay away from buffets and assigned seat venues which means no theatre and a few other things, as well. I don’t want to wind up sitting beside someone who is coughing and sneezing and who may have left his deathbed because he’d spent the money on a ticket that entitled him to sit right beside me.

I also avoid germy kids and kids are germy from school’s start to school’s end practically. That cuts down on some fun, because they do the cutest things.

Given all these things I don't do to avoid winter sniffles and worse, I was taken aback when my doctor who sits with her knees right against my chair while she is giving me a nutrient injection which goes on for a few minutes, suddenly coughed a nasty rattling cough. She caught some of the germs in her hand and went right on with the injection using her germy hand.

What to do? Confront her? I knew I’d say something we’d probably both regret.
Call ahead next time and ask if she’s coughing, or otherwise infected?
That might be a good idea.

I’m hoping for an even better idea.

If I’m going to wander around without vaccines while I have a challenged immune system, I’d better behave responsibly and take care of my self.

Seven hours later I had a scratchy throat and a fever was building.

Yikes!

I hadn’t had a cold in years and I didn’t want one now.
So…I got myself a Vitamen C zinc lozenge with lemon flavour. Yummy.
Then I set up my frequency generator, programmed in a healing frequency of 47.7 and let it run for half an hour while I sat there with my feet on a wet paper towel on a metal tray. I was holding a wet tissue wrapped copper pipe in my hands. I also programmed in some immune stimulation frequencies and come cold and flu frequencies. I watched TV for a couple of hours. What else could I do with all my extremities busy with the Frequency Generator?

The Frequency Generator is a computerized zapper. Various designs of these gizmos were used by Beck, Rife and Hulda Clark.
I wish I had been a better shopper and got the type that lets you do other things while the zapper is fastened to the feet and wrists. http://www.bestzapper.com

Only at very low frequencies does one feel a faint buzz while holding the pipe. It’s certainly not uncomfortable although the sitting time is very inconvenient. Of, course being sick is even more inconvenient and taking medicine is anathema to my liver. so it’s best to sit and hang on…until I can afford the freedom model FG from Arthur Doerksen.

There are more ways than medicine to help one’s self feel better.

Now, since I’ve been professionally coughed on, I particularly like knowing that I avoided the cough that the doctor got.

I’ll probably still call and ask about the coughs and sniffles before my January appointment because sitting around for two hours watching TV while I get zapped with this dinosaur Frequency Generator does not thrill me.

H1N1 Vaccination or Not?

2009-12-08T10:06:00.002-05:00

Last Monday, I asked the Nurse Practitioner if it was possible to get the non-adjuvant vaccine so I had some protection for me against the flu and for my liver against the vaccine.

That seemed to be a foreign concept. “Why would you want that? You’re not pregnant.”

I pointed out that I looked like I was pregnant and what I really wanted was a form of vaccine that I thought my compromised immune system could deal with.

She looked less than impressed.

I probably looked less than impressed, as well.

I got sent to see the Public Health people who were adamant about their rules and wanted to make an appointment for me for the regular vaccine.

I told them that I’d pass on their regular vaccine idea and I wasn’t that impressed with our method of healthcare and having decisions made for me by people who did not have a clue about what I was trying to do.

I would have cheerfully paid for what I wanted, but we have this. ‘Money won’t get you to the head of the line,’ idea, here in Canada. In other words you do it their way who ever THEY are and however little they make know about the personal ramifications of the rules they make.

So. I’ve still got my money and they’ve still got the vaccine.

I have no plans to get pregnant just to get the kind of H1N1 vaccine I want.

I'm not a fan of vaccines and their preservatives.

Medical Bullies

2009-12-01T09:59:00.002-05:00

Long ago, before the Internet, it was not so easy to get information on health and diseases and how to care for a person with a disease.

To get in on the Know, you either had to be in the business, or a professional who had paid good money and several life years to find out the secrets that the elders of the profession passed down.

The innocent/ignorant of the facts patient would come, or be brought after much suffering, have some tests, get a blood pressure reading and a prescription to take to the drug store.

It was simply unheard of that the patient might not take the drug that was prescribed. They trusted the doctor. Most of them did. Doctors were used to patients trusting them.
It was pretty unnerving the first time a patient said something about that crazy Internet thing. Nothing good could be on that invention. That sort of behaviour simply had to be stopped.

That was easier thought than done.

Once something like the Internet starts, it’s soon on a roll.

Nothing was ever the same again.
The “patients” became clients and wanted answers for what they had read that they didn’t understand. Sometimes the doctor had never heard of what they were asking, but would s/he admit that?

No! It was much easier to get huffy. Some disrespectful things have been said by some doctors who would like to turn back the hands of time.
Interpersonal respect has left the office sometimes in both directions, simultaneously.
My plumber, my electrician, or my carpenter would not act so uncouthly. They’re either really nice, or they know how they get paid.

So what! You’re a heart specialist! Big deal! Yes, I know the heart is really an exciting organ that you can actually see and hear doing things. Instrument makers devised stethoscopes and all manner of gadgets and machines to profit while you pursue your interest in the heart.

However, no one’s heart is an island.

If there is something wrong with the heart, it likely started somewhere else…like your mouth where you swallowed things; foods, drinks and toxic chemicals that compromised your liver so that it could not carry out the 500 or so functions it’s supposed to process for optimum health of all parts of the body including the heart and circulatory system.
Some of us eat too much of some things and not enough of others, so that we are nutritionally out of balance and our cells become challenged due to lack of suitable sustenance.

Doctors like gizmos like stents and pacemakers. They like bypasses. Transplants excite them, too. But Statin drugs can really put them in a tizzy, especially if a client has the temerity to mention that they read on the Internet what happened to others who took those medicines.

Dear! Dear! Dear!

And then things get said that can make a polite person feel bullied.

Here’s another opinion, from a client, not a doctor. I’m not asking you to trust me.
I think it’s good to have a passionate advocate for your heart. But!

You are the World Expert on YOU. All of you, not just one organ the size of your fist.

If you fix one organ in a way that has side effects that wreck other organs, you may wish you’d either never fixed that part of you, or else you’d done it in a safer way that did not compromise the future quality of your life.

Keep looking until you find a treatment mode, or a medicine, or nutrient that you are comfortable with. Obviously the ‘keep looking’ idea is not going to work if you are having a heart attack, or some other emergency that requires immediate help.

You are the CEO of YOU. That means you get to decide what will be done after getting input from professionals some of whom may be more passionate than others.

Something to think about:
Giving in to tantrums can create, or empower bullies.

Giving in to bullies results in resentment and loss of self-respect. This sets off a negative chemical cascade in your body that further threatens your well-being. Don’t do something because you feel threatened, but don’t refuse good advice just because it was offered disrespectfully.

Cholesterol Numbers Reconciliation

2009-11-22T15:17:00.002-05:00

Among the 500 or more functions of the liver is cholesterol processing from bile.

Have you ever tried to find a Canadian write-up on acceptable levels of cholesterol? There is lots of American literature on Cholesterol out there for Canadians to read. I tried for years to find out how to reconcile those two sets of figures and if the Sickness Care people knew, they weren’t telling. It didn’t even seem to bother them that they didn’t know. I began to wonder if they were stonewalling me.

Even the Wellness people didn’t seem excited about not knowing how to reconcile those two sets of numbers.

I finally found the way to reconcile the numbers. Here it is!
To convert American cholesterol numbers to Canadian numbers, divide by 38.7
If you have the Canadian numbers to change them to American numbers, multiply by 38.7.

When I learn more about cholesterol, I’ll tell you about it. Right now I’m just working on that saying that goes…’if you want to really learn something, teach it, or at least share it’.

Oh, something else, Statins deplete your CoQ10 which your heart needs to keep beating.

Back in the 90’s, one of the Statin makers got a patent on a combo of their Statin and CoQ10. You’re not granted a patent for no reason at all.

But, the reason they were granted the patent was not the reason they got it, apparently. It seemed like they were making their product helpful to the user, but they never put that combo product on the market and neither could anyone else.

So, if I were taking Statins, according to the drug company that got that patent, it seems to me that it would be a super good idea to supplement with CoQ10 as well.

Fancy that! I’m agreeing with a drug company and the patent office...mostly the patent office. Statins need CoQ10. So why doesn’t your M.D. tell you about that?

Just Say, “NO!”

2009-11-18T09:24:00.002-05:00

The big thing in preventing addiction is to avoid doing something that you might feel compelled to repeat. This first foray can get us hooked perhaps socially, bio-chemically, or behaviourally.

Everybody else in the gang is taking a drag and we don’t want to feel left out, or lose face by being pressured and then giving in later. Heaven forbid we’d say anything to help bolster our friends’ resolve to stay clean, or put the gears to the one who started the whole pressure set-up. We might get shunned or ignored if we were to do that. In the future, those who lack backbone may get shunned anyway, as well as put their health at risk.

Addiction can start off being social but get a person bio-chemically hooked and the whole person gets enslaved by the substance whether it’s a street drug or a prescription drug. The results are never pretty, always heartbreaking and sometimes fatal.

Others find eBay and hang out wasting time, or they start to buy and there goes the money and the space to move about in their homes. They become addicted to hoarding and the family is shoved out by the ever expanding salt and pepper shaker collection. Others find really twisted things to fall into and become addicted.

All of us are somewhat addicted to ignorance and we believe we can trust others to use their expertise on our behalf. That’s great if these experts know what we think they know.

But what if our experts have more biases than clues?

What if they pressure you to do what they want, even if it is not in your best interest? There are some things you HAVE to do in life, like attach your plumbing to the sewer line. There is a bylaw to enforce that.

What if someone is brainwashed to believe that Statins are the way to deal with high cholesterol? If they are in a position to prescribe those drugs, you’re going to get a prescription, already counted out in one of those revolting childproof bottles that only 10 year olds can access. So what, if you don’t want it? Have you got nerve enough to tell the pharmacist, “No, thanks. I didn’t authorize the filling of that prescription.”

Pretty nervy for the one who prescribes to expect someone else to pay for his/her ideas on what should be done.

Medicine Men and Medicine Women (M.D.s) are taught to think, use and prescribe medicine in Med school. Drug company representatives sell them on the newest and most lucrative drugs to prescribe. They reinforce the sales pitch with free samples. Those free samples can really clog up a desk drawer.
Then there are the ads on TV to convince you to pressure the Medicine Person to prescribe them for you. The drug companies even disclose some of the side effects in their ads.

Heh! Patients! If you felt like those side effects, you’d go to the Doc and present your anecdotal evidence expecting some new magic bullet to make all that nasty stuff go away…under the rug, so you’re not aware that it’s still happening

We’ve got to think while our brains are still drug free enough to work.

Remember when you were a kid and they told you not to take free stuff from strangers because they were likely independent, unlicensed drug pushers. That’s still true.

There are also licensed drug pushers and they have quite a wide selection of drugs that can hide your first complaint and give you something even worse to complain about.

They pass out antibiotics like candy. You can get Systemic Candida Albicans as an overgrowth of one type of intestinal flora from taking antibiotics.

Not to worry about that. They simply don’t believe in Candia Albicans in any location outside the vagina.

Systemic Candida! How silly!

Some doctors are smart enough/caring enough to tell their trusting patients to take probiotics to correct the kill-off of beneficial intestinal flora and cut Candida back to an optimal level.

I haven’t met a doctor who does that. I hope you have.

Before you ask someone what they think of something, be sure you know the extent of the knowledge/study they base their reply on.

A medically trained person with less than a day of training in nutrition or herbology is in no position to pooh-pooh those modes of healing.

This is 2009. We have access to the Internet. Knowledge no longer is a closely guarded secret and ignorance is not a virtue, but a killer.

Be your own advocate. Search out a mode of healing that resonates with you and go for it. Even the placebo effect will give you 30% effectiveness. Some approved drugs don’t do a lot better than that and they can make you feel worse or even have fatal results. Fatal results you can get for free.

In Canada we have this sickness care system for which we pay lots of taxes and get a mixed bag of care that sometimes kills us.

Would death by medical error be called Iatrogenic Stenosis? I’ll bet that cause of death has never appeared on a death certificate.

However, if you need and want medically oriented testing, diagnosis, emergency care, or you can’t come up with anything other than surgery to correct the misery you are in, we have a great system.

Just don’t get railroaded by the pressure tactics of the personnel.

If you want to do one thing and they want you want to do another, just say your version of “No”, nicely, so they don’t get their knickers in a twist because you ‘don’t comply’.

Comply?

Really! This is 2009.

A Little Bit of Knowledge

2009-11-16T12:38:00.004-05:00

I thought I was taking care of myself.

My father had Diabetes Type 2.
For years I felt guilty about my sweet tooth and hoped my genes had not gotten me yet.
I kept asking the doctor if I had diabetes.
That was my version of taking care of myself.

Why not just stop it with the gobbling down of sugar?
Why wait until I had Diabetes to smarten up?

Now…I find out that sugar is cancer fertilizer among other things.
I’ve known for a few years, at least, I’ve know it intellectually, that sugar compromises the immune system, but intellectual knowledge was not enough to get me to totally stop the sugary foods, cold turkey.

Some people go out and get buried by avalanches while doing risky things on skis. I’m not positively impressed with that behaviour.
But who am I to point a finger at them while I sit here eating a Tim Horton’s Dutchie?
Then I ate a Bounty Bar as a source of coconut in order to stop the diarrhoea that is making me stay close to the facilities. I admit I did need to get something fast when I latched onto that Bounty Bar.

To my credit, I actually bought some unsweetened dessicated coconut yesterday. Now, to come up with a tasty, low glycemic way to eat it next time I get the runs.

What is it with us humans that we go around tempting fate in so many ways?

So why am I on about sugar?

I was reading Suzanne Somers “Knockout” and Dr. Nicholas Gonzales says that the sugar we are taking in is creating fatty infiltration of the liver. The liver converts it to triglycerides, a form of storable fat.

So, I suppose, the more sugar we eat, the more fat our liver gets stuck with storing…up to a point! I suspect that a fat liver is no more effective at what it is supposed to be doing, than a fat marathon runner is at winning races.
Something is going to give. And not something desirable, either.

Doctors are notoriously fascinated with the heart which provides them with all sorts of excitement and amusement. The liver doesn’t do anything obvious like beating, or stopping dramatically, so it doesn’t really get their attention, or respect.

To find out how this crack in our sickness care works, check out: Dr. Sandra Cabot’s site,where the case of Dr. Thomas Eanelli, an afflicted American doctor describes his search for information and treatment in the testimonials section.
If this lack of knowledge can happen to a doctor, it can happen to anyone using any fattening food…be it fat, or sugar.

To recover, the trick is to understand what is happening and act on your new knowledge.

To my shock, sugar can do in more than my pancreas and my immune system. It can take out my liver first with stored fat finally culminating in cirrhosis. And if that is not bad enough, it can cause cancer. or liver failure.

Cirrhosis is bad enough.

I’ve got to finish getting off sugar and eating lower on the Glycemic Index.

More about the ionic footbath in relation to My Incredible Shrinking Feet next time.

My Incredible Shrinking Feet

2009-11-10T12:17:00.001-05:00

Ascites (misdirected fluid/edema) can surely pull some fast ones. I wear step-in Birkenstock clog-type shoes. They are comfortable and easy on and easy off.

Maybe just a bit too easy off.

Yesterday, I went to my favourite Naturopath, got my glucosamine push, bought some watercress and a pot of parsely, and then headed home.

I decided to stop at the Bakery and pick up a treat for myself before I left the city. So, I’m pushing on this big stubborn glass door and the lady behind me decides to help me push that bakery door open.

I hoisted myself up the 4inch step and put my foot down on the terrazzo floor. Wow! That was cold and hard. There was my bare foot sticking out for all the patrons to see and my shoe was out on the walk. How embarrassing!

Another lady decided to help me get my shoe on. I’ve never had to tell anyone ‘to just set the shoe down and I’ll step into it’ before.

I got my treats and drove gingerly out of the parking lot. Trying to drive with a loose unresponsive shoe is more of a challenge than I needed. It does keep one’s mind focused on traffic close by, way ahead and off to the side as well as trying to keep one’s shoe lined up and ready for any suddenly needed action on the brake or gas pedal.

The unnerving part of this incredible shrinking foot/loose clog syndrome is that it is completely unpredictable. There are quite a few diuretic foods out there that can really change how a pair of shoes fits rather suddenly.

OK, so why don’t I just get tie-up shoes?

And throw out my Birkenstocks?

I don’t think so!

I suppose I could get lace-up, if tying them up did not mean I had to get to where the ties are to do that.. I’d rather not go there, every day. It’s frustrating enough to have to deal with boot zippers in the winter.

I could get shoes with Velcro flaps but they turn me off.

One day I may have to do something about having a back on my shoe. If I do, they’d better look cute and I’ll be buying Birkenstock’s soft, half insoles for them. I have those in my winter boots and they are wonderful.

So, Ascites, you haven’t beat me yet. I’ve got this curve you’ve thrown at me, figured out, too.

Ox Bile to the Rescue

2009-11-04T21:40:00.002-05:00

Four years ago the herbalist next door to the spa where I got my ionic footbaths mentioned ox bile to replace the bile supply that I lost when my gall bladder was removed eleven years earlier.

I was reluctant to take a glandular made of ox bile with my meals, but these miserable gas attacks were increasing.

Finally, I got frustrated and miserable enough to buy some ox bile pills and take them.

There was no danger of getting addicted to those evil tasting things. I held my nose and chased them with a good long drink of water. Then I ate. They did a great job of processing fat and making my life more comfortable. I could actually find something to eat on a menu.

Then I added digestive enzyme capsules to my ox bile appetizer.
It was very helpful. My gas attacks decreased in frequency yet again.

Then one day when I went to buy more ox bile pills, I was told that Health Canada had decided ox bile could not be made/sold in Canada any more and the product disappeared.

Life was way more exciting and uncomfortable than I wanted it to be. I ate a lot of mashed potatoes with a bit of cheese.

I was not a happy Canuck. I certainly was a miserable one, though.

I searched every store for miles. No ox bile unless it was in a combination. I needed more than what was present in a combo capsule to do the job I had in mind for it.

I had a hissy fit meltdown.

Then one day I thought,‘Why not search the internet? They must have something other than Viagara for sale.’

I found it. Easy as pie. I imported half a dozen bottles from the USA.

I could eat again.

My question, is “Why would Health Canada put their foot down on ox bile pills?’ It’s not that we don’t have cattle in this country. So where is all that bile going?
And I’d like to buy Canadian, since I have Canadian dollars.

I'm Itchy!

2009-11-01T14:12:00.002-05:00

I can’t stop scratching.

It’s my shoulders and my neck and my back down to about the level of my liver.

Forget low necklines. My neck is not fit to be seen on a dark night with the lights off.

Is it Candida? Candida can give you jock itch and that’s exciting.
This is not a yucky itch. It’s an itch of destinations…scabs, bumps and pimples that just suddenly pop up and scream for attention.

I give them attention!

My tee shirts are all bloodstained where I gave them attention.
Oxy Clean powder in the soak cycle rescues them from stains.
I get lots of exercise contorting myself to scratch my back in places that are almost unreachable.

Every night the darned itch comes back and I slather myself in Weleda sea buckthorn oil hand lotion. Then I go to bed smelling like an orange peel. Or, if the itch gets really attention grabbing, I’ll puncture a sea buckthorn capsule and rub the orange colored oil on myself.
It slows the itch down, but it puts a nasty orange glow on my night gown. Jalapeno coloured sheets are a good camouflage for that treatment.

My naturopath told me that in Oriental health my itchy area corresponds with the liver’s sphere of influence. So maybe I’ll let Candida off the hook on this annoyance.

So my kidneys are not eliminating toxins since I have Ascites (edema), so now it’s my skin that is attempting to eliminate the toxins, apparently.

I think it’s time for another ionic footbath to pull some of those toxins out without needing to scratch up a bloody mess.

Candida Again

2009-10-30T11:00:00.000-04:00

I didn’t like anything I read about Candida. I was afraid of antifungal medication.
I was addicted to sugar. Candida diets are not a happy prospect for a sugar addict.

I spent a lot of time with Dr.Google.

I was looking for a way out of my dilemma that did not require a Candida diet and did not insist on antifungal meds.
It’s just as well I did not subject my liver to that, I think.

So what’s the biochemistry of this tsunami of fluid against vital organs like the lung and heart?

It seems I was running my own private distillery. I was busy blowing bubbles in my GI tract while creating alcohol, formaldehyde and only a biochemist would know what else.
I bet livers hate formaldehyde. They get pretty stressed over alcohol.
I know I had a fatty liver 16 years ago and that is a really compromised organ. It was a sitting duck for that Candida alcohol production system. Then add formaldehyde as a by-product and you don’t have a pretty pinky liver any more.

You’ve got a mess called Cirrhosis.

Just try to carry out five hundred functions when you’re in a cirrhotic mess like that!

Yo! Candida!

2009-10-26T11:48:00.003-04:00

You there with the sweet tooth always luring me to eat sugar.
What are you up to?
Knocking out my immune system for a few hours?
So, I’ve eaten the ‘mostly raisins’ hot cross bun. It was good.
Now I've got GAS.

Not the kind I can run my car on, either.
But I sure wish that gas would move.
Instead it expands and presses the Ascites fluid up against my lungs and I cough.
Asthma, they call it. It does respond to puffers like Ventolin and Pulmacort, but they make me bruise.

Then the fluid crowds my heart and makes it race. That excites doctors.

Instead of just my stomach being swollen with Ascites, so much gas is being produced in my gut that the fluid starts sloshing around in my head, like a tide coming in on one side and going out on the other.

Was I scared the first time that happened to me!

I thought I was having a heart attack. And I was 25 miles from a hospital.
I pulled over to the side of the road and considered my options. Go north to the nearer hospital or go south to the one at home.
I’d just been to a home warming of a stackwood house with Green technology. There was an array of foods from creative well-spiced vegan to conventional. I’d had indigestion before and tried to make good choices, but I had not succeeded apparently. While I was sitting on the shoulder of the road considering which direction to go and scaring myself silly, I finally came to realize that I was likely not having a heart attack. I had no pain in my heart and my skin felt too small for all I had inside it. I concluded, it might just be the worst case of indigestion I’d ever had, put the car in drive and hurtled South at faster-than-the-sight-of-cops-to-see speed.

I got a two litre bottle of Ginger Ale and drank it all. I burped several times. That felt pretty good. Eventually I stopped having palpitations, coughing and my head calmed down as the internal waves receded.

On Monday morning I made an appointment with my doctor who put a Holter monitor on me. I tried to replicate the scary effect, but it never happened although the doctor was convinced he’d seen something exciting. It just wasn’t what I was excited about.

I read up on causes of gas and Candida Albicans kept surfacing.
I took a Candida questionnaire. I had way too many answers that pointed to Candida.
Rats!

I'm Mad!

2009-10-26T11:09:00.000-04:00

Not crazy mad. Angry mad! Boy! Am I mad!
I’m just walking along the street following Hemi home to get his treat-treat and all of a sudden, instead of appreciating the beautiful blazing colours of the leaves on the maple trees along my street, I am royally P.O.ed.
Hemi is walking in a straight line, zipping right along home for his treat and I’m walking all over the place and mad as a wet hen.
It’s not raining, either. There are no ticked off wet hens around there.
Cirrhosis can sneak up on a person like that.
If I lived with others and was verbally abusive I’d be on a guilt trip for the foreseeable future. But at this stage of Cirrhosis I can still care for myself, and I’m still in control of my mind so I can edit anything abusive before it gets words put to the emotion. Snarky, gives me trouble. I may not always be able to keep a lid on these seemingly baseless surges of anger if my mind becomes compromised. If I ‘lose it’ should I ever say anything that would make my caregiver miserable, I’m apologizing right now. Dementia isn’t pretty, but when words get added to the anger, it’s even worse.
I have not figured out why I have these bouts of anger. What is going on bio-chemically that would elicit this emotion? Have I eaten something that my liver totally cannot process?
Do I have Candida and I am a nasty drunk? Good question.
More about Candida’s modus operandi another day

The Liver Trouble Blog

2009-10-19T11:50:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Sirosis.

I am gathering information about end-stage care and treatment of Cirrhosis, reversal of fatty liver, prevention of gallstones, keeping one’s gall bladder, and ways to deal with compromised digestion and the resulting pain and debilitation.

There is a scarcity of information about the care of the liver in order to keep it healthy and functioning optimally so life is good. Knowledge gathering takes some digging and until recently was unavailable and largely ignored by sickness and wellness professionals as well as popular novel writers

Has your doctor ever talked to you about how to feed and care for your liver or gall bladder?
Probably not, unless you have a medical saint and/or health radical in your corner.

I’ve known since ‘93 that I had a “Fatty Liver” but whenever I asked my M.D. what I should do about that, I was told to ‘eat lots of fruit and vegetables’…

We all know that. But which vegetables? Which fruits? I needed something specific.
Something based on logic and biochemistry that would have restored my liver and prevented the Cirrhosis from developing.

The dietician had one page of generalities in her book about Cirrhosis. Not a lot.

I’m frustrated that I did not get the guidance I needed to prevent my fatty liver from progressing to Cirrhosis.

After I was diagnosed with Cirrhosis, two years ago, I tried to find out what I could do about Cirrhosis and what the prognosis was for the remainder of my life. I got nothing solid there, either. Nothing I could plan my future on so I’d have in place the care and living arrangements I’ll need when the time comes. And not before.

I have a dog and I need to look out for him, too. I don’t want to re-home him, while I’m well enough to care for him. I’m exploring how best to care for my liver and have the best quality of life possible for as long as possible. My hope is to outlive the dog and he is now five years old.

I’m only one person, so if others share experiences, we’ll know how things go for some other people and maybe find ways to help expand knowledge in this critical health field.

Pretty much everything depends on the liver and the liver depends on the knowledge, choices and actions of the person in whom it exists, so we’d better get together a Caregiver’s Manual for our trusty servant, the liver.
Share your experiences, what you know, or want to know and make a difference for yourself and others.