Unabashed Plug

Posted on January 24, 2012 by administrator

Depression plagues me. A few weeks ago it finally defeated all my defenses and brought me crashing to my knees. Fortunately drugs and time-proven strategies are propping me up. One of the most formidable tools in my arsenal is music – Irish music in particular.

My brother, F-, first turned me on to the traditional Irish music of the Chieftains. From there I graduated to Planxty and Christy Moore. As time went by I added more and more music to the batch, searching for new artists with little success, until I stumbled on Marc Gunn and his Irish Celtic Music Podcast. About every 3-4 weeks he puts up a new free podcast filled with Indie Celtic musicians. They are all quite good, and it gives me new music on a regular basis. Plus, Marc himself is a great podcast host. I’m not sure how he makes a living. While the podcast is free, membership is a very low $20 and you get access to all the music on the podcast for free download. To me it is worth the contribution.

I don’t do endorsements on this site. I even removed the Google Ads. But I do recommend that if you like Celtic music, go to Marc Gunn’s podcast. It’s free.

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A New Friend

Posted on January 18, 2012 by administrator

My constant companion has a new friend. And frankly, this new “friend” turns my stomach – literally. It seems that along with pain I am now befriended by nausea and the resulting loss of stomach contents. Fortunately, while the nausea is with me every day, the loss of my stomach does not occur every day – maybe once every 2 days or so.

Now that the infection I suffered from a few months ago is cleared up, my blood pressure has resumed its high state without the help of sodium, and I am back on my low sodium diet. The nausea started then, reminding me of my state pre-infection, which was also constant nausea. Only now I have added in a new drug – prozac. One of the side effects of prozac is nausea and worse.

I do have zofram in my arsenal. If I take it proactively, the nausea develops into stomach loss; the zofram is basically not able to do the job. However, if I wait until the nausea really gets going, and then take the zofram, I usually can keep my lunch (I’m learning not to eat dinner). The problem is that I don’t always time it correctly. And sometimes my body doesn’t cooperate, like yesterday.

Lemon cookies are among the select foods that describe heaven. One bite and I’m transported to a place where all is good – kind of like the experience my friends tell me results from chocolate. Not that I hate chocolate, but it just doesn’t compare to a good lemon cookie. Yesterday I set out to make those bits of heaven.

By the time the first batch emerged from the oven, my stomach was signalling impending doom. I tasted the cookies figuring they would settle my stomach, as it was empty from breakfast and I needed lunch. The phone rang, with my better half on the other end. Unfortunately I couldn’t finish the conversation – I was busy running to the bathroom to loose my preciousssss…

The cookies made me so sick I couldn’t have them in the house. Again my better half proved his valiant self by removing the cookies. His friends and work colleagues all cooperated in the destruction of the culprit.

I consider this act, that of turning my body against lemon cookies, an act of war. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything weapon with which to fight on this new front.

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How Does Stress Effect the Healing Process

Posted on January 8, 2012 by administrator

Originally I wanted to write about my foraging trip today. The two and a half hours I spent in the forest stretched me beyond my capability, enough that I crashed when I got home. Fortunately I managed to get the greens into the sink with soap and water so that they can start the cleaning process. But now I want to talk about how outside stress effects the healing process.

At this time in Jerusalem we are living through the worst case of pedophilia in recorded history of this country. Reports started filtering out of the neighborhood that three pedophiles were working the neighborhood – with a handful of child victims. Then it grew to 15, with 50 children victims. Now it is over 30 scum that have destroyed over a 100 children.

These are some links to English sites talking about the case:

http://www.ima2seven.com/nachlaot/

http://www.amotherinisrael.com/knesset-nachlaot-pedophile/

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/an-unholy-mess-in-the-holy-city-1.387591

Just a few years ago my neighborhood was struck by the same evilness. As devastating as ours was, there was a ring of 6, not 30. And the number of victims here was much smaller than 100. Unfortunately, at least one victim became a perpetrator, and another had started on that same path. For the one victim/perp, his family moved out of the neighborhood. The other victim/almost perp entered counseling as is moving on to a healthy life.

My question to you is, how does stress like this effect your own ability to heal? These perps target religious communities like ours because the families have been so insulated they don’t know that this kind of activity exists. And the children are scared to death, by threat of death to themselves, their siblings, and their parents.

It would be a perfect world if all the perps were caught, jailed, and chemically castrated. But that is not the case. Some of these scum will go free (for the time being). Another perp may get to return home, to his new neighborhood, after a few years because the children he destroyed are having a difficult time coming forward. In other words, he’ll be out and able to destroy more children. Too bad we have laws against vigilantes.

How do you try to heal while this stress effects your life? What do you do on a daily basis? How do you make sure your children are armed with the best information without scaring them so much that they refuse to leave the house? And what do you think about laws that communities have the right to know when a former perp moves into the neighborhood?

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End of the First Week

Posted on January 7, 2012 by administrator

Yeah! Yeah! I did it. I wrote a post for every day of the week. This is the seventh, and I only committed to six. Yeah!

State of a microcosmic world:

  • Hubby is doing well. He had lots of fun with our friends Friday night – the first meal of Shabbat. And we ate good food – my friend is a great cook.
  • Son is doing well. He spent Shabbat with his friends, came home tonight to change clothes for a date.
  • #1 Daughter is doing better than she was a month ago. She has been accepted for a pain pump trial. It should be going in within a few weeks.
  • #2 Daughter is doing well. She had lots of fun with her sister and a friend. #2 got some date time with her hubby when the sister and friend babysat.
  • Sons-in-law are ok. #1 son-in-law, the vet with 3 Iraqi tours under his belt, is still looking for a job. More on that in a different post.
  • #1 granddaughter (age 11 and 1/2) loves the beading kit I sent her. I hope she makes some really cool stuff and sends me a piece.
  • #2 grandson (age 4) is feeling better and loves playing with his keyboard music master machine I sent. I hope he sends me some songs that I requested.
  • #3 grandson (age 2) is cute cute cute. He is also a little sad since everyone went home and left the house quiet. But he’s back on schedule.
  • #4 grandson( age 1) is as cute as one year olds can be. He didn’t have much to say on the phone.

So, I’m recommitting for this coming week. Six blog posts in the week – but they are not restricted to one per day.

Have a happy week.

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Dedicated Friday

Posted on January 6, 2012 by administrator

All Friday is dedicated to getting ready for Shabbat (the Sabbath, ours is on Saturday). The tasks start on Thursday, laundry day. My main job is laundry: washing, drying, folding, and ironing. I was very excited when I was able to do the laundry on my own since being clobbered by lupus nephritis. For a long while I was not able to stand on the stool to put the clothes into the dryer (our dryer is stacked on top of the washer). Now I can stand on it without getting dizzy. Since I can’t reliably fold clothes or iron, only getting clothes into the washer and dryer rate 100% for the day. If I fold and/or iron I earn bonus points. Recently I’ve been trying to add in cleaning bathrooms and dusting. But that happens on a rare occasion. It’s still on hubby’s list.

Friday remains cooking day. We basically have 2 dinner parties: one Friday night and one Shabbat morning (around 11:15 or 11:30). For those meals we have fresh baked bread called challah, a fish course with lots of salads, a soup coarse with vegetarian soup so I can eat it without guilt, a main course with meat or chicken, vegetables, potatoes or rice, and something vegetarian for me. Then we have dessert.

This Shabbat we are going out for dinner and it’s just me and hubby for lunch. When this happens the meal gets scaled back  good deal. We’ll have fresh baked challah and salads, but hubby will already have eaten fish at another event in the morning. The soup is a red kidney bean curry soup with lots of Indian spicing. I’ll serve vegetable muffins with the soup. The main dish is stuffing wrapped around the outside of turkey and topped with beef sausage. It smells really good – too bad I can’t eat it. Dessert is fruit – if we have any room.

To give you an idea of our salads here are some regulars:

  • Hummus (made with chickpeas)
  • Eggplant with Tahina
  • Cucumber and onion
  • Green tossed salad
  • Zhoug (a green hot Yeminite relish made with cilantro and parsley and hot peppers)
  • Matboucha (a relish with roasted red peppers, tomato and spicing)
  • Fennel and Matzah salad (with loads of garlic and parsley)
  • Fennel and lemon (shredded fennel dressed with lemon, lemon zest and olive oil)
  • Potato salad (Syrian style with onion, parsley, and olive oil)
  • Olives, green and black, marinated or oil cured

There are more that I make – this is just a sample. The other thing I serve with the salad is hot olive oil with fresh garlic chips simmering in it. It is heavenly to spread it on the fresh challah.

I’m not that good with a camera. Everything tends to be blurry or focused on the wrong this. So, I don’t have pictures. Someday I’ll get hubby to take some pictures so you can see what I’m making.

Have a Shabbat Shalom (Sabbath Peace) and a great weekend.

Posted in Lupus Nephritis, renal failure diet | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Pain in the Sacrum…

Posted on January 5, 2012 by administrator

…instead of “pain in the x@#!?”.

The sacrum is at the bottom of the spinal column, right above the tailbone. It is bound by the ilium on both sides. The joint between the sacrum and the ilium is called the sacroiliac joint (left and right). Usually pain is on either side of the sacrum, usually caused by swelling of the sacroiliac joint. Usually, only one side hurts. Oh, and this is a symptom of lupus.

Of course, I have to be different. When my pain started it was directly over the sacrum. Today the pain is less than yesterday. Thank G-d – because that little walk yesterday caused all my joints to join in chorus, condemning me to hours of torture. Hopefully I’ll be back in walking shape in a week so that they all quiet down.

The tally so far includes:

  • left and right knees (left has a half replacement, right is slowly necrotizing)
  • left and right hips (right is cracked but orthopedist says left is worse)
  • left and right shoulders (left is by far worse off than the right)
  • left toes, right big toe
  • left ankle
  • left and right elbows and wrists (40% permanent disability)
  • TMJ
  • tinnitus
  • three crowns to replace

On the good side, my hair follicles don’t hurt and my hair is growing. And I have a really good quilt on my bed; I’m not freezing at night any more. Also, my legs are not swelling; I’ve been able to get into my sneakers without fuss. The pain in back, right on the kidneys, has gone away – along with the stress it was causing me as I imagined the worst.

The depression lifted a bit today. I started a new book editing project and found I had sat there for four and a half hours. It felt really good to lose myself in work. It’s been quite a while.

Stay tuned for the next installment on “Body Parts”, soon in your neighborhood.

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Foraging in January

Posted on January 4, 2012 by administrator

It’s the beginning of the foraging season here. All it took was few rain storms and cooler weather. The rakevet are blooming; mustard greens are peeking up; dandelion green babies nestle in with the vetch. In a few months these greens will be replaced with a riot of pink, yellow, and purple.

A very good friend of mine walked me into the Jerusalem forest near our neighborhood. As we walked I kept my eyes on the ground searching for green spots to raid in a week or two. G-d willing, we’ll keep getting more rain – and the spring greens will keep growing. Last year I could barely make it to the start of the path through the forest, let alone forage for any significant quantity of greens. This year I plan to walk at least once a week in search of greens. Foraging is one formidable tool to combat depression. Please G-d I’ll continue to be able to walk.

Which leads to my niggling back. Once I started walking I was ok. My back was talking to me, but not screaming. My friend and I made it to the bottom of the path, a significant descent from our neighborhood. It was only half way back up the hill that my hip joined the chorus and my ankle started to scream. By the time I made it home I declared the walk a success and gave myself permission to stay put for the rest of the day.

For all you buried in snow, your turn will come in a month or two. If you want to discover the bounty of wild food in your area take a look at the follow sites:

Many of the plants that sprout in the spring make great tonics. For bodies that used to be starved of fresh greens (back before imports from Chile gave us salads in the snow), these plants were the ingested as much for medicine/tonic as for the taste of something different than dried, salted meat.

One word of caution when foraging. Make sure you harvest plants at least 50 feet from the street – no nearer. Plants near roads are loaded with lead from car exhaust fumes.

Posted in chronic disease, chronic illness, depression, renal failure diet, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Day Three

Posted on January 3, 2012 by administrator

It’s a good thing I only committed to one week of posting everyday. I don’t know how people blog every day. Don’t they ever get writer’s block? Or get bored with their own writing? Or their own story? Yuck.

News, follow-up. The nausea transformed into actual stomach loss. I wonder if the low-sodium diet is the culprit. My normal cure for nausea is salted lemon. Or salt in other forms. Without it, well, you know the result. Am I doomed to nausea forever? It sure seemed to be constant before the kidney doc told me to salt everything. And now my stomach is reverting back to that behavior.

News, follow-up. The back pain has diminished somewhat. Yesterday the oxycontin made moving bearable. Today the oxycontin has managed to mask most of the pain. I’m hoping that tomorrow I won’t need it. Thanks for all the advice people gave me (0n Facebook). Here are some strategies:

  • Lay face down. Stretch one arm toward the head. Gently roll a little bit toward the same side as the arm that is toward the head, but not all the way. Lift the face straight up and look ahead. That makes the back of the head lean toward the spine. Practice this until all of a sudden, on that side, you get the most amazing relief in the world! You can then do this for the other side.
  • Use a thing called Thermacare heat wraps. They wrap on your body and stay there for about 8 hours. They provide warmth to the muscles through heated stones.
  • Use a tennis ball to gently adjust the position of the spinal facets and vertebrae. While reclined on a firm carpet, place the ball right next to your spine (start at the top of the neck and work down). Then put your weight into the ball, breathing out and relaxing as the weight increases. Move the ball an inch or two vertically and do it again. Both sides of the spine. Talk to an osteopath before doing this to ensure you won’t break something!
  • Use a heating pad before going to sleep.

I actually kept the heating pad on my back for several hours. As long as I didn’t move around I didn’t feel any pain.

Being immobile for a long stretch of time prompted me to go through all my loose leaf recipes. I managed three piles: those I’ve made and want to keep, those I want to make, and those I’m never going to make. The third pile, the largest pile, went right into the circular file. The first pile, those I’ve made and want to keep, is very very very small. They have to be put into my binder. The second pile remains jumbled, awaiting my next down time to put them in some kind of order. They get 6 months. If I don’t make them in 6 months, they too are relegated to the circular file.

Now a new task is on my list. Find out if this type of back pain is lupus related.

 

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Wee Hours of the Morning

Posted on January 2, 2012 by administrator

Body and mind are feuding. Body wants to rest, do nothing, not even a short walk. Mind imposes order, discipline: make the bed (get out of it first!), shower, dress, daven (pray). Body, rebellious to the bone, screams and cries. Then it’s done. But neither mind nor body can answer the pressing question – why am I up at 3:30 in the morning – freezing?

Throughout all that my body has suffered I have been very grateful that my back caused no problems. That is, until today. The only pain I’ve really had in my back was labor pains. Nothing prepared me for persistent lower back pain. And I couldn’t figure out what I did (if anything) t0 cause the pain. Hot water from the shower helped, but only lasted a little while after I left the water. What medicine could I take to mask the pain? Ibuprofen is out. Tylenol too. Percoset would help, but it is not an anti-inflammatory. In the end I took Oxycontin. It took a few hours to reach its maximum, but now I can do some things, I can move around without flinching every few seconds.The only side effect is persistent nausea.

So, all you people out there that have experience with back pain, what do you do to alleviate the pain and move about somewhat normally? What do you do over the long haul? Do you have any “alternative” treatments that have worked.

Drop me a line. Educate me.

 

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New Year – New Direction

Posted on January 1, 2012 by administrator

New Year, the secular new year, the Gregorian calendar new year, not my new year, and yet – January 1 is a good marker in time. Judaism actually has four new years:

  • the new year of the trees (Tu B’shvat – February or so), nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
    nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
    nnnnnnnnnnnn
  • the new year of the world (1st of Nissan-Passover),
    nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
    nnnnnnnnnnnnnn
    nnnnnnnnnnnn
  • the new year of the animals (1st of Elul-around August or September), and
    nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
    nnnnnnnnnn
  • the new year of humans (1st of Tishrei Rosh Hashana).
    nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
    nnnnnnnnnnnnn
    nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
    nnnnnnnnnnnn

So, take your pick; choose one of the above or January 1, it’s all a new beginning. While we don’t do any celebrating of January 1st, it does serve as a milestone. In that spirit I plan, hope, to post more often. As a first goal, I’m going to try posting once a day for a week (minus Shabbat [Sabbath]) – six times in the week. Wish me luck.

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