Happy New Year or Please, don't anyone rescue me! :D

"...'Cause, yo, yo, we wanna know how many people in the flow,
Would like to just let yourselves go
And doowutchyalike,
Yeah, well tonight's your night..."

Doowutchyalike, Digital Underground


Happy New Year! It's gotta be better than the one we're leaving...

For the first time in YEARS I'll be totally, completely, and absolutely alone tonight, at least for a little while.

Please, don't anybody have pity and rescue me!

I'm going outside at sunset to try to catch Venus and the crescent moon in a lovely pairing in the southwestern sky. I'm going to make eggnog and put in some homemade vanilla bourbon.

If I can gin up the stamina, I'm going to give myself a full-body facial. Not many things feel as good as spa-time. And if I can do all this, it'll be amazing.

My New Year's Resolution? Oh yeah, that...

Someone I know told me recently that he sensed that I'd forgotten how to kick back and enjoy myself. After the look on my face, he asked if I had ever known how to kick back and enjoy myself? Silence from me, and he asked if I pursued responsibilities like other people pursue pleasure? I still didn't know how to answer. I'm not making this up.

Someone else once noticed that this all-work-and-no-play-Jill needed a steam release mechanism. I was too outdone with Peter Pan at the time to take him seriously.

There is this cute rap by Digital Underground called Doowutchyalike. iTunes it! Prolly better for grownups but you'll love it.

I'm not intimating that I'll be dooinwutIlike until my brains fall out (there's nothing but charcoal up there anyhow), but I'm gonna go wash my feet and not say please for a neckbone.

I'm tellin' ya, check out Doowutchyalike so these last few paragraphs will make sense!

And really, don't anyone rescue me please. I'm gonna take a bath, chill the serious mood, and do what I like, 'cause tonight's my night.

Happy New Year and in 2009, find a responsible way to do what you like. I certainly shall.


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Healing the Healer: Mineral Water

They're shredding memories of 2008 in New York City, so I was told. I've got some to add to the pile. Both 2007 and 2008 have been Years from Hell.

I'm working on my New Year's Resolution for 2009 right now. I only make one per year. I try hard to make it a resolution that's possible to achieve and yet one that will improve things for everybody. Some years I do better than others. I've failed pretty miserably for the last two years! :/

Right now, I'm about through healing others for a little while. Time to Heal the Healer.

In studying crystal work, I've discovered that crystal healers tend to absorb the dis-ease of the person they're working with unless they take great care to avoid it. Even with great care, it seems to be a draining experience at times.

Healing the Healer, and stones that heal the healer, are important to preserve the health of the practitioner. Although I DO NOT practice crystal healing and don't subscribe to some procedures of the standard profession due to belief system discord, I have great respect for the value of rocks and crystals and those things traditionally considered crystals by the profession.

I'm tired right now. I've had more to deal with in this last year than I was ready to handle. Losing my father in May broke up my support system and it will take time to rebuild it. Retiring on disability in April took away 2/3rds of my income and it will take time to restructure my finances. Breaking my neck in October has left me in pain and fatigue. I am...reduced.

It's time to quit worrying about my mother and her things, and my brother's possible cancer, and my aunt (one of my father's sisters) dying of cancer. Time to put aside my daughters' friends' situations with all their marriage problems, pregnancies, deaths (Aikichik's good friend's mother died two days before Christmas) and their various inabilities to make mojo's work. They all want me to be their doctor, as my mother puts it. I've done what I can do, and I'll continue to pray. But now it's time to heal ME.

Peridot is a lovely bright green semiprecious gemstone of great value in healing the healer. It's expensive to buy as a gemstone-quality chunk bigger than a grain of rice. I rummaged through my jewelry box and found an old Mother's Day pendant with several peridot grains as well as red garnet, citrine, blue topaz, and amethyst. It's set in sterling silver. I don't believe the whole tcw is more than two carats or two and a half, and I know it didn't cost but $30 because I bought it for my daughters to give me when they were little.

I made a mineral water using the pendant and a couple of grains of yellow topaz and one grain of imperial topaz. I'll wear the pendant too for a few days--getting the frequencies inside and out that way. I'm drinking the mineral water now as I plot how to escape all the people and make more mineral water adding my crumb of clear topaz too this time. :D

Today we have sunshine, beautiful clear skies and sunshine. We should have sunshine for at least the next two days too. I am thrilled, because the dreary weather of the last two weeks has made me virtually hibernate.

But, this being Alabama and winter, nothing stays the same for long. There is a chance we could get some sleet or ice by New Year's Day or the few days after. I discovered after I had slept for two weeks that mineral water made with the sundry tourmaline varieties that I have seems to counteract some of the effects of stormy weather that deck me.

So, deck me now with lovely gemstones, fa-la-la-la-la...oh, never mind. :D

Wanna see what I look like in Migraine Hell? Abandon hope, all ye who dare to click...


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Link to AP Article: Avoiding the painkiller-overuse rut in migraine

>1/26/09 Edit to remove expired iCopyright link
***********************************************

Avoiding the overuse rut in migraine

I don’t often link to articles, or report on other people’s reporting. Generally, I’m an original content kinda gal.

And I hadn’t planned another column here at Sparkling With Crystals until after Christmas. This one’s a downer too. Forewarned is forearmed.

But an article has appeared, written by Associated Press medical writer Lauran Neergaard, that clearly states a very serious problem for migraineurs that must be overcome by us, or by the medical community, or We together. Hopefully, it’ll be addressed by We.

And it finally cracks open the seal on some of the long-term effects of a category of early intervention medications that were sold to us migraineurs twenty years ago as the savior, the “shoot up and you’ll be back at your desk in 20 minutes” final resolution, triptans. Lauran Neergaard does not come right out and declare that triptans contribute to the progression of Migraine Disease but she does say that they become a risk factor for development of chronic migraine when use reaches 10 days a month or more. It seems to me that the objective of her article was to promote the value of prevention, which I am SO ON BOARD about that it cost me the services of my most recent doc.

If you haven’t read the article yet, please do so. Then come back here. The link to the article will remain here for one month courtesy of iCopyright.

For Migraine, I’ve seen more neurologists than I can remember by name. The last doctor I saw for Migraine was a Migraine specialist. They’re supposedly trained to contend with Migraine Disease from the Western Medicine corner of the ring. This guy was a dud, and I should capitalize that but I won’t.

He said that because I’d had so many years of under-treated Migraine pain, the pain nerve pathways in my body had become too ingrained for him to do much good. He said, “You’re really not worth my time to treat.”

Yep. Quote.

Too many years of under-treated pain to be worth the time of Dr. Breathtakingly Arrogant.

When last we spoke, I told him I would NOT take any more Imitrex and wanted instead to concentrate on migraine prevention. Imitrex caused the muscles in my neck to contract and close off my airway, I told him. Last time I took it, I told him, I was directed by my then-neurologist to go to the emergency room because she wasn’t able to stop the medication reaction and restore my free breathing. Nor did the emergency room care to restore it either. I was sent home untreated. This happened in March 1995.

When last we spoke, Dr. Breathtakingly Arrogant and I discussed alternatives to one of the four U. S. FDA-approved Migraine prevention drugs, an anti-seizure drug called Topamax (.pdf file). He told me to stop taking Topamax when I complained of side-effects that now have moved the U. S. Food and Drug Administration to put box warnings on other anti-seizure drugs commonly used for migraine such as Depakote (.pdf file). I tried Depakote many years ago, but got no relief from it. Just made my hair fall out.

He said that Migraine trigger management for prevention wasn’t especially effective either since most people’s Migraine attacks are caused by what he called “uncontrollable triggers”, things that we can’t avoid or stop like weather changes or exposure to other people’s strong perfume.

And that was it. If I wasn’t going to use Imitrex or any triptan as an early intervention medication and wanted only prevention--I refused pain medication that he offered until he absolutely insisted that I have something--I was gone.

This article succinctly explains being on the horns of the Migraine dilemma.

There are plenty of early-intervention medications and treatments both prescription and over-the-counter for a Migraine specialist and migraineur to try other than triptans. There are MOUNTAINS of preventative meds to try too. And I'm talking proven treatments, not shady internet offerings luring folks by promising a Migraine "cure" which simply does not exist at this time or promising to "eliminate Migraine" which may be simple management techniques that one may find at MyMigraineConnection for free.

Sure, to give a preventative a fair shake, one shouldn’t give up on it sooner than three months, unless there are side effects that cannot be tolerated. And sure, that means that in a year’s time, a migraineur may only be able to try at most four meds, or combinations of meds, to give them a fair shake.

Which means that a person might have a year, two years, ten years, who knows how long before an effective prevention regimen presents itself. And for someone like me, who has had what the AP writer called “stunning” 15 days or more of pain per month for decades, that’s a lot of time in pain.

Lots of time for those nerve pathways to become ingrained. Not worth the time of Dr. Breathtakingly Arrogant to treat.

Libchik had the first real debilitating Migraine attack of her life last week. She a migraineur too and so is her sister Aikichik. Libhchik's biggest deal is menstrual Migraines and even those she doesn’t get every month. But she had a whopper last week. She said her clothes hurt to wear, her hair hurt, her face was pale, and when I became concerned she told me I was giving off so much energy that she could feel it tactically.

She came to me the next day, after the attack was completely over, gently took my hand and looked right in my eyes. She said, “You’re the bravest person I’ve ever known. You have Migraine, and you don’t complain.” Later, I cried. My child "gets it".

I have only one more thing to say about Migraine and the horrors of it. I’m a force to be reckoned with during an attack. I would tell you to go to hell, but I wouldn’t want you anywhere near me.


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Mummy Food, just in time for...Christmas? :D

3/21/09 Edit to include copyright info according to the Usage Permissions guidelines from the Edgar Cayce Foundation. Sorry, I just found them!

*************************************************************************************

We Meniere's-y types generally take or consume some sort of diuretic every day. There are several varieties out there.

A commonly prescribed one and the one I take, triamterene, can and has caused my potassium levels to drop. Triamterene is called a potassium-sparing diuretic but that doesn't stop it from depleting potassium levels any time it wishes. I was in the ER for an allergic reaction to gadolinium contrast dye the first time anyone noticed that my potassium was low. That liquid potassium replacement is disgusting. :p

In my never-ending quest to experience quests, I found an interesting food dish given by Edgar Cayce during one of his psychic events. The recipe came from a dream he had on December 2, 1937. More specific information about how to create this dish is found in Reading 1188-11:

"...It is well for this body, or growing bodies, or elderly individuals also, for strength building and for correcting the eliminations, to use this as a cereal, or a small quantity of this with the cereal, or it may be served with milk or cream:

Secure the unpitted Syrian or Black Figs and the Syrian Dates. Cut or grind very fine a cup of each. Put them on in a double boiler with just a little goat's milk in same - a tablespoonful. Let come almost to a boil. Stir in a tablespoonful of Yellow Corn Meal.

These are good..."

He recommended this combination in Reading 275-45 also:

"...10. (Q) Outline diet for three meals a day that would be best for body.
(A) Mornings - citrus fruit juices OR cereals, but not both at the same meal. At other meals there may be taken, or included with the others at times, dried fruits or figs, combined with dates and raisins - these chopped very well together. And for this especial body, dates, figs (that are dried) cooked with a little corn meal (a very little sprinkled in), then this taken with milk, should be almost a spiritual food for the body; whether it's taken one, two, three or four meals a day. [See continued recipe below.] But this is to be left to the body itself. [See "mummy in EC's "DREAMS" 12/2/37, in 294-189, Par. R2.]..."

The first thing that grabbed me is that these dried fruits are high in potassium. I mean it--I have to have a baked potato, or some combination of a banana, raisins, a quart of milk, or a full can of tomato soup (oooo YEAH) nearly every day or I'll be in trouble shortly. Now I've got a single dish that will give me a nice dose of potassium in itself, nearly as much as a baked potato with the skin so The Calorie Counter website tells me.

Really, although I love grits and cornmeal mush (you know I'm a Girl-Raised-In-The-South! XD), the thought of these dried fruits with cornmeal and goat's milk, the way Edgar Cayce dreamt, just isn't appealing. But in Cream of Wheat or Cream of Rice and with salted butter, they are.

So, below is my version of Edgar Cayce's Mummy Food made with Cream of Wheat or Cream of Rice, along with some nutritional information.

CHECK OUT THAT POTASSIUM.

And do what you need to do to lower the Calories or sodium. I find that if I keep my potassium high, I can sneak a bit more sodium without blowing my ears out of my head.

Nice warm breakfast cereal, good fruits, sweet and buttery... Consider making it up the night before in a pre-heated thermos bottle if your mornings are busy--just pile it all in the thermos except for the butter and put the top on tight. Next morning put in the butter and it'll be ready before the coffee is.

Merry Christmas if that's a holiday you celebrate (it's mine), and warm love and happiness for all.

Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993-2007
by the Edgar Cayce Foundation
All Rights Reserved


Unless otherwise noted, copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Mummy Food - with Cream of Wheat or Cream of Rice, good potassium/sodium ratio

Mummy Food - with Cream of Wheat or Cream of Rice

3 fresh or frozen figs
1/4 cup dried sugared dates
1 cup boiling water
1 pkg instant Cream of Wheat or 1/4 cup Cream of Rice
1 tbs butter

Plump and defrost fruits in boiling water for 10 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients. Reheat if desired. Makes 1 serving


Nutritional Notes (you could save 102 Calories, 81.8 mgs sodium, nearly all the fat and all the cholesterol by omitting the butter):

Calories made with Cream of Wheat - 422
Calories made with Cream of Rice - 492
Total fat, either cereal - 11.3 g
Sat. fat, either cereal - 7.3 g
Cholesterol, either cereal - 30.5 g
Carbs made with Cream of Wheat - 74.1 g
Carbs made with Cream of Rice - 91.1
Protein, either cereal - 5
Potassium made with Cream of Wheat - 613.9 mg
Potassium made with Cream of Rice - 637.3 mg
Sodium made with Cream of Wheat - 243 mg
Sodium made with Cream of Rice - 83 mg

General Notes: I know, I know, a whole tablespoon of butter is a lot. Adjust as desired or omit the butter entirely if you like. If you could find unsugared dates you could save some Calories and carbs both. I used the figs I have which are my mother's whole frozen figs from her farm. I didn't include the sodium in the Celtic sea salt that I use when I make this because I imagine most people would shudder at the thought of dried fruit and salt.


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Thank you, Diana, for choosing 'Twas the Night Before Nut Cakes (below) for the Somebody Heal Me 10th Anniversary December 2008 Headache and Migraine Disease Blog Carnival!

December 2008 Headache and Migraine Disease Blog Carnival link.


From Somebody Heal Me(link on left also):

Happier Holidays: December 2008 Headache Blog Carnival

Note from Diana: Generally speaking, a blog carnival is a collection of links to a variety of a blogs on a central topic. The Headache & Migraine Disease Blog Carnival has been created to provide both headache and migraine disease patients and people who blog about headache disorders with unique opportunities to share ideas on topics of particular interest and importance to us. Visit the link to this month's carnival for a collection of informative entries on how to maximize your enjoyment of the holiday season. Thanks! Diana
--
Diana Lee
Somebody Heal Me: SomebodyHealMe.dianalee.net
SomebodyHealMe@dianalee.net

'Twas the Night Before Nut Cakes...

Disability and the holidays.

One must find a way to cope.

Being a creative sort of gal, I tend to create things when I'm stressed. Music, paranoia, poems, food, all sorts of things come to life when I'm under pressure.

Here's this year's Holiday Stress Offering 'Twas the Night Before Nut Cakes.



‘Twas the Night Before Nut Cakes
(With Recipe)

‘Twas the night before Nut Cakes and all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, except Mother Mouse.

Her stockings had fallen but she didn’t care,
She had to make Nut Cakes so her legs went bare.

She knew that St. Nicholas wouldn’t chop nuts,
She had to make NUT CAKES but she was a klutz.

Her knuckles were raw from the ends to the palms,
The grater was greater on them than pecans.

She finally got sourdough oiled-up and covered,
Collected the last of the items in cupboard,

With Cat on his pillow and Dog in his house,
Sat down with her feet up did smug Mother Mouse.

When out of the bread machine came such a clatter,
She leapt the recliner to see what was the matter.

Away to the kitchen she flew like a flash,
Tore open the bread machine, threw out her back!

As wild eyes before a loud shouting match glow,
Her face lit up things on the counter below.

She saw not the coffee pot that she had programmed,
She’d turned on the bread machine and it had jammed!

Pets heard her exclaim in her brain-foggy state,
“I’ll never again make Night-Before Nut Cakes!”


Night-Before Nut Cakes

6 tbs butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup sherry, apple or orange juice
1 cup fruitcake mix or mincemeat
2 cups unsalted nuts, finely chopped
1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp cloves (omit if using mincemeat)
12 tsp bourbon, divided (optional)

Cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs until well-blended. Sift dry ingredients. Add to butter/sugar mix alternately with sherry or juice. Gently fold in remaining ingredients.

Divide between 12 paper-lined muffin tins. Bake in slow 275o oven for 30-40 minutes.

Cool on rack. For grownups, pour 1 tsp bourbon on top of each nut cake, cover, and let sit on the counter overnight. Makes 12 nut cakes.


Notes: My ex said one year that he wanted me to make a fruitcake recipe that "mostly nuts with a little fruit". His wish was my command. This makes little cupcake-sized nut cakes with just a bit of fruitcake mix and is a great alternative to traditional fruitcake. Nuts are a migraine trigger for some people. I use pecans and almonds since they don't cause me any problems. Never tried this with peanuts so I don't know how they would do. If anyone does try it, let us know what you think. :)


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Help me, I think I'm falling or, Point me to your amethyst

Crystals with some of my African violet blooms, taken 10/29/08. Do flower frequencies actually transfer into crystals? Who knows! Younger Assistant Offspring, for whom I did this when she was sick in October with both mono and pneumonia, was charmed by how it looked. Worth it for that alone.

"Help me,
I think I'm falling..."
Joni Mitchell


Gah. At least I didn't get any glass pieces in my foot. :p

I have GOT to get a'holt-to this falling down business. I fell again today, broke a glass bowl on the way down, and sliced my left foot in several places. Only one cut was deep and I just really don't believe it'll need a stitch.

Prime opportunity now to share with you a recipe for home-made ice packs which were especially useful today because I had to ice all around myself. At one point I had both ice packs and amethyst points held on by ace bandages.

When I began chiropractics and acupuncture treatments, my chiro Jerry Nesseler D. C. gave me a handout with instructions for scheduled ice pack applications and directions for making ice packs. Here's a link to the directions below (no copyright on the handout but he gave me permission to blog this).

Next time, I'm going to use rock salt instead of rubbing alcohol. In crystal work, rock salt is called halite and is usually sold in big chunks. Traditionally it gives relief from feelings of guilt--when I fall or when my head hurts, you bet I feel emotionally sick as well as physically bad. The salt will keep the pack from freezing solid for the same reason that alcohol does and, along with solarized smokey quartz water, hopefully will give me even a tidbit more relief. Gotta have something to keep the cloth from freezing solid and rock salt (I'm going to use rock salt designed for making ice cream because that's what I've got) is cheap. Halite is more expensive because it's usually in a nice crystalline formation and in either in a natural tan, pink, or blue color. For that matter, maybe I'll use Epsom salts and see how that frequency makes me feel.

Right now, I'm sore and stiff. I caved and took two Aleve a while ago. This is a time when OTC analgesics are in order but I still feel like I caved. Maybe I should have taken rock salt? :)

And while we're talking about crystals...

Never have I been more grateful for having amethyst points than I was today. Amethyst has helped me with pain and swelling several times. It really takes the swelling and pain out of the backs of my hands where medical personnel like to put IV lines.

Amethyst grows in a couple of formations. Lapidaries get amethyst clusters and take them apart point by point. Amethyst points are lovely to look at, not expensive, and they make me feel very good inside and out. Today I put them in groups of three on my ankle, knee, wrist, and elbow and held them there by loose Ace bandage for a couple of hours after I took off the ice packs. I've still got a point with me as well as a smokey quartz point and a clear quartz point. Oh, and I'm drinking solarized dioptase/petalite water (those two crystals are supremely good for whatever ails me). Lovely crystals, sitting with my feet up, writing--I should do this more often except that I shouldn't have done it at ALL.

Really, it's time for me to get going on the third Sparkling With Crystals article which will have recipes and ideas for how I'm using rocks and crystals these days. Crystals have had a dramatic effect on my health. They work by using the same energy that acupuncture uses but feel totally different to me. The way I feel them, crystals create different effects than the acupuncture that I'm getting. This is preliminary, but Eastern medicine seems to be very, very good for me so far.

The sun will come up tomorrow. I'll still be sore and stiff tomorrow. Hopefully, I won't be as badly off as perhaps I would have been since I jumped right on this. Thank you, Crystal Healer. It was charitable of you to help me.

"Help me,
I think I'm falling,
In love too fast.
It's got me hoping for the future
And worrying about the past..."


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Home-Made Crystal-Charged Ice Packs (directions)

Home-Made Crystal-Charged Ice Packs


for 2 packs you'll need:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup rubbing alcohol
2 pieces of cloth folded to fit...
2 fresh, intact zipper-type plastic bags

Combine the water and rubbing alcohol, wet the cloth and wring it out nearly all the way. Fold it smoothly and seal it up into the bag. Place in the coldest part of your freezer for at least one hour before use.


Notes: I used solarized smokey quartz water prepared ahead of time for the first two packs I made. Smokey quartz gives me good relief for body aches so I thought I'd see if an ice pack made with smokey quartz water would give enhanced relief. It seems to do a good job but of course, I'm always aware of the power of suggestion. Hey! If it works, it works.

I used two clean, never-put-on-a-baby's-bottom cloth diapers (regular kind not the sponge-in-the-middle sort). Two were perfect for the amount of liquid this makes. They fit into quart zipper bags just right too.

They work very well. They're very soft even frozen as cold as I can make them because the alcohol keeps the liquid from freezing.

I'm especially happy with how well they relieve what ails my neck and upper back. They're not as effective on other places (like my wrists, knees, and ankles). Not sure why. But they really give great relief for my head, neck, and upper back.

Less happy with how quickly they warm up. They're only cold for about 10 to 15 minutes and after that, back to the freezer for them. Too, the alcohol smell is rather apparent--comes right through the bag. Other than that, I'm pleased. They're CHEAP and easy to make, only take an hour to chill up, and are very soft and effective for parts of me.


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Data mining: BMI and incidence of severe headache and Migraine

STOP THE PRESS!! Migraineurs and headache sufferers may need to watch their weights! Either that or not participate in medical studies...

Body mass index and headaches: findings from a national sample of US adults from the August 2008 issue.

Cephalalgia, an International Journal of Headache (Published on behalf of the International Headache Society), has mined data from a previous study of more than seven thousand men and women aged twenty or older who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2002.

This data-mining found the following:

After adjusting for a variety of covariates in a logistic regression model, those with a BMI <>2[odds ratio (OR) 2.01; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.34, 3.02] or ≥ 30 kg/m² (OR 1.37; 95% CI 1.09, 1.72) had a significantly elevated OR for having a headache compared with participants with a BMI of 18.5–<>2. BMI is associated with the prevalence of severe headaches or migraines in a non-linear manner.

In other words, study participants with a body mass index lower than 18.5 or greater than 30 had a greater odds ratio of having a severe headache or Migraine attack. Participants with BMIs between 18.5 and 25 had a lower odds ratio.

(Curious about your BMI? Here's a calculator designed by the U. S. Centers for Disease Control, a Federal government entity, that will tell you the awful truth.)

Man, the questions that popped into my head as I read about this from the Wiley InterScience website...Had the participants been diagnosed with headache disorder or Migraine or had they diagnosed themselves? What were the questions on the self-reporting questionnaire? Did the original Nutritional Study distinguish between Migraine attacks and headaches? Were the participants experiencing the headache or Migraine attack as they were being screened or was the headache/Migraine data simply reported as it occurred throughout the study? Did something about participating in the nutrition study cause the attacks such as participants consuming foods known to be Migraine or headache triggers, I mean?

Were any of the participants under a doctor's care for headaches or Migraine? On a preventative regimen?

Both weight gain and weight loss are side effects of some drugs known to have an effect on Migraine. Topamax (link is to .pdf file--scroll down to Table 10) can cause weight loss and did so for me. Depakote (link is to .pdf file--scroll down to Table 2) has a slight tendency to cause weight gain. Both drugs are amongst the 4 that have been approved by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration for migraine prevention.

What if some portions of Migraine management plans are keeping migraineurs at unhealthy BMIs and therefore contributing to the potential progression of the disease?!?!1

This study illustrates that more work would be required to determine whether migraineurs and headache sufferers as a group tend to maintain less-healthy weights. Then one would have to explain that and find out whether regaining a healthy weight would have any impact on the number and severity of attacks or on the potential progression of Migraine, or if the unhealthy BMIs are merely a headache/Migraine artifact. Then one would have to determine whether management plans affect and/or could overcome BMI issues or whether they are the cause.

Huge task.

My point is that WE NEED RESEARCH in order to answer these questions. Data-mining such as this is absolutely crucial as we inch forward in understanding, safely preventing and treating, and someday curing Migraine and headaches.

The International Headache Society, who publishes Cephalalgia, is a closed organization. Sadly, although I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Humanities from the University of Alabama in Birmingham, and actively blog and have participated in migraine awareness and education for many years, it seems I may not qualify to join and thereby be granted access to the actual publication, Cephalalgia.

I plan to explore whether my local public library rates to subscribe to Cephalalgia. We have a teaching hospital here in Birmingham, so maybe the library will be able to get this.

In this season of giving (YOU KNEW THIS WAS COMING! :D), please consider making a gift to help resolve Migraine issues. My current favorite is the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy (link on left also).

If you can't donate, please consider signing up for the email updates. When the U. S. Congress is pondering how to spend your tax dollars, the AHDA will suggest ways to contact your congress persons to let them know how you feel about Migraine and headache research, and the importance of more and better funding.

Right now, I'm going to drink some watermelon seed tea, balance my energy, and crawl under a rock. A rain/snow mix is forecast for us and the weather change is making me feel headache-y. Not a Migraine attack this time, more like my body is trying to gin up a cluster headache. It has tried off and on since Thursday to bust out a cluster, but I've fought back the advancing forces. :)

If crawling underneath rocks and balancing my energy doesn't stop this cluster, Axert will. If I can make it go away without Axert, I'd rather. No triptans are harmless but neither are aspirin, acetaminophen, or other OTC meds. Migraine attacks and cluster headaches must be stopped though. What we've got in the way of management and treatments is what we've got and all we've got until something better is found.

For reference, I began working on this column several weeks ago. I started typing it here on my blog this afternoon at 12:35PM. It's 4:26PM now. Nearly four hours to type something I had already completely written in my head.

I used to have abilities. Now I have disabilities. Even if you don't have Migraine or get headaches, odds are you know someone who does. Help us. We're in your debt, and right now probably in your way. XD


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Maggots and castor oil and old-fashioned forward thinking

Oooo yum! Castor oil! XD

Tonight I gave myself my second castor oil pack, according to the readings of Edgar Cayce. No, not any castor oil internally but an external pack made with flannel soaked with castor oil, put in place, and kept warm with a heating pad.

For whatever reason, my gall bladder hurts now and then. I've had an ultrasound done and there are no gallstones, and blood work shows that my gall bladder is functioning normally, so there's no reason I can think of to have it removed. The doctor said that gall bladders can become inflamed and painful for no obvious reasons.

I had tried a heating pad and ibuprofen over the years and frankly, got no relief. I try to stay away from over-the-counter analgesics these days because--and who knew?--taking recommended amounts of OTC analgesics for non-headache reasons can cause an attack called a medication-overuse headache in susceptible individuals by themselves in the absence of any other trigger so...Time to search for a non-drug method to relieve the discomfort.

I'm a fan of Edgar Cayce's readings as I've mentioned before. I don't agree with everything he said. He said a number times that people should only take from his readings what was "helpful and hopeful" and discard the rest. Humble man, major psychic, wrong on some important theological points. Right on many health issues.

I really, really would like to do a series on his readings and what I have been able to take from them and use. So many things to write about, so little ability...

The castor oil pack is applied for an hour to an hour and a half daily before bed for three days, then on the evening of the third day a tablespoon of olive oil is taken. Lay off for four days, then start the cycle again.

I'll let you know if I get any relief.

In other news from my blogging compatriot Marijke Durning, RN, of Help My Hurt (link on left too):

Maggots and infections: you may want to skip this post if this gives you the heeby jeebies!

Natural and non-drug ways to do what artificial chemicals do now is what this blog is all about. Marijke explains maggots and leeches in use today for infections and to maintain circulation in reattached limbs.

If I were to ever need this type of therapy, I'd have to repeat to myself..."they're only eating the dead flesh...they're only eating the dead flesh..." :p

A Sensitive's Dream: You-Made-it?! Breakfast Sausage

Ahhh, the simple foods we loved! Years ago when I determined that processed meats (and processed foods in general) were causing me multiple problems, I began a quest to recreate the simple foods we loved that today contain food additives that cause me problems.

Food additives trigger Migraine attacks and Meniere's attacks in me, upset my stomach, cause heartburn at times, drive up the volume of the 24/7 tinnitus I live with, and just make me feel dreadful overall. Not quite a year ago, I ate a fast-food meal at a venerable institution here in this part of the country, Jack's Hamburgers, and the chemicals burned my esophagus and made the skin peel off my lips. Salad and a milkshake--salad and a milkshake...I've never been able to determine what was in those things I ate despite my efforts. Years ago I did some show-business work with the man who created some classic advertising for Jack's...didn't drop the name when I was inquiring about the nutritional information. Perhaps I should have...

Here's a picture of my maternal grandmother (b. 1895) and her five daughters. She always made her own sausage, so my mother (the little tike with my Gma) says. My mother lived on meat from their smoke house until she was 7 years old, when the family moved "into town" from the deep rural countryside. There were 8 siblings who lived to adulthood so counting my grandmother, 9 of them lived a very simple, live-off-the-land lifestyle. Estimating the age of my mother, I imagine this pic was taken between 1938 and 1040. No one knows who took the pic.

Below is my version of pork breakfast sausage. No food additives and my family LOVES IT. Experiment with the seasonings as you wish. One day I plan to make an "Italian" sausage variation with fennel and caraway seeds, omitting the sage. I'll post the recipe when I've got it right.

The more food I make myself from recipes traditional in my family, the better I feel. "Love food" nourishes the body as well as the soul.

I nursed my children, watching them grow strong and healthy on the love from my own body. The joy of nourishing all my family with recipes from the Sparkling Kitchen overwhelms me with a grateful spirit.

I plan to leave the "post time" and date as-is. I'm in the aura phase of a migraine attack and it may be some time before I can get the recipe itself posted. Right now, today is 11/13/08 and the time is 5:36PM. Sorry So Short (SSS)--


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

From the Sparkling With Crystals Kitchen: You-Made-it?! Pork Sausage - recipe

You-Made-It?! Pork Sausage

1 1/2 lb pork steaks or 1 pound ground pork
1/2 tbs crushed red pepper flakes
25 turns of the black pepper mill
2 tbs whole or rubbed dried sage
1/2 tbs sea salt or to taste


If using pork steaks: Remove bone, gristle, and membranes but leave the fat on the meat. Process in food processor until ground and place in glass bowl or pie plate. If using ground pork be sure it's completely defrosted then place in glass bowl or pie plate.

Carefully and evenly sprinkle the crushed red pepper flakes, freshly ground black pepper, dried sage, and sea salt over the ground pork. Thoroughly combine with your hand or a fork.

If using right away, form into patties of desired size or into meatball shapes. Place in cold, heavy skillet like a cast iron skillet and cook on low heat until fully done--if necessary, cut them in half to check for pinkness and cook until evenly done throughout.

Important: Be aware that no matter which pork meat choice you use, this recipe has far less fat than store-bought sausage and might not render any fat at all even if you brown the patties or meatballs very slowly. The patties or meatballs may burn before you know it.

If making ahead of time, reserve the sea salt, combine the meat, herbs and pepper very well, cover meat mixture and place in the refridgerator. Right before cooking, evenly sprinkle sea salt over the entire meat mixture, carefully and fully combine, then form and cook as above. Don't refrigerate non-frozen meat mixture more than 24 hours before cooking.

Be sure to cook the entire batch when you do cook it. Freeze any leftover cooked patties or meatballs for later. Don't freeze the uncooked meat mixture.

Makes 6 to 8 patties or about 10 meatballs.



Notes: Personally, I like the flavor of pork steaks so I use them whenever I can. Ground pork is very convenient though. I have one of those small hand-crank-style choppers and it works beautifully for chopping the pork steak into ground pieces. If you grind the meat yourself be CAREFUL not to over-process because the meat heats up quickly and the fat will soften and melt, causing the mixture to become a gooey mess that's unpleasant to handle.

You can buy peppercorns in bottles with grinder tops if you don't have a pepper mill. No pre-ground black pepper can compare to freshly-ground black pepper. I don't like multicolored peppercorn mixtures--just don't like the flavor--so I can't give an opinion of how it may work here.

This recipe is a good example of when to used dried herbs over fresh ones. I LOVE fresh sage but it burns way too easily here. Also, using dried sage and crushed red pepper flakes will sort of act like a 'dry rub' of sorts if you make the meat mixture overnight, permeating the meat with the marvelous flavors.

It's important to sprinkle the herbs, salt, and pepper evenly over the ground meat--don't dump them in a pile. Sprinkling the herbs, salt and pepper will make for a more consistently-flavored sausage and make combining the meat mixture much quicker and more pleasant.


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Migraine & Depession: November 08 Headache Blog Carnival

November 08 Headache Blog Carnival: Migraine and depression


Note from Diana Lee, who runs the Headache Blog Carnival: Generally speaking, a blog is a collection of links to a variety of a blogs on a central topic. The Headache & Migraine Disease Blog Carnival has been created to provide both headache and migraine disease patients and people who blog about headache disorders with unique opportunities to share ideas on topics of particular interest and importance to us. Visit the link to this month's carnival for a collection of informative entries on art inspired by living with headaches and migraine disease.

Oatmeal-Flaxseed Bread - recipe

Originally posted on my other blog The Carmelite's Habit for Holy Week. Great bread for fasting on bread and water. I'm working on a variation where the grain and flaxseed are pre-soaked in buttermilk.


Oatmeal-Flaxseed Bread
1 1/2 lb loaf

1 cup plus 2 tbs water
3 tbs corn oil
3 tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup oat bran
2 tbs whole flaxseed
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tsp bread machine yeast

Place all ingredients in bread machine in order listed. I like it with a medium crust.


Notes: A mild-flavored olive oil works nicely in this recipe too. If you think you might want to keep the loaf for a day or two, reduce the sugar to 2 tbs and add a heaping tbs of malt syrup. It will help to naturally preserve it and will really give it a nice rich flavor without adding any additional sweetness.


Nutritional Information for recipe as given

Per 1 ounce
Fat 2.9 grams
Calories 91.7 grams
Sat.Fat 0.3 grams
Carbs. 15 grams
Protein 2.3 grams


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

The Green Demon of Migraine and...crystals

"Just one more,
Just one more,
One more rock and you'll be CURED!
Cured of Migraine forever!!" *poof*

Ugh.

At least I have a handle on pain now. Slowly but surely, I'm attacking the four phases of Migraine. Through crystal therapy (and reduced nerve inflammation through chiropractics) the number of attacks that I must medicate has gone down significantly. Through the preventive medication and supplement program I'm on, the aura phase is decreasing in intensity. I'm doing better, I would say! Yes, I'm feeling better.

I'll have'em whipped before you know it, all the phases. Whipped, but not cured. We need RESEARCH to find a cure for Migraine. It matters little that a migraineur may have a management plan that works. As long as there are attacks to be managed, Migraine isn't cured.

"You can do it!
You can do it!
If you put your mind to it!
If you put your mind to it,
You can do it! Do it! Do it!"


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Three Sisters Vegetable Stew - vegetarian recipe

Native Americans-First Nation Peoples-American Indians call corn, beans, and squash the Three Sisters. Here's my version as a nice, warming vegetable stew.


Three Sisters Vegetable Stew

1 quart field peas, butterbeans, butter peas, black-eyed peas, or limas
1 vegetarian bouillon cube (with salt added)
1 quart frozen or 4 cups sliced fresh summer squash of choice, defrosted if using frozen
Fresh corn from 3 cobs, sliced twice around the cob and any remaining corn juice pressed out with the back of the knife
1 medium or 1/2 large onion, chopped
3 tbs good olive oil
1 tbs butter
1/2 tsp salt

In large saucepan bring the peas and vegetarian bouillon cube to a boil in 2 cups water. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes. Add squash, return to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for another 20 minutes.

In the meantime, slice off the corn off the cobs and rescue any corn juice you can get. In a skillet heat olive oil and butter on medium high until butter is bubbly, then add corn and onion. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Toss around for about 15 minutes or so until most of the non-fat liquid is gone.

After the peas and squash finish the 20-minute simmer, stir in the corn and fanatically clean the skillet into the saucepan. Every smidgen in the corn skillet will be exquisite and must be put into the saucepan. Add remaining 1/2 tsp salt.

Bring back to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Correct seasoning and serve. Makes six to eight servings, or four to five servings for hungry folk. Really nice as a leftover or to take in a thermos for lunch.


Notes: An alternative is to omit the corn and serve the peas-squash-onion stew over cornbread with lots of pot liquor. For people unaccustomed to non-meat meals, the cornbread would add welcomed texture and satiety. I plan to omit the corn and make jalapeno cornbread next time to see what that's like.

Another plan is to brown a pound of ground beef along with the onion in the skillet and drain fat, before adding the corn, but that would be a different sort of dish and of course non-vegetarian. But likely tasty. I might omit the corn if I use ground beef and just serve it over cornbread. Many possibilities! :D My brother the hunter would vote for venison instead of ground beef. He's welcome to it. :p


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Kreativ Blogger Award

I'm smiling again.

Here I am, dealing with this broken-off bone spur and degenerative disk disease in my neck, aggressive chiropractics and acupuncture to see if they will manage it so I won't have to have surgery, got the normal family dynamics of life after a major death going on, a close aunt who truly relied on my late father her brother after her husband died just had a mastectomy for breast cancer, Aikichik has both mononucleosis and pneumonia, and I'm about at my wits' end, and lo and behold! This blog has been awarded the Kreativ Blogger Award by my bud and migraine blogger compatriot, MaxJerz of rhymeswithmigraine (link also on left).

MaxJerz is a true writer and poet. She won Third Place in the Putting Our Heads Together 2008 Poetry Contest. Her blog is worthy of following, if it's not already on your blog feed.

She'll educate you, make you laugh, and migraine awareness and advocacy are well advanced by her efforts.

I'm humbled and appreciative of the recognition. Thank you, MJ!

Time to ice my neck and back again and close my eyes for a few. Unfortunately, no broad-leafed plantain poultice recipes for you in the near future--the chiropractor has strictly forbidden me to put any heat on my neck and back. Can't even take a hot shower. Ice is all I'm allowed for now. Maybe I'll post instructions for making ice packs from tea towels, water, and rubbing alcohol once I've gotten the system in working order.

I can eat all those marvelous leaves though. Melt a pat of butter in a skillet, toss the leaves around with a bit of salt until they're wilted...oh me, the joys of foraging for supper. :D



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Piss-a-beds or, That's dandelion

*William Tell Overture in the background...*

I rescued both dandelion and broad-leaf plantain from my mother who was mounting an attack. I brought up the cavalry from the rear and effected the retrieval before she could toss them into her weed sack.

My Culpepper's Herbal says that the "vulgarly called Piss-a-Beds" dandelion is under the jurisdiction of Jupiter. That's convenient because I'm Sagittarius (actually, I'm that weird thirteenth solar sign, Ophiuchus, which isn't included because it's not in the tropical zodiac--don't ask what it means because I cannot answer any astrological questions due to ignorance!). Sagittarius is also under the jurisdiction of Jupiter.

Whatever--dandelion is a nice herbal diuretic for us Meniere's-y types who can't or don't want to take prescription diuretics. Don't know what effect it has on the endolymph and perilymph in the cochlea, but then I have no idea what the diuretic Maxide (first-line treatment) actually does either. The theory is that diuretics reduce the volume of those two fluids and thereby reduce the Meniere's Symptoms, but I'm not sure if any research has been done to verify that. After a year on Maxide, my hearing was restored to virtually perfect between attacks, I will say that. It drops to half of normal or less during attacks but bounces right back between times. If dandelion will suffice in place of Maxide, I would rather use it. I'll be able to grow dandelion nearly year 'round here in Alabama once I get a patch growing.

Next year, I'm going to plant a nice little patch in the back yard. Grow some yourself! But if you do, take care that NO LAWN CHEMICALS, EVEN FERTILIZER come in contact with your dandelion. Keep the animals away if you can but you'll be washing the leaves before you eat them. Besides, who knows what critters lurk in the hearts of the suburbs? Foxes, beavers, raccoons (a family of raccoons lives next door to me), turkeys, geese, and every other sort of bird you would want to watch and hear. Try to keep the dogs and cats out if you can.

The other plant I rescued was broad-leaf plantain. Culpepper's Herbal recommends it as a potherb also but mostly as a poultice for joints--as SNL's Church Lady (played by Dana Carvey) used to say, "How con-veeeeee-int!" My visit to the chiropractor after my fall last Saturday 10/18 produced a ton of information about my neck and spine from the x-rays they took last Tuesday that I never wanted to know but must attend to now, so I'll be experimenting with poultices and all sorts of spine remedies for a while.

One of my favorite crystals, aquamarine (shown in the midst of the dandelion), is supposed to be good for neck alignment. I'm going to try it tomorrow. I have been using this utterly fabulous botryoidal hematite hunk the size of a softball along with magnetite crystals for pain and they're also good for working with spinal realignment. I put the hematite at my feet and the magnetites along my spine and neck. It did help the pain but I'm beyond crystals and energy medicine now, I'm afraid. I may be beyond my fabulous chiropractor but he said he'd treat me for a month at least before reassessing.

I was not aware of any of this.

I've got an 'S'-shaped spine from scoliosis, bone spurs and degenerative disc disease in my neck (one of the bone spurs is floating around in my neck after I apparently broke it off when I fell the other day), my Atlas bone is out of alignment, and my C-6 vertebra has shifted to the left about 35% (that's about how far it looked to me on the x-ray--Dr. Nesseler [name used with his permission] said it was "completely in the wrong place") and seems to be pressing against my spine. Dr. Nesseler says that the arthritis in my lower back is affecting the nerve that is causing me to occasionally not lift up my right leg high enough when I walk up stairs and steps, which makes me stumble and fall (actually, I did know about the arthritis--back injury twenty years ago). I fall from plenty of other reasons--if Dr. Nesseler can fix this one, it would be marvelous.

My Culpepper's Herbal copy is so old it doesn't have a copyright date. It does list the publisher as W. Foulsham & Co., LTD., 2-5 Old Bond Street, London W.i, and notes that this particular book was made in Great Britain. Their website says they've been in business since 1819. It was given to me years ago by one of my late co-workers right before she retired. She got it from her mother-in-law right before she died. The mother-in-law was considered an herbal healer "of the old way" so my friend told me. Not sure what "the old way" means but the gift was priceless and made me feel like a million dollars.

*sigh*

At least I know what a lot of my problems come from. I hope to do an article soon about chiropractics explaining how they work on the more subtle things that are 'wrong' with a person, more subtle than a Western physician would trouble himself or herself with. If the Western physician can't find anything wrong, and you know it's not in your head, consider whether it may be in your spine. Your spinal nerves aren't the only source of nerve impulses for your body and organs but they're a major source. And a chiropractor won't prescribe any medicines.

For now, I'm babying my broken bone spur and my upper back. Got to, cause Dr. Evil whopped up on me Friday. He said he was going to--he didn't lie. I'll see him nine more times in the next three weeks. Might not be anything left of me by then!

Broad-leaf plantain, several rosettes, rescued from my mother's vicious weed digger the other day, destined to become both a potherb and a poultice for my back. Poultice recipe forthcoming once I've perfected it.

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Tsing, tsing, tsing or Brother, can you spare some energy?

3/21/09 Edit to include copyright info according to the Usage Permissions guidelines from the Edgar Cayce Foundation. Sorry, I just found them!

***********************************************************************************

It finally happened. Not the worst fall I've ever had, but a serious-enough fall nonetheless. I've whip-lashed my neck and I'm hurting. When I finally landed, I was lying on my right arm grateful because it saved my head from hitting the Pergo floor.

I had determined a while back that I wanted to explore chiropractic for my chronic situations. I'm nearly at the end of my Western medicine beneficial treatments--there is simply not much more that a Western medicine doctor can do for me other than surgery. Before I go there, from which is there will be no return for me, I determined that I would be absolutely certain in my mind that nothing else was out there to help me. This blog chronicles my journeys through alternative and complementary medicines in my quest for glowing health.

Crystal therapy and personal energy medicine work have been so good for me, I felt. My energy systems seem more stable and many things are gently drifting toward health. Time consuming, oh yeah, but getting well is my full-time job since I can do no other.

Chiropractics resolved Libchik's back injury after she was rear-ended on the local interstate beltway. She had been treated with drugs and physical therapy and progressed as far as those treatments could take her. Chiropractics relieved her pain and restored her range of motion. Aikichik's wrist problem has been resolved through chiropractics. Their chiropractor, Jerry Nesseler D.C., is a fine doctor dedicated to healing.

I checked him out sixteen ways to Sunday before approving of him for my two precious offspring. He's good.

The way I understand chiropractics, the objective is to manipulate the spine and joints to facilitate and enhance the working of the body's nerve pathways. It seems to be much more sensitive to the small deviations in the functional body than Western medicine. I was already ready to see what subtle changes Dr. Nesseler could make to help me get better. This fall brought me to his office sooner than I expected to see him.

I didn't believe I had sustained any bone fractures or organ damage that would have called for emergency room treatment. I couldn't get any better, though. I woke up yesterday in excruciating neck and shoulder pain and today got my first adjustment for whiplash, scoliosis, degenerative disease in my neck, and arthritis in my lower back.

I'm still hurting but differently than before, if that makes sense. I'll be going for daily adjustments for now. I'll let you know how it goes.

It almost didn't go at all. Dr. Nesseler gave me his opinion of the true cause of migraine, which he said was irritated nerves. If that were the case, then the triptans would be the salvation of all the migraine world, which they are not. My point was that management of the attacks is not the same as a cure. We agreed to disagree.

The MOST fascinating thing I got from today's work: confirmation that I simply do not make enough ki, or chi, or life force, or human energy, or whatever word one wishes to use to describe the energy that travels through the meridians of the body. I got an Acugraph exam, and so did Libchik.

AcuGraph is a device from Meridia Technology that measures skin conductivity directly over acupressure points that correspond to places on the hands and feet where the meridians surface, and then graphs it as it would be interpreted by a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine. According to the website, this sort of graphing has been done manually and successfully by meter and hand-drawn charts for years. The AcuGraph creates computer graphs of the results and gives all the computer benefits of simple storing and quick retrieval of readings patient by patient.

This device recommends specific acupuncture points that will give the fastest and most dramatic results to stimulate sluggish meridians or sedate overactive ones, as well as to balance the energy in them. It can be programmed to include the practitioner's particular supplement regimens and other practitioner recommendations.

(Being a person with kindergarten knowledge of moving energy around, I know that had I washed my hands and feet with warm water or cold water before the reading the results may have been somewhat different. A knowledgeable energy manipulator, which I am not, would know how to get around that.)

I was disappointed. I had worked so hard with crystals and energy medicine. I was feeling better. But my average energy level was only 56% of what a normal person should have. Libchik was at 102%. But she's my human battery too. Libchik looked at my Acugraph reading and asked how I was still alive?

Brother, can you spare some energy? XD

I'll be analysing this report for a while. Dr. Nesseler pooh-poohed the notion that I'd ever understand the earth, metal, fire, water, and wood readings. He said 100-year-old practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine still don't understand everything about them. I just smiled and nodded. ;) He told me--gasp--that being outside in the sunshine and in nature would help build up my energy. He absolutely has got that right. Not many things are good for me like nature energy. Well, there are a few things better...gads, can't get my head out of the beehive...

My report recommended that I work on my Tsing points at home. Dr. Nesseler showed me where they are on the sides of my fingernails. This research paper written by Dr. Adrian P. Larsen, D.C. and President of Meridia Technology Inc, mentions that they're also located along the sides of the toenails.

I recommend that anyone with an interest in energy medicine read Dr. Larsen's paper. While it contains citations that I haven't yet looked up for myself, it actually contains citations of research studies to back-up the science of this AcuGraph device and the accuracy of skin electrical conductivity to measure meridian function, and citations about how meridian activity correlates to health.

What the hey? Why not tsing, tsing, tsing? :D Nothing in this report did anything but quantify and further interpret what I already knew about myself from my own self-analysis and the help of others. St. Teresa of Avila, foundress and reformer of my beloved Carmelites, was a firm proponent of knowing oneself. Carmelites work on self-knowledge throughout their lives. Edgar Cayce, the devout psychic Christian Sunday School teacher, called by some The Father of the New Age Movement, said in reading 2583-1:

First, analyze yourself. Know yourself and your purposes. Know what you believe, physically, mentally, spiritually. Know the sources of your beliefs. For in such an analysis you may find your true self.

The Crystal Healer knew what he was about when he recommended that I carry clear quartz with me at all times. Clear quartz amplifies energy.

Anyway...for now, I'm going to be getting stagnant energy released from my messed up spine and will continue working on specific meridians with crystals, which Dr. Nesseler asked if I had ever done? XD

Purple plate...he told me to Google "purple plate"...

Next article: "Piss-in-bed" or Man, that's some dandelion


Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993-2007
by the Edgar Cayce Foundation
All Rights Reserved


Unless otherwise noted, copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Marvelous, but take care: St. John's Wort

'St John's Wort plant as effective as Prozac for treating depression', say scientists

This is UK reporting on a press release, but it has very good advice for anyone using or considering St. John's Wort as an herbal supplement for any reason. I took St. John's Wort off and on before I needed Effexor.

If there is even the slightest chance that you might be tempted to pick up a bottle next time you're out, please first call any medical personnel who have prescribed medicine that you take. Even if you already know that St. John's Wort doesn't react negatively with meds you take, your medical personnel need to know that you plan to take it.

The Mother Hen in me loves you all and wants you all to do the right thing, as she knows you will. :)


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Megan Oltman: Take Back Your Life From Migraine Key #3

Megan Oltman of Free My Brain From Migraine Pain has created an E-course called Take Back Your Life From Migraine.

The six-step course was so good for me, I decided to share a few bits with you. Not gonna give away the course though! Sign up for it. Even if you don't have Migraine, odds are you know someone who does.

Check out her blog to sign up. Or you can sign up here.

Key #3: Know Your Triggers

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Have you ever wondered exactly what is happening during a migraine? In a migraine attack certain stimuli trigger neurons in the brain to fire off in a rapid sequence, increasing vascular pressure. This leads to head pain, nausea, dizziness, visual disturbances (aura) and in rare cases, temporary paralysis. There are many potential triggers. Common ones include:

> Bright or flashing lights (fluorescent lights are blinking in a rapid sequence and can trigger migraines for many) - Yep

> Smoke - never paid attention until now, but you better believe I’ll be on the lookout. I’m not exposed to second-hand smoke at home but I do have a wood stove. Smoke is smoke, I imagine.

> Dehydration - oh yeah, right up there

> Chemical fumes, scents - tied for first place

> Alcohol (particularly red wine) - stackable. Sometimes yay, sometimes nay.

> Hormonal fluctuations (including menstruation) - sadly, my hormones have no effect on migraine as triggers for anything except–well, on to the next one...

> Insufficient sleep, too much sleep, or changes in sleeping patterns - an impending migraine actually disrupts my sleep on its own.

> Changes in the weather (usually large changes in barometric pressure as when a frontal system moves through) - dealing with that right now in fact.

> Motion travel - moving further up the list as Meniere’s worsens

> Loud noises - soft noises, certain frequencies of noises, certain timbres of noises...

> Certain foods - (I'm not counting food additives or processed foods here--they're 'chemicals' on my list) Not so much except that I can count on garbanzo beans as a stackable trigger

> Changes in altitude, or being at a high altitude when unaccustomed to it - hmmm...never been at a high altitude except on an airplane. Need to check that one out! :D

> Sudden or drastic changes in eating habits (such as dieting) - missing meals for sure is a stackable trigger for me

> Changes in caffeine consumption - I don't consume much caffeine now but when I was a full-caffeine coffee drinker, reduction in caffeine was a stackable trigger



Not on Megan's list but also tied for First Place for me is anxiety. Stress, not a migraine trigger at all unless the stressor makes me anxious. Back when I was well, nothing got me focused at full speed like a short deadline. Now, stress triggers Meniere's for me. Anxiety triggers migraine for me. Can't win for losing.

Here are the components for First Migraine Trigger Place. They don't exert influence in this order necessarily:

• Chemicals, fumes, additives, and crap like that
  
• Energy drains and EMF
  
• Noise
  
• Anxiety
  
• Motion, especially moving my head independently from my body. That makes a weird picture in my head but hey! It's me! ;)
• Light, especially glints of sunlight and fluorescent lights and computer screens and my cell phone. And television.

Next lesson: Keep Track of Everything


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

Make the World go Away or, how do I turn down my life?

"...Do you remember when you loved me
Before the world took you away
Well if you do, then forgive me
And make the world, make it go away..."

Make the World go Away, Elvis
(words & music by Hank Cochran)



Hard to picture how astronomically sensitive I am to American Life. I want to make the world just go away.

Hard for me to overemphasize it. Chemicals, sound of certain frequencies and certain volumes, intense people (what irony! I'm one of the most intense people I know!! IT'S TRUE!!!), stress, even rather weird things like scrambled energy from other people and really 'out there' psychic stuff, weirdness like that--knock me completely for a loop. And it's getting worse.

I wonder if I may need to move to fresher air and cleaner land in order to get well completely. I wonder if I'm going to have to grow everything myself that I eat for the rest of my life. I cannot stomach food additives, I just can't. I can't stomach many of the things sold in produce departments of grocery stores because--get this--my system reacts to chemical fertilizers in high-water produce like watermelons and cantaloupes and they make me sick to my stomach.

I have now lost 42 pounds since this time last year--verified it with the nurse when I was on the scale yesterday. Granted, 27 of those pounds were from fasting and praying during one particular point in time last summer; however, part of why I'm continuing to lose weight is from having to be so particular about what I put into my body.

I thought that by reducing the amount of medications I took, I would also reduce my overall sensitivity but so far that theory hasn't proven itself. I thought that purging my system of this adipose tissue (read: FAT! XD) and the various yuckiness that builds up in adipose tissue would help but neither has that theory proven itself. I'm using both crystals and a very good herb and homeopathic systemic tablet cleanse system on a regular basis but I can barely tolerate the tablet cleanse system. Using it at 1/4th the recommended level is all I can stand and then only one or two days at a time before even the cleanse makes me ill.

I can't breathe around household chemicals. I can't do laundry because I can't endure being exposed to laundry chemicals--well, I haven't the balance to carry a laundry basket anyway. Today my most perfect Assistant Offspring are going to get a box of Ivory Snow laundry soap to wash my clothes and sheets and towels. I have to shower with Ivory soap. Please don't ask about my best friend L'Oreal. I've been coloring my hair since my late twenties. I just did my hair again on Monday. Soon will come the day when I can no longer subject myself to hair color. A sad day that will be too. I started going silver in my late teens. My father went gray early so I imagine it's a genetic thing.

I live in a world of near silence. All my great Beatles and 70's music--listening increases the volume of the tinnitus I live with 24/7. I grew up when loud music was the only way to go, but I couldn't stand it loud even then. Can't play the piano any more. Can't play the guitar anymore. Can't play my wooden recorder any more--yeah, I play the recorder. I haven't watched a TV show since the last episode of Cavemen. My beloved Naruto--no more.

I'm to the point that I can only sign onto the internet once or twice a week, only turn on the computer if I absolutely have to. Can't talk on the phone, can't walk into Elder Assistant's bedroom because she has her little fridge from college in there--all the EMF waves kill me. I've gotten several big hunks of good stones for absorbing EMFs for her and they're helping. In my bedroom, it feels like the power has gone out. I've got black tourmaline EVERYWHERE.

I even keep my cellphone on a slab of rainbow fluorite with a hunk of black tourmaline taped to it. I'm running out of ideas for reducing my exposure to American LIFE.

I'm considering moving. I could move into one of my mother's pieces of property. She has a place in Florida and a very small farm that would both be good. Florida would be good because her property there is nearly on the beach and rather removed from the commercial district. The farm would be good because it is so far out in the lovely Alabama woods that there isn't a road to it. And ah, do I love my sweet trees and forest land! Her property has artesian springs that bubble pure water right out of the ground. My father always kept up with testing the water there at the farm because they have a well. Never has the least bit of anything bad ever shown up.

And the water is cold, and sweet, and getting down on your belly to drink will put you in a new frame of mind. Does me anyway. :D

But I love the ocean too, particularly the Gulf of Mexico. All my disequilibrium vanishes when I'm in the ocean bobbling on the waves. Don't know why that's so, seems contrary to logic. My soul expands near the ocean. When I was younger, I would go out to the beach in the wee hours just to listen to the sounds and watch the movement of the tides, and pray.

I just believe I'll reach a point in my journey back from disability when I'll no longer make progress living where I am now. I'm euphoric about the progress I've made. Until I reach my own definition of glowing health, though, I won't be satisfied.


"Make the world go away
Get it off my shoulder
Say the things we used to say
And make the world, make it go away..."


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.

No brain surgery for now! And neurotologist is astonished!

Edit to add pic at the end. It's meaningful to one person specifically. :)


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I have good news: I will NOT have to decide between whether to have the simpler endolymphatic sac reduction or whether to go with the recommended-but-in-the-category-of-brain-surgery vestibular nerve section.

Yesterday when I saw my most marvelous Meniere's neurotologist Dr. Benjamin McGrew to go over the pre-surgery MRI and CT scans and make final decisions, I didn't mean to gush about crystals and energy medicine but I did. Gushed and chattered and went on and on and on about them. Hey! It put him in a good mood to see me in a good mood! :D

I've made the most progress with crystals and energy medicine in migraine relief, by far, and not with Meniere's symptoms. I've got a handle on pain for the first time in 42 years of migraine battling. Dr. Breathtakingly Arrogant, the migraine specialist, told me that because I had been so badly under-treated for migraine pain all these years that the nerve pathways in my brain for pain were so deeply embedded, that I "wasn't worth [his] time to treat". Yep, that's a quote. Now, I can manage migraine attacks most every time without using any rescue medications, and that's un-freakin'-real. Not every time, and I'm grateful to have meds when I need them, but when they do the job I'll take crystals and energy medicine over prescriptions ANY DAY OF THE WEEK.

When I shared this triumph and Dr. BA's quote with Dr. McGrew, he smiled and said, "Incredible!" As my body's poor fried energy system continues to heal itself, he believes, the Meniere's may begin to see healing too.

Dr. McGrew believes now that continued conservative treatment--meaning NO SURGERY!!--is the correct route to take. He believes that the Meniere's may begin to resolve itself as my body continues to heal itself. Continue preventative meds, low-salt high-potassium diet, energy medicine and crystals, and come back in six months. And continue using the cane and DO NOT DRIVE.

I DON'T HAVE TO HAVE SURGERY!!! *happy Gollum dance*

But man, the stress since my last appointment and since that ridiculous allergic reaction to contrast dye! That's what I'll share with you next post. Until then, if anyone knows how to turn down Life, please let me know.

You know who you are... :-*

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission under any circumstances. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more powerful.