Sunday, October 26, 2008

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.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

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!

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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.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

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.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

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.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

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.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

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.