“Lessons Learned or Why I Should Quit Being a Doubting Thomas”!

Throughout my life, there have been times when I tried to push the envelope or do what “Everyone Else” was doing. It has never worked.  I always get caught! That being said, I will move on to my latest lesson learned.

As you know, Shank and I were in Europe for 2 weeks. While on the ship, I was able to follow my gluten free lifestyle. However during shore excursions and in Barcelona, it was more difficult. If the excursion included a lunch, it was usually pasta. So, needless to say, I cheated. I did pretty well in Europe, just some joint pain and swelling, but nothing that I couldn’t live with. I think the reason is because there is less gluten in European wheat.

Flash forward: We come back from Europe and Labor Day is upon us. The last weekend of August, we spend a wonderful day with our friend Judith on Group Therapy. Everyone brought food to share. One of the foods available was chicken strips. I decided to have 2.  After all, I had just spent 3 weeks eating pasta and bread once a day, what was going to happen with the breading on 2 chicken strips?  The next day, I woke up with what I thought were mosquito bites.  The next week went by and everything seemed to be fine. On Thursday, I woke up late and missed breakfast. So I stopped and got a sausage biscuit. Now usually, I throw away the biscuit and just eat the sausage, but again, what could it hurt. 2 hours later, I am aching and having chills. In my denial, I thought, “ I must still be tired from the trip”.  Saturday, I cooked Gumbo and Shrimp and Grits for 20 people! We had so much fun! I have adapted both recipes so that they are gluten free. The only thing that I made that wasn’t gluten free was homemade Banana Pudding. I had a serving. I woke up in the middle of the night itching and I was so sore the next day I had trouble walking. Again, I realized that the aches were from the pudding but thought I had a mosquito in the house. On Sunday, I went to my friend Lorie’s for a cook out! I thought that I had not had any gluten but after about 30 minutes, I had chills again and had what looked like chicken pox appear on my arms.

Now here is where I should have listened to reason. But I just had to push that envelope. I just had to know for sure. I told Shank, this is probably not the thing to do, but I have to know for sure if this rash is caused by wheat/gluten. I decided that if I was going to do it I was going to go out with a bang! I had a chocolate chip cookie and a turtle brownie!

By midnight, I was covered in whelps and oozing sores, having chills, headache, and aching all over!  I tried to self medicate (being a nurse and all) but after 5 days of no relief and being unable to sleep with out clawing myself and drawing blood, I ended up at the doctor’s office.  Now 3 days into steroids, I can wear clothes with out pain!

The doctor told me that if I wanted to be tested for Celiac, she would order the testing, but that her recommendation was to consider myself Celiac and NEVER eat wheat or gluten again. I am considering whether to have the test or not. Either way, I am off of gluten.

Now why am I telling you this? First gluten is gluten. I should have not eaten it in Europe. It is interesting to know that I am not as bothered there.  Secondly, 95% of people with Celiac Disease do not know that they have it. I am including a Celiac Symptoms website that you may find interesting. I hope that this may help someone who is having issues and does not know why.

Until next time!

Living Healthy, Weight Loss and the Fight for Healthy Food!

As I strive to “recreate” myself and become a healthier and happier individual, I have discovered a fact that many of you already know but some of you may not.  What I eat affects who I am. The old saying “You are what you eat” has never been more evident to me. Since I began this endeavor in earnest 6 months ago, I feel like a different person.

I am losing weight, it is a slow process, but I do not have to starve. In fact, the weight has just begun to come off on it’s own and I seem to eat less and less. Also, I don’t crave food the way that I once did.

Many of you may be asking why???? I have been thinking about this question also, and I have decided it is because of what I eat. As you know, if you have been following my blog, I was diagnosed with gluten and casein intolerance. Also, I have an aversion to soy. American grown soy was never meant for human consumption. At first, I thought that my world had ended.  How was I going to survive without bread and milk? Thanks to Vanessa and “Q”, I was introduced to the wonderful world of gluten free living and the amazing world of sheep and goat dairy and coconut milk. How, you ask can a person lose weight doing that? Well partially by getting rid of the foods that I have intolerance to. You see, when I eat these foods, my body starts an attack against these foreign substances. My joints become inflamed and I ache and swell. But also, my body in response to the inflammation puts out cortisol, which promotes and helps retain body fat. So, when I quit eating the foods that I was intolerant to, I began to lose weight.

However, I think that a major cause of my weight loss and my overall general better health is the fact that when I started reading labels looking for these foods, and began to realize what was hidden in the processed foods in the stores today, I stopped eating processed food.  A friend of mine tried this method and lost 70 lbs in a year. What? You ask? Stop eating processed food? How? Why?

The answer is easy. Processed food will KILL you! My journey began with oh, that has gluten, milk, or soy in it. Then I started saying, “ What are the other 30 things in here that I don’t recognize”?  "What will I do"? My mother or I used to make this food from scratch maybe I can do that again. Once I made the homemade version, I wondered why I had ever bought the processed version. People say, “but it is more time consuming”. Yes, but it is very satisfying to know what you are eating and what your children are eating. If you sit back and think about it, can you truly say, I would rather feed my children non-nutritious, potentially carcinogenic, dangerous food, or would I rather spend 20 extra minutes a day cooking REAL food?

The thing about processed food in the US today that scares me the most are the genetically modified organisms or GMOs. These are food products that have been genetically changed in a laboratory at a cellular level and then grown and sold as “food” in the United States. The big corporations in the U.S. are in bed with the FDA. The American people are being kept in the dark!!!! GMO foods are not labeled in processed foods or in the produce section of the grocery store! Do you want to eat corn or other vegetables and fruit that has been injected with viruses or animal DNA to keep insects from eating it? That is what most of the corn in the U.S. is today. It is not the corn that we had as children. In order to get a bigger yield, it has been injected with things that kill the insects that normally would eat it. Ask yourself, if something at the bottom of the food chain cannot eat a vegetable without dying, what is it doing to my children and me? Also, it is killing the bees!!!!! Without the bees, we cannot survive! The picture in this link shows why we need to protect our bee population!

I am repeatedly amazed at what the general public is aware of and what the government keeps hidden.  I am very proud to be an American, but I am not naïve enough to believe that our government has our best interest at heart.  Have you ever wondered why Organic cost so much? Are you aware that the government uses our tax money to fund GMO testing but charges small farmers to be able to tell us that they are organic farmers????

I am also surprised that the general public has issues with things such as embryonic stem cell testing but does nothing about scientists changing the vegetables and plants that God put on this earth. Either they are unaware, or they choose which Dr. Frankenstein to condemn and which to ignore.

One thing about living in the United States is that we are all free to believe what we choose. I for one, choose to fight government interference with nature and what I think is God’s plan. Luckily, in the United States, I am not alone! Much of the worlds including Europe, China and India have already banned GMO foods. Hopefully, this will happen soon in the United States.

I am including the links below if you would like more information. Have a wonderful week! And please let me hear your thoughts!

http://www.undergroundhealth.com/non-gmo-food-companies-with-printable-list-of-brands/

http://www.spreadlibertynews.com/the-organic-review-long-term-study-shows-gm-corn-soy-causing-severe-stomach-inflammation/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/harvest/viewpoints/risks.html

https://www.facebook.com/MarchAgainstMonstanto

"Back to the Future in Healthcare"

Hello everyone! I’m home!  I had a wonderful time in India and I am missing my family and friends there, but it is good to be back to the family and friends that I’ve been missing here!

I had the opportunity to visit a hospital in Mumbai while I was there. My father-in-law was having some health issues (he is better now, thank goodness) but he needed to be seen by a physician.  We called his physician who said that he would be glad to see him the next morning, but since it was a national holiday (Independence Day) his office would be closed. He suggested meeting at the hospital in the outpatient department. I was dreading this....you know how it is in the U.S. sitting in the waiting room for hours.

Shank and I went with Aba (that is the name that his grandchildren gave him many years ago) to the hospital to see the physician.  Vivek, the driver pulled the car into the entrance to the hospital and I felt like I had been transported back in time.  Now, for those of you who don’t know me very well, I have been a nurse since 1984. When I say transported back in time, I do not mean back to the dark ages of the early 80’s. Oh no, I mean transported back into time. I felt like I was back in my childhood, only in an alien environment. The staff was out on the lawn waiting excitedly for the flag raising ceremony for Independence Day. Most of the nurses looked like the nurses of my childhood, starched white uniforms with hose and shoes and the hats. Those horrible hats that I HATED wearing for the first 10 years of my career. Those horrible hats that I miss seeing. The hats that inspired trust and gave off a sense of character. The hat that radiated the Nurse Hatchet vibe that instilled fear and trust into the heart of everyone under her care. The remaining nurses looked like Mother Teresa. They wore white and blue sari and gave off an air of compassion.

As the car came to a stop, an orderly immediately opened the door, deposited Aba into a wheelchair, and escorted us through the hospital into the outpatient department. Entering the hospital, again I had flashbacks to childhood. The lobby had a receptionist desk and a waiting area with chairs. There was no air conditioning but the hum of the oscillating fans was very comforting. The mission statement over the lobby entrance said “We Check Everything in the Hope That We Find Nothing.”

As we walked down the hall, I saw a board directing patients and visitors to different areas of the hospital. The lettering reminded me of the attendance board at Sunday School during my childhood. We passed the time clock with the paper time cards and the employees divided by job description.

The physician came in and examined my father-in-law. He was very thorough and compassionate. He then explained to me what he thought was going on and gave me the plan of care. During this whole conversation, he is writing on a pad of paper.  I assumed that this would go into the patient file. However, at the end of the conversation, he tore the sheet out of the pad and gave the entire thing to me. He was sending the entire History and Physical along with the Plan of Care and Treatment home with us so that we could review it whenever we needed. I assume that he either rewrote or dictated the visit after we left.

When the conversation was over, he asked if I had any questions and then began to talk to me about the hospital. I found this conversation to be amazing. I discovered that individual families owned the hospital. Anyone could become part of the hospital by paying a yearly membership fee. The members of the hospital paid for every piece of equipment and all of the employees’ salaries. The staff and physicians mission was to provide excellent care while keeping the price of healthcare as low as possible. As long as salaries are paid, equipment maintained and cost of business expenses are covered, the healthcare is free to members. Everyone (members and staff) works to stay within budget in order to prevent an increase in membership fees. The physician then told me about the new MRI scanner that had just been purchased to provide up to date care.

We said goodbye to the physician and left the hospital. We asked where to get the prescriptions filled and were directed to the pharmacy located on the side of the building.  There is nothing in my memory that can describe the pharmacy. However, knowing how the hospital runs of a cash basis, all I can say is it serves the purpose!

Waiting area

Time Clock

Information board

Nurses at the flag raising ceremony

Pharmacy

The only thing that I can say after the visit is I am impressed! Maybe new and state of the art is not always better. Maybe the healthcare system in the U.S. should take a trip “Back to the Future” and try to sort out where we went wrong!