Turned 65 last Sunday. Doing some research. Thought I’d share.
Category Archives: Health
I Alone | Līve
Nostalgia
Twenty years ago (circa 1997), Number One Son and I went to a Līve concert at the Cynthia Woods Mitchel Pavilion. Number One Son was 14. The forecast was for rain. Our seats were in the uncovered part of the Pavilion. We brought rain ponchos and a large umbrella. We needed them. We sat in a torrential rain throughout the concert.
The Mrs had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis the year before. My life, all of our lives, were changing in unpredictable ways. The Mrs was going downhill and I was grieving the loss of her quality of life, our quality of life. The medical bills and hospitalizations were taking a toll. Little did I know that it would get worse.
We sat in the pouring rain listing to Līve blast out their songs. I have very fond memories of that concert. I bought two of their albums, Throwing Copper and Secret Samadhi (I think I even bought Secret Samadhi at the concert). I used to listen to those albums in the CD player of the Ford Windstar we owned at the time. Perfect music for grieving. I actually own a large collection of CDs that I no longer listen to because we have switched to iTunes. I should probably invest in an external CD drive for my MacBook and begin ripping my old CDs to iTunes, but have avoided doing so.
I heard I Alone earlier this evening in the playlist of a local sporting goods store’s PA system. It brought all those memories back with a vengeance. Music has a way of doing that for me.
Epilogue (Twenty years later …)
The Mrs and I have been married forty-one years. She still battles MS and the diabetes she developed as a result of massive dosage steroid treatments she has received over the years. Twenty years of MS have eaten up all of our finances … and continue to do so. If you and your family are in good health you have no idea how fortunate you are. If you are battling a life altering illness, you know what we have been going through.
I may go dig out my Līve CDs and put them in my car to listen to. I still have grieving to do …
The waiting …
I have been dealing with a variety of issues over the past year and a half that have been stressful, to say the least. My life has been plagued with, let us say … uncertainty. I used to say it was like being on a roller coaster, but now I think it is becoming more like a ride on the Vomit Comet.
To quote Arlo Guthrie (totally out of context) … “you may know somebody in a similar situation or you may be in a similar situation, and if you’re in a situation like that, there’s only one thing you can do … sing it the next time it comes around on the guitar …”
280 … and falling
Today I reached a new milestone … below 280.
I hope that this isn’t a stock-like “double bottom“.
Next target is 270 …
Wages of sin | UPDATE
Fighting the good fight …
Now if I could only resist
and
and
Wages of sin
Nooooooooo …
Did I mention I have been eating again (as opposed to the bone broth fast)?
Maybe I shouldn’t have had the blackberry cobbler at Threadgill’s (???)
Captain, captain … we need a course correction!
“All hands – DIVE DIVE DIVE”*
* and I don’t mean dive into that plate of pasta …
A picture …
is worth – as they say.
I previously told you I had lost 40+ pounds and was below 300 for the first time in I don’t know when. I think I also told you that I had replaced my size 56″ jeans with 52″ and then 48″.
You may also recall that I have been out of work since last March when I got laid off in the oil patch down-turn. I thought my savings would last longer than they did. I have started aggressively looking for work, but nothing so far.
This brings up the question of interview clothing – can’t wear jeans. What about my old work khakis?
Not quite halfway there – but it is an impressive start when viewed above.
299 and falling
Today marks a milestone. I finally fell through 300 pounds to hit my first goal of 299. Last December I registered 336 on my Aria (Fitbit) scale when I “officially” began my weight loss quest.
I just checked with my doctor whose office told me that the lowest weight they had for me was 315 (fully clothed) back in 2011. I also show that I weighed 345 last April.
Today I was at 296+
My next goal is 286 … 10 pounds down from here and 50 pounds down from last December.
Wish me luck.
Take in the Sunlight
The Kin
The Kin did several songs for the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. Take in the Sunlight plays during the final minutes of the movie and through the ending credits. It is an anthem for anyone striving to take back control of their life and their health.
Buy the album for $4.99. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/diamonds/id455086398
Live well …
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead
When I brought my Prius into Toyota last week, my service writer and I got into a discussion of diet, and health, and weight loss. I told him about the Wahls Protocol and our need to eat lots of fruits and vegetables. He asked me if I had ever see Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. “Oh, man, you have got to watch this,” he told me while pulling it up on his computer. “Unfortunately,” he warned me, “it has become an infomercial for the Breville Juicer and Joe Cross’s Reboot Program.” My only comment way was that juicing removed all the fiber, while acknowledging that physically eating all the fruits and vegetables recommended by the Wahls Protocol was daunting.
I stopped by Toyota today for a status update and learned that the battery pack was still in shipment, due to arrive this week. I also decided that before I saw my service writer again that I was going to watch Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. I watched it on NETFLIX. When I began researching it for this blog post, I found the full version on YouTube (below). It is absolutely worth watching.
Keep in mind the whereas the movie focuses on juicing, the most important takeaway should be that we need to shift our diets away from fast foods and processed foods toward diets rich in a broad spectrum of fruits and vegetables. Personally, I am impressed by the weight loss depicted in the movie. It gives me hope.
Juice Plus+
In a previous post, The Next Best Thing, I told you how I found out about Juice Plus+.
- Fast forward to the fall of 2016 (last year). Our diet was poor once again – too much dining out and too much takeout. We had both gained weight and were not feeling our best. While having a late breakfast at the cafe nearest to my house, I eavesdropped on a conversation between several ladies sitting next to me. The topic had turned to the tribulations of dealing with a cancer diagnosis in a loved one. As I got up to leave, I stopped by and offered my support and best wishes. They asked me about my point of reference and I explained that my wife had MS and the road had been a rocky one. One of the ladies asked me what if anything we had done to deal with it other than the doctors, medicines, and hospitalizations. I went on to tell them about the Wahls Protocol, how we benefited from a diet high in fruits and vegetables, our difficulty in actually being able to eat as much as we needed, and our eventual return to our old unhealthy diet and way of life.
One of the ladies asked me if I had ever heard of Juice Plus+.
I answered that hadn’t. She gave me her business card and some brochures. I studied the list of fruits and vegetables that Juice Plus+ Orchard, Garden and Vineyard Blends are comprised of and realized that it was everything I had been striving to eat enough of. I have included the nutrition labels below (tap on each to enlarge).
Orchard Blend
Garden Blend
Vineyard Blend
Note the NSF certification label. I did. Check them out HERE. Also note the Kosher certifications.
Long story short, I placed an order. The Mrs and I have been taking the Orchard, Garden and Vineyard Blends for a few months now as part a healthier diet and lifestyle. I like the ability to get a wide spectrum of fruit and vegetable micronutrients and oxidants in a convenient capsule form (they also offer chewable versions). With Juice Plus+ we actually manage to eat the fruits and vegetables we do buy.
I am the original sceptic. I live by the old Russian axiom adopted by Reagan in dealing with Gorbachev – trust, but verify – so I did some additional research. The efficacy of Juice Plus+ has been documented in more than 30 Juice Plus+ research studies conducted in leading hospitals and universities around the world. But that is for another post.
For now, in the spirit of a (moving) picture is worth a thousand words, I give you three short videos.
How Juice Plus+ is Made
Published on Dec 31, 2013 | Juice Plus+ Vice President, John Blair, shares how Juice Plus+ is made. From being picked at the peak of ripeness to the proprietary drying and encapsulation process. See it all!
Behind the Scenes at a Juice Plus+ Farm
Published on Oct 28, 2014 | Take a look at what happens when we’re filming footage at one of our beautiful farms.
Juice Plus+ Farm to Capsule
Published on Apr 23, 2014 | Hear Meredith Martin, Juice Plus+ Director of Marketing Support, and Liza Pepple, Juice Plus+ Director of Supply Chain, talk parsley. Then stick around to hear Juice Plus+ growers share how they ensure good, quality produce goes into all Juice Plus+ products.
Interested in learning even more about Juice Plus+? Look HERE
Fruits and Vegetables
In a previous post I told you about Terry Wahls and the Wahls Protocol. Below is a 19 minute interview of Dr. Terry Wahls by Dr. Rhonda Patrick from 2014. In the interview they discuss the importance of micronutrients and antioxidants in the diet and the importance of eating a broad range of fruits and vegetables and the impact it had on Dr. Wahls life.
Are you eating enough fruits and vegetables? Consider Juice Plus+
The Next Best Thing
Those of you who have followed this blog long enough know that my wife has suffered from Multiple Sclerosis since being diagnosed in the late 90s. It is the reason why the heroine of my serialized sci-fi novel The Nudist War (a new take on the Zombie Apocalypse) has MS.
In the spring of 2014, I posted about my discovery of the Wahls Protocol. The Wahls Protocol, like many other “paleo” diets was not unique. It was but the latest in a long line of “discoveries” that we are what we eat and that diets rich in fruits and vegetables, low in carbs, sugar, and processed foods go a long way toward preserving and even restoring health.
I documented our progress on the Wahls Protocol and have included links below. Go ahead and read them. Most are short. I’ll wait. I promise.
Good. You’re back.
If you read through each of the posts above, you saw how profound an impact a diet high in fruits and vegetables had on our health. If you didn’t bother to read through the posts above … I will summarize: we both saw a dramatic improvement in our quality of life.
HOWEVER – we both found it physically challenging to actually eat the amount of fruits and vegetables – and – drink the amount of water required. Not to mention that a diet that high in fruits and vegetables elevates the term “regularity” to a whole new meaning. By 2015 we had “fallen off the wagon”.
Fast forward to the fall of 2016 (last year). Our diet was poor once again – too much dining out and too much takeout. We had both gained weight and were not feeling our best. While having a late breakfast at the cafe nearest to my house, I eavesdropped on a conversation between several ladies sitting next to me. The topic had turned to the tribulations of dealing with a cancer diagnosis in a loved one. As I got up to leave, I stopped by and offered my support and best wishes. They asked me about my point of reference and I explained that my wife had MS and the road had been a rocky one. One of the ladies asked me what if anything we had done to deal with it other than the doctors, medicines, and hospitalizations. I went on to tell them about the Wahls Protocol, how we benefited from a diet high in fruits and vegetables, our difficulty in actually being able to eat as much as we needed, and our eventual return to our old unhealthy diet and way of life.
One of the ladies asked me if I had ever heard of Juice Plus+.
Are you eating enough fruits and vegetables?
HEADSPACE
My sister introduced me to this a while back. I downloaded the app and tried it a few times – then gave up. I started back up again last week. Over the weekend we (my wife and I) discovered that we had the audio book. My sister must have gifted it to me sometime in the past. We listened to it. I recommend you do the same. Andy is amazing. His approach to mindfulness is refreshingly modern, yet based on centuries old proven concepts of meditation.
I am already beginning to have a calmer mind after my 10-minutes-a-day sessions. My wife used Andy’s sleep meditation technique last night and got her first full night’s sleep in three days.
The Audio Book
Get it at Audible.com
Get the App
Be sure to visit the HEADSPACE website
I will leave you with one last video.
Watch first – then decide
Before The Flood
Seriously – whatever your current attitude or belief system, whether you are conservative, liberal, republican, or democrat – watch this first. Then decide.
Aspirations
I used to have aspirations, but I learned to cough them up.
hovereating
hovereating
Overeating by hovering around, at, or near the buffet table.
Usage – Man I am so full from hovereating at the Indian lunch buffet
Not to be confused with Hoovereating, which is similar to hovereating but much more voracious
Biopod
Food? Food? Please sir …
Pity Party
Welcome to my 
- A week ago last Friday, after just celebrating my 15th anniversary with my employer, I was laid off (with 5000 others).
- The Mrs was scheduled for surgery tomorrow at the downtown medical center to replace her Intrathecal Baclofen Pump which is failing prematurely after only two years. Her previous pump lasted seven years.
- Due to Multiple Sclerosis, steroid-induced diabetes, MS meds, overactive spleen, and god knows what else, the Mrs platelet count is chronically low. When we initially saw the surgeon weeks ago it was 70 (in whatever units they measure platelets).
- Today, this morning, surgeon’s office calls to say that they are doing the Mrs surgery first thing in the morning.
- To avoid traffic issues of driving downtown, I reserved a room for two nights at Courtyard by Marriott near the hospital and we were getting ready to head in this afternoon.
- Today, this afternoon, surgeon’s office calls to say that he will NOT do the surgery unless platelet count is over 100.
- We go to see hematologist. Platelet count is now only fifty. No surgery tomorrow.
- I call Marriott to cancel room. Sorry, special non-refundable prepaid rate. I call up and down chain of command at Marriott. Sorry. So I am stuck with a $770 charge to my credit card for a hotel room I am not using.
- Tomorrow I need to notify wife’s pain management doctor (not the surgeon) to order the medicine to refill the pump on Friday (another $700 out of pocket) otherwise wife will turn into a rigid ball of total body muscle spasm (aka Charley horse)
- Hematologist can transfuse platelets but not this week.
- No idea when surgery will be now.
- I hear wife moaning from the bedroom. Entire left side in pain 8/10.
As I said, welcome to my Pity Party. What’ll ya have?
Maybe I can barter this for food … or code HTML.
AOS
Acquisition Of Signal
Contacted Doug last night in Scottsbluff. Doug is in good spirits, all things considered. He is still … with good reason … pissed off.
Doug gave me cell the phone number of his friend in Alliance. I contacted friend today. Friend hopes to see Doug on Tuesday, deliver cell phone and clothes. As we need a secure channel, Doug’s cell phone will not be released. You may leave messages for him on this blog, Maggie’s blog, or his blog.
Doug’s sister, Maggie’s mom, Doug’s friend in Alliance, and I are all in contact by email and phone.
WE WILL
Long range scanner report …
One of our remote stations in the Pacific Northwest (Doug’s sister) reports:
Doug is at Golden Living Center (in ScottsBluff). Called this morning but he is in dialysis. He is in room 117, but doesn’t have a phone. They told me that they will take a phone into him when he receives calls. The staff I talked to seemed very nice and helpful.
Our intelligence wing confirms the existence of
Golden Living Center
111 W. 36th St.
Scottsbluff, NE 69361
308-635-2019
Will attempt an audio uplink later this evening.
Dark Side of the Moon
LOS (Loss Of Signal) … a term first popularized during the Apollo lunar missions when the astronauts were behind the Moon and out of line-of-sight radio communication with the Earth. Also refers to loss of signal during re-entry when the ionized atmosphere enveloping a returning spacecraft blocks all radio transmissions.
Dark Side of the Moon … that side of the Moon that always faces away from the Earth and is never seen. The side the Apollo astronauts saw during LOS.
“Doug, this is Houston. Do you read? Over?”
” ”
“Doug, this is Houston. Do you read? Over?”
” ”
“Houston, this is Scottsbluff. Doug is confirmed LOS.”
“Roger that, Scottsbuff. LOS.”
“Houston, this is Alliance. We concur with Scottsbluff. Doug has definitely gone Dark Side of the Moon.”
“Roger that, Alliance.”
Doug is pissed off
For someone with kidney failure, Doug (aka weggieboy) is well and truly pissed off.
As I write this Doug is STILL in Denver. What’s that you say, “Wasn’t he supposed to be home in Alliance?”
Yes, yes he was. But for reasons not yet clear, Doug’s release from Amberwood Court Care Center in Denver was delayed a day. To make matters worse he now has to pay $160 to stay an extra day, because he has exceeded the time limit for 100% Medicare coverage. Even better (and not in a good way) he didn’t even get physical therapy today so he just hung around “like a mushroom”*.
The new plan is for him to leave tomorrow, driven by an old friend from Denver who is going back to see family in Alliance.
“Well at least he his FINALLY going home to see his kitties,” you say.
Well just hold on there one minute bucko!
Doug isn’t going home to Alliance. He is going to Scottsbluff – on the way to Alliance. AND … his friend won’t have the time to take Doug to Alliance, then back to Scottsbluff to drop Doug off, then go back to Alliance.
Doug is pissed off. So am I. So is Maggie’s mom, Liz. You should be too! I would hate to think that Amberwood Court Care Center purposely dragged its heals to get every penny of Doug’s Medicare money (and then some). That never happens. And I would also hate to think that Doug is being sent to Scottsbluff due to some financial accrual to Amberwood, because stuff like that never happens either.
On a positive note – seriously – Doug has been able to contact the people caring for the boys and even heard one of them meow. And another friend in Alliance is going to bring him clothes, keys, wallet, cellphone, and laptop computer.
Still I am thinking of hiring GRAVICKGROUP to pay Doug a visit in Scottsbluff.
Stay tuned …
* “like a mushroom” – kept in the dark and fed $h1t
Highland Park
Doug is coming home to Highland Park
No not THAT Highland Park (although he may need some of that Highland Park after his ordeal)
This Highland Park
http://www.highlandpark-alliance.com
Doug goes “road trip” on Thursday with a long-time friend from Denver. He will stop by home first to see his kitties, get his reading glasses, wallet, cell phone, and laptop computer before checking in at Highland Park.
I know that in the past Doug has been fond of whisky and even belongs to a whisky tasting club. Sadly I am quite sure that alcohol is off the menu for him now that he is on dialysis otherwise I would send him a bottle to commemorate his return to Alliance.
Coming home
Email from Doug’s sister Kathy
“Good News!! Doug just called me. He finally gets to go home to Alliance on Thursday. He will not be going to the Good Samaritan Care Center, which is about 1/2 block from his apartment, but Highland (I think is the name) Care Center in Alliance. He is just happy that he will be home. He doesn’t know yet if he will have the dialysis in Alliance or Scottsbluff. He will have his glasses, cell phone and lap top, which will be nice for him. He will give us more details as he finds out himself. “
Pwees bwing Daddy home
BRING DOUG HOME
Yet Another Update on Doug (AKA weggieboy)
If you have been following this or Maggie’s blog, you know that weggieboy’s blog | surviving retirement with two cats has gone quiet. That’s because Doug is being held prisoner in a rehab center in Denver, forced to do daily physical therapy and every other day dialysis.
Doug was transported to Denver in the belief that his Wegener’s Granulomatosis had flared up again. The hospital determined that he was NOT having an exacerbation of WG, but had suffered kidney failure as a result of it. He was subsequently discharged to a rehab facility also in Denver. He is stuck there without his reading glasses, wallet, or cell phone and without any support system of friends and family.
(Sounds like imprisonment to me)
Anyway, because he is a Nebraskan in Colorado they need to get him back to Nebraska before next Wednesday the 17th or Medicare stops paying 100%. Our fear (that being me, Maggie’s mom Liz, and Doug’s sister in Washington state) is that they will transfer him to another facility in Nebraska, but not home to Alliance. As you can imagine, Doug is worried to death about his kitties. We have it in good word that his neighbor is taking care of them, but it has been a month now and no one has been able to contact him because we don’t have his neighbor’s phone number. Heck Doug’s last blog entry was on January 14th and I wasn’t able to contact him until February 5th … three weeks later.
There is no reason Doug can’t go home. The Box Butte General Hospital in Aliance has both top notch dialysis and physical therapy facilities. Doug is ambulatory and able to get around with use of a cane. Doug needs to go home.
You can call him directly at (303) 862-3040. Tell him you read about his plight on this or Maggie’s blog (I am sure that she will reblog this). He would love to hear from you. I would say to send him a get well card, but he will be transferred before it would get there.
As I said, there is no reason Doug can’t go home.
Doug got the Care Package
Talked to Doug about an hour this evening. He is in good spirits.
The Care Package arrived this morning but he had not seen it, so I had to contact the nurses and have them go find it for him. Eventually they did locate it and Doug and several of the staff were in enjoying the oranges and tangerines. As Denver is in the dead of winter, they were a big hit for everyone.
One of the common complications of Wegener’s granulomatosis (WG) is kidney failure and the upshot of this episode is that Doug will have to be on dialysis from here on. Fortunately there appears to be dialysis resources in his home town of Alliance Nebraska. Doug will be in Denver most likely though the end of the month. He is without computer or cell phone so his contact with the outside world is limited. I know he would love to hear from you.
Please send him your get-well wishes to
Doug Thomas
C/O Amberwood Court Care Center
4686 E Ashbury Circle
Denver CO 80222
You can also call him at (303) 862-3040. This is a direct line to his room. If there is no answer it probably means he is in physical therapy or rehab.
the D
COP21 | Paris (Now)
Read it
Watch it
Think about it
Comment on it (or else)
https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/these-five-videos-explain-what-you-need-know-about-cop21
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference
Chocolate
Available from Joss & Main
Avoid Damage to Keyboard
Found the above attached to a new keyboard from [redacted] when I opened the box.
Look closely at the fingers. What race of human or species of animal do those hands belong to?
It appears that [redacted] is using illegal aliens to build their keyboards … aliens from from Epsilon Eridani!
What genetic engineering and organic farming have in common
If you can excuse the pun … food for thought …
Happy Aniversary
To me …
Out and about
I admit right up front, I am not man enough to own a motorbike*. But that does not stop me from appreciating them.
Saw this while out to breakfast on Saturday.
* My wife won’t let me get one. When we were newlyweds she was an ICU nurse. As such she saw the results of one too many grisly single-vehicle motorcycle accidents. Belt sanders have nothing on rough payment at speed.
Hell
Addicted to sleep
RANT
I admit it. I have an addiction. I am addicted to sleep. Seriously addicted to sleep. Allow me to explain …
Once I’m up and going, I am fine. I love my work; love doing things on the weekend. I’m generally a go-getter. At work I am a high achiever. I am driven to achieve excellence. In fact, my last performance review had me down as excellent … pretty much the highest you can go without being president of the company. I am also a perfectionist. As Rooster Cogburn would say “no brag just fact”. Did I mention I was modest? Weird Al Yankovic has a song called I’ll Be Mellow When I’m Dead. That’s me when I’m awake.
This summer I suffered from a bout of insomnia. Probably self-induced because when I’m doing things I really don’t want to go to bed. But once I finally fall asleep that is another story altogether.
How can I explain? Have you ever been addicted to downers of any kind, opiates, heroin, etc.? Have you ever suffered from mind-numbing pain and then suddenly it went away? Have you ever been anxious or worried or fidgety and suddenly you felt calm? No worries no anxiety no pain just sweet bliss. That perfect state … pain-free, worry-free, anxiety-free, comfortable, mellow, tranquil. That is how I feel when I’m asleep. Once I am asleep I don’t want to get up … EVER … and I have the as ability to go right back to sleep once I wake up. Hell, I can even get up and do chores and go right back to sleep. (As long as I’m not up too long or get some kind of adrenaline rush)
For me sleep is that perfect escape where everything is wonderful and tranquil and calm or in some cases adventurous and exciting. I have really interesting dreams. Some repeat with regular frequency. Others are new and entirely different. I do of course have the occasional erotic dream but most of my dreams are fairly mundane. Some are mysteries, some are adventure stories. Some are just day-to-day life, but usually with some bizarre twist. I never have nightmares. As a child I learned to control my dreams. If things got bad I could change the outcome. I get shot … no no, that will never do. Rewind. Let’s do that scene again.
One of my bucket-list items is to be able to sleep as long as I want until I finally have had enough. Over my birthday I took some time off and my wife let me sleep pretty much all day. Like 18-20 hrs. You might think that would be enough but it wasn’t. The only reason I got up was that stuff needed to be done that my wife wasn’t able to do.
One theory of dreams is that they are the movie that the mind plays to keep you occupied while it sorts through your memories saves them and files them. I tend to think of dreams as the screensaver that plays while your brain defrags itself. Defraging a computer hard drive takes more time as a function of the amount of data stored on the hard drive and the amount of empty space available on the hard drive. If my brain were a computer hard drive it must be very full and running out of space.
Maybe it’s stress. I will admit that this has been a fairly stressful year for a variety of reasons.
Maybe it’s depression. Not the “My life really and truly is a living hell and there is nothing I can do to change it” kind of depression. Rather the “chemical imbalance in the neurons of the brain” kind of depression. Serotonin and norepinephrine. Perhaps associated with the aging process. I’m already on an SNRI (Serotonin Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor) originally prescribed for the symptoms of Peripheral Neuropathy. But it turned out to be due to spinal nerve damage due to hereditary spinal stenosis and arthritic vertebral bone spurs. TMI? Surgery, exercise, and NSAIDs mostly solved that, but when I weaned myself off my wife said to go back on because I got very short tempered. I call them my “being able to deal with stupid people” pills. Maybe I need a higher strength. As the old Dupont motto used to say … “better living through chemistry.”
Goodness look at the time … almost 1 AM … and tomorrow is a work day. No sleeping in for me.
Gotta go …
WP – 6 months
Six months into the Wahls Protocol Diet.
The Mrs is now baking, doing laundry, cleaning house, and generally overdoing it. Burning through spoons at an alarming rate, yet feeling generally good enough to be bored and wanting to accomplish things. Her pain level is down and she takes fewer meds and less pain meds.
Saw hematologist today. Her blood work is the best he has ever seen for her.
Confession: We fell off the wagon for a few weeks. The consequences (negative) were immediate in terms of weight gain, water bloat, malaise. But we are both back on again now.
Bottom Line: If you are suffering from any form of autoimmune disease, please please consider Wahls Protocol.
Shangri La: A Community Of Empty Closets – KJZZ
“So, here, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a million dollars in the bank, or two pennies in your pocket – if you had pockets on,” he said. “The people accept you for who you are, which is a whole lot different than the outside world, usually.”
Probably no vitamin D deficiencies either …
Spoon Theory
In my reblogged post immediately before this, weggieboy referenced the Spoon Theory.
So sitting here in the ER with nothing else to do (if you have ever been in the ER, you know that it is not unlike Waiting for Godot), I read Spoon Theory and found it to be an excellent explanation of what it is like to live day-to-day with a chronic illness.
If you have a chronic illness and need to explain what it is like to others, or if you know someone with a chronic illness and want a better understanding of what they are dealing with, I recommend reading Spoon Theory.
http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/
25 Years Later
April 11, 2011
Background Radiation
Screen captures from the documentary Pandora’s Promise
The sievert (Wikipedia)
1 Sv = 1 joule/kilogram – a biological effect. The sievert represents the equivalent biological effect of the deposit of a joule of radiation energy in a kilogram of human tissue.
Background radiation is measured in microsieverts per hour (one millionth of a sievert).
Pandora’s Promise
Former anti-nuclear environmentalists reevaluate their position on nuclear power in light of the Fukushima disaster.
They present the past, present, and future of nuclear power including Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. Their conclusions will surprise you.
Take that Moon landing deniers!
WATCH
Unless you have been living under a rock … a rock without internet, cell phone, TV, cable, satellite or radio access … you know that Apple announced the Apple WATCH today. What you may not have seen are the videos. WATCH is a thing of beauty which mere words cannot do justice.
Clicking the image below (or the link below it) will take you to the official Apple site. WATCH the videos
http://www.apple.com/watch/films/
iWANT
And now … the rest of the story
From The Loop
As reported by Reuters
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook in a 2013 speech at Auburn University described people with disabilities “in a struggle to have their human dignity acknowledged.” He said, “They’re frequently left in the shadows of technological advancements that are a source of empowerment and attainment for others.”
And now … the rest of the story
What Tim Cook continued to say, but Reuters left out
“… left in the shadows of technological advancements that are a source of empowerment and attainment for others, but Apple’s engineers push back against this unacceptable reality, they go to extraordinary lengths to make our products accessible to people with various disabilities from blindness and deafness to various muscular disorders. I receive hundreds of e-mails from customers every day, and I read them all. Last week I received one from a single mom with a three year old autistic son who was completely non-verbal, and after receiving an iPad, for the first time in his life, he had found his voice. I receive scores of these incredible stories from around the world and I never tire of reading them.” “We design our products to surprise and delight everyone who uses them, and we never, ever analyze the return on investment. We do it because it is just and right, and that is what respect for human dignity requires, and its a part of Apple I’m especially proud of.”
The Loop takes Reuters to task with strong words for the surgical removal of the rest of (and key part of) the story.
I applaud Tim Cook and his team at Apple for their vision and accomplishments.
A Brief History of Everything
WP41
41 days of the Wahls Protocol Diet
The Mrs continues to get stronger. No wheelchair, walker, or cane for weeks now. Clarity of thought improved and improving. Morale and outlook improved and improving. Reduced need for pain medication. Slow and persistent weight loss. Clothes bought a month ago are too large.
As for me … Slow and persistent weight loss. Clothes bought a month ago are too large. Generally improved feelings of health. Easier to walk on bad knee.
No hunger pangs.
WP14
See WP0 and The Wahls Protocol
WP Day 14
In the last two weeks Mrs has lost 20 pounds, I have lost 4+ (I don’t know what the ‘+’ is because my scale would say ‘0-ld’ until I got down to its limit).
Contrafactual 
