Oh Scalene! Whatcha doin' to me, Scalene? :)

Well! We might be excavating deeply enough to find some real therapy to go along with the drugs to work on my Meniere's Syndrome and Migraine Disease.

At the moment, I'm iced up and doing some music therapy for the pain in my head. The pain's not pounding yet but it will be in a little while. That's what physical therapy on a neck can do!  Taking meds now and I'll be off for rocks shortly.  Chris told me to expect all this exacerbation of symptoms.

Many of my Meniere's buds and I have a thin strip of painful muscles down the sides of our necks on the side (or sides) in which we also have Meniere's. My right ear is currently diagnosed with Meniere's. The painful strip running down the right side of my neck has made me weep from the relentless intensity. Neither ice nor heat relieve the pain nor even mitigate it. With the Migraine preventative medication regimen I'm on, nearly all pain in my entire body responds to either Advil, Aleve, or if it's Migraine, to Indocin (occasionally I'll need my really big pain guns but not often).  They'll relieve the thin strip of pain but not the tenderness when I touch it.

Today, physical therapist Chris got to work on my neck.  He worked and worked and suddenly SHAZAAM.  He touched that painful strip (which had not been actively hurting and isn't hurting now) and I nearly came off the table from the hurt.  I felt it inside my right Meniere's ear HARD.

[As an aside, I felt bad for the other people in the clinic who heard my *ack*.  Hope they didn't wonder if Chris was throttling me or something.  XD]

He told me he had touched a group of 3 muscles called the scalenes.  Scalene muscles are innervated by one or more of the very vertebrae in my neck that I know are in trouble:  C-2 through C-7.  Chris told me that if we had time he'd get the anatomy book out and we'd look at it but dang, he spent two hours on my backbone as it was and I was a steak tender at the end.  I told him I'd look it up on the internet.

Scalene muscles seem to be associated with a repetitive injury called thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS).  TOS causes, among other things, numbness across the tops of your arms down to the ends of certain fingers.  That's a sensation I have during some migraine attacks, usually during prodrome.  Won't matter if I have TOS if they can just fix it.  Not looking for yet another diagnosis.  All I want is to get well.

Anyway, Chris worked like a field medic:  he noted how bad he was hurting me but it didn't stop him.  He got all up and under my C-1, also called the Atlas bone, but otherwise didn't do much near my vertebrae at all.  He concentrated on neck muscles.

Last thing he did on my neck was something he called "manual traction".  MY WORD I'd hire that man to do that to me every day.  I told him I felt an inch taller but he said he hoped he'd not stretched me but half that.  XD

We took a break and he showed me how to use my TENS unit.  E-stim which clinics use for pain relief is very good for me so I'm pumped about trying this for pain.  Chris gave me free reign to use it wherever I needed it.  COOL BEANIES.

[Another aside:  TENS units are not designed for the electrodes to be used directly on the head.  There is a company that makes an over-the-counter mini-TENS for headache but otherwise, don't anybody use TENS electrodes directly on your head unless your doc or PT tells you to and even then, have them explain why your prescription durable medical equipment TENS unit is safe enough for your head, why not?]

I have enough pain in other places that I could burn up the batteries in short order, I imagine.  And, after trying a nice little TENS secret that the owner of the clinic uses for vestibular problems, we discovered last week that it temporarily stopped the migraine pain that last week's work triggered.  I'm telling you, Dr. Breathtakingly Arrogant is onto something.  He spotted my Meniere's (which is a cochlear condition sometimes called cochlear hydrops) and told me that many of his tough cases have cochlear issues as well as migraine.

I had a rare opportunity, during my first visit to clinic, to be evaluated by a physical therapy doctoral student.  She was utterly amazing.  Never have I had a more thorough spinal and balance evaluation, ever.  She was about to recommend a...walker...but said that if I was doing ok and not falling with my cane, it would do.  Elder Assistant Offspring told me that if it ever did come down to a walker, she and my other daughter would pimp it out for me.  My only request was for headlights.  LOLOL

Anyway, that's a status report on the state of my head.  I've decided to name my TENS unit "Scalene".   After while Scalene and I gonna hook up and go cruisin'.  :)

Some links below to information about scalene muscles if you're just interested.

Scalene muscles drawing
Scalene muscles Source: en.academic.ru
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Head and Neck Musculature, innervation of scalene muscles
PT Central - Muscles of the Head Source: ptcentral.com
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Gray's Superficial Cervical Plexus (purple-taupe)
File:Gray784.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Copyright 2008-2010 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Rough few days

I posted this on Twitter a few minutes ago.

"Can't catch a break. Fw: The Aug. 7th solar flare might affect Earth after all.New data show a CME heading our way http://spaceweather.com"

New Moon in Leo tonight and all this solar drama has done me up a treat.  Thanks to the energy healer, you know who you are, who got in there and unblocked some things.  It helped.  Praying for your intentions.  :)

I'm going to be out of medicine in a few days if this doesn't stop.


Copyright 2008-2010 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Just sharing what Migraine and Meniere's together are like

Today is a dangerous type of day.

I've slept 18 of the last 24 hours, still need sleep.  Dreamed that Diana, Princess of Wales, had been married to my old choir director's son.  She asked me to please investigate why no one will allow her to excavate the construction accident site where his remains are buried [as far as I know, IRL the man is alive and well and living happily ever after].

Then I dreamed my late father gave me $10 to buy some lobster that was on sale.  My brother and cousin weren't interested in lobster so we didn't get any.

Just did a heat/ice alternating thing on my head.  It helped the pain somewhat.  I've discovered an additional nerve in my face that is now flowing with battery acid.  One more to add to the list.

My right ear has stopped doing deep Chinese gong tinnitus.  In addition to the regular 4 tinnitus sounds, it's been screaming a high-pitched squeal since yesterday (different from the Morse Code beeps).  My left ear has taken up the deep Chinese gongs.  Disequilibrium is so bad I'm trying not to walk because I'm just crashing into the wall and furniture.

Rescue medicating on days like today is dangerous.  I keep thinking that more will be better.  More will not necessarily be better.  More of the meds I have could be very, very bad.

I'm sitting here in the dark wearing prescription sunglasses.  I can't turn off the loudest of the fans because it's 95o outside and the a/c can't keep up.  I may have to get ear plugs.  With ear plugs I REALLY hear the tinnitus.  The neurotologist diagnosed me with a level of disability from tinnitus by itself.  You can't imagine how nuts it can drive you.

I have a good glare screen on my laptop.  I utilize the Windows Vista accessibility features to make the screen less painful to my eyes.  Today those features aren't helping.  I'm typing this with my eyes closed, for all intents and purposes.  I need to get off here and I will shortly.

Many compassionate people are so understanding of pain.  But unless you have migraine, you can't wrap your mind around how stupid it is.  Really, medicating on days like today is dangerous.  The impulse is to take more and more and more medicine to make the pounding pain STOP.

I'm into complementary treatments just to fill the gap between medications and relief.  I'm going to get some rocks that I know will help until the OxyIR, Indocin, Valium, and Robinul kick in.  I'll get them just as soon as I can get up without falling.

Fifteen seconds after I stand up, my head will explode and I'll have a stroke.  Well, maybe no stroke this time but there is no way to predict which migraine will be a migraine and which one will be a stroke.  My situation includes mitral valve prolapse which, according to a long-prior neurologist who succumbed to pancreatic cancer, is likely to be spitting out tiny blood clots that are traveling to my brain.  One day, he told me, my MVP would spit out a blood clot just a tidbit too big and instead of a migraine attack, it would cause a stroke.  I'd likely die.  Pleasant thoughts but in his defense, he told me this about 6 months before he died himself so death was on his mind.

Biggest issue next to this attack is food.  I'm hungry.  But I'm not safe in the kitchen right now.  I broke off a piece of bread and had it with cottage cheese.  That's what I've had today but really, I haven't been awake very long either.  Next will be Lucky Charms and milk.  I have a can of Campbell's Healthy Request (or Choice, or something) that has no MSG.  If I feel better enough after while I 'll heat it up.  That will be a big help.

If I get to feeling better I'm going to have to make a comfrey/catnip infusion to help repair the effects of all the Indocin I've had in the last 2 days.  This particular infusion is utterly amazing for relieving the stomach pain from NSAIDs.

And, I've gained weight.  No matter the pounds, my waist still stays smaller than my hips.  That a Sagittarius Sun for you (Sagittarius rules hips and thighs).  No joke, I seriously could do with some poundage loss but officially, I'm still proportionate.  Go figure.

Just wanted to share how stupid migraine and Meniere's attacks are.  Going to try to solve this without taking any more meds for a while.  I could barely swallow the last pills I took.  My body doesn't want to take any more pills even though my brain believes I need to in order to get relief.

Those one or two distance energy healers that know who you are, if you have time to help out a poor soul, I'll pray for your intentions in return.

I am so f***** up sick. 



Copyright 2008-2010 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Sharethis: How Somebody’s Medicines May Be Making You Sicker - Welcome to the Alliance for Natural Health - USA

No joke, I've got to figure out a way around Full Moon/New Moon Meniere's/migraine attacks. They're kicking my butt. Through my head.

Medicated patch systems are mentioned in this article as one of the ways pharmaceutical pollution reaches the water supply. I use the Vivelle_dot estrogen replacement patch myself. The package insert gives directions for removing residual components after patch changing - basically, you use rubbing alcohol to dissolve the adhesive and a cotton ball to wipe it away. I'll be redoubling my clean-up efforts now you may rest assured.

I'm hitting the sack with rocks. If I don't have to take any meds I'll be happier, but I'm not going to sit around suffering. I've determined that it's not good for my state of mind. Emotional hygiene is one of my New Year's Resolutions and one I've begun to get a handle on. Never want to lose ground. It may happen, but it'll be against my will if it does. B)

Welcome to the Alliance for Natural Health - USA Source: anh-usa.org
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Sharethis: Medication Overuse Headache Article: Education Through a Biased Lens? ~ Somebody Heal Me by Diana Lee

Diana Lee has a critically analytical mind. Her commentary on the article she links to is excellent. Everybody read both her article and the one she comments on. What she and the article say are both absolutely right, in addition to being true.  At IRS this would be called full, accurate, and complete.

Neither Diana's article nor the one she links to is about what to do in that Land of the Living Dead that exists between the end of pharmaceutical treatments and the end of the attack, but that little problem is a huge problem for me. 

As Sparkling readers know, I'm huge into complementary treatments for Migraine and Meniere's, and for all the stuff that bothers me. It appears to me that complementary treatments are a Migraineur's sole port in the storm when he or she reaches the acute reimbursed pharmaceutical treatment limit, limits which despite claims to the contrary are frequently set by insurance companies according to toxicity of the treatment rather than desire to preserve company profits. I am aggressively pursuing complementary treatments to go with preventative work all in close conjunction with all my doctors.  I'm all about prevention, myself.  The fewer attacks that I have to treat at all, the better for me from my point of view.

Today's Full Scorpio Moon matches my own progressed Full Scorpio Moon and I'm taking the day to doctor it. I did a few little complementary things to prepare for this one and so far, this occurrence of the twice-monthly Full Moon/New Moon attacks is less intense than usual. That's a good thing.

Medication Overuse Headache Article: Education Through a Biased Lens? - Diana Lee, Somebody Heal Me
Medication Overuse Headache Article: Education Through a Biased Lens? ~ Somebody Heal Me by Diana Lee Source: somebodyhealme.dianalee.net
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Annual Month-Long March Meniere's/Migraine Attack

***Simul-posting***

Somebody please put me out of my Meniere's/Migraine misery. Just let me live in the process.




Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Sharethis: Furious backlash from Simon Singh libel case puts chiropractors on ropes | Martin Robbins | Science | guardian.co.uk

Three-day combo Meniere's/Migraine attack, but wanted to comment on this.

The sad aspect of this controversy is that there indeed may be an energetic aspect to many conditions. A person may have nothing that a doctor can identify as wrong, yet be in poor health. Chiropractics and energy medicine may be able to resolve the poor health and return a person to radiant vitality and well-being even though no medical condition were ever to be identified to have caused the decline in health.

Many complementary and some alternative treatments have millenia of flawless track records for restoring radiant vitality and well-being to the sick and the well alike. I'm working with rock medicine, energy medicine, and herbal medicine to restore mine. I believe it will be a step forward to be better between attacks.

Going to take more meds now. My prev med regimen, smokey quartz, and Maxwell House Lite have settled my stomach and given me a window to eat some soup. I'll make it. I always do.

Read the article. Please comment if you feel so inclined.

Furious backlash from Simon Singh libel case puts chiropractors on ropes
Furious backlash from Simon Singh libel case puts chiropractors on ropes | Martin Robbins | Science | guardian.co.uk Source: guardian.co.uk
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Vertigo into Vertigone in Two Easy Steps! XD

Very quickly--wanted to share this bit of success before I crash and burn entirely.

Late last evening, I got hit suddenly by three punches of vertigo within about 10 minute's time.  Today vertigo and nausea are washing over me wave after wave, tinnitus is absolutely shrieking like a banshee and my ears are poised to expel their contents like projectile vomiting.  Oh, and I've got pounding head pain as well.

I ate oatmeal with hempseed oil to see if that would settle my stomach.  Nothing happened.  I took both Robinul and Valium, the two prescriptions that my neurotologist gave me for Meniere's symptoms.  Two and half hours past and other than feeling drowsy as well, I had every symptom that I've had all day.

Between waves, I made 16 fl ozs of peppermint tea and put in two small spoonfuls of my homemade Honey Stuff which has a good dose of ginger in it into each teacup.  Ginger is perhaps the top-of-the-line non-Rx vertigo and nausea treatment out there.  I put Bach Flower Remedies Scleranthus, Wild Oat, and Gentian drops in the tea cup as well.

Not only does this peppermint/honey/citrus/ginger tea tastes utterly divine, but in this last half an hour the vertigo has slowed to a small constant rather than strong waves and the nausea has vanished completely.

Could it be that the meds simply took longer than 2 1/2 hours to work?  Possible but my stomach was actually empty enough when I took them that they should have hit my system within about 20 minutes or so.  They did not.

I can certainly feel them now nearly 3 hours later.  Hell, in another hour it'll be time for more and the last dose has only just begun.  I'm of the firm opinion that this tea rebuked the rising tide until the meds had a chance.

If you haven't got a jar of Honey Stuff in your fridge, consider making some up on a day when your over health and ability suns are shining.  It has proven itself valuable and, when stored in properly sanitized containers in the fridge, should last for at least a year.

I'm off for a crash landing.  Take care.  Hang in there. 

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Help me, I think I'm falling...

"Help me, I think I'm falling..."
words and lyrics by Joni Mitchell

I was standing dead still, looking out the window to see if I could discern even the tiniest snowflake, and then crashed into the closet doors to my right.  Never even knew I was off balance until I hit the doors.  No memory of falling either.  I was looking--and then was crashing.  The point is that nothing triggered me to catch myself before I hit.  Natural off-balance reactions failed completely.  No surprise.  I test as having no vestibular function.

Woke up with my head numb and heavy-feeling on my right side, where it was hurting last night.  My ears are not hearing equally.  And I sliced my thumb last night and bled all over celery and cucumber lol.

These next few weeks might be quite rough.  The waning El Nino weather pattern is creating one huge system after another, one every couple or three days.  I'm trying a new Bach Flower Remedy combination specifically for dealing with weather changes (more on Bach and me soon).  Too bad I had not tried it before I fell!

I was quite pleased that I had a couple of good days last week.  I'm feeling better between Meniere's and Migraine attacks and that is an absolute improvement.  I'm down to all "decafs" now:  Decaf coffee, decaf tea, and I've got just one pound of real coffee in the freezer for Migraines that call for it.  My sensitivity has gone through the roof.  A cup of real coffee now would make me a babbling maniac.

I've got a couple of things on my job plate this year:  A new system by Dr. Peter D'Adamo that tailors diet and lifestyle recommendations by running a large number of pieces of data through a web-based calculator; continuing to concentrate on emotion hygiene now working with Bach Flower Remedies; resolved to memorize how to trace my energy meridians; and I'm going to cut my hair myself this year.  Really! 

This might turn out to be a year of introspection for me.  I'm good with that.  I need time to figure out more work-arounds such as the cutting-my-hair-myself thing.  No way on earth I can lay my purely busted cervical spine into the sink at the shampoo station, just don't seem to be able to find a stylist who understands the words, "I CAN'T HANDLE A COMPLICATED HAIRSTYLE."  I'll just do it all myself.  So there!  :p

I need more time to understand rocks and all the wonderful things they can do.  There hasn't been enough (or much of any really) research done on therapeutic external use of minerals so I'll continue to guinea-pig on myself.  I am having trouble adapting to how quickly my overall sensitivity is escalating and need time to figure out how to deal with that.  I'm having success with 100% pure essential oils, simple, plain and natural foods, and--yes, I'm admitting to this--I've had some success with feng shui.  But it all takes time, brain time, silent time, alone time, down time, for me at any rate.

I need more time by myself overall.  My mother is extremely resistant to cooperating.  I understand that she's grieving still.  But now she has a few friends her age, a marvelous volunteer job one day a month that she loves (perfect for a 76 year old), and I'm not going anywhere.  Time for some boundary-setting, I guess I'm saying.

I'll be posting fewer columns here as well.  Posting my stream-of-consciousness ponderings wouldn't be useful to me nor interesting to all y'all.

Hopefully, a quiet year ahead.  I most assuredly need it.  I'll bet we all do.  :)


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Christmas Carols for You!

See if you can guess the names of Christmas songs I've parodied? :D

[title]
We wish you a healthy Christmas!
No headaches upon this Christmas!
A warm, understanding Christmas,
And a pain-free New Year!

Less Migraines we bring, for you and your friends,
Less Migraines for Christmas and a pain-free New Year!

[title]
There we went a-vomiting
Before we gained control!
There we went a wand’ring
Such foggy brain’d trolls!

Love and joy come to you!
May your health get better too!
May God bless you and send you
A year of better health,
May God send you a year of better health!

[title]
I’m dreaming of a white ice pack,
Just like the ones my mother knows,
Where the cold spots freeze you,
And warm spots fail you,
Like men, watching TV sports!

I’m dreaming of a cold ice pack,
With every pounding pain I feel,
May your days be dark, quiet dreams,
Close the door to soften touchdown screams.

[title]
The Cluster and the Migraine,
When they are both full-blown,
Of all the curses that man may know,
It’s the combo that’s the crown.

[title]
In the bleak mid-Migraine,
Dreadful aches and moans,
Right behind the eyeball,
Underneath a stone.

Rocks were piled up, rock on rock,
Rock on rock,
In the bleak mid-Migraine,
Not so long ago.


[title]
Toradol, toradol, toradol rocks!
Toradol eases, toradol stops!
No wracking aching
Dependency free!
I’ll take an IV, if you please!

Toradol, toradol, toradol rocks!
Toradol ‘round the clock!
Toradol is wonderful
An IV heaven sent!
Doesn’t Toradol rock!  :D

Merry Christmas if that's your holiday.  It's mine.  Warm love and wishes for health and happiness!



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Hades Neptune

I've written ad nauseum about my doubly Hades Moon: the Moon in my birth chart is in the sign of Scorpio and is sextile Pluto in Virgo.

I've now found, reflected in my birth chart, a good explanation of my astronomical, comical, and utterly stupid sensitivity to life. In the course of reading up on the various subjects I'll be working on in Transpersonal Studies, I've found that analyzing my own birth chart is providing me with some insight into how others with some of my problems have coped with them. At the end of the day, the things I've found in my birth chart back up my and my docs' beliefs that I'm not making up my health problems. My spine issues are there too and an astrologer commented that skeletal things should very gradually increase for me as I finish growing up.

The term Hades Moon comes from a book of that title by Judy Hall. She should write about all the planets that aspect a Hades Moon. My Neptune is also in Scorpio and it conjuncts my Moon in Scorpio and both are sextile Pluto, god of the underworld. Neptune conjuncts my Descendant axis giving it substantial "weight" in chart synthesis.

Here's a swatch from the Karmic Insight Report (available from www.cafeastrology.com). Unfortunately, it's up to me to synthesize how this sensitivity manifests itself through the deep, dark, and secret Scorpio. This swatch just talks about Moons and Neptunes in a very general way:

The ability to empathize is a soul quality you have developed through many past experiences. Your psychic openness and capacity to "tune in" to what others are feeling is certainly a talent and a gift, but it can also make you vulnerable to your environment in many ways. You unconsciously absorb the psychic atmosphere and feelings of the people around you, so much so that you may be unable to separate yourself and distinguish your own emotions from other people's. You are thus susceptible to being manipulated, especially through pity. Allowing others to leech off of you emotionally, financially, or even psychically can be a problem for you. On another level, when you are not in balance you may manifest an over sensitivity toward chemicals, pollutants in your surroundings, or even prescription drugs, and an intolerance for any sort of noise, stress, or dissonance. You tend to take it all in, rather than resist or maintain firm limits. You have rather soft, permeable boundaries. When you get out of balance, however, you respond well to subtle therapies which affect primarily the emotional or subtle energies and thereby bring you into harmony. Beautiful music has a healing affect upon you, color therapy, aromatherapy, or simply being in or around water can all be very effective for you.

It is also beneficial for you to periodically withdraw for renewal. Going on spiritual retreats or visiting sanctuaries, even just being out in the wilderness, are quite necessary for you at times. You have a pronounced desire to escape or leave the world.

Night before last I had a dream that a man was leading an exploratory expedition to Neptune. I was following them psychically because in the dream, that was what I did for a living: psychic monitoring for NASA (don't fret--the Migraine attack that generated this weirdness stopped hurting last night). The most significant part of the dream was that I looked up into the sky and, in daylight, "saw" Neptune as the dot portion of an exclamation point formed by clouds also.

Dreams speak the symbolic language of the subconscious mind. Guess my subconscious is telling me to forget Venus & fix the Hades Moon/Hades Neptune conjunction Descendant first.

*sigh* I doubt that will be nearly as much fun as helping Venus have a good time. I've been recording my dreams since high school psychology class. Once I start dreaming about something, it's time to address it.

Balance...balance...Neptunium balance...water...wilderness...

Or I could just forget it and pull the covers back over my head. :)

Check out my "Reading Now" list. I'm about finished with The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine Aron, PhD, (c) 1996 Broadway Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036. I checked out both it and her The Highly Sensitive Person in Love from the library. Haven't read The Highly Sensitive Person in Love yet but I know for sure that I want to own The Highly Sensitive Person. There are a number of books addressing this trait and I've read several of them. Dr. Aron is Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) herself and has worked hard in this book to reassure us HSPs of our worthiness. Only a couple of problems with this book but the two primary ones are: she clearly states that Migraine is one result of not properly caring for your highly-sensitive self (Migraine is genetic--all the self-help books in the world won't make that gene go away). Second is her science on the physiological effects of long-term high cortisol levels and how to handle those effects; otherwise, one great book all in all. I recommend it. She and her husband crafted the studies that she conducted and she designed a questionnaire included in the book to help the reader get an idea of high sensitivity. Can't wait to start The HSP in Love even though Venus and I won't be bar-crawling as long as her father Neptune is standing in the doorway.

Libchik and I had a discussion about the differences between using psychological terms to describe a character trait and using astrological terms for the same trait. She's not sold on astrological birth chart information yet. Six of one, half a dozen of the other for my part. Psychological astrology (practiced by such luminaries as Liz Greene PhD. and Robert Hand) has already made the connection. Now we who come afterwards get to reap the benefits. :)

And I'm now at the end of my useful minutes. Gonna stretch out with rose quartz, idocrase, and Brandberg amethyst.


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Editorial: "Healing" and "Management" of Migraine and Meniere's

I am such a permeable person that I commit osmosis against my will. I felt the recent world-impacting events in my physical and energy bodies before I ever found out what had happened. I absorb other people's states of being too, their emotions, their physical symptoms, brain waves, thoughts, impulses, desires....ok, maybe not everybody's and I promise I don't pay attention to them except to try to get them out of my own system.

The state of my energy body is my biggest problem, I am about of the conclusion. Energy bodies are like physical bodies: A person doesn't eat "once and for all" for example, nor wear a crystal for a time and fix an offending problem for good. Taking care of myself has become a consuming, irritating, boring chore that hasn't fixed a thing about me. I don't think I'm alone in how I feel about chronic illness and I don't see any brightness in tomorrow.

My energy body simply doesn't function properly and in that I'm including my entire system of nerves, spinal problems and nerve damage. Things that disrupt my energy system cause certain things to happen to me to which I'm genetically predisposed, like Migraine. Disruptions also trigger functional things that are intensely nerve-driven, like Meniere's Syndrome and Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

The disruptions that cause problems for me seem to be energy-related themselves, like EMF waves, weather and other nature changes, astronomical events like normal Moon and Sun things, solar flares and such, and strange as it may sound, negative people and their own disrupted, scrambled energy systems. I don't generate energy properly. I absorb disrupted human and non-human energy sometimes without being aware of it--I've even pulled energy out of electrical outlets in an arc and no, not mistaking this for a discharge of static electricity (which isn't very useful to me, no idea why).

I feel the urge for a blog editorial coming on...about the difference between "managing" a chronic illness and "healing" the condition.

Medicine can only cure a few things. Most things that happen to people are defined as "self-limiting": Eventually, they go away by themselves (by way of death of the person at times). Medicine can improve the self-healing process by setting bones or performing surgery or prescribing drugs to accomplish various things and thanks be to God for modern medicine! But the human body is designed to heal itself when at all possible. Might not be possible to restore a body to its pre-injury or pre-illness state, but a human body is designed to fix itself up as best it can.

I'm going to state my opinion here: Chronic illness is a compromise between the illness and a body, to me. The body doesn't die right away but it doesn't heal itself either. The body exists in a state of semi-functioning, neither getting better nor expiring. Is it because the body doesn't know how to get well? No one knows. Is it because the body is doing something (maybe in normal homeostasis with no intent to stay sick) to exacerbate the chronic situation? Maybe in some instances. Is it because the chronic compromise is the furthest extent that the body can go in healing itself alone or with medical treatment? That very well may be.

My current energy body functioning seem to me, at this time in my learning curve, to be the best compromise that my body can devise to cope with onslaughts of skewed energy in order to keep me going.

I don't believe Meniere's or Migraine either one are self-limiting. I know that at this time no cure for Migraine exists. We have symptom relief, prevention, and management techniques. Meniere's may be the same but there is too little research for Meniere's out there for me to feel as certain as I do about Migraine.

Right now, we can alleviate symptoms, work on prevention (which I intend to also include both lifestyle/trigger management and prophylactic measures), and work for awareness and more and better research, data mining, things of that nature. Not much more can be done. Until and unless I can figure out a way to develop energy boundaries, I don't foresee that I will make progress in increasing my daily functioning. Symptom relief, prevention, personal self expression through awareness--none of those things are improving my functioning.

I have worked LIKE A DOG for years, and yeah call them decades, to try to find a way to live so that I'm not at the mercy of other people--their energies, their egos, their disrupted, scrambled selves--made great progress in staying right where I was and even reducing prescription medicine usage (and I credit crystal therapy and energy medicine), but my functioning is absolutely no better. None. Zero. Zilch.

I am so very pessimistic right now, and it feels unnatural and discouraging. But the more time I spend in the awareness and advocacy world, the more certain I feel that such industry-wide slogans as "working toward a cure" and "raising awareness" promote an illusion of virtually impossible outcomes. I'm just about to decide that concentrating on management techniques and self-help methods would be both more cost-effective and measurably more successful in reducing disability and restoring functioning than funding attempts to achieve things that medicine can barely do for any condition or any disease, dis-ease, injury, or malfunction regardless of the time, effort, awareness, research, and prayer.

Medicine has developed so few cures, no one ever talks about them. If someone will share with me a reason to work for a cure instead of working for better management, I'll most assuredly listen.

I want to be wrong on this. But I just don't think I am.

And this is the end of this Editorial.

Diclofenac Potassium Oral Solution now FDA Approved for Migraine Treatment

New NSAID for Migraine treatment. Trade name will be Cambia but if you do searches for that word, be sure to search in English. The Spanish language articles you may get may not have anything to do with Diclofenac.

TO SAVE YOU THE TROUBLE of searching the FDA website, here is the Cambia prescribing information (.pdf).

Heeeee! This explains the flurry of anti-tylenol and anti-NSAID commercials over the last couple of months!

"One man's meat is another man's poison". Be aware that anything you put into your body--food, medicine, somebody else--can be dangerous.

But, this is good news on the Migraine front. Indocin, an NSAID used frequently for chronic daily headache and hemicrainia continua, does an excellent job for me (although I feel quite certain its effects would be less pronounced if I were not on a good preventative program of Effexor XR, Keppra, and verapamil as well as the energy and rock medicine things I do too). If it ever stops being effective, I'll consider Cambia.

Slept all night, woke feeling dreadful, then slept 9 more hours. Back to sleep--this is a combination Migraine/Meniere's attack and they're, well, dreadful.



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

"Of which vertu engendred is the flour" or Do You Have What it Takes?

" Healing takes patience, persistence, and perseverance. Do you have what it takes? If you said *no* then you'll stay exactly where you are."
Sue Ingebretson, from Twitter

True words. I needed encouragement this morning. Just one of those down, crap-happens days but ta-da! Pleasant, positive phrase popped precipitously preaching patience, persistence, plus perseverance! Aha! Accept, all alliterative ants! XD

I'm in the midst of a combination Meniere's/Migraine attack. Any minute now, gray matter will explode from the sides of my head through my ears, I just know it. The Chinese gongs are sounding nearly continuously and the tinnitus is absolutely screaming. Hearing is going up and down, up and down. The nerves in my head have become sore to the touch now and even smiling hurts.

BUT I'm really getting pumped about the possibility of someday going back to school. My dream was to be a university English teacher. I had been admitted to grad school, had my course of study all planned out--my emphasis was going to be Chaucer with a sub-specialty in linguistics. But, see, I got this job in New Orleans and ....well...didn't go to grad school.

My full-time job now is getting well. Both of my disabling conditions are "triggered" conditions which mean they're rather unpredictable. And I have very little other than patience, persistence, and perseverance--but I do have them.

Heck, maybe a pilgrimage would help--enlist the aid of a "blisful martir" for to "holpen" this pilgrim. I've followed another genealogist's work back a few centuries and if his work is accurate, then Chaucer's wife Philipa de Roet's sister Kathryn Swynford (who was John of Gaunt's third wife) is a direct ancestor on my mother's side, through John and Kathryn's daughter Joan de Beaufort, through the Nevilles down to George Stanley who married Joan, 9th Baroness LeStrange (in her own right). Their daughter Mary Stanley married John Hardy about whom I'm writing a novel of historical fiction .

Anyhow, I need a nice Saint as patron for my wellness efforts. Job's open--accepting suggestions now. :D


Here bygynneth the Book of the tales of Caunterbury
"...Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke..."
Geoffrey Chaucer



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Out There: I am Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer

It appears there is a 13th, generally unused astrological sun sign called Ophiuchus. It is generally defined as falling somewhere between November 29th and December 17th of a year. I found it when I was reading Love is in the Earth: The LIITE Fantastic and Last Testament by Melody, (c) 2007 by Earth-Love Publishing House. [At once cloyingly sentimental and egg-headed, it's not a terrifically practical book but it does keep some useful crystal information at hand such as the chemical formulas (good for figuring out which rocks have a good chance of working well together) as well as the Mohs hardness scale for more than 1,300 rocks, minerals, and other things that generally fall under the title of 'crystal'. Unfortunate that the name of the book is misspelled on its own title page but oh well...]

I was born on December 14th, making me not a Sagittarius but an Ophiuchus, by strict sun-sign reading.

Ophiuchus is the Serpent Bearer, the doctor. And true to my nature, medicine is a true love for me. Western medicine holds no charm but completing and alternative medicine traditions do. My first foray into studying completing therapies came about when I wrote a research paper for my sophomore high school English class. My topic? Honey!

I've gotten a parans fixed star reading to integrate into all this too. According to the parans reading, my rising heliacal star is Antares, the Heart of the Scorpion. Not surprising since my Sagittarius Sun is virtually unaspected (being trine only Uranus and that's it). My most aspected Light is my Scorpio Moon and it's my second most aspected planet with Pluto being first in the queue.

Hopefully I'll be able to integrate a couple of astrological readings done for me into a future column. Edgar Cayce considered astrological readings as a snapshot of a person's integral physical and spiritual nature as identified by heavenly body positions at the moment they were born.

What all that means is it's probably not learned behaviour that up to now, I've delved straight into deep, intense relationships, not passing "Go" or collecting $200 or even becoming friends first (my ex-husband began discussing marriage two days after we met and I was there--he and I share many chart similarities), and have made my most profound progress not through reflection or sharing with others, but through life and death. Transpersonal psychology, depth psychology, that's what I want to do.

The stars and planets don't cause me to be the way I am. They provide a way to identify and analyse personality and physical aspects in an understandable way. They'll give me a way to explain to analysands why one workaround might get faster and better results than another. Not likely that they'll care what their heliacal rising or setting stars are or which planet is aspected to the what in the where on their birth charts. All this will be useful to me mostly.

Three steps forward, two steps back...drinking colorless apophyllite, blue aquamarine, and rutilated quartz-charged water right now. I'm about ready to go back to the neurotologist about this Meniere's. I have spent a year working like a dog to see if I could solve my vestibular system problems through completing treatments but haven't made enough progress on that front to count, really. Keeping my energy balanced and using rose quartz both help with vertigo attacks but nothing has touched the disequilibrium that persists for weeks after vertigo attacks. I'm on the verge of needing a walker (the vestibular rehab therapists that I've seen in the last two years think I do), frequently I can't keep my balance sitting upright in bed even, and walking when I'm disequilibriated wracks my shot nerves. This is no kind of life.

What I've learned in the last year is that an integration of what we know now with what we know now is the key to health success. Both Libchik and Aikichik-sensei (Shodan as of yesterday!!) agreed this past week that in some ways, I am remarkably better now than I was two years ago. I owe much to the Crystal Healer's advice and the professional astrologers who've patiently answered my intense questions, the amazing books I've read on Jungian dream analysis and planet delineations, and the personal work I've done on my own ideals and direction.

Although I spent some years as a W-2 wage earner, mostly I've been self-employed in my money earnings. If I can ever get disequilibrium resolved, and can continue the good progress on the Migraine front, maybe I'll be able to rejoin my beloved self-employed. I'll have to find new route out for intestinal gas than through my mind (read: brain farts short-circuit my cognitive processes), but hey! I love a good challenge if I can figure out what it is. XD

"Life goes on within you and without you", as George Harrison put it in Within You, Without You. It'll go on for me whether in this life or the next. I certainly would rather be of service than to require being served, that's for sure. My birth chart is so others-oriented, I didn't seriously consider further pursuing who I was more than being an MBTI "ENTJ" until I was faced with the horrific spiritual attack that has now divided my life into "before July 2007" and "after July 2007", but the rest of who I am in fact will have to wait for a future column.

Time to scoot. The sun will come up soon and this nocturnal scorpion will be retreating underneath rocks shortly to wait out the burning sun until night falls again.

Wonder what Meniere's Syndrome determination is?

If you EVER think Meniere's Syndrome isn't tough, just read this thread from www.menieres.org

David.

If I wore a hat (and I think men who wear hats are sexy, BTW), I'd take it off to you, David.


On Twitter--Parin Stormlaughter

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. 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 effective.

Deep in transpersonality

"You know nothing of hell."
Koehler, POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl

May has been a rough month. It has taken a lot of out of me and I couldn't have told ahead of time that it was going to be so difficult. May marked one year since my father died here at home.

Fairly easy Migraine month, though. I've now gone for three complete weeks without a Migraine attack of any sort. Three-week-long prodrome still going so whenever the attack finally progresses, it's liable to be a huge one. Quite pleased that I've needed no meds other than daily preventatives in a nice long time. Clear quartz and dioptase-charged water, that's the secret.

Not a good month for Meniere's. One minor attack after another and one major attack, first major one since February. My ears feel like they're about to explode right now. My hearing in my right Meniere's ear is down. My mother had to raise her voice yesterday just to talk to me.

If I can ever get all my situations calmed down, I do want to go back to school to study transpersonal psychology. It's a complex subject by itself, psychology is, without the addition of things like shamanistic healing techniques, astrology, and in-depth dream interpretation. Transpersonal psychology is a form of depth psychology. Going into the deep places of the human psyche to heal the most frightening, disturbing, and supra-personal topics and doing it through transpersonal techniques that take a person outside themselves and into the extra-dimensional realms--I cannot wait. Soul retrieval, hypnosis, energy work--all right down my alley.

Seems I'm suited for it, if my birth chart with the new time is correct. It appears I've got the chart of a witch--or midwife of the soul, as it has also been put to me.

I've figured out a way to do a bit of studying. I can use my laptop in bed and when vertigo hits, I slide it to the edge of the bed and stretch out. Yeah, I've spent a lot of time horizontal this month. I'm vertical right now borrowing Libchik's computadora whilst I wait for mine to come back from warranty work. Feels good to be upright.

Got several things in my head that I want to write about: new information about the role of estrogen in brain's processing of hearing (which MUST include the study about the relationship between cochlear dysfunction and Migraine which is also affected by estrogen and hormones), something that struck me about the relationship between Neptune birth chart aspects and "permeable" people like me related to body energy leakage (I cannot afford to shed energy under any circumstance that I don't initiate), and how birth chart analysis seems to provide clues to help distinguish between learned behaviour and innate, inborn character traits. Learned behaviour is more difficult to modify than inborn characteristics, and any help in sorting it out would give a psychologist an edge in treatments.

Before I write any of those columns, though, I'm going to write about what I'm reading right now: The Hades Moon by Judy Hall, (c) 1998 Samuel Weiser Inc, Box 612, York Beach, ME 03910-0612. Judy Hall is a UK karmic astrologer/astronomer (Master's Degree level) who has counseled people who have a particular chart aspect connecting their Moon and Pluto placements. It seems that we Hades Moon sorts have unique problems such as energy vampirism and other such issues from the depths of hell that transpersonal work appears to succeed especially well in adjusting. My Scorpio Moon sextile Pluto in Virgo is what Judy Hall calls "doubly Hades Moon". So, to everyone I've put through hell since the day I was born, I apologize. Now I'm getting a handle on it. Glad my belief system contains a method for addressing wrongs. Hope you all begin to feel better soon. :)

Right now, I've got to get horizontal again. The good vertical feeling has worn off.

Feels good to be feeling again. Speaking of feeling--did I mention that some people with Hades Moons have a higher libido than others? Add that to my current 20% increase due to Migraine and...dadgum...gotta find a way to solve this...

With my Venus in Aquarius squared Neptune in Scorpio plus my doubly Hades Scorpio Moon, it takes an extremely strong, handsome man on the darkest side of the Force to achieve perfection in my eyes. But, he'd have to prove trustworthy first, and I don't believe that's possible for any man. Love you guys, but you'll tell a girl anything. Especially you dark-side and handsome types. :-*



On Twitter--Parin Stormlaughter

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. 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 effective.

Star-Crossed or A Cardinal Rule of Energy Generation

I’ve found another piece of my energy problem puzzle. It's been in my stars all along.

I meant it when I said I would leave no stone unturned in my quest to solve my health problems. They’re serious, disabling, and confounding.

It’s been a journey since my father died last May. I’ve explored crystals, energy medicine, acupuncture, chiropractics, and Edgar Cayce health recommendations in my current full-time job of getting well. The years and mountains of money I’ve spent on Western medicine dismay me. I’ve derived benefit from all forms of health restoration and illness amelioration into which I have delved. I intend to continue them all for as long as I continue to benefit.

One insurmountable problem has plagued me as far back as I have memory, and that’s energy generation. Yeah my stamina is shot but I mean body energy when I say energy generation.

The problem is simple: a permanent solution has yet to be found, to my knowledge.

In the last few months, I’ve done some superficial reading and moderate pondering and decided that personality astrology would not cause belief-system conflict. Predictive astrology, making decisions and plans based on horoscope charts, would be a problem (and really wouldn’t be of much assistance to me). Being a true believer in psychology and professionally-administered, scientifically developed assessment tests makes personality astrology seem like a good fit.

My journey into self-understanding began when my late friend and Formation Director in Carmel, a PhD who administered psychological and other assessment tests at the State level before her retirement, gave me the MBTI assessment. Her advice and recommendations, guidance and friendship, finally drew back the veil on why I am the way I am (ENJT if you’re just wondering). She died of cancer, I voluntarily withdrew from Carmel, and had to start again, once again. But my firm belief in the value of professionally administered and scientifically-developed assessments was cemented. (Oh, go on and take a Tickle test. It won’t hurt and you might learn something. But get a counselor or psychologist for real assessments. They’re worth the price if you want the knowledge).

But, before embarking on any complementary or alternative health program and before considering anything found here at Sparkling With Crystals, I urge my gentle readers to evaluate and be strong in their own belief systems. You must know what you believe to be right and true before you’ll be able to evaluate whether a practice or system will be right for you. Clients and patients must find those whose beliefs are in line with their own in order to make optimal progress.

I was absolutely blessed by God to have accidentally come across a crystal healer tolerant of my belief system (no idea if he‘s an anomaly in the business, but he understands my belief system well). He made just a couple of recommendations but they were utterly perfect and spot-on. Without his help, I would still be bedridden as well as housebound.

I took his advice and ran with rock medicine. I buried myself under a rock with books and books and books.

Studying crystal and mineral medicine logically lead me into the broader field of energy medicine. I found Donna Eden, whose system doesn’t conflict with my beliefs, and made further progress. Still, I can’t get a handle on increasing the amount of bodily energy I produce. I can move it around myself, balance it top-to-bottom and side-to-side, but can't generate more.

I can hold onto what I have, for the most part. I can disseminate energy well when I communicate and when I’m being creative, for example. But generating sufficient energy is simply something my body cannot do.

In pursuing personality astrology through my birth chart looking for answers, I found a reflection of this energy-generation problem of mine. It seems I don’t have beneficial Cardinal planets in my birth chart, the only astrological chart I'm really working to understand right now.

Cardinal signs reflect energy production, Fixed signs ground the energy into usage, and Mutable signs share the results. To apply this strictly to health one should probably consider the planets in one's 6th House which covers physical health (where I have the Moon and Neptune), but my overall Quality situation can't be ignored.

• Cardinal Earth: Jupiter, Saturn Air: Mars
• Fixed Fire: Uranus Air: Venus Earth: Ascending Taurus Water: Moon, Neptune
• Mutable Fire: Sun, Mercury

Plenty of Fixed and one of my Lights, the Moon; sufficient Mutable with my other Light there, the Sun, which is important. But only planets in my Cardinals and two can be conflicting for energy generation.

Jupiter expands and Saturn contracts, so the teachings go. The Lights, Sun and Moon, are the most influential bodies in a chart. Mars is my good shot at energy generation, for all intents and purposes.

I've got science behind me that I don't produce normal amounts of electrical energy, at least. There's a device called a AcuGraph that measures the amount of skin resistance present over acupuncture meridians. When last it was measured, I was producing 56% of what an average person produces. To compare, my two daughters were both slightly over 100%. We were all measured on the same day, same machine, same technician.

Anyway, I am more and more leaning toward the position that my energy problems are constitutional and not due to ill health.

Poor Cardinal signs, AcuGraph reading, having lived 48 years knowing myself better than anyone else knows me--I can't find anything else to account for my poor energy generation other than simply the way I'm made.

The Crystal Healer intuitively knew a crystal that would help. What's the crystal considered to be the one that carries energy to the most perfect state possible? One considered to be a pure source of energy? Clear quartz, the crystal he told me to start with. I'm telling you, crystal healers aren't your average Joes.

My recent clear quartz diet was very good for me in many ways. I'm gonna make clear quartz-charged water to rinse my hair and for the next time I dive into a nice hot bath. Heck, no reason not to put nice tumbled stones in my chest of drawers, the pockets of my coat and sweaters--the possibilities are endless. Clear quartz clusters--need more of them too.

Is this a cure for my problems? Will I suddenly become Amazing Woman? Wow, wouldn't that be FUN?? XD Heavens yes, it would be GRAND to become Amazing Woman. But clear quartz won't do it.

Clear quartz will NOT straighten my spine or move the displaced vertebra back in line. I seriously doubt it will balance the ionic fluids in my cochlea. It will raise my "frequency" as long as I'm in contact with it or until my body learns to maintain the higher frequency by itself.

What I expect is that redoubling my exposure to clear quartz will improve my functioning as a whole. That alone would be worth my efforts, the way I see it. I have come to the conclusion that any permanent or even long-term improvements, Eastern or Western, temporal or astral, are so far ahead of me that I can't see them from here. And I'm clairvoyant. I can see a long, long ways. :)





On Twitter--Parin Stormlaughter

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. 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 effective.

She did it! She did it! She won!

Quit of being fired... ***FINAL Update 3/31***

All I have to add is YES!!!

Unrelated to this thread, I have discovered that many employers are simply unfamiliar with the law when it comes to their disabled employees.

I ran into that problem and had to fight like a m*****f***** for my rights. Not bitter, just resentful that I had to educate my own employer about what my entitlements were. Laws are what you elect your politicians for--know where your lawmakers stand on issues important to you.

FOR STARTERS if you have Migraine Disease--and even if you don't, I feel quite certain you know someone who does--consider signing up for the email updates from the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy (link left too). They're working like mad people to give Migraine its fair share of federal funding for research, to improve education into this tremendously disabling disease, and other things that we may never know of because, well, they're just humble like that. :)

Be aware of your rights when the boss tries to talk you into quitting so he or she won't "have to fire you."

Must go, stress is killing me. My disability for April, that's normally direct deposited, isn't there. Can't deal, been stretching food, ears are exploding again, hearing now down in both ears, more severe weather tomorrow...

But a ray of sunshine in the battle. Whitney, you're my hero. *hugs*




On Twitter--Parin Stormlaughter

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. 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 effective.

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.