Monday, August 10, 2009

Sharethis: Big decision? You may think best on sunny days - Behavior- msnbc.com

Interesting article about super weather-sensitive people like me. Migraineurs and Meniere's-y sorts are sensitive to quite a number of things.

Here's an unattributed quote from The Old Farmer's Almanac for Friday August 14, 2009:

When you shut out the sun from the window,
The doctor comes in at the door.

My mother always opens every blind and drape in the house every day. I go behind her and close them if the sunlight shines in because it's usually too bright for my eyes. She and I have been battling about open/closed drapes for many years, and I imagine we will for years to come. :)



Exquisitely weather-sensitive people more mentally "dull" on cloudy days - data mining
Big decision? You may think best on sunny days - Behavior- msnbc.com
Source: msnbc.msn.com



Parin Stormlaughter sent this using ShareThis.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Horrifying Sharethis: What This Means For You - Physicians for Healthcare Reform

If you just must call me a roadblock to progress, go ahead. Give me the courtesy to do so straight-up so we can have at it.

No mistaking what's going on here. This woman was not denied life-extending treatment for cancer by her state-run health care system because of questionable effectiveness or unacceptable side effects or any medical reason. She was denied because it cost too much in the opinion of the officials that run the state agency, and she was offered hospice or physician-assisted suicide instead. I am not making this up.

Read the article. I invite comments if anyone is so inclined.

Anyone already enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, or other collective systems is already aware of the problems with covered procedures, treatments, and medications. Anyone who isn't and isn't familiar would be mind-boggled by it, completely mind-boggled.

If anyone is of the belief that state- or federally-administered health care is the answer, please tell me so I may disabuse you of that incorrect assumption.

Absolutely horrifying.


Oregon state-run health care offers patient "assisted suicide" instead of care
What This Means For You - Physicians for Healthcare Reform
Source: physiciansforreform.org



Parin Stormlaughter sent this using ShareThis.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

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.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Sharethis: Frustrated by 'Intervention' Episode Featuring Migraineur, Addict ~ Somebody Heal Me by Diana Lee

Simul-posting here and at The Carmelite's Habit.

I cannot believe that the state of Migraine has come to this. The day has arrived when the media capitalized on the plight of a person with multiple health problems as well as addiction, picked out Migraine to emphasize, and made it into "good television".

I won't be able to watch the episode itself. Movement on television screens triggers vertigo; however, Diana Lee's word on this is enough for me.

Diana Lee is inviting comments from people who have watched the episode.

I'm going to be sure to tell EVERYONE I KNOW that Intervention may be reality TV, but it isn't real life.

Addiction and Migraine: both are treatable illnesses but they are not co-morbid.


"Intervention" episode with Migraineur
Frustrated by 'Intervention' Episode Featuring Migraineur, Addict ~ Somebody Heal Me by Diana Lee
Source: somebodyhealme.dianalee.net



Parin Stormlaughter sent this using ShareThis.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Sarcasm Ahead - Sharethis: New Space Headache Category Proposed Following Astronauts' Survey

The Space Program has given us wonderful things like Tang and freeze-dried ice cream. Ok, Velcro is useful. :)

If anyone can show me widespread benefit to Migraineurs and headachers to come from diverting research dollars to study a new Space-travel Secondary Headache Category that occurs only in astronauts, I'll stop with the sarcasm.

To spend time and money on this seems almost as out-of-this-world as would some hypothetical make-believe pork-barrel project to study ways to reduce homicide rates within the world of organized crime.

They should do what we Earthlings have to do: Take a triptan and shut up about it. Astronauts are always making excuses for botched space projects--and now, they can blame headaches with the full approval of the United States Government.

Nope, not fair until we can too. Nope, they're not entitled to better care for their spaceman head woes than we are.

This is as ridiculous as someone adopting a baby animal to keep it from being put down but who wouldn't imagine adopting a child to prevent it from being aborted. Study spaceman headaches when the funding for Migraine and Earthling headaches is so underfunded it barely shows up on the National Institute of Health budget radar?

Oh whaaaa....me BITTER???

The government actually did this. They did.



Research $ for astronaut headaches
New Space Headache Category Proposed Following Astronauts' Survey
Source: sciencedaily.com



Parin Stormlaughter sent this using ShareThis.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Sharethis: 9 Unhealthy High Calorie, Fat and Salty Meals at Chili's, Applebee's, Uno, Olive Garden and Cheesecake Factory - ABC News

I'm just saying...


Bad restaurant ordering choices
9 Unhealthy High Calorie, Fat and Salty Meals at Chili's, Applebee's, Uno, Olive Garden and Cheesecake Factory - ABC News
http://shar.es/b7gw


Parin Stormlaughter sent this using ShareThis.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Sharethis: Family Says Doctors Tried to 'Euthanize' Stroke Victim - Heart Disease - FOXNews.com

Horrifying story, even for this doubly Hades Moon. Where was the Living Will or Advance Directive?

I can't picture a more important topic to cover with a local attorney who fully understands the laws of the state, province, prefecture, county, country, land, or planet on which you reside than Living Wills and Advance Directives. Everyone of majority age needs one or the other, and deserves to be informed about each one. Review the document and reasons for the choices periodically the way you'd review a Last Will and Testament.

Here where I live, Living Wills are NOT the same as Advance Directives. Here, Living Wills put end-of-life decisions such as the timing of "the end of life" in the hands of medical professionals. Here, Advance Directives put decisions about heroic measures and such things as continuation of food and hydration in the hands of whoever the patient designates. Here, a Living Will won't give a dying patient even the most basic things all living beings need: food and water. Or things to allow for the most basic comfort for humane death.

Here, Living Wills give discretion into the hands of medical professionals. Advance Directives can be written to provide for virtually anything one would wish when one is unable to decide for oneself.

It's an extremely personal decision.

I have an Advance Directive. I will never have a Living Will. The way I see it, Living Wills allow doctors to end your life. To me Advance Directives allow whomever you designate to require that you have whatever will allow for the continuance of your life, or to require that you be given simple, non-heroic measures such as food, hydration, and palliative care without heroic measures. That's just my own extremely personal decision.

Read the article, then make plans for one or the other if you don't already have one or the other. Tell your family and friends about your decisions and give copies to those people who'll be legally allowed to speak for you, should the time come.


Advance Directive vs Living Will??
Family Says Doctors Tried to 'Euthanize' Stroke Victim - Heart Disease - FOXNews.com
Source: foxnews.com



Parin Stormlaughter sent this using ShareThis.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Sharethis: Music may have a future role in heart and stroke patient rehab

Good start in beginning to understand how and why music is so influential to health. When I converted to Roman Catholicism, I learned that my sponsor's daughter had a degree in Music Therapy. I had never heard of such a magnificent route for healing.

The subject really, really needs much more research and the world deserves to understand it better. The article does mention this. With better understanding comes better utilization.

To add to the discussion from the transpersonal side, certain notes on the Western musical scale have been associated with human chakras. Chakras, whatever your belief system, do have measurable parallels in Western medicine: Endocrine glands, organs, and nerve plexus centers identified so far and a human body has many chakra spots. There's a whole field of alternative medicine that uses tuning forks, bowls constructed of of certain metals and crystals, and other sounding devices for therapeutic effects on chakra spots.

Here is a list of notes on the Western music scale associated with various chakras:

Root - C
Sexual - C#
Sacral - D
Solar Plexus - E
Heart - F
Thymus - F#
Throat - G
Zeal Point - G#
Third Eye - A
Pineal - A#
Crown - B
Above Crown - C




Music for cardiovascular therapy
Music may have a future role in heart and stroke patient rehab
Source: americanheart.mediaroom.com



Parin Stormlaughter sent this using ShareThis.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

3rd Annual Month of the Self

July 2009 starts in just a little while. I say this every year but man, what a year.

Traditionally, the Sparkling One has taken the month of July to herself. She will do so again this year. And now I'll stop referring to myself in third person. XD

I was a Secular Carmelite for some years, as many of you may have read in these columns. Once a Carmelite, always a Carmelite. In July I celebrate a Solemnity, a Feast, 2 Memorials, and an optional memorial each of which call for spiritual preparation.

I also bring all my mourning into July: The anniversary I would have celebrated had I not sued to end the marriage, my four babies who were never born because they died in miscarriage, family and friends who have died, every now and then a friendship that may have ended during the year, all the things needing emotional attention that haven't gotten it yet. I take care of myself during July.

So, utilizing Blogger scheduling technology, I've got a month's worth of (mostly) Sharethis news articles with a few comments and a couple of "Best of" columns, plus one serious Editorial for the end of the month. This Editorial has taken me 11 months to write--yep, I started on it in August of 2008. I don't do anything with any great speed, I'm afraid.

Enjoy the month, Happy Independence Day! August will mark one year for this blog.

Thank you all for reading. Love you all, and please pray for me as I pray for everyone who reads this little work of mine.

Take care of yourselves, and the Sparkling One will see you all in August. :)




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.

Monday, June 29, 2009

New data-mining study - Sharethis: Women's migraines linked to higher stroke, heart attack risk - CNN.com

Interesting article. Do read, everybody, because even if you don't have Migraine, odds are you know someone who does.

Others have opined on the results of this data-mining study so I'll refrain except to say this: Anyone who tells you, "These results are nothing to worry about" should always add "unless they apply to YOU."

To recall a parallel situation:

Thalidomide was only a birth-defect problem for an extremely limited demographic group:
  • Women who were pregnant and who took thalidomide
Now that's a small group of people. Nonetheless, thalidomide-related birth defects were, are, and will continue to be extremely serious and worthy of the most stringent prescribing restrictions (after being removed from the market for years, thalidomide is being researched once again for issues unrelated to pregnancy).

This article is clear about the small group of people who should be concerned about the conclusions from the data mining. But, if you're a woman who sustains attacks of Migraine with aura once a week or more often, you're one of those women.

I am one of those women.

Data mining: frequency of Migraine with aura attacks connected to cardiovascular events
Women's migraines linked to higher stroke, heart attack risk - CNN.com
Source: cnn.com



Parin Stormlaughter sent this using ShareThis.

Monday, June 22, 2009

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.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Envy Me, or Hades Moons Attract: Sharethis

\
"...but the thrill we've never known
Is the thrill that'll getcha when you get your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone."
artist Dr. Hook


Ah, envy me gals: A Rolling Stone magazine subscription promo consisting of a trial subscription that includes--a handbag with Johnny Depp on the cover of the Rolling Stone.

And the bag is mine, all mine! Well, it's really Aikichik's (thanks for modeling honey!) but we live in Castle Anthrax and have raised sharing our stuff to a sacred state.

And speaking of Hades Moons...Johnny Depp has a Hades Moon. Here's a link to his chart in the Astro-Databank maintained by Astro.com. Johnny Depp is only 3 years younger than I am so outer planet signs aren't as significant as House placements. His Capricorn Hades Moon is in his 6th house and his Jupiter is in his 9th house, like both of mine are, and he has the Taurus/Scorpio axis on his angles (his is the IC/MC angle and mine is Asc/Desc).

IMDB has an in development page for a movie version of the 1960s TV soap opera show Dark Shadows. On behalf of those of us who ran home from school as fast as we could to catch Dark Shadows every day, you're welcome for the link to Wiki.

So what has this to do with Johnny Depp? Rumor has it that he is more than interested in playing Barnabas Collins in the Dark Shadows movie, scheduled for 2011 according to IMDB. According to the Wiki article, Johnny Depp was so obsessed with Barnabas Collins that he wanted to be him. I understand. I wanted to be Doctor Julia Hoffman. There's a reason that Wiki deems Dark Shadows to be a cult series. To me Johnny Depp certainly exhibits Hades Moon characteristics. It's said he has a working electric chair in his living room.

That's one Hades Moon trait--our obsession with obsessions, frequently Dark ones. Birth charts do not make us what we are, but they certainly provide a convenient way to understand ourselves.

There's another person in the Dark with whom I share some natal chart similarities: Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the exorcist for Rome who has written the new top two books on my Amazon "Important" list (on left). No matter who you are, if you work with demons or have never dealt with them in your life that you're aware of, everyone should read those two books. People who work with demons frequently have little factual knowledge of how the Church sees the subject, people with Hades Moons who are just curious about exorcisms will appreciate Fr. Amorth's straightforward, non-superstitious information, and every Christian needs reminding. All good, the way I see it. And go disinter a life, anyone who thinks I'm picking a fight. Sheesh. Just move on.

One of Fr. Amorth's favorite movies? The original The Exorcist. True. He says it's quite accurate although the special effects are a bit exaggerated.

Fr. Amorth does not have a Hades Moon (link to his Astro-Databank chart here); however, he and I both have our Suns in the 8th House of death, sex, and the occult (and inheritances, legacies, taxes, and things of metamorphic processes of all sorts) which is ruled by--Pluto of Hades Moon fame. He and I have the Cancer/Capricorn axis on our angles (his is MC/IC and mine is IC/MC). His 8th House cusp is Taurus so he's "right at home" in the Dark. It's where he "lives" one might say. My 8th House cusp is Sagittarius so I've got a more philosophical interest in sharing about it. His Pluto is conjunction his MC and opposition his IC. My Pluto is 115o (not too far from 120o trine) my Scorpio Desc and trine my MC.

The Vatican couldn't have picked a person with a better natal chart for his job than Fr. Amorth, at least as I see it from my kindergarten perspective.

Oh, and so everything is clear: I don't talk to demons or work with them at all and I'm not really in any sort of deliverance ministry. If you need help in this area, I recommend making an appointment with your pastor or priest.

WHAT I'M SAYING IS that we Hades Moon and others with Pluto-Scorpio-related connections live in the Dark. We're all in an eternal embrace of sorts whichever your side.


Barbossa: "So what now, Jack Sparrow? Are we to be two immortals, locked in an epic battle until Judgment Day and trumpets sound, hmmm?"
Jack Sparrow: "Or you could surrender."
POTC: The Curse of the Black Pearl

"Ophiuchus means 'he who holds the serpent' and that is how he is depicted. The struggle will last forever, since they wage it on equal terms with equal powers". [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD, book 1, p.31]


Fr. Amorth in Messenger of Saint Anthony-please note that article content is highly belief-system intensive
Messenger of Saint Anthony - The Exorcist
Source: messengersaintanthony.com



Parin Stormlaughter sent this using ShareThis.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Cure Together - Open Source Health Research wellness site

New chronic illness link at left here at Sparkling With Crystals. I'm making hay while the sun shines (and burns us up--forecast is for 97o today) and before I give out, I want to share this with you.

Cure Together - Open Source Health Research is a ten-plus year old organization. It has a number of offerings for chronic illness folks, participant reported information, and a rather stellar staff.

I'm looking forward to fully exploring the areas I've scanned through. In a Twitter message, @accarmichael of Cure Together explained that information comes from members. That disclaimer is at the bottom of the pages along with the copyright information. Would that everyone would be so upfront about their sources! Big plus for Cure Together, to me.

I value anecdotal information, frankly, provided it's not part of an advertisement for a product or cure. I see good things about the member-provided information at Cure Together. The homepage lists the number of participants at more than 3,000. Seems to be a well to draw from and I'm encouraged.

It has 18 gajillion things for people to track for themselves such as various medications, exercise, weight, caloric intake, and many dozens more categories.

I'll share things from Cure Together as I find them. Check them out when you can in the meantime!



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.

Monday, June 15, 2009

"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.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Sharethis: 'You'll try anything,' says cancer patient - EarthLink - Health News

If nothing else convinces you that we poor folk need trustworthy guidance in dealing with serious illness, these two articles will.

In this country, people have the right to participate in treatment choices. But, as they teach you in first aid and first responders training, people reach a point when they no longer are able to make sound, rational choices regarding their conditions.

My father reached that point. He and my mother had been through so much with his metastasized prostate cancer, so much pain, so much dreadful treatment, so much sickness, so much much, that all they had left was desperation. Mom was his primary care giver, and they had believed the surgeon who operated on him 18 years earlier who said, "You'll die from something else, Rudy. You won't die from this cancer."

When the hospice nurse told my mother that my father had gone, my mother said, "What?" Between two of them, two nurses had been there for nearly 24 hours. My father had released his last breath some minutes before, the nurse had steadily checked for heartbeat with her stethoscope, yet my mother was in such bad shape that all she could say was, "What?"

All the doctors agreed that he had fared far better than any other patient than any they had treated. His surgeon wrote about his management of my father's case for a publication. To a one they all told him, "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it."

There has GOT TO BE A WAY to integrate what we know now, the miracles of modern Western medicine--which did treat my father successfully with hormone courses three times and radiation at the end--with what we know now about supportive care and healthy completing treatments.

My father breathed clean air and drank clean country water, ate my mother's marvelous organic food, rested and exercised on their farm, and love and played with his grandchildren who adored him right back. He and I spent time researching the drugs he was being treated with, I kept up with his OTC meds and such, and as a family we were united in working with his squamous cell skin cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure as well.

He lived 18 years and 6 months after his diagnosis. He had surgery, 3 courses of hormone treatment, radiation for palliative purposes, good food, the love of his family, and died peacefully having been relieved of his pain by God 3 weeks beforehand. True--my mother came screaming up the stairs one day near the end hollering, "Your father's been cured! He's been cured!" His pain was gone, he felt strength enough to move his arms and legs, and they thought the cancer was gone. It was a different gift from God than cure as it turned out, but they took it and we all gave thanks! He had 3 good weeks.

He had held so tightly to the dream that he might be cured that he was taking physical therapy treatments even after the doctor released him. His last session was exactly one week before he died.

If I ever get my way, clinics will someday have a staff of health care providers all with only one thought: integrating the astronomical amount of knowledge available to mankind to provide patients with not only the best treatment--which is subjective, as the second article below illustrates--but with the best of both Eastern, Western, and belief system advice.

And love. There must be much, much love.

Someday. Someday.



Patients need guidance
'You'll try anything,' says cancer patient - EarthLink - Health News
http://shar.es/WIo7



Parin Stormlaughter sent this using ShareThis.


Patient choices
'A sad case': She chose herbals over surgery - EarthLink - Health News
http://shar.es/WIWG



Parin Stormlaughter sent this using ShareThis.