Ground it out, you energy vacuum! Part I

10/14/10 Edit: gah, mentioned a link then forgot to put it in. It's there now. :P
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Take it or Leave it Category: Take what's useful...you know the tune. :)

One of the things we chronically ill folks will say in a heartbeat is that we will do nearly anything to treat our situations and get well. Of course, a generalization that broad would need clarification and individualization after all (no Santaria or Palo Mayombe, Briyumba or Kimbisa or anything in that category for me, for example). But if we can find something relatively safe with a reasonably good chance of working, we'll take a look at it.

Once I was able to concentrate solely on getting well, I jumped into healing with both feet.  I couldn't work full time at a paying job so I determined that I would work full-time every day at getting well.  I asked every doctor I had for all the recommendations that he or she could think of.  I work closely with all my doctors and wouldn't dream of doing anything that they would disapprove.

I pondered and prayed, and several ideas presented themselves.  I consulted an exquisite crystal healer and it changed the course of my healing.  It became apparent that I had problems with my energy bodies.  While prescription medicines and a couple of supplements did their things, I began work on my energy bodies.

I define my energy body as my internal nerve structures, spine, any and all nervous systems; and my external energy body such as aura, chakra system, and the weird energy fields I have no expectations that I'll ever fully understand in this life.

Donna Eden has developed a system by which people can use their hands to manipulate their own body energies (or the energy fields of others).  I approve of her system.  First, her system gets my thumbs-up because it teaches people to use their own energy and does not utilize the energy of anything or anyone else.  It does not resemble such systems as Reiki which call on "universal energy" which, in fact, does not exist.  But that part is for another column.  Second, her system WORKS.  Third, her system is easy to understand and remember.

So after working with her system and home rock medicine (wouldn't ever consider what I do as real crystal healing), I felt better but not sufficiently better.  I began homebrewing mead and medicinal beers, foraging my semi-wild backyard for healing herbs, and then I fell and broke my neck.

Yep, I broke a bone spur off my C-5 vertebra.  Come to learn that I've got spine problems from my C-1 all the way to my tailbone.  So, I added get spinal work done to my list.

I wasn't getting good results from chiropractics.  Every adjustment seemed to trigger every symptom I had so I gave it up.

Honestly, at that point I was stumped.  I made an appointment with Pam Oslie, a psychic in California.  She had very specific--Edgar Cayce-type specific--recommendations for work on my spine that I needed.  She cautioned me that I might need rods on either side of my spine if I couldn't get the problems fixed (yeah, I've got scoliosis too).  Anybody coming at my back with a knife will get what I'd give anybody attempting to stab me in the back.  So, just don't go there, docs.

Anyway, now I'm getting superb physical therapy treatments on my neck and back according to her recommendations--very good results!!  The treatments have tremendously improved the flow of nerve impulses throughout my entire self.  If the physical therapist I were seeing had less education and experience, I don't believe he would have been able to locate the problems solely by touch.  They don't show up on x-rays or MRI but do show up--ok, get this--Pam Oslie saw them and the PT can feel them.  The doctoral student who conducted the evaluation caught every single nuance in my (lack of) balance and the PT will help with it as well.

One thing that continues to trouble me is utterly perplexing sensitivity.  I'm not sensitive - I am the sensor itself.  I'm not a careful observer - I'm the Princess from The Princess and the Pea.  That was one of my late father's nicknames for me.  He'd say, "All right, Princess and the Pea..."

I can't innumerate everything I've done to combat this, fix it, reduce it, overcome it, bury it, obliterate it, embrace it, integrate it, dilute it, give it away--you cannot imagine what I've done to address this.  I have had absolutely no success at all, none, zero, zilch.  I am becoming more and more sensitive every day.

I've carefully read and learned about my astrological natal chart as part of my healing work - hell, I've about gotten all that's out there of pharmaceuticals and Western medicine so I plunged into complementary and more esoteric, metaphysical work.

In my astrological chart, I found the reflection of my sensitivity which was comforting in a way.  It said to me that for the most part, I had not caused it; however, it is utterly part of who I am and cannot be separated from my self-ness.  According to chart progressions, I can expect it to get worse, or to say it another way, I will become more intuitive, sensitive, aware of energy, psychic, and so on as I finish up the second half of my life.  My energetic vacuum will self-upgrade to industrial strength in about 10 years.  It's bad now.  I cannot picture what it will be like in 10 years.

Before I spoke with Pam Oslie, I had read her book Life Colors: What the Colors in Your Aura Reveal and taken her online "aura color" test.  I had done my little thing and determined that she would be a good fit for what I needed to know.

She told me that, in her system, I was a "life color" that she doesn't see often:  Crystal.  Well, "Crystal" was tied for second place on the online test I took but once she described "Crystals", I was convinced that she was right.

Crystals, one might say, are no one until we're with someone.  We don't have much energetic personality so to speak until we come in contact with another person.  When we do, we suck energy from the other person and fill our aura out with the "color" of the other person.

When I'm with a "yellow", I'm yellow.  When I'm with a "blue", I'm blue.  On page 155 in her book, Pam Oslie says

Crystal is a rare Life Color.  Crystals have clear auras and are known as the "aura chameleons".  Like chameleons, their auras will change colors to match those of the people they are connecting with at the time.  They then take on the characteristics, emotions, and thoughts of that color.  Consequently, in power Crystals can get along quite well with almost anyone.  Yellows, for example, feel they can relate to Crystals who, when they are with them, act and think like Yellow.  Later when the same Crystals spend time with Sensitive Tans, the Tans feel as if they have found kindred spirits.  However, Crystals' inconsistencies can also confuse people.  One minute Crystals think and behave like Greens.  Later they can act like Blue.  The more they bond with others, the more their personalities change.  Because Crystals tend to absorb the colors of other people's auras, people can, at times, feel an energy drain when they are in the presence of Crystals.

Yep, she's got that right.  I'm a pure energy sucker and until I started working on healing my energy body, I wasn't even aware of the extent to which I was vampiring others.  If I get low on energy, I'll start looking for energy wherever I can find it.  Here I discuss the results of a test the chiropractor ran on the energy levels of my two daughters and myself, same day, same technician.  It seems I run half a tank low on a regular basis.

She doesn't have as much about Crystals in her book as she does other Life Colors.  Her best recommendation for my Crystal problems is to immerse myself outside in Nature which, to me, is only the most wonderful thing next to sex... :D

Next, more on my Crystalline self and the various Nature things I'm doing to solve my issues.  I've gotten a piece of more specific, concrete advice to chew on so to speak.

So, I'm consulting psychics and learning to read astrological charts, working with rocks and herbs and foraging wild plants from my backyard along with taking prescription medicine and going through physical therapy.

Still think there's anything I won't do to get well?  Within reason, of course?  :)




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: Op-Ed Contributor - Good Grief - NYTimes.com

"For the few bereaved who are severely impaired or at risk of suicide, doctors can already apply the diagnosis of major depression. But don’t change the rules for everyone else. Let us experience the grief we need to feel without being called sick."  Allen Frances, an emeritus professor and former chairman of psychiatry at Duke University

Hands down, the most lucidly-considered grief-healing article by an M. D. that I have ever read. 

Please read the article and take hope, all ye who despair at the state of Western Medicine.  But do note that this M. D. is a psychiatrist.  Would that all medical doctors had this outlook towards healing.

I've issued an Exploding Head Warning for today through Sunday, so I'm off to crawl underneath rocks.  Storms, heat, melatonin (I believe it's a stand-alone migraine trigger, just need to test it maybe once more), and a classic healing crisis have knocked me back a few steps.

Op-Ed Contributor - Good Grief - NYTimes.com Source: nytimes.com
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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: Dear White House - The Personal Data Challenge

Now here's an idea I could get behind.

Please read the article, check out Alexandra Carmichael's CureTogether site, and ponder whether this might be a better use of taxpayer dollars than government-run EHRs.

Not doing well. July is just a bad month for me all around. Going to hide underneath some rocks and read about the monster of an alligator not too far from me in Mulga, Alabama.  I've only seen a picture of it but man, it was a beauty.  Must have been at least 7 feet long.

dear-white-house-our-personal.php from kk.org - StumbleUpon Source: stumbleupon.com
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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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Peace, love, herbs, and Honey Stuff

Physical vulnerability along with opportunistic viruses means: Time for peace, love, and Honey Stuff!

Got way, way too aggravated at the Office of Personnel Management last week. I believe I might have made myself physically vulnerable in the process. In addition, our house has been filled with plumbers, the gas company, the phone company, technicians, and repairmen of all sorts and every one of them has been hacking and coughing.

I was concerned that I might have to take the day off tomorrow from my full-time job of getting well but I realized that in fact,  I'll be working overtime.  No rest for the weary!

Here's a recipe for a natural honey, ginger, and citrus virus remedy that's as delicious as it is effective. Glad I've got some in the fridge already!

Gonna jump on this like a chicken on a june bug and mother-love it right out of my system. Mullein leaf tea and hops syrup now, neti pot, Sambucol (elderberry and echinacea syrup), and yarrow before bed. And soup with raw garlic stirred in just before I eat it. I know, I know, but raw garlic is useful for viruses. Once it's cooked, some of the therapeutic benefits disappear. Since that's why I'll be using it, it'll only get as hot as the soup itself right before I eat it.

Gonna get nice and peaceful underneath some rocks as well. Rocks just make me comfy and content, and when they're hot from the sun...oh me...  Bloodstone, amethyst, clear calcite, clear quartz, and rose quartz are all marvelous help for viruses. Smokey quartz is really nice for the aches and pains right at first.

This should be gone by tomorrow.

I might get so peacefully, tonically herbal that I put on a headband and start flashing peace signs. XD


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.

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.

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.

Incandescently Angry

"Nothing you put on the internet is private."
Unknown

"She died after a long battle with doctors."
Obituary


I wasn't going to complain. I said to myself, "You should just be quiet and take it like a man! Nothing you say or do will help. Patients are virtually helpless in the face of determined, oppressive doctors and you of all people should know that by now."

Then my goat got up and walked out.

Dr. Breathtakingly Arrogant has struck again.

I'm trying to make an appointment with a new migraine doctor. I had already spoken to this doctor personally and he agreed to see me, telling me to call his office to make an appointment. His nurse called me back a few minutes ago.

First, she woke me up. I'm a pleasant morning person, rarely wake up in a bad mood. How long it takes the world to assault me varies but I wake up feeling positive and optimistic. She, it became apparent, is not a morning person.

Second, she began grilling me about making this appointment. No need to relate the details. You all know how doctor's offices can be.

Third, she scolded me about the medicines prescribed by Dr. Breathtakingly Arrogant. Where on earth did she get that? When I left the message asking to make the appointment, I left no such information. What difference would it make to her anyway, since all I wanted was to make the appointment and the doctor himself had already agreed to see me??

Then, it dawned on me. She was looking at something, somewhere, that contained my former chart information.

I haven't written about my problems with Dr. Breathtakingly Arrogant. The problems were numerous and serious, unlike any I have ever encountered, and included Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) violations. The most troubling from my perspective was the false information he submitted to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in connection with my disability retirement application. When OPM asked for test records to substantiate the outrageous statements he had made and for the names of physicians he would have referred me to for further treatment of these non-existent conditions, he quietly removed all references to everything except the Migraine treatment he provided and then Meniere's Syndrome referral he made and submitted the new records without a word.

When it was time to find another doctor, my most Excellent Assistant Offspring, who had fielded all these problems and dealt with his office and OPM under POA from me, asked for my records. His office refused to give them up saying they would only submit them directly to the new doctor. Part of HIPPA clarifies that patients own their records, not the health care providers. My daughter had to ONCE AGAIN go through the clinic's Patient Relations Department for the umpteenth time in order to get my records. What he gave me, of course, is only part of the story but not to worry. The Sparkling Assistant Offspring glows brighter than I do and has all the bogus OPM submissions as well as everything else he has submitted to them--sorted, filed, and categorized like the librarian she is--so I feel like I have a complete file.

If this doctor has made yet another unauthorized disclosure of my information by any route, and if it contained especially bogus information, I believe I may consider filing a HIPPA complaint with the Office of Civil Rights.

I have been seeing doctors for many, many years. I've had migraine since I was 5 years old. I've got thyroid disease (eleven thyroid nodules), mitral valve prolapse, asthma--the list goes on. I know doctors and how to work with them. The most important issue is empowerment. Once a doctor sees that he isn't working with a limp dishrag but instead an educated patient intent on getting well, then real progress can be made. My hearing has been restored by careful work with the excellent neurotologist I see. Progress can be made.

I blog for several reasons and one of them is for Migraine Advocacy. Why, why do my Advocacy efforts have to include how my support system and I solve personal bad experiences? Obviously, that's the way God wants it.

I'm ill from anger and frustration--these things don't affect Migraine but do trigger Meniere's symptoms and my ears are already about to explode and my right Meniere's ear tinnitus is sounding like Chinese gongs. Woke up feeling not too terribly horrible. This will give me a chance to practice the energy balancing and crystal work I've been formulating to see how well they work for me when I'm under pressure. I have a goal to go back to school. I must get well enough to be able to do that. I will never be able to become a doctor myself if I cannot heal myself.

Of one thing you all may be certain; I'll be an expert in HIPPA regulations from the patient's side. If I can get well and get my PhD, nothing that has happened to me will never happen to any patient of mine.

See, I want to be a transpersonal depth psychologist. To try to "psychologize" me is the wrong approach. :)


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.

Swine flu - some links and ideas

President Obama has declared a public health emergency for swine flu. Consider the emergency the way you'd think of a hurricane emergency, he says.

In United States, swine flu has now been conclusively identified in California, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, and New York. It's in Mexico City as well. This strain is a combination of bird, pig, and human flu strains.

The Sparkling One cannot watch television and has not in more than a year. Movement on the TV screen triggers vertigo; therefore, she will not have the opportunity to overreact to the 24/7 news shows.

Here are some links that might be handy sources of non-television information.

CDC Emergency Preparedness & Response Site

American Red Cross: Preparing and Getting Trained

Welcome to the White House - US and has a link to a swine flu information update widget on the blog. Scroll down just a tad and look on the left for the swine flu widget link. It's the green one on the left of this page if you don't want to clog your hard drive.


I'm not going to restate the official recommendations. The U. S. Government has been recommending preparedness for years. If you're not ready, what on EARTH are you waiting for?

These are some additional things that might help. The entire Sparkling Family is doing/does these things as regularly as we can:

* Moderation in all things, including moderation. Don't blow your energy body away by freaking over anything. I've done it by overreacting. Isn't worth the trouble it takes to rebuild it.

* Consider getting certified in first aid and CPR. The American Red Cross is ALWAYS my recommendation for getting this kind of training. I performed the Heimlich maneuver on a choking elderly woman in a restaurant in Meridian, Mississippi. You cannot imagine how it felt to hear her daughter say, "She's breathing! She's breathing!"

* Consider making up a batch of Honey Medicine if you've used up what you had. This is good for all viral issues and it just tastes good too.

* Get a nice, really clear, quarter-sized piece of tumbled clear quartz to keep in your pocket. Clear quartz has the folklore legend of being a "cure-all". Keeping it with you should help keep your overall body frequency a bit higher than normal. Average body frequencies run from 62-66 Hz. Edging towards 66 Hz is a good thing. Soap it up and rinse it off every time you wash your hands. If you have time, it'll get a good recharging if you can sit it in the sunshine for a couple of hours. They're quite inexpensive as well.

* For the sake of the rest of us, STAY HOME IF YOU'RE SICK WITH ANYTHING CONSIDERED "CATCHING". Please. Do I need to further explain this?

* Get a small bottle of hand sanitizer to keep in the glove box of your car and your purse as well. Think gasoline pump handles, store door handles, credit/debit card swipy things and the stylus--if you have hand sanitizer (or sanitizing wipes in a sealed container), you can wash up regularly. Those clear plastic bags that newspapers are in when they're home delivered make marvelous trash bags for cars and such. No crook is likely to break into your car to see what's inside it since it's clear and they'll see trash, no temptation to put off tossing it since it's so small it'll fill up rather quickly.

Honestly, influenza viruses are airborne for the most part. I had true flu once when I was in high school. Like to have died. It's like getting hit by a cannonball and never hearing the shot.

The Sparkling One cannot afford any more damage. She's going to do like she does for all the hurricanes that come this way and yes, we get them here in Alabama. Hurricane Katrina came through with sustained winds of 75 mph and we're 250 miles from the Gulf Coast.

Hurricanes we can deal with. We'll see how well we do with swine flu.




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.

Magic Pill! Magic Pill!

Doesn't exist, I'm afraid. It is a genuine myth.

Some myths are in fact real. Magic wands do exist. Magic music is real. Magicians are real. I will forever be in love with the world's most fantastic magician, my walking god. Not to scandalize anyone but that's what they call him, his friends do. Someday...

But a Magic Pill for chronic illness is a myth.

I read an article on About.com's Adrienne Dellwo's Fibromyalgia & CFS Blog about the mythical Magic Pill. About.com doesn't participate in free linking to articles or I'd point you there.

It caught my eye because I'm again looking at the real possibility that I may never get well, healthy the way I was Before. I wrote here about discovering that my energy frequently flows in a homolateral pattern and backwards from the normal way it should be flowing. Energy flows and moves around just like blood circulates and air is respirated. If an energy body establishes an incorrect flow as a compromise to keep the rest of the bodies going then making a lasting correction is difficult, the way Donna Eden explains it.

I'm on a clear quartz diet for now. Clear quartz is what the Crystal Healer told me to start with and it always makes me feel better. He told me to keep clear quartz with me at all times. I'm drinking clear-quartz-charged water, wearing clear quartz, and only adding wearing labradorite because it really, really helps my thyroid.

After September 11th, the news media reported that everyone was going to have to learn to live in the New Normal. New security rules, new awareness levels, new ways to be.

I'm going through another phase of finding my private New Normal, I guess. It's discouraging. I had another combination Meniere's/Migraine attack yesterday along with the tornadoes and cold front. Still dealing with the depressive dip that I get with Migraine attacks.

Chin up! Clear quartz is really, really pretty and sparkly and inexpensive. The cluster at top of this page is quartz. Quartz clusters are beautiful in the sunshine.

Someday I'll be beautiful in the sunshine again.




On Twitter--Parin Stormlaughter

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 effective.

In Order to get Your Comment Published on SWC

This is the sort of post I hate to write: Short, scolding, and in the midst of a Migraine attack; however, it must be done.

In order to get your comment published on either of my blogs

• Leave off all URLs. The odds of getting a comment published here that directs traffic to another site are slight. Not completely outside the realm of possibility, but almost. Know too that I check the blogs of commenters with whom I am not familiar whose usernames link to their blogs. It is nothing personal if I do not post a comment due to a blog. It could be someone's comment on the blog that caught my eye rather than the blog content.
  
• Check spelling and grammar. Compose your comment on a blank word processing document ahead of time, for example, and then copy and paste. I write. I am painfully familiar with dramatic license and other techniques to heighten tension and emphasize points. If you are not familiar or so trained, don't try it and complain that I won't publish your comments.
• Leave off unsupported science, "weasel wording", and testimonials about doctors, treatments, and protocols. Refer to this list's first bullet if you wish to support your science with a URL.
  
• Please don't ask me to marry you, bear your children, attend your function, remind me that I'm the anti-christ, or anything of those natures through comments. I am unlikely to publish complaints that I've deleted a comment without responding either.
  

All comments on my blogs are moderated and will remain so.

I will continue to use Wikipedia at will. It is a starting point for research, not any sort of definitive answer.

I have been rubbing my forehead with the massage end of my rutilated quartz wand for all the day that my forehead hasn't had cellophane tape on it. Not only are the nerves in my head inflamed and painful to the touch but I've got a twitchy muscle that's uncomfortable. Fine with me if it looks weird to have a piece of scotch tape on my forehead. It makes the muscle quit twitching and feel more comfortable.

I'm drinking amethyst, moonstone, green aventurine, rose quartz, and aquamarine/heliodor/snow quartz-charged water. Folklore has it that this combo will improve my patience. I believe I need to drink more of it.

The hearing in my right Meniere's ear has just gone down by about 50%. The tinnitus I live with 24/7 has vanished too. Rotational vertigo is imminent.

Pounding pain has begun above my left eye.

Good night. Thanks for reading.





On Twitter--Parin Stormlaughter

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 effective.

Urgent: Contact Your Congressional Reps about Migraine Treatment Funding!

Below is the text of an email from the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy (AHDA, link left also) sent out today. If you have not already signed up for their email alerts, what are your waiting for?? (Link on left also.)

Teri Robert PhD, the USAs Number One Migraine Disease and Headache Patient Advocate along with Megan Oltman of Free My Brain From Migraine Pain, one of my Migraine blogging compatriots (all three links at left also), met with members of Congress last week to discuss the serious issue of Migraine treatments. None of the treatments currently available are harmless and there is no cure for Migraine, a genetic disease that has made Yours Truly disabled and retired that way--for now.

It is WAY PAST TIME for the National Institutes of Health to properly fund research into safe and effective Migraine Disease treatments. If you think Migraine is a non-issue since the advent of triptans then read this about Imitrex, the flagship triptan, and tell me if you still feel that way.

I've sent my email. Click on the link and send yours today. The AHDA website will automatically determine who your Representatives are based on your zipcode so you won't even have to try to look it up. You'll have a place to add your own information and message to your Representative and the AHDH has generously programmed thousands of characters, so you'll have room.

I'm battling a Migraine attack right now. I've staved off treating it with meds for two days but the time has come, the Walrus said. I hope what I've written makes sense and that all the links work but forgive if they don't and please let me know.

I borrowed a computer to make this urgent post. Now, I'm going to take meds, crawl underneath rocks, and pray. Yeah, with all my crystal and mineral specimens on me, I feel like a reptile. :3



From: Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy
Subject: We Need Your Help
Date: Mar 2, 2009 2:12 PM
One voice can make all the difference!
We Need Your Help
It's time to ask the House support fair funding for research on headache disorders

Take Action!
Ask your member of the House to sign the "Obey/Tiahrt letter."

Dear AHDA advocates -

The moment has arrived for you to contact your members of the US House of Representatives to take action for increasing National Institutes of Health (NIH) research on headache disorders.

Please go to the AHDA website as soon as possible to send strong but focused emails to your members of the House with just a few clicks. (http://www.allianceforheadacheadvocacy.org/)

Publicly funded research is the key to fundamental discoveries that accelerate drug development and expand the field of headache medicine. However, the NIH has never provided adequate funding for research on headache disorders. Currently, NIH expenditures for headache research are less than $13M annually, comprising less than 0.05% of the NIH budget. Meanwhile, headache disorders cost more than $31B in the US annually, including 9% of lost labor productivity, and result in more lost years of healthy life every year than epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and ovarian cancer combined. As a consequence of insufficient research, only two innovative drugs have received FDA approval for migraine treatment in the past fifty years.

We are requesting that the US House and the Senate each include language that prioritizes research on headache disorders with the fiscal year 2010 appropriations bills for the NIH. At this particular time, we need our members of the House to sign a "Dear Colleague" letter that they received last week.

The AHDA website simplifies contacting your members of the House with the right message at the right time. You will also be able to add a brief personal statement to your members of the Houseif you wish.

The more emails that members of the House receive from constituents right now, the more likely they will act upon this issue. You CAN make a difference. Let Congress know you care now.

Also, right now please forward this email to everyone you know that also cares about someone suffering from migraine or other headache disorders.

Through collective advocacy we will improve the care for individuals with headache disorders. Thanks very much for your help.

Best regards to you all,

Robert Shapiro, MD, PhD; Burlington, Vermont
William Young, MD; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Brad Klein, MD, MBA; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Teri Robert, PhD; Washington, West Virginia






On Twitter--Parin Stormlaughter

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 effective.

Twitter-pated or Hashtags in a brick

I'm Twittering now, Parin Stormlaughter.

Maxjerz, my bud in Migraine Advocacy (link on left too), suggested hashtagging Migraine twitters #Migraine and I'm there.

Oh, and #bhamsnow for our once-in-a-decade snow event for tomorrow. Imagine--we might get an INCH of snow. XD

Maybe someone will start #Menieres or something...#vertigo...#tinnitus...

It may be several MONTHS before I can get a computer that will get internet, still borrowing Libchik's for that. (Of course, not being on the internet but once a week or so might be the best thing for my head in the last ten years.) Twittering by cell phone will help me keep up with my Migraine and Meniere's buds in the meantime.

Love, love, love technology. Imagine Twittering about drinking aquamarine/heliodor/morganite/lithium quartz-charged water...the incongruity of it all...

Maybe I'll Twitter about growing natural airborne sourdough or the trials of removing cotton seeds from the boles by hand. Or dreams--got a column in the works about dream analysis.

Need to finish the column about castor oil packs for painful gallbladder...they work for me and they're more relaxing than the Valium I take for tinnitus and vertigo. Oh just give up now! XD Picture the sensuality of floating in a pool of warm, golden, sleek and slippery, slightly nutty-fragranced oil and that's not what a pack is like, but I've got an active imagination. I want to share the non-drug things I'm doing for pain relief that actually work for me. Yep, even careful usage of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines following the label directions exactly can exacerbate headpain. I need to save all the pain meds I have to stop the worst pain I have right now which is from Migraine. Maybe OTC meds should be listed as headache triggers??

Speaking of which--the cold-core upper level low that's supposed to bring us snow has triggered a Migraine attack which has just gotten started. My right arm is feeling funny and I'm seeing flashbulbs, and I'm nauseated. That funny-feeling-in-my-right-arm sensation has preceded basilar-type Migraine attacks in the past so I may go ahead and medicate this now instead of trying something else first. Gads, I hate Migraine.

heeheehee...maybe I'll Twitter about how I'm keeping stored emergency water fresh by using it on a rotational basis to cleanse crystals. See, if you then use it to water plants, you've gotten three uses out of it, and four if you water vegetables that you eat. Hey, we're under water-use restrictions. They hit us with huge surcharges for usages over a certain number of gallons per month. And my mother's lettuce and radishes have already come up. Poor things might freeze under snow but she doesn't care. She'll just plant more. She saves seeds so she's ahead no matter. She is Thrift Personified. There is a true story of the clean, never-used Kleenex in the pocket of her gardening jeans that got washed and dried...she carefully unfolded the washed Kleenex--I'm not making this up--laid it out to dry and then used it.

Until I can borrow this computer again, I love you all.

~The Incongruously Sparkling Daughter of Thrift Personified.

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 effective.

"The time has come," the Walrus said or "You've had a pleasant run!"

"...The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings..."
The Walrus and the Carpenter, Lewis Carroll


If your father was diabetic, and his mother was diabetic, and your second child weighed 9 lbs 2 ozs, you'd know that diabetes was in your future. Somewhere.

*sigh*

I've got to go for a two-hour glucose test as soon as Libchik and/or Aikichik can get me to the doc's office, so the nurse told me today. My fasting glucose was higher than it should have been, so she said.

After we rang off, I quickly checked my sugar with the little cheapy meter I bought after my father was diagnosed. It read 86, and I had eaten already. I ate cottage cheese with a glass of milk and an hour later it was 102. Two hours later it was 126. None of these readings are bad at all.

So wazzzzup? They'll have to tell me, but something has set them off. Maybe it was the 3-month overall glucose level test that they did? It would explain why weight has been falling off of me. I've lost now 47 pounds and didn't gain any over the holidays.

If the time has come to address diabetes, I'm there. I can adjust what I eat. I'll find some sort of exercise although I haven't the faintest idea what--swim, maybe? Nothing to fall off of and can't fall down in a swimming pool. There are crystals that help with blood glucose levels too, and Edgar Cayce's readings recommended Jerusalem artichokes for diabetics.

I take things as they come. Nothing is certain in this world but death and taxes, as the old saying goes, and personally I'm not sure about death. I was a tax collector in my previous Federal incarnation so I've got that covered.

So if the time has come, then I can slay this Jabberwock too. Poor Lewis Carroll is doing gymnastics, I'm sure.


"He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."
Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll


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

Healing the Healer: Mineral Water

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

And while we're talking about crystals...

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

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

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

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

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


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