Marlakins

Marla's adventure from Aplastic Anemia and beyond

33 Comments

1. Administrator said,

   September 25, 2006 at 10:44 pm

   Okay, so I’ll start this one off by moving a couple posts that came from my “God” category. Below is one for Andrea and another for Patti. We can continue these discussions here.

   Andrea:

   Yes, definitely I will have Debbie in my prayers. Thanks for letting us know. Does Debbie have any other swollen lymph glands?, and have they also run tests on her immunoglobulin status? I know that sometimes when certain Ig’s (like IgG) are low, that could also allow the lymph nodes to swell.

   All the best!

   Marla

   ~~~~~~~~~~~and~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   Patti:

   Are the bio-identical hormones you’re talking about another substance in addition to that Isocort you’re taking? I’m assuming you’re still taking the Isocort. Is the progesterone for birth control? Just curious because I do think both could affect sleep.

   Regarding your naturopaths concern. I tend to agree with her that hormone caused cancers don’t differentiate between synthetic or bio-identical hormones. The reason I feel this is because there are some women who develop cancers like breast cancer who have high estrogen levels which were formed by their own bodies, not through hormone replacement. Their cancers are estrogen sensitive. I think there could be several factors that cause their excess estrogen. (Not necessarily in your case because you are supplementing because you’re low, right?) However, for those women who have excess estrogen without supplementation may be explained by compromised liver function. One of the jobs of the liver is to neutralize or dismantle excess hormones like estrogen. If the liver is unable to do it properly or fast enough, then the body will end up with excess hormone that will have no where to go but continue to circulate in the body. Then the other problem could be that their bodies are just making too much estrogen, and in that case, it could be a problem with the gland producing the excess estrogen. There are different reasons why a gland would do that. Anyway, you’re on the opposite spectrum.

   So, the kind of thing I was thinking was that depending upon what the progesterone is being used for, that would help me determine whether I would go back on it or some of it or not, in addition to whether I’m experiencing any physical symptoms–i.e. getting worse or what?

   Another thing I wanted to ask you about iis your suggestion for recipes with more veggies. You said dinner was fine, but breakfast and lunch were stumping you a bit. Maybe you can start off letting us know what kind of stuff you’re already preparing so that we don’t suggest things you’re already doing. Personally, these days I tend to place more emphasis on the quality of the ingredients I’m using more than the recipe. So what I prepare may not look like “healthful” foods. Particularly since I’m not afraid of cholesterol and purposefully strive to have quality fats in my diet. Also, if there are certain foods that you can’t handle then let us know that, too.

   Okay, hope you got some sleep last night! And hope that cold of yours is getting better? Are you past the sore throat and sore adenoids? I think I told you I came down with some sort of flu about 3 weeks ago, and I took some garlic and some onion soups. I also had to use some steam in my room to keep the moisture up because I tend to get congested in the lungs. So, I had a steam pot going in my room with lavendar in there. That helped me, and I was back to myself by the next week.

   Okay, rest up!

   Marla

2. Patti said,

   September 26, 2006 at 1:01 am

   Hi Marla,

   Well, it’s after midnight and here I sit. So, may as well make myself busy at something. The bioidentical progesterone cream is in addition to the isocort. I started taking it because when I had my adrenals saliva tested I also saliva tested all of my other hormones and my progesterone was in the toilet. Almost non-existent. So he put me on the bio stuff because this doc doesn’t do synthetic if he doesn’t have to. He’s an MD but does mostly natural medicine. Not taking any form of birth control. I use the cream 21 days on 7 days off.

   I totally agree with the naturopath regarding the cancer risk. Our goal is to get me totally on Vitex (chaste tree berry) in place of the progesterone to regulate my hormones. I am estrogen dominant (according to the saliva test( because my adrenals are all screwed up and my progesterone was too low). Last saliva test my estrogen levels were back in normal range after using the cream for 6 months. Lots of positive, good changes happened when I started the cream. Cycles got fixed, facial hair loss (it’s almost gone now!), more energy, much much much better mood, did I say my moods got better? Can you tell that was a biggie? So it was good being on the stuff. But now that we’ve been working on my adrenals for over a year we’re trying to get me off of the cream to see if my adrenals are sufficient enough to kick up the progesterone I need. I ordered another salive test and should be able to take it in a few weeks. It should give us a view of my estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, and DHEA. Which BTW, my DHEA is through the roof. It’s like 10 times what it’s supposed to be and neither the doctor nor the naturopath know why or what it means.

   So we go back to liver again? The natu. (I’m getting tired of typing naturopath!) wants me to do a big liver cleanse but she won’t let me do it right now because she thinks I will detox so badly that I’ll be out of commission for at least week and with mom she thinks that’s not good. So I’ve been doing homeopathic liver drops and honestly, I know they help because my sinuses drain as long as I use them twice a day. When I don’t, I’m clogged to the hilt. Probably why I’m so clogged right now. I’ve only been getting them in once a day. Although, I have fluid in my ears too, so maybe the clogging is flu related.

   The worst symptoms I’m experiencing being off of it are insomnia and my moods are getting a little worse. Although, I can tell the vitex is helping because it’s not as bad as it was two years ago. And, maybe I’m producing some of my own progesterone again. One thing the natur. said is if this saliva test comes back and I’m still low then I’m going to have to use it until we can get my adrenals functioning again. I am really really really adrenally insufficient. Really bordering Addisons Disease. That’s why we are really trying to get things fixed because the natur. is afraid if we don’t I’ll end up on synthetic cortisol for the rest of my life because the glands will just shut down.

   Okay – onto more fun stuff. Recipes.

   For breakfast we (meaning the kids) have a good brand of yogurt (live cultures, etc. etc. not yucky stuff), natural granola bar (with lots of protein and fiber) and water. My boy will always have two sausage because the kid has a bottomless leg and loves sausage. My oldest will usually have to have some cheese because she needs more protein (sugar issues). If we don’t have that then they’ll have some sort of organic cereal (oatmeal, kashi, etc) with milk and fruit. Saturday is always eggs, toast and sausage or bacon (I know, gross).

   Lunch is what I struggle with the most probably. I’ll do meat and cheese sandwiches (no nitrate meat, no hormone/antibiotic dairy), corn tortilla chips (for daddy), fruit, some days turkey hot dogs (daddy again), soup, dinner leftovers (rarely), pb&j for the kids with fruit and/or corn tortilla chips, organic mac and cheese (Annie’s). Maybe once a month pork n beans with turkey dogs.

   For snacks (my kids still need them) I use – yogurt raisin-cranberry-almond-sunflower seed trail mix (I make it), peanut butter pretzels, yogurt peanuts (no hydrog.), raisins, cheese sticks, granola bars (Barbara’s), fruit (not very often). I aim for giving them one protein and one carb serving or 1/2 carb serving and 1 protein per snack time. I’m big on giving them protein.

   I guess that’s all I can think of. We just really really lack a fresher diet and I just don’t know how to go about it. It’s easy to cook veggies with dinner. Harder with the other meals. Even with dinner, I think I need better variety. I almost always do frozen veggies during the winter. During the summer I aim for fresh/organic stuff.

   My husband is a great eater and generally he’ll eat anything I serve him as long as it tastes good. His thing is healthy stuff doesn’t taste good (which I disagree with). I’ve got him switched to organic mac and cheese, mostly organic other stuff, organic meat (which is no small task considering how expensive it is), etc. But he still eats white bread (I just got him to commit to sourdough only). He just cut out sugar from his coffee which is HUGE. He has a major sweet tooth which I only endulge every six weeks when I grocery shop. I’ll usually buy one sweet thing that will last a couple of days and then he’s good for another 4-5 weeks.

   He and I talked about juicing and said we will start juicing for breakfast at some point (that means not right now). I guess that’s one place I can get greens in with the kids.

   I mainly focus on them because Ron will eat just about anything (although he does like lunchtime variety) and my diet is so weird I have a hard time eating anything they do. I’m only allowed 12 carbs per meal so you can imagine what that’s like. I’m supposed to be filling myself with fresh greens and reds, yellows, oranges, etc. but it takes so much time for me to do that just for myself when I’m doing a meal for everyone else that I’ve gotten really bad about it. I was good about if for the first six weeks. The naturo. concern is the protein diet I’m on she calls a “cancer diet.” But it’s necessary until my pancreas is totally functioning again. It was badly damaged when I was pregnant with my last baby. Which is why we didn’t have another. Which makes me very very sad. I still have baby itch and I’m almost 37.

   Oh, and my husband LOVES soups. He’ll eat them for lunch and dinner anytime. But I rarely make straight from scratch. I usually use a soup base/soup starter type thing. Except chicken soup. I can manage that one from scratch!

   I remember from dinner with my friend Melliza – no spice. My kids have zero stomach for anything spicey. I think it’s cultural. Her and Audie eat some of the spiciest stuff I’ve ever tasted!!

   Okay, that’s the general run down. I try to do organic/natural as much as possible but with some stuff, it just seems impossible. I would LOVE any help you can give me. The natur. was no help at all when I asked her.

   Oh, and I slept last night. Probably a combo of pain pills, motrin for the headache and exhaustion from so many days running on 3hrs of sleep. Tonight, I’m not so lucky. Hoping to work through the insomnia with the doc tomorrow.

   afterthought: I bought some Bob’s Red Mill oatmeal to make my own “flavored” oatmeal for the kids. I usually use Kashi brand but thought this might be even healthier. I was going to use raisins, cinnamon a little brown sugar with the oatmeal. Seem okay? Still healthy? With winter, we’re much more into hot cereal. Winter? I know, it’s still summer in LA. Lucky you!

   I usually try to buy stuff that is non-hydrog., uses evaporated cane juice for sugar or honey, high in protein, low in sugar, few ingredients, etc. etc.

   Thanks, Marla!

   Patti

3. Patti said,

   September 26, 2006 at 1:02 am

   Man, Marla, I wrote a book!!!!!

   

4. Andrea said,

   September 26, 2006 at 12:10 pm

   Hi Marla and Patti–Thanks for your offers of prayers. I really appreciate it. You’d think Debbie would be frightened, but she’s amazingly serene about the whole thing. My son sounds worried, though. He worries about his father as well, of course. (I’m not using his name so I can pass on his uncomplimentary comments about med school without worrying about him getting in trouble. In case of those trolls you spoke of.) Debbie’s a very calm, quiet, loving person–but innocent as a dove.

   Patti, I read with interest your accounts of your hormone levels and insomnia. Have you considered taking your situation to Dr. Kou? The reasons I ask is that TCM puts great stock in the importance of adrenals. Have you considered a Qi Gong class? (Um, with all your extra free time, not, this may not be realistic.) A TCM practitioner would say that you need to direct more qi (life energy) to your adrenals and kidneys to get them functioning well again. Qi Gong done regularly is a harmless way to do this.

   Easier and cheaper than a class, though less motivating, would be the very good Qi Gong video by Ken Cohen. Ken Cohen is an extremely grounded and common sense practitioner of both Native American and Chinese medicine. No woo-woo stuff here. The video is very good, probably available on Amazon.com

   I have used the meditation I learned in my Qi Gong class to put myself to sleep when my mind is too busy. It brings you back into your body in a way that is very restful.

   Another idea is yoga, which is said to positively stimulate the entire endocrine system. My yoga book even has a series of exercises for insomnia, and I have used them with good effect.

   Have you considered dropping all sweets and dairy? The latter helped me with pretty serious PMS years ago. I even cut way down on fruit, just an apple every other day. It was hard, but it worked.

   Just ideas that popped into my head.

   May your sleep be deep and long, soon, Andrea

5. Andrea said,

   September 26, 2006 at 12:11 pm

   Marla, just noticed I didn’t answer your question–yes she has several, all in her neck. They have been disturbingly persistent–she’s had them more than a month. . . .TTFN, Andrea

6. Administrator said,

   September 26, 2006 at 5:10 pm

   Hi ladies!

   Very glad to hear that Debbie is calm about her situation. That certainly helps and one less thing to get you down. We should add in your son to our prayers, cuz we don’t want him wearing himself down with worry! So for now we wait. . .

   I’m inclined to wait also on the tests that you ran recently, Patti, and see what your naturopath suggests before commenting on anything else, for now.

   So that leaves “food!” Ummm. Your breakfasts don’t look too bad to me. We tend to be eggs and bacon people, too, and eat those with either breads, rice, or millet. We make our own bread, which is generally whole wheat. Since I try to eat less carbs, I like to fry up some veggies in butter with egg. Onions are something that has been working very well for me. I have them every day. So for one serving (like for me, heh), I’ll chop up 1/2 onion, fry that up in butter, then add some other veggie like broccoli or cabbage or cauliflour and stir those up. Then, if I feel like it, I might throw in some cooked brown rice or cooked millet and fry that up, then finally throw in my eggs (two or three depending upon how hungry I feel). My youngest son likes to eat it like this, too, but my two older boys just like the grains with egg. Salt at the table. I would love sausage, but we can’t find any organic ones that we’re comfortable with. We have done the oatmeal as well, and during those times we add milk and honey and butter to our oatmeal. We are very liberal with butter. Raw organic butter. We can easily use up a box of butter a day, or for sure, in two days.

   Soups are yummy and a regular with us. I make all my soups from scratch. If you make chicken stock, then you can make any soup. One soup that my boys like a lot is lentil soup. Here’s the recipe I use:

   12 oz lentils
   2 whole onions
   about 2 tbsps butter
   water
   curry
   3 cloves garlic
   salt
   any meat that you want to put in.
   any veggies that you like like celery, carrots, cabbage, green beans, etc.

   Chop up the onions and saute them in the butter. You can use more butter (I usually like to use a lot). When the onions are translucent, add the lentils and stir them up, then add in water to cover the lentils. I eyeball a lot of my stuff, so I’d say add enough water to cover the lentils and about 2 inches higher. If you want added flavor and nutrition, I like to add some bones like chicken bones or beef bones to the soup. Let that come to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer or mild boil. After about 1/2 an hour, check the lentils to see if they’re cooked. Then if you want, you can add “any” chopped up veggie here or not. If so, put them in and let them cook for another 15 minutes. But at about this point, take the garlic cloves and crush and mince them up. Take a little butter and sautee the garlic in butter and about a tbsp of curry (if you’re kids don’t like curry, you can skip it). Then add that to the soup. You can either salt the whole soup pot, or you can salt at the table. I only use sundried sea salt like Celtic. If you want added umph, you can add up little meat chunks towards the end or minced meat.

   We like to eat the soup with homemade bread. I’ll take a picture of how our bread looks and try to get it up when we make it. Ha ha! It’s not like the bread you buy in the store, so you might get a kick out of it. Ha ha! I’ve got other recipes for you to try, but I’ll add those later little by little.

   Okay! I actually got some quilting in today! I think I might take some pictures of what I’ve been working on and throw them up on this miscellaneous category, heh.

   Hugs!

   Marla

7. Patti said,

   September 27, 2006 at 10:46 pm

   Andrea,

   It’s great that Debbie is so calm. A tribute to ones strength and faith in times of trial I believe. Been praying – please keep us posted.

   I haven’t taken the hormone thing to Dr.Kou because mom’s and my naturopath practices TCM also. She’s been doing the TCM with me already. She sent mom to Dr.Kou because she trained under and knew his specialty was blood diseases and it helps that he’s also an MD (even if he can’t practice in the US). We just recently started working on getting me off of the hormone cream so I think it might be bumpy just for awhile (I hope a short while!). Already don’t do much sweets or dairy. A glass of milk maybe once a day and a piece of cheese maybe once a week. But I do love dairy! When I start craving milk I pump up the cal/mags because I know that means I’m low. Then the cravings go away. I think my hormone issues run so deep that the typical fixes people would use won’t work right now. Or at least not work alone. But good ideas to do anyway in conjunction with the TCM and homeopathic stuff. Thanks.

   Take care!

   patti

8. Patti said,

   September 27, 2006 at 11:05 pm

   Marla,

   I will be taking my saliva test on Oct. 1. I’m really anxious (not in a bad way) to see what it says. Curious about where my adrenals are at after working on them for a year or more. Also, where my progesterone is because right now I’m a mad, raving, lunatic and I’m not sure how long I (and my hubba and kids) can stand this!!!! If the vitex doesn’t kick in soon I’m going to drive everyone nuts. Including myself.

   I’m glad the eggs and bacon are okay. Except our bacon and sausage are not the healthy stuff. I get my bacon from the meat counter (not prepackaged). We tried the none nitrate stuff from New Seasons and it was so bad even our dog wouldn’t eat it!! Hubba said no way to that anymore. I guess that’s about the unhealthiest thing we eat.

   I’m big on the butter also. I’ve not heard of organic butter. I use Tillamook brand because they do not use any dairy that’s come from cattle that have had hormones or antibiotics so I figure that’s better then the other stuff. I actually didn’t even know there was such a thing as organic butter.

   My crew loves lentils! I can’t stand them but that’s okay because I’m not allowed to eat them right now anyway so I can just fix myself something else. My biggest problem with soups from scratch is I’m terrible about knowing how to season so they come out bland. That is the absolute only reason I use the starters. So, what seasonsings? I’m liberal with fresh garlic but never knew how much to season a big pot of soup. Is 3 cloves pretty standard for soup? Salt, pepper, what else? Curry is out in my house.

   I will print this and use it next time for soup. Probably next week. We usually do a big pot of soup at least once a week. Thanks for the recipe and food ideas. I feel stupid. Here I am, 36 and I still struggle with making meals for my family! I guess I’ve only really been trying to for the past two years though. I tried before that but not as hard as I do now.

   I think I want my next purchase to be one of those seal a meal thingys. A friend has one and she uses it to keep her fresh veggies from going bad in the fridge before she can use them. I’m thinking it will keep everything for so much longer. Right now I buy the stuff and it’s bad before I can use it all. I don’t have time to go to the store every other day so I really have to plan ahead. Her stuff will usually last a month if she seals it each time she takes something out of it.

   I slept last night! I didn’t wake up once. Oh, it was so sweet. Still not enough for my sleep deprived body but it was so nice. I used the sleepytime tea with magnesium added to it, some homeopathic drops Reuter gave me, melatonin that she gave me and my chinese herbs for the bladder. I did the same thing tonight minus the herbs because I’m out but they should be here tomorrow. I’m not feeling very sleepy right now, hmmmm. She said I can take another melatonin before midnight so I might do that. She did say it’s just working through this. But the witch part has got to go. I was so grumpy with my kids by this evening I had to apologize when I put them to bed. I’m just going to have to put a lot of prayer into that one because I really don’t want to go back on the progest. if I don’t have to.

   Well, off to la la land. Oh! Way cool that you figured the sleep stuff out. I did call my herbalist about the skin article from Natures Sunshine but she hasn’t sent it to me yet. Maybe it’s too late? I’m glad to hear the skin is clearing up. It must be a great relief!

   Chat with ya all later.

   patti

9. Administrator said,

   September 28, 2006 at 11:34 am

   Hi Patti:

   Oh, I thought you had already taken the test, but okay, we wait. . .

   Yes, we have raw organic butter available here put out by Organic Pastures. It’s a bit costly ($12 lb), so we also get the other organic butter which is pasturized, but a bit cheaper at around $4 to $6 lb. We have about 4 choices of pasturized organic butter–Whole Foods brand (365), Horizon, Organic Valley, and Straus Organic.

   Do you have eggs from pastured chicken? I wish we could get that. The best we can get here is cage-free organic, or ranged organic eggs. I don’t have bacon today, and I don’t remember the company that we buy it from, so I’ll get back to that when I pick up some more. I imagine it’s not the best of bacons either, but there are no nitrates and nitrites. Since we’re not completely confident that it’s top notch quality, we don’t eat it all the time. But it tastes good.

   As far as seasonings, it really depends on what you’re cooking. I do try to use only organic seasonings. So sometimes that does put a damper on some recipes. But for the most part sundried sea salt is my best friend. Onions and butter also help to flavor soups. The spices I tend to use are corriander, mint, curry, paprika, dill, thyme, oregano, black pepper, anise, cinnamon, and cumin. There are probably a few others, but those are the regulars. I don’t use them in everything, just depends on what I’m cooking. I would love to use allspice, but I have not been able to find that organic, sigh.

   Okay, here’s another recipe that my clan is happy with. It’s a Chinese casserole. The instructions tend to look more complicated than it really is. There are lots of different kinds, but here is one we like and none of this ever goes to waste here:

   2 lb beef (we use chuck roast)
   green leafy lettuce
   organic high temp veggie oil, cold pressed
   3 cloves of garlic crushed and minced
   2 to 3 carrots sliced
   2 stalks of celery sliced
   3 whole onions sliced
   star anise (a couple pieces)
   organic Tamari (wheat free soy-sauce) 1/4 cup
   about 2 tbsp organic corn starch or anything for thickener. We have used quinoa.
   black pepper corns
   water
   cabbage (optional)

   Sautee crushed garlic in oil. Braise the whole roast in oil just to sear the outside. Line the casserole pot with leafy lettuce. Place roast in casserole with 1/4 cup of soy sauce and enough water just to cover the roast. Bring to a low simmer. While that’s cooking, sautee onions in a little of the oil until slightly translucent. Add that on top of the roast. Toast the anise seed for a couple minutes in a pan, then crush it with a pestal and mortar, add it to the stew. You can also toast whole pepper corns in a pan until it’s fragrant and crush those in a pestal and mortar and add to the pot. Let is all simmer on low for an hour and a half. At this point you can take the roast out and slice it into half inch chunks, return to casserole pot. Take all the other veggies, sautee in oil, and add to the casserole and let simmer for about another half hour. Continue simmering until everything is cooked. If you still have lots of soup, take some out and place in a small pot over heat. Take about 1/4 cup “cold” water and mix the starch or whatever thickener you’re using. Stir it up, then pour it slowly while continuing to stir into the small pot of soup. This is to condense and thicken the soup a bit. When thickened to your liking, pour it back into the casserole. By this time it should all be done!

   Don’t feel bad about asking for recipes. I cook a lot different now than before I got AA. I got AA when I was 34, so my cooking style now has only evolved since then, and only for the past 6 years that I’ve done mostly everything from scratch. I do use packaged noodles sometimes. . . I’m now 41, yikes! Andrea, or anybody else, I would love more recipes, too!

   Regarding fresh veggies, I think the dressing is the key. I’ll share some of the ones I liked next time! I haven’t used them much lately because I’ve gone the low carb, no sugar/sweets, no dairy. . . but for the rest of the family, it sure makes the raw veggies much yummier.

   Okay! Toodles for now!

   Marla

10. Administrator said,

    September 30, 2006 at 7:47 pm

    Okay, we just made some homemade bread. Here’s a picture below along with the recipe:

    

    2 1/2 lbs organic stone ground whole wheat flour
    1 packet Red Star active dry yeast
    tbsp sea salt
    water

    Mix all the dry ingredients first, then add enough water as you’re stirring to make the flour into dough. Let rise for about 1 to 3 hours. Heat oven to 550 F. Shape dough into thick pizza crust forms, and place on a pizza stone in oven for about 10 to 15 minutes. Usually 15 minutes for the first batch, then 10 minutes for the subsequent batches cuz the oven’s hotter.

    Eat with whatever you want with it. My boys like to eat it with butter and honey. Since I can’t have sugar (and I shouldn’t even be eating bread! But every so often I’m bad. . . ), I’ll have mine with butter and crushed garlic. Or whatever else we happen to be having for our meal.

    Hope you like it!

    Marla

11. Patti said,

    October 1, 2006 at 12:56 am

    Hmmm. I posted last night Marla and I see it’s not here tonight. Bummer. I’ll try to recap. Thanks for both the recipes. I’m hoping to try the chinese casserole next week sometime. I’m not good at buying roasts (never know what kind to buy) so I’ll have to make a trip to New Seasons to get one next week. I think my crew will like it. One thing, I’ve not heard of organic high heat vegetable oil. Can you enlighten me? I almost never fry anything so I use olive oil pretty much for everything. I do have a bottle of regular veggie oil just in case but I haven’t touched the thing in years.

    Eeks. That’s spendy butter! I will have to stick to our Tillamook brand. At least I know the cows the milk is coming from don’t have antibiotics or hormones.

    Interesting bread recipe. I’ll have to show my husband. He’s prett picky about his bread so we’ll see what he says. I just convinced him to go to all sourdough. I guess I’m thinking it’s better then plain white. I’m hoping to eventually get him to wheat. Ya know, slowly. The the frog boiling on the stove thing. My kids would go for it though. I just started contemplating today about getting a bread maker and making my own bread. I’m thinking it would be a good thing. We’ll see. I have to think about it some more and really research bread makers. I would want a good one.

    Well, I slept really good for 3 days and I’m having trouble tonight. I’m drinking some more sleepy tea right now so hopefully that will help.

    Guess I’d better be off. Looking forward to all the recipes. Especially the veggie ones!

    Ciao,

    Patti

12. Andrea said,

    October 1, 2006 at 12:47 pm

    Hi Patti and Marla, Don’t have time to read all your posts this afternoon but wanted to let you know that my son called last night and Debbie’s biopsy came back negative!! I am very relieved.

    Of course swollen nodes mean something’s going on but a negative biopsy means that they don’t have to worry about what my son called the “fast train of treatment” that a malignant biopsy would direct them to.

    Debbie’s been under a lot of stress. Some aspects of nursing school really troubled her. Rob’s illness affected them both of course–there was an emergency flight here when we thought he would have brain surgery for his hematoma–plus her parents recently split, that was really hard. So, maybe she can relax more now that she’s an RN and studying her real passion, which is midwifery.

    Thanks for your prayers!! Scanning, I see that you got some sleep Patti–that’s wonderful! And that your ND is using TCM–that’s great too.

    Your boys are cute, Marla, everyone take care. . . will read more thoroughly later, Andrea

13. Administrator said,

    October 1, 2006 at 1:54 pm

    Hi Andrea: Fantastic news about Debbie! Woo hoo! I do agree that stress can make the body do some weird things! Maybe if she isn’t already, you can get her to do some yoga! Or if she’s lazy like me, heh, soothing, relaxing teas. . . heh, heh. I like to walk, tho, that’s a good stress reliever for me.

    I’m excited to know Debbie’s a midwife! I’ve thought about doing that before. . . I had my youngest son with a midwife. I highly recommend them! The experience was sooo much better than my hospital delivered babies.

    Patti: Yeah, I think sourdough is better than the plain white bread. Are you able to get organic, at least? That’s what I try to get when I use sourdough. It does take getting used to to switch from refined grains to whole grains. Before AA I was totally into white rice. . . heh, heh. wonder why? huh?

    A breadmaker would be good for ease, and also I’ve used my crockpot for easy cooking too.

    The high heat oil we use is expeller pressed organic sunflower oil by Spectrum. I’m sure there must be other brands. The importance of using high heat oil for stir frying is so that you don’t burn the oil and create damaged oils, which are harmful to the health. Chinese stir fries require high heat, so other oils like olive oil and butter burn too easily before you’re up to temperature. If your oil starts to smoke, you know you’re burning it. For lower fried things I use butter or coconut oil. Those can also take more heat than olive oil. I generally use olive oil for things I don’t cook like salad dressings or pesto sauces. I had stopped frying things when I first switched my diet to vegan, but after learning about Weston Price’s work, I got back into frying without fear.

    I just thought about one way I have been able to get my kids to eat raw veggies is by making tacos. We use organic soft corn tortillas that we fry up in butter. Does your crew like beans? You can cook up any kind of beans, cook up some shredded meats, then chop up a bunch of raw veggies to put into the tacos. That’s another meal the boys usually clean up. The veggies I tend to cut are onions, Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, avocados, peppers, and olives. Lemon slices to squeeze into the tacos. Some nice cheese also goes good with that. If you like to make salsa, Brian makes a really good one! But it’s spicy. . . He uses jalepenos, tomatillos, tomatoes, lime juice, and onions. Salt at the table.

    Glad you’ve gotten some sleep! I’ve been doing pretty well with the sleep lately, too! I keep wondering if it’s gonna run out (as it has in the past), but so far, so good! We should compare notes on this, too, when we have more time.

    Okay! I’m off for now!

    Marla

14. Andrea said,

    October 2, 2006 at 12:44 pm

    Hi, On the How to Get Veggies Down Your Kids topic, chopped up greens or other vegetables in scrambled eggs or omelettes go down without a whisper. You can also chop of up greens fine and put them on pizza, or into macaroni and cheese or into spaghetti sauce.

    Ach, it’s been awhile since I’ve fed little kids–I do miss it!! However, I just took a jar of miso soup to my poor daughter, who is sick with the flu. I consider miso a Super Food, up there with yogurt.

    ‘Course, those are cooked vegetables, advocated by Chinese medicine and macrobiotics. Different schools of thought.

    I too had my last two babies with a midwife at home. It was so great, I still have such warm memories of those births. I was especially glad that my youngest was a home birth–he had a mondo head, off the charts, and I had to push like anything, and his water was a little meconium-y, and in the hospital I think there would have been a federal case made of it, but at home they just coached me in effective pushing and suctioned him while he was still on the perineum and he was fine.

    Debbie sent me a journal entry she made of a vaginal delivery of twins!! I thought that wasn’t done any more–furthermore, the second twin was transverse, and the doctor externally turned him into vertex! Pretty cool–she did comment though that this was at the smaller Catholic hospital in the area–a hospital my son also prefers–and that at the big teaching hospital, it probably would have been a c-section.

    bye for now! Andrea

15. Patti said,

    October 2, 2006 at 9:03 pm

    Hi ladies,

    Very quick wanted to say PTL for Debbie’s biopsy results! Glad to hear she came through it well. Hope they figure out what’s going on with her nodes.

    Oh ladies, I wanted a home birth so bad!!! Hubba was in no way gonna do that. He’s says too messy. After my first one was so big (she was 9.3) there wasn’t even a midwife that would deliver us at home because we’re too far from a hospital if something were to happen. #2 was 9.12 and the absolute easiest delivery I had and #3 was almost a home birth. She was my Peanut at 8.10 (insulin shots during pregnancy). I begged the paramedics to just break my water and let me deliver her! I was already at 7 by the time they got here. My retired OB-gyn neighbor was begging me not to make her deliver a baby at 77. Oh I thought I would get lucky by default the final time! My 3rd had a lot of troubles throughout the pregnancy and they wanted to prep me for a c-section when we arrived at the hospital. I had learned enough in bradley classes to not let them so we won but it was a hard fight. I finally had her and she was fine. Albeit a little bruised and with the cord around her neck 3 times. Ahhhh, nostalgia. I miss being pregnant and giving birth. We did natural childbirths (no drugs, no iv’s) and it was such a blessing! I still think God has one more for us but I would be 40 before we could even try again.

    You ladies are so blessed to have been able to have home births! It is definately the way to go.

    Blessings,

    patti

16. Andrea said,

    October 3, 2006 at 6:52 pm

    Hey Patti–I never get tired of hearing birth stories–thank you for sharing yours. I miss that part of my life, too. I certainly feel so grateful, so blessed to have had my birth experiences, hospital and home. (2 of each)

    I’m wandering around looking for the food discussion. So, bye!

    Andrea

17. Patti said,

    October 3, 2006 at 11:29 pm

    Marla,

    Thought I’d share with you what happened with my naturo. today. I’ve actually been doing fine mood wise being off of the progest. cream. I told her I’ve had acne come back, gained some weight, major headaches, not sleeping thing, and a few other things. The weight thing got her because when I started the cream I dumped 27lbs in a month. I did absolutely nothing to do that – it just came off. So she’s very concerned that might be a problem.

    In the end she said she’s going to probably have me go back on the cream. My saliva test will be back in a few weeks and she’ll wait until she sees it but she’s really leaning that way. At least for another year. She said we’re still not hitting the core of the problem and we’ve got to find it. She also wants me to have another thyroid test even though my last one tested normal. She thinks my hormones are changing so fast that it may not be normal anymore. I’m careful about staying away from foods that aren’t good for thyroid (broccoli, etc).

    So here’s what she’s thinking hormone wise: instead of the adrenal glandular she’s thinking to actually put me on prescription cortisol. Take it AM and a supplement to block the cortisol PM. She said there’s a group of female glandular hormones that she’s going to look into putting me on. And she’s not sure if she wants me on the progest. cream or if she wants me on pill form (which is synthetic). My biggest issue is I’d rather do natural hormones (if they’re available) then anything chemical. It doesn’t make sense to do otherwise. My saliva test will tell us a lot about my cortisol so she’ll make that decision on the 17th when I see her again. Same with the progest.

    This hormone stuff is really nuts. It’s not easy. I told her I’m getting discouraged that I’ll never get this fixed. Her thing is that in the best of situations this is a hard thing to fix. Throw in the tremendous amount of stress we’re undergoing right now and it’s nearly impossible to fix. All we can do is just hang on for the ride and do our best until things settle down and my body has a chance to rest.

    Marla, do you know much about Vit. A? I notice when I’m not taking my cod liver oil (2tbls) that my autoimmune stuff is really bad. The naturo. is freaked out about the vit. A thing. Ron’s mom and I talked about it and she said she’s read a lot and everything that’s been pro-vit. A says that no one has ever died from Vit. A poisoning. That if you get too much, you know it, and then stop, and everything goes back to normal. Do you know if this is true? I know my neighbor took a tbls a day her whole life and has never had issues with too much Vit. A. What do you think? Can I go back on it? I think even a tbls would help; but two is definately better.

    I think my husband and I have decided we’re going to do one juicing a day when our lives get back to “normal.” We were thinking just carrot and apple once a day for all of us. Figured it can’t hurt and maybe later on we can add celery, greens, etc. Don’t want to hit the kids too hard in the beginning. Seem like a good idea?

    Okay, it’s late. Off to bed. Been a long, emotional day.

    patti

18. Administrator said,

    October 4, 2006 at 3:36 pm

    Hi Patti: Wow, you sure are going through a lot! Regarding the vit A, I have heard some claims that you could overdose on vit A especially since it’s not water soluble. BUT then there are others who claim that you can only overdose on the “synthetic” vit A, not the naturally occuring ones like in CLO. Other than that, I’ve never heard of anyone overdosing on natural vit A EXCEPT, there was this one story of a man who supposedly overdosed on vit A when he ate a whole bear liver. Whether that’s a true story or not, I don’t know. But I don’t expect that you’ll be eating a whole bear liver in a short period of time! Another thing to consider is that we may be low in vit A anyway. I’ve read that one of the reasons why chemicals like pesticides are so harmful to us is because it interferes with the vit A in our bodies. And as you know, low vit A is linked to other health problems like low thyroid function and I’ve even read some theories that low vit A is linked to some forms of leukemia.

    What kind of reaction do you have when your autoimmune stuff gets bad?

    I agree with you to try to use the more natural forms of progesterone if you have to use any. I think natural would be better than synthetic because I’m betting it’s more bioavailable. Did your naturopath discuss going back on a “lower” dosage instead of back to full force? I guess I’m concerned about your glands atrophying. I think all the years I’ve used steriod creams may have atrophied my adrenals a bit and that may be part of the reason why my healing has been slow, too. Some days I feel like I’m making really good progress, then I get a flare, and well, you know. . . But when I look at my overall trend, I do think I’m healing.

    I found my Pottenger’s Cats book that I told you about. I’m gonna try to go through it (it’s very small, so shouldn’t take long), and see what info I can gather from there. Wow, you did mention that your pancreas is also weak, and from your mention of your big babies, I thought of gestational diabetes (which would make sense if you were having trouble with your pancreas). How long have you been working on all these health issues? Or how long has it been since you finally discovered the problems? Just wondering how long you’ve been working on them. You sound like me in that you have multiple things going on, so dietary choices get kinda tricky. So, so far it looks like you’ve got to work on adrenals, thyroid, bladder, and pancreas, right? And for me, I’ve been working on leaky gut, candida, adrenals, and possibly liver. Those have been the general focus at least. Course the adrenals are supposedly closely linked with they thyroid, so I really should keep those in mind, too!

    Yeah, if your kids don’t mind the carrot/apple juice that would be a good start. I bet if you threw in one celery stick, they might not even notice. Then gradually up the greens, ha ha! Actually I really like celery sticks with peanut butter! Too bad I can’t have peanut butter right now cuz it’s a major no no on a candida diet. . . grrrrr. Oh, I copied some of the dressing recipes I used to make before I went off the dairy and sugar. . .

    1).  Dressing is homemade by throwing about one or two handfuls of raw almonds in the food processor. when sufficiently blended, add a slice of onion, a few sprigs of fresh dill, and either raw yogurt or raw milk. continue to blend until you have a nice sauce consistency. Add sea salt to taste. Mix shredded lettuce and carrots with sauce and eat! ) Or you could mix it with any sliced veggies.

    2).  Large organic salad made up of sliced romain lettuce, shredded head cabbage, shredded carrots, mung bean sprouts, scallions or onions. For dressing, I use a crushed garlic and rub it into the bowl before I put in the salad ingredients in. I then add organic extra virgin olive oil, a little sundried sea salt, and cayenne powder. Add the salad ingredients and toss.

    3).  Large organic salad made up of sliced romain lettuce, shredded head cabbage, shredded carrots, mung bean sprouts, scallions or onions. For dressing, I use about a handful of ground sesame seeds, a heaping teaspoon of unheated honey, about 2 teaspoons applecider vinegar, one clove of garlic minced, a dash of cayenne pepper, and alittle sea salt to taste. Mix dressing ingredients then add to salad and toss well.

    So those are three different dressings that I liked. You can also use them just for sticks of veggies like carrots and cucumber and celery, etc. My sons like to eat veggies stick with yogurt.

    ~~Ceviche-Raw fish (I’ve been using albacore) marinated in lemon or lime juice overnight. When I’m ready to eat, I add 1/2 a tomato, 1/4 onion, cilantro, chili, 1 avocado, and for an option I may have organic corn tortilla (no preservative or additives on package.)

    (((ANDREA!!!)))) (I had to write your name BIG so you see this part is for you! Ha ha!) Here’s a couple of the macro recipes that I liked.

    Kinpira-Style Burdock
    2 pieces dried tofu
    1 tsp dark sesame oil
    1 cups burdock shaved or cut into matchsticks
    2 cups carrots cut into matchsticks
    Spring water
    Tamari soy sauce

    Put the dried ofu in warm or hot water and soak for 3 to 4 mins. Rinse in cold water. Remove and squeeze out any excess water. Slice the tofu into rectangular shapes. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the burdock to the pan and saute for 2 to 3 mins. Add the carrots and dried tofu and saute for 2 to 3 mins. Pour in enough water to about half cover the beggies. Add a small amount of tamari soy sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 30 mins, or until all the liquid has evaporated.

    There are variations to this recipe if you like other veggies like lotus root instead of burdock. I like onions, heh.

    This recipe is from Aveline Kushi’s Complete Guide to Macrobiotic Cooking.
    Arame w/sweet corn is also good as is the sweet rice with chestnuts.

    Do you do any of your own pickling? I used to, but I was reacting badly. That was a while ago, so I may be okay to do it again. I really love pickled foods! I can’t wait to eat them again!

    Okay, toodles for now!

    Marla

19. Patti said,

    October 4, 2006 at 10:05 pm

    Hi Marla,

    I’ll try to answer quick then be off to bed. I’ve decided to go back to the 2tbls of CLO daily. When I don’t take it my bladder pain is terrible and I have to increase the amount of pain pills I take. I took it today again for the first time in several weeks and wow did I do so much better! It’s hard to describe the pain except for you to think about having a bad bladder infection without the stinging part (urgency, discomfort, fullness, etc). I literally cannot sit when I’m like this. All I can do is walk around.

    I’ve also been considering a lower dose of the progest.cream. I’m reading a book right now from a doc who is totally against bio hormones (or any HRT for that matter) and subscribes to diet changes for fixing hormones. I’ve just started so haven’t learned enough to implement but I’m hoping to learn something from it.

    My pancreas damage is from having pancreatitis when I was 13 weeks pregnant with #3. Although they caught it quickly, I was pregnant and much weaker physically so it caused more damage. That was the only pregnancy I had gestational diabetes. Big babies run in my family (both of my sister’s babies were all over 9lbs) so my big babies didn’t surprise anyone. Don’t know that I’d ever take insulin for GB again if I had another. The diet I’m on right now is because I’m really borderline diabetic because of the pancreas damage (and having GB increases my risk also). I’m managing to hold my sugar at 96 pretty steady. I’m using Dr.Richard Bernstein’s diet. Totally anti-AMA. Got it from my naturo.

    I started having serious hormonal issues after Kassandra was born (#3). I think that the pancreatitis literally killed my adrenals (which were already weak from a lifetime of crap) and that set the stage for everything else to collapse. It literally took me 4yrs to figure out what was wrong. I tried every doctor you can imagine. At one point they tested me for a pituitary tumor, etc. It was a friend who told me about my complimentary medicine doc and I saw him. He gave me so much hope that first visit that we could fix my hormones. From there, it’s just been getting better. But it’s really a long haul. Dr. Reuter says the stress this past two years hasn’t helped my adrenals any either. So yes, you got right what I’m trying to fix. Which really, it all goes back to pituitary. One unknown right now is if the partially empty sella I have with my pituitary is causing any problems. That’s a big unknown.

    Thank you, thank you for the dressing recipes. I’m printing all these out and putting them in a healthy eating notebook separate from my other cookbooks. Anxious to try them. Mostly, I don’t have many of the ingredients so it’s when I can get to the store (that would be in my spare time) I’ll get them.

    We had salmon steaks for dinner tonight (steamed with herbs), I can’t imagine eating it raw!! But I think you’re onto something so I’m exploring. Not sure how long it will take me to try it. I’ll let you know.

    Okay, I’m beat. I got a lot done today despite being so tired. I made homemade applesauce today. I was going to blend the apples in my blender (we don’t like chunky applesauce) but when I tasted the apples they were soooooo good warm that we ended up having them for dessert after dinner with some cream. Yummmm. Warm apples and cream. We don’t normally have dessert but that was just too good. Oh! I also made my first homemade oatmeal mix today. I was using the Kashi instant oatmeal but it’s expensive and I just don’t think as healthy so I made my own. I used Bob’s Red Mill steel cut oats, BRM diced apples, 1 c. brown sugar and lots and lots of cinnamon. Mixed it all together and I have this huge container of oatmeal now. Much cheaper then the store stuff and I think much healthier. My kids won’t eat plain oatmeal (not since babyhood) so this is the easiest way for me to get it down them. Next time I might try dried blueberries from BRM. Have you ever checked out their website? I LOVE THEIR STUFF. http://www.bobsredmill.com.

    Okay, it’s late and I need sleep. We have a busy business day tomorrow. No school. Kids are thrilled. I have one that I am just really struggling with. My younger two love school but my oldest just fights me tooth and nail. She’s very smart, but very lazy. If I could have unit studies where all she studied for every subject was bugs, she’d do great! I’m thinking I may be heading that way.

    Night. Thanks again for all the info.

    Patti

20. Administrator said,

    October 5, 2006 at 11:14 pm

    Hi Patti:

    I hope that book will help you find a way to forego the hormone therapy. If at all possible, I agree that’s the best way.

    I read a little on Dr. Bernstein. Thanks for sharing what diet you’re following. Wow! What a man, and what a story! I love it! I would like to read the rest of his book, so will see if I can get a hold of it. Other than low carb, what does he recommend regarding fats? From my reading, if we increase animal protein intake, then it is imperative that we have adequate fat intake to protect the kidneys. That’s what I have understood. My mom is a diabetic, so maybe this can help her. Only thing is she’s “afraid” of too much fat and cholesterol, sigh. I’ve tried to explain it to her, but you know old habits die hard. . .

    Yes, we used to use Bob’s Red Mill products, too! We liked them, but the market we’ve been shopping for a while now doesn’t carry Red Mill, but carries Arrowhead Mills instead for their organic flours. So that’s what we have been using, and we like it, too. I don’t know how they compare in price with BRM, but they do have a website http://www.arrowheadmills.com

    Regarding the brown sugar you use, have you tried Rapadura or raw organic honey for sweetener? The reason I ask is that from what I understand, brown sugar tends to be processed like white sugar–i.e. stripped of the minerals and then molasses added back in to make the brown color. Some even just add carmel coloring back in, so you have to really be wary. Because of that, we haven’t used brown sugar for about 6 years now. Rapadura isn’t as sweet as regular sugar (at least not to my tastebuds), so we use raw organic honey for sweetener. We’ve made our own granola mix, too, using raw organic honey and it comes out pretty good. We mix all the ingredients up (oats, sunflower, sesame, or pumpkins seeds and nuts with honey and either cinnamon, cumin, or cardomen), then either roast them over the stove or bake them in the oven. Comes out good! Course I can’t have it cuz of my diet. . . grrrr. One day “soon,” hopefully. . . Some marinades that we’ve made that need a little “sweet” we’ve used pureed apples or other fruits like peaches.

    Okay, that’s all for tonight! Hope you sleep well!

    Marla

21. Patti said,

    October 6, 2006 at 10:31 pm

    Marla,

    Gotta make this quick (if I can). I forgot the main thing that happens when my immune system goes whacky. You’re going to laugh but I’m serious. The first sign is my underarms start to itch. To which I obligingly itch, which promptly causes a rash. I think I’m allergic to the stuff they put in deoderants (and the anti-per.) that makes it be “non-whitening”. I never ever had trouble until I was pregnant. After having kids the rash went away. But now if I haven’t taken the fish oil for a few days it kicks into high gear again. I’m still fighting it a little this week because I’ve only been back on the high doses of fish oil for a few days. But it is getting better. I know, why not try something else? I have tried every natural deoderant/anti.per. out there and none of them work. There’s even a new one out by Addidas that costs a fortune. It’s supposed to be aluminum free and made with “cotton weave.” It doesn’t work very good. I’m just one of those people that stinks if they don’t use it daily and heavy. My little girl had to start wearing it at 7 because no matter if she just took a shower, she’d smell. Must be hereditary. Anyway, so that’s my main symptom besides bladder. It’s much more measureable then the bladder symptoms. But definately immune related (I didn’t know that until the fish oil).

    Well, you can give your mom my testimony from Bernsteins diet if you want. When I started that diet my total cholesterol was 299, my triglycerides were 250, my LDL was 175 and my HDL was 25. I did Bernsteins diet and added the CLO to my diet and in 6 weeks my numbers looked like this:

    Total cholesterol 199, triglycerides 96 (that’s NOT a typo), LDL 135, HDL 56.

    So, as you can see in just six weeks I had HUGE changes in my cholesterol. One thing I have learned along the way is that the AMA is wrong, wrong, wrong about fats causing high cholesterol. They do not. I eat a ton of fat (even saturated) and my numbers are continually going down. I will have another test in about 6 weeks or so. I’ll let you know how it goes. You can also share with your mom how borderline I am to diabetic (I’ll bet you if I took a glucose test I’d flunk it and they’d proclaim me diabetic) and how well this has worked. Maybe it will help her coming from someone who’s done it. Don’t know. It’s hard to convince our parents though, isn’t it? At least your mom will let you talk about it. My mom only believes doctors know what they’re doing. Arrrggh.

    As far as fats. I just use olive oil when I need to and eat whatever fat I feel like. I like cream cheese. Of course the CLO is fat. One thing Dr.Reuter told me that I have to do is eat veggies, veggies, veggies. She calls this the cancer diet but necessary for some people. She said two years and I should have healed my pancreas enough. And, provided I’ve lost weight, shouldn’t have anymore trouble. I was really good about eating the stir fried veggies in the beginning but because my clan won’t eat what I make it got really hard to keep making two meals so I’ve been pretty bad about it lately. Trying to get back to it though.

    I have not heard of Rapadura. I almost used organic raw sugar in our oatmeal mix but decided against it. I had always heard that brown sugar was better and since I wasn’t using too much for the big container I decided to go with that. If I need sugar for anything I use the organic raw sugar. I’ll be making some pear butter jam and will use concentrated apple juice for the sugar. I’ve never done jam before but someone gave us a bunch of pears and since Grace and I can’t have the sugar I figured this was a good way around it. I use Simply Fruit for her and I (when I do have it) and she seems to be okay with that.

    Oh, my husband is talking about making them chocolate cake waffles for breakfast tomorrow. Oh God help me! I have to leave for a homeschool mom’s meeting at 7:00am and saturday is usually our egg breakfast day. I’m hoping I don’t have any chocolate mixes in the house! I haven’t even looked. If I do, it’s from years ago. I told Grace she’d better eat a ton of cheese if daddy does that or her body is going to whig out. Daddy is the my sweet tooth person in this house. He is getting better and better about the health stuff, it’s just a slow process. If I don’t let him do it at his own speed he’ll buck it. So, Lord, please let there be no cake mixes anywhere in the pantry!

    Okay, better jet. Early day tomorrow. Maybe I’ll get my school questions about Grace answered.

    Take care,

    Patti

    ps. I’m sleeping pretty good these days! So long as I do my list of stuff I’ve been okay.

22. Administrator said,

    October 7, 2006 at 6:46 pm

    Hi Patti:

    Interesting about the itching. I have gone through the itching problem. But I’ve always associated it with my eczema. . . But true that sometimes I itch in places where there isn’t eczema, and for some reason more during night time. Especially around my neck. I’ve taken CLO, but I never notice any difference. I am much better these days, but there was a spell there when it was really bad! My sleeping is still pretty good! I hope my body is getting some good healing done during these new found sleep sessions! Ha!

    As far as the deodorant, Marlene had given a suggestion for a natural deodorant, and I had my two older sons try it and it works pretty good! If you want to see the suggestion, I made a separate post for it here http://goatrevolution.com/blog2/2006/08/16/witch-hazel-as-a-deodorant/

    I’m gonna try to start focusing on more veggies, too. I think I’m about ready to start tweaking my diet again, heh.

    Thanks for sharing your cholesterol results! I’ll tell my mom and dad. My dad is scheduled to have his cholesterol checked, and he too is concerned about high cholesterol. I tell him not to worry too much about it especially as they age, it’s better for them to have a higher cholesterol level. According to Mary Enig, IIRC, cholesterol is actually a protective factor for the elderly. There are different reasons for high cholesterol, too, so that’s another thing to take into consideration. Also, how they interpret the cholesterol levels in relation to heart disease risk is different from before.

    So did your husband make chocolate pancakes? That sure sounds good! We used to make pancakes and belgain waffles with homemade whipped cream. . . Oh were they good! Oh, I got a chocolate chip recipe recently using natural ingredients that your family might like. It actually belongs to Real Foods Daily, but they reveal their recipe in their book. If you want it let me know. I still have yet to try it, but from the cookies I buy when I do eat at their restaurant, I think they’re pretty good! (Tasty!)

    You know, another thing that I’ve heard is that “good fats” help to curb sweet cravings. And that people who crave things like chocolate “may” have a magnesium deficiency. The idea is chocolate is supposed to be a good source of magnesium, so that’s why they tend to crave chocolate.

    As far as the AMA thing. . . heh, you know while I was recovering from AA and trying to decide what things to do, I used to think, “Hmm what would the medical community recommend?” When I figured it out, I would usually do the opposite. Ha ha!

    Anyway, that’s all for tonight.

    Marla

23. Patti said,

    October 11, 2006 at 9:57 pm

    Hi Marla,

    Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I had actually seen Marlene’s post on the deoderant when I very first looked at your blog. It just seemed so tedious and time consuming that I by-passed it. I think I’m going to go back to the Addidas non-aluminum stuff and keep up the CLO for my immune system since I know that’s what’s causing the rash.

    Nope. Hubby ended up making something different for breakfast. But before you say chocolate pancakes sound yummy – that’s not what he was going to make. He was going to take a chocolate CAKE MIX and make it into waffles. He did this once before with a white cake mix. Of course, the kids loved it, but the sugar!!! Oy, thinking about it makes me cringe. He ended up making some sourdough bread concoction. Whatever it was, the kids loved it. It had whip cream and sprinkles on top. Eeeks.

    Actually the magnesium and chocolate thing is pretty well documented I think. I know my compl. med. doc told me to feel free to have an ounce of dark chocolate a day without guilt. I don’t like dark chocolate much so I don’t bother but I do know it has magnesium in it. I’m actually taking something called magneleuvers right now. Everything’s written in french (gee, in France they don’t provide everything in english, spanish, russian, etc.!) so it sorta makes me laugh. I don’t know a thing about it except it’s a form a magnesium and has some b vitamins in it. Dr.Reuter has me mix it with my sleepy tea. It tastes pretty good. Kind of fruity.

    Oh! Mom and I do the same thing you said with the AMA thing! We always do the opposite of what the AMA says to do! Ha! Isn’t that funny? It’s sad but true though.

    So I’ve been reading this book on balancing hormones through diet and have learned quite a bit. Her diet is pretty much an acid/alkaline balance diet. She also follows the chinese medicine path and by taking the quizzes in her book it says my biggest issue is yeast. Which is really interesting because I always have trouble with external yeast and the chinese formulas that Dr.Reuter has been using on me are for dampness (ie. yeast). Her book also showed that my digestive, bladder and pancreas are the culprits for my hormone imbalance. Which I find fascinating when you look at my history and when the imbalance started (after last baby).

    So here’s the kicker. I’m doing really well off of the bio hormones. I’ve not been moody, my cycle has been normal and time between cycles normal. Before the bios I would go 45 days sometimes which was totally abnormal for me. Totally fine now. Except one thing. As soon as I went off the bios I started gaining weight. I don’t understand why. I’ve only gained 4lbs but I can’t get it off! This is what happened to me before. When I started the bio hormones I dumped 27lbs in one month without doing a darn thing. Nothing changed. It was great! Now if the rest would only come off so easy! Anyway, now I’m not sure what to do because Reuter thinks I should go back on them for the short term for sleep issues (which still is a struggle) and weight loss (which right now would take care of most of my health issues – except bladder). But I hate to go on them for “just” that. Know what I mean? I will be getting my thyroid retested at her request. I was on thyroid hormone for several years (Armour) and she thinks I may be low again. It never helped my weight before so I wouldn’t anticipate it would now. Only the proesterone did. Well, anyway, it’s all interesting. This book as been enlightening. Not sure I could follow her diet for very long but I could probably do it for a couple of weeks. Anyway, interesting stuff.

    Better be off. Our neighbor took us all out on his boat today as a thanks for some work my husband did for him and we had sooooooo much fun but we are sooooo tired. He let each of my kids actually drive the boat. My oldest did really well. The others, well, you wouldn’t want them to drive your car! We stopped at an island, had lunch, played in the sand, etc. It was a beautiful 80 degree day here. Rare for this time of year. But wow, that fresh air will wear ya out. My two youngest were trying not to fall asleep on the way back to the dock. It was very funny.

    Off to bed. My sleepy tea with magnesium is finished!

    Patti

24. Patti said,

    October 18, 2006 at 8:24 pm

    Marla,

    Interesting things to ask/tell you.

    I saw my hormone doc today and he was quite a jerk about me seeing a naturopath. He told me that if I can heal my body and make it produce hormones in the correct amount again then I would be his first patient in 20+ years to do that. Encouraging, huh? I won’t replay the whole conversation because it was just downright frustrating but one thing we did talk about and agree on is that my cortisol is trending downward. Dr. Reuter made that observation yesterday after looking at my saliva test and Miller confirmed it today. Miller says the answer is eating every two hours. I told him I was doing Bernstein’s diet so my blood sugar shouldn’t be affected because I’m keeping it stable all day. He says I’m causing low blood sugar which is exhausting my adrenals. Any opinion?

    Dr. Reuter is actually getting to the opinion that she wants to just put me on regular cortisol (like they give Addison’s patients) until we can get this straightened out. So, while some of my hormones are getting better (I’m producing 3x’s the amount of progesterone then I was this time last year) my adrenals are still suffering. With all this stress is that any wonder?

    One other thing – she put me on a female glandular. Essentially it is bovine thyroid, ovary, adrenal and pituitary all in one supplement. I have concerns about the bovine thing but she said it comes from NZ cows which are much healthier then American cows and she thought they were the only country that hadn’t had trouble with mad cow because they do not feed their cows dead cow meat. Still not sure I don’t have concerns about this one. I haven’t started taking it yet. I want to research it first.

    Overall, I’m producing more progesterone, still estrogen heavy. Less cortisol. Too much androgens (no one can figure out how to lower this!) – this is a major concern because of facial hair, etc. My DHEA is 3x’s what it should be. The saliva test says that is “androgens.” But my testosterone is in the normal range. So, go figure.

    Dr. Reuter is having me do a castor oil liver cleanse right now. She said it is the only cleanse she’ll allow during the winter. So, this was interesting. She said that in chinese medicine that one should NEVER do a cleanse of any sort during the winter. That like animals, the winter is meant to store energy. Cleansing should be done in spring and summer. But because of the sleep thing and I keep going back to that she’s going to have me do it. So, we’ll see how that goes. She thinks it will help me feel a lot better.

    She has now added 5-HTP to my nighttime routine. So now to try and sleep I’m taking 2 cups of sleepy tea with valerian root, 5-HTP x2, melatonin x2, homeopathic drops (plessy something or other). Do you think I slept last night with all that? I think about 2hrs but in 15 minute increments. I couldn’t stay asleep. Oh well, we’ll just keep working on it. The cleanse should help (I hope!). She said if this doesn’t work she’s going to go for the big guns. I, of course, wanted to know what the big guns were. She said they’re prescription knock out drops. Take drops, knock out. They are a chinese botanical prescription. I guess they come from the medicinary at the college. I’m holding off on the big guns for a few more weeks until I see if the cleanse helps.

    Oh! I wanted to tell you that she and I talked about yeast because I’m reading this book called “revitalize your hormones” by some lady name Dale (last name). One thing I keep coming back to in her surveys is yeast. I’ve always had problems with yeast so that did’t surprise me. I talked to Reuter about it and she is not a big yeast person. She said she looks at it more from the chinese perspective which is dampness. She said the formula she’s giving me is full of herbs for dampness (which explains why I haven’t struggled with yeast since being on them). She said she is just not convinced that yeast is the issue that everyone makes it out to be but she said maybe it’s because she looks at it from the chinese perspective more. I thought that was interesting. On my welltellme site they constantly talk about yeast being the problem for just about every ill there is. Either that or parasites.

    Okay, off. Should be able to try some of these new recipes this weekend. Heading to the store in the next few days. I’ll let you know if I do it right.

    Chat later,

    patti

25. Administrator said,

    October 20, 2006 at 7:48 am

    Hi Patti:

    As usual, lots going on with you! Ha ha! Where to begin. . .

    Regarding regarding eating every two hours, James Wilson, in his Adrenal Fatigue book, does recommend eating snacks in between meals to avoid getting too hungry. He also recommends that whenever you eat, you combine all protein, carbs, and fats, and not to eat them separately. I still haven’t gotten a hold of Bernstein’s book to be able to compare his dietary recommendations. All I know of Bernstein so far is that he recommends a low carb diet.

    From the results you got back on your hormones, I’m “suspecting” that you might have some pituitary involvement. The reason I think that is because although cortisol is produced in the adrenals, the production is primarily controlled/regulated in the brain. Your other levels are high–i.e. estrogen, androgens, DHEA, and progesterone is increasing from before. All those are produced in the adrenals, which shows me that your adrenals are working. So this is my concern, those other adrenal extracts might reduce your adrenal’s natural functioning since they are reduced in proportion to the amount of hormone replacement that is taken. I’m wondering if what you really need to be focusing more on is your pituitary. Course you have to focus on all, BUT I’m leaning to the idea that it’s the pituitary cuz cortisol is the primary hormone you’re seriously low in. Have they run a test on your ACTH levels? If it is in fact the pituitary, then I suggest you look into Blaylock’s recommendations for improving brain function. Blaylock believes that excitotoxins can damage the pituitary, so it is very important to avoid any excitoxins while trying to recovery brain functions. Also the light that enters the eyes also affects the pituitary, so it’s recommended that you go to sleep when it gets dark and get up when it gets light. This helps to regulate your internal clock–i.e. the circadian rhythm, which in turn regulates when melatonin is released. If you do have a pituitary involvement, then checking your thryoid function is also helpful as that is usually also involved and can cause symptoms.

    I believe progesterone is the precursor to estrogen, testosterone, and DHEA. You seem to be getting enough of that. The progesterone might be low because they’re working overtime making so much estrogen and DHEA. It might be that you’re over producing some of the other hormones as your body’s attempt to try to make up the reduced cortisol. Not sure, just brainstorming right now. Another thing to consider is that cortisol also regulates blood sugar. So, keeping your adrenals happy is important, too, as well as your pancreas.

    Regarding cleanses, I’ve heard that it’s best to do them during certain seasons. I’m at a toss up on that one partly because I’m not too up on what “negative” thing is shown to happen if you do do a cleanse in the wrong season. And depending upon the severity of the patient’s health.

    The mad cow thing is another issue that I’ll write about in a separate post. (It’s breakfast time, and I’m rushing here to try to get to my breakfast! Ha ha! I still need to run out and get more eggs cuz I think me boys are gonna need more. . . )

    Er, I’ll also continue later with the yeast thing. I have been experimenting with foods on that with me, I’ll share a bit of what I’ve learned regarding that. I don’t know I would agree that there is no yeast overgrowth problems.

    Okay, that’s all for now! I’ll continue later when I get a little more time.

    Toodles!

    Marla

26. Andrea said,

    October 20, 2006 at 11:35 am

    Hey Marla, thanks for the recipe, I finally ran across it. Rob’s macro counselor recommended kinpira for blood and I made a few and as you said, they were delicious! Haven’t done it for awhile. Maybe tomorrow night–we’ve got a lot of burdock around that I could dig up.

    I just skimmed the above, but it’s interesting, one thing where ALL the different diets agree–and this includes the mainstream nutritionist we saw at the hospital–is lots and lots and lots of vegetables. Six-nine servings/day, one person recommended and that’s what we strive for. I serve miso soup every morning for breakfast, and that get’s about 2 servings down us.

    Oh, yes–I did make my own pickles last summer, from a recipe in a macro cookbook, and wow, they were great. This summer I didn’t get to it. But I’d like to get back. I wonder why you react, Marla? Is it all fermented foods? Sauerkraut? Yogurt? Wine?

    OK, gotta go, bye, A.

    PS–Yeah patti, definitely consider yeast! I went round the block with my mom about a million times till we made the yeast connection and that was IT. She’s now gotta be one of the world’s healthiest 89yos! I think yeast problems are really common cause we all eat too many sweets and refined carbs (my mom’s addiction), plus many drugs promote yeast overgrowth.

27. Patti said,

    October 20, 2006 at 8:19 pm

    Hey ladies,

    Marla, you hit on what the ND is working on. She feels like we need to hit back at the core which is the pituitary. You mentioned the atrophy issue which is something I’m concerned about. I’m starting on what she calls a “female glandular.” It is bovine pituitary, thyroid, ovary and adrenal. Would that fall under the term “supplementing” in terms of the possibility of atrophy? I think I need to address that issue with her the next time I see her. I got my progesterone today and he prescribed it at 50% of the dose I was taking last time. So it’s 50mg in a 10ml syringe. So 1/10 of 50mg twice daily. Better then it was last time. And hopefully not enough to cause atrophy.

    I did have an ACTH run last year at OHSU. It was “normal.” But to be honest with you, I don’t know the numbers and learning what I know now that AMA numbers don’t necessarily mean healthy numbers I can’t make much from the test.

    What is the name of Blaylock’s book? I will order it. Thanks.

    I’m not fully in line with her on the yeast thing because I am such a yeasty person. I do take very good probiotics but I think a yeast cleanse is in order. I need to do some research and find out what to do and just do it. I am starting my liver cleanse tonight and actually looking forward to it because it’s relaxing! It’s a castor oil cleanse.

    Andrea, you are right about the basic recommendations for veggies from both diets. And I don’t get anywhere near enough. I hate to admit this but I can goes DAYS, yea a week without touching a vegetable. Funny thing is my kids and hub eat them daily. I’m religious about making sure they get their veggies. I am vowing to work on this over the next few weeks. It’s just hard to find stuff we’ll all eat because the kids are picky and I can’t eat carrots, corn, potatos, beets, etc. I’ll work on it and get back to you ladie with my success or failure! :\

    Yeast. I will read this weekend and see what changes I should make for the short term. I think I need to despite what ND says.

    Take care.

    patti

28. Patti said,

    October 21, 2006 at 4:09 pm

    Hey Marla,

    After doing some reading on yeast I have to go with the idea that I’m a yeast infestation. I ordered some yeast assasin and tummy tuneup to replace my current probiotic (it was time to rotate anyway). I’ll have to do some more reading on what foods to avoid for awhile and then I’ll see how it all goes. I think yeast is a huge part of my problem. Interesting, the different schools of thought.

    chat later!

    patti

29. Administrator said,

    October 22, 2006 at 3:39 pm

    Hi Patti:

    Yes, I would think that the glandular extra is a form of supplementation. But at least they are natural sources and not just purified substances. It’s also good that you’re gonna reduce the progesterone and see how you do. That’s a step in the right direction, I think.

    Blaylock’s book is called, “Excitotoxins, the Taste that Kills.”

    Yeah, for a while I had been resisting the yeast connection. But seeing how I do react a lot to various foods, I know something is up. And since I’m not a scientist and don’t have all the equipment to put things under a microscope, I can’t say for sure that “yeast” is involved, although it sure looks like the explanations fits. Especially with my health and dietary history, I fall in the category of a strong likelihood of having yeast overgrowth. As you’ve probably found, there’s lots of controversy about the yeast thing or the leaky gut thing as well. Some say there’s no such thing as leaky gut, and others say that if you have yeast overgrowth, then you likely have leaky gut,too. Personally, it makes no sense to me that their “can’t” be leaky gut. Any membrane or tube can become leaky, why not the intestine? Especially since it naturally has to be permeable anyway for nutrients to move in and out. If cell membranes can have permeability problems, then certainly the intestine can, too. (BTW, some do believe that if you have yeast overgrowth problems, then it alters the cell membranes so that hormones can’t get into them properly to do their job. So, say you have enough hormones in the blood stream, doesn’t mean that the cells are taking them up adequatley. Don’t know if that is part of your problem or not or how accurate that info is. But certainly something to consider.) I think a bit about my cell membrane integrity, too, cuz that must be involved with my skin issues. My skin cells must be having trouble with retaining water and fats properly and that could be part of my skin woes.

    As far as the probiotics, I’ve read that you have to reduce the yeast overgrowth to a certain point first otherwise the probiotics don’t have enough room to take a foot hold. So it has been recommended to take some sort of antifungal or antibacterial or something like that. Raw garlic, oregano oil, coconut oil, those kinds of things are supposed to help cut down on the yeast. You may already know all this, so sorry if I’m being redundant! Oh, yeah, along with the antifungals, the anti yeast diet recommends low to no carbs and sugars. I don’t think it’s possible to do “no” carbs and sugars, so low is more likely. Besides, the body needs some carbs and sugars. Oh, that reminds me. . . the no veggie thing you mentioned. . . have you heard of the Polish Doctor, Dr. Kwansniewski? He prescribes a high fat, and animal protein diet which supposely has cured many illnesses. . . Check out his Optimal Diet http://homodiet.netfirms.com/

    Also, from reading V. Stefansson’s experience with the Alaskan Eskimo, they didn’t eat much veggies either, and were quite healthy. According to Stefansson, the earliest recorded case of cancer in Alaska was in the 1930s. Other parts of the world had cancer many years earlier. According to him, the Eskimo did eat berries during certain seasons when they could get their hands on it, but usually it was “fat” that was so important to them. That idea was confirmed in a book I read called the “Karluk.” That book was written by William Laird McKinlay in 1976 about his expedition with Stefansson in 1913. They got stranded out in the arctic and nearly died. Well, some of them DID die, but they had a couple eskimo with them who primarily did the hunting. Turned out that if they had lots of “fat” on hand, the eskimo weren’t worried much for food. Also, the eskimo ate some of their meats pretty raw, and because of that Stefansson believed that they were able to get enough vit C even w/o eating much veggies. He claimed that the eskimo didn’t suffer from scurvy. Although I do have a reservation about that claim because in one of Stefansson’s books, I think it was, “Cancer Disease of Civilization?” he mentions a doctor’s report that the eskimo had a tendency to bleed. Not sure what caused that. Scurvy can cause that, but also more things like teeth falling out and such, which I don’t think was part of the problems with the eskimo. Basically, I think Stefansson believed that it was the introduction of industrialized foods that caused the decline in health of the eskimo. That’s a similar conclusion that Price had as well regarding the groups of people he studied. Oh, and that also reminds me, in the Pottenger Cat’s book, Pottenger writes that the malnourished cats developed allergies and food sensitivities. I find that interesting cause I do have food sensitivities. And I know that the body does need adequate minerals to process various things like sugars. Makes me suspicious that my nutritional status is still in need of work. And if it’s true that yeast overgrowth interferes with cell membranes, then that could be a reason why I’m having trouble getting my cells to assimilate the proper nutrients. May take time. An analogy I read once is that of a plant in very, very dry soil. When the soil is so dry and you poor water on it, it doesn’t soak in right away. You have to keep watering it over and over again until the soil starts to accept the water. I wonder if that holds true to some of our cells? Anyway, I think I’ve rambled long enough for now! I’m thirsty! I’m gonna go water my cells. Ha ha ha ha!

    Marla

30. Administrator said,

    October 22, 2006 at 3:44 pm

    Oh Andrea! I’m not sure why I reacted badly to pickled foods. All I knew was that I would start getting itchy and my skin would start to get bumpy. Now I do recall others on the yeast forums where some would say fermented foods and apple cider vinegar was good, while another group would say absolutely not, and that it would feed the yeast. So I imagine the different beliefs likely came from personal experience? Some could tolerate it while others couldn’t, like me.

    I’m fascinated about your 89-year-old mom! Can you tell us more about her? Was she born here? What has her diet been like? Does she come from a family who has a long life span like hers? And I wonder what their diets have been like? So fascinating! I have don’t a little research on centenarians. And fermented foods are supposedly common amongst them–kraut, yogurts, and other pickled foods.

    Okay, now I go find some water! Ha ha!

    Marla

31. Andrea said,

    October 22, 2006 at 6:49 pm

    Well, before I tell you about my mom, let me tell you about her yeast and how it’s been treated.

    Mom has always been addicted to sweets and refined carbs. She’s never had a weight problem–I suspect her of a very high metabolism. But she has always had very sensitive skin, has to choose her laundry detergent carefully, that sort of thing.

    Well she got this horrible rash, lobster red, and went to a dermatologist. He gave her steroid cream to put on it (this was 3 years ago), and she did, and it cleared right up. But a week later, her joints hurt so badly she could hardly walk! And I don’t know how she made the connection, but she was sure it was the steroid cream, so she went off it.

    She could walk painlessly, but the rash! Yikes!! Poor woman–the creases in her arms and legs were bleeding. Her ankles even swelled up terribly. I figured she was just going to have eczema for the rest of her life (the official diagnosis), and so started researching special clothing, etc. when I ran across a piece by an MD in England about yeast causing these rashes. He had a whole treatment spelled out, and I figured it was worth a try.

    Mom went on a very low- carbohydrate diet–no bread, no fruit, no noodles, no corn, not even any winter squash. Meat and vegetables, period. The explanation was that, simply, the yeast feeds on sugars. So you gotta starve the little guys. The MD said (in his online article) that it would take at least a month for the rash to clear up, but that she must stay on the diet for at least 3 months.

    Here’s the astonishing thing–it worked. In 2 months, her skin began to lighten up. In 3 months the rash was completely gone. The other convincing thing is that EVERY time she has any sugar, a week later, back it comes.

    So, it may not be the same in every case, but it is possible to heal a yeast infection purely through diet.

    I think that pickled foods were on the list of noes, marla, and since you do have a skin reaction, it could be a yeast thing.

    Another interesting thing was that, in the article, the MD said that as the yeast dies off 1) the rash gets worse for awhile as toxins are released; 2) the patient can feel a little tipsy because one of the toxins the yeast releases is alcohol! Both of these things happened to mom!

    Mom does come from a long line of long-lived people. She has taken good care of herself in some ways–always getting exercise for example–but she also smoked for years, used to drink heavily (not at all now), and there’s that sugar addiction (common in alcoholics). But I think staying mostly away from doctors and drugs, exercising every day (she goes to a yoga class and lives on the 2nd floor), and being around loving family and friends (she lives in our building, sees us every day) helps keep her healthy.

    gotta go, Andrea

32. Patti said,

    October 25, 2006 at 12:04 am

    Good conversation/information! Andrea, your mom’s story is amazing. I’ve ordered my new probiotics. Much stronger then what I’m taking. One is actually an antifungal and anti-parasitic and the other is a good probiotic. I’m rotating my probiotics because the ND said it’s better for the body. Don’t know, but that’s okay because I’m going to stick with these two that I just ordered. Despite the ND’s feeling on yeast, I’ve decided to try and do a yeast free diet and see what happens. Now my coffee creamer – that’s something else. Don’t know if I can let that go! It’s only one or two mugs a day! But looking at what your mom did, meat and veggies, that’s basically Bernsteins diet that I’ve been doing. I will be more diligent this next few weeks and make sure I’m not getting any sugar and see what happens. Oh, there’s that darn coffee creamer thing again. Darn it!

    Hey, I found a new sweetener that’s not supposed to affect blood sugar or yeast type growth. I’m sure you guys already know about it but it’s called Agave Nector. My husband started using it in his coffee instead of honey for sweetener. It’s much better tasting then stevia! If you use too much stevia it is very bitter – almost saccharin tasting. Even my kids like this stuff. I’m sure there must be a way I can make them “treats” with it in place of regular sugar. It has a honey consistency so I’ll have to work on it. My kids don’t get too many treats so it would be fun to come up with a cookie recipe or something with it.

    Andrea, interesting, interesting about the alcohol and sugar addictions. Both are issues in my family and I never saw the connection quite like that. I know that hypoglycemia was an issue for my brother and he was a horrible alcoholic. My mom, myself and my daughter are all hypoglycemic (I’m actually crossing over more to diabetic at this point). When I was in high school and college I was a terrible drinker and a sweets addict! It makes so much sense now. My dad was a drinker and I remember he used to love his ice cream and sweet rolls. He died very young and I was young so I don’t remember anything else specifically but it makes me wonder if there is was a connection there. Very interesting.

    Oh the yeast die off! Yep, that’s a lovely few days. I think it’s almost like cleansing. I know when cleansing it’s common to not feel well for several days while your body detoxes. Seems like the same with yeast. I’ll let you know if my Yeast Assasin and Tummy Yune up actually produce die off! I’d actually welcome that right now since I think yeast is such a big thing for me. I know my chinese herbs are full of “damp” (yeast) fixers but I don’t know how to tell if it is working. I know I haven’t had any yeast infections since being on it so I guess that’s a good sign. But I’m still stuffy and stuff. I think the yeast is really deep in my gut.

    I second that staying away from doctors! Ron’s mom hadn’t been to a doctor since she was 39 and she only went then because she got pneumonia. I think there is something to that. Even now that she’s sick I think there’s something to staying away from the doc as much as possible.

    Well, very interesting stuff. Better call it a night.

    Patti

    Andrea – I’ve been meaning to ask you – how’s Debbie?

33. Andrea said,

    October 25, 2006 at 12:34 pm

    Hi Patti–Hm, very interesting! Hope you can defeat those little yeasties! Here’s another bit of information I got from the online yeast doc–be patient. He pointed out that the small intestine, where they thrive, has literally yards and yards of little pockets and crevices. He said it would take at least 3 months to starve the little critturs (by avoiding refined carbs)–in serious cases, 6 months. He cautioned that after symptoms improved, you still gotta avoid sweets, or it’ll come back.

    This proved to be exactly what happened with mom. The rash cleared up, she started eating sweets again–very small amounts!–and her skin broke out viciously again.

    Thanks for asking about Debbie. She’s good–the lymph swelling has decreased and as you know the biopsy was negative. Very happy!

    I wonder if you ladies might take on another prayer project. The volunteer children’s music ministry lady at our church, named Lynn, mom of 3, has been struggling with co-infections from Lyme disease for 10 months now. She’s being treated by an ND but it’s been 2 steps forward, 2 steps back for awhile now. She is such a brave, faithful, fantastic woman, still showing up EVERY Sunday for those kids even though she’s clearly feels lke hell. She’s so brave not too many people know how lousy she’s feeling. She wasn’t even on the prayer list till I put her on last week.

    Anyway, if you could put in a good word to Him for Lynn, I’d be very grateful. And I’ll keep you posted.

    Best, Andrea

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