Friday, December 29, 2017

May The New Year of 2018, bring a renewed peace, better health, less stress, added hope, and a feeling of "life worth living" to all....

My hopes are that everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday, and everyone got to where they needed to be both going and coming, without delays from weather, illness or anything else...
I also bid you a very Precious and Special 2018! My heart has hope, that we find Tranquility, A Faith to withstand and to triumph over evil and those who wish harm upon others. May there be a LIGHT that adds warmth to your soul, and may we all find the beauty in all things....

I realize that MANY of us had yet again, a "terrible" 2017, whether it be family, loss, health, jobs, finances, or "harm" from others, most of us will try and find that renewal of faith come midnight 2017/2018...


Wishing each and every one of you a SAFE, HAPPY, and GRAND New Year! My hopes and prayers are that WE as a person, as families, as friends, as workers, and as a state and nation find more hope, more peace, less stress, and a brand new outlook on our lives. 


I "try" to always find "hope" deep down inside this time of year. I am not "one" to have a "New Years Resolution" list, but a I usually have a "few things" down that I might like to "try" if I haven't done it before, "OR" change an old habit, find a new friend, or a new hobby, pray that my health gets no worse, and wish for peace most of all, in these times of trials, tribulations and suffering we see or hear about almost daily... May we be blessed with a New Outlook...


Wishing you much in blessings, hope, strength, better health, family, friends, jobs and so much more....


Sunday, December 24, 2017

Wishing You and Yours a Beautiful, Peace filled, loving, and blessed Christmas, and May 2018 bring much needed "good events" to us all!!!


I realize MANY MANY of us have been "touched" by severe weather, threats from those who wish to harm us, Mother Nature's wrath, from fires, to hurricanes to tornado's... people that "abuse" others, and just now after MANY years they have the "courage and voice" to speak out...
So, as you gather around friends, family, the table, food, trees, gifts and more... Remember to keep "HOPE" Alive and burning brightly in your heart, say a prayer for those less fortunate, even though many of us are on that "list" of misfortunes also... hold your head high, and don't allow others to take over your life... PRAY that somehow the WORLD finds "PEACE" and always hold onto those you love and let them know everyday that you do...


Many blessings I wish for all of you and again hoping that the New Year of 2018, brings much goodness to us all!!!! Below is a "montage of photo's of myself, my daughter and her family, my 3 Grandkids, and my 2 Fur-Babies Bella Doxie and Peanut!



















Thursday, December 14, 2017

Several New Clinical Trials Our by "Cure Click"...RA, Diabetes, Fibroids, Lupus, Memory Problems and more...

There are several new Clinical Trials out sponsored by Cure Click... I've been so busy tied up with things around the house especially outside before the cold weather gets here, that I hope after the holidays, I am "back on tract" with my blog, writing, Social Media, book, and activism..,


I've tried to post what is most important, and then I also had "browser" issues. I have decided finally to "switch" to another browser, but I am still not thrilled with it. I guess I was so comfortable and familiar with the other one, after many years, that I've found it difficult when I really have not had the time to learn more about it to feel good about using it.

But the other one, which all of them are memory hogs, was just ridiculous... it was getting to where it was locking up every other moment, and I was having to force quit it and restart it all the time. It was SO SLOW... also... and I have plenty of "memory" as far as that goes, but all of the "items" that browsers "keep", and of course some "cookies" you find are helpful, but the cache is ridiculous at times...

Plus I believe after the last "update" they did, they had some type of virus. It was never as bad until about a month ago, and I got just fed up....

Anyway, I wanted to give you a heads up on these Clinical Trials, many of you maybe interested in them...

There aer still others that are in clinical trial phase also, and the graphics and links are on the sides of my blog... so be sure to check those out also... I will get these up also, as soon as time allows!!!


HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND MAY YOU HAVE A BLESSED UPCOMING 2018!


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Monday, December 11, 2017

As Always, "Shi*" Happens, and it if will happen it will be me... 3 strikes are enough for sure, home repair, chronic illness, expenses rise, and benefits fall....



Well of course when it "rains it pours with me"... first it was the ceiling fan in the living room, of which is still sitting in my back bedroom not put up yet, then the dryer goes out and I STILL do NOT have MY new washer and dryer... they were going to bring them yesterday BUT I've felt like heck now for about 3 or 4 days, a BAD, BAD HEADACHE, a very, very nauseated stomach, and I've just not felt well at all. I STILL did not sleep last night, and I woke up with my head still hurting and my fingers are so bad with the eczema or whatever is wrong with them, that they are bleeding cracked, and then at night they swell, and throb so badly it wakes me up...

they really got bad after the colder weather hit... anyway, I just about got our decorations all on the tree, in fact I took pics but I don't think I even put them up here yet., so yesterday I was getting out of my HUGE HONKIN TUB as I call it, in fact I will post a pic of it, I found one just exactly like it a bit ago... anyway, I looked up at one of the side panels and thought I saw a "crack" in it! I was like it can't be... there is no "strain" on the 3 back panels, and I am the only one in it, unless I give the pups a bath, and then when I got to looking there were 2 in one panel and then on the other side I saw a crack in it! Now I bought that tub in 2006, several months after we moved in. When we did all of the remodeling, made the bathroom larger, put in new plumbing, electrical and lots of other work to the house, I ordered that tub... and it came in in about 5 huge crates, and we actually put it in ourselves. 

So, I got to thinking about it, and the 
ONLY thing I could come up 
with is that the panes of glass that enclose it are HEAVY!!! There are the two that slide, but then on each side, there is also panes... so that is a great deal of weight on those two panels over the years, especially with the two sliding back and forth to open and close it, and then like I said they are very heavy. Other than that I could see if it was in a bottom, or bottom side of the tub itself but it just does not make sense for cracks to be on those side panels... Anyway, I am going to silicone them for now, because about 3 months ago,

I began to notice the closets, and one of them opens into the back of that shower, and we have it where we can take a piece of the back of the closet down and see all the plumbing and electrical for the shower, I began to notice some kind of "odor"... well I know due to the humidity here in TX anyway, then the heat of the summer especially, it can get kind of a musty smell, and I keep stuff in the closets to absorb moisture, and change it frequently due to the moisture from the tub also... and I have to wonder now, if those small cracks are beginning to cause a bit of a seep from them, and that maybe causing that musty smell, if so, I don't know of a thing to do, but take out that shower, and put a smaller, just walk in shower with a bench for me...

I knew someday it may come to me having to do something else, because of the hip fractures, all of my joint surgeries and so forth, it can be a bit slippery now getting in and out of this particular type of shower, sauna/tub ... I pray it waits though after the mess with NOT getting the guy to finish my house outside, and taking all of that money, now the washer and dryer, the ceiling fan, and last night dammit, I was washing my crock pot and it slipped and knocked a piece out of the handle of it... It is not inside anywhere and I glued the piece back on, but I doubt it holds long, and my crock pot is one of my most used items in my kitchen almost! So, when it rains it pours as I said... I HOPE "Murphy's Law" leaves me alone for a while, I am going broke with things BREAKING! Below is the exact one I have...


Friday, December 8, 2017

An Herbal Green Tea - Matcha that I found very interesting as well as "tastes" good to me also, antioxidants, concentration benefits, help with immunity and so forth...

I usually am not one to "push" a product... but a couple of days ago I was in the market, and looking for some "herbal tea" to drink hot during the winter. I have tried all kinds and some of them are just not "tasty" for me... so I found this "Matcha" tea, and this happened to be Lipton Brand but I am sure buying some of the other brands that deal in the herbal tea's may be "better"... but this one is a "green tea" that is grown a very certain way and the "monks" used it and I am sure many still do... it is supposed to create "focus" and concentration, and it is really interesting... 

when I read just what bit was on the box, and then came home to look it up, I am really kind of "anxious" to see if it has some of the qualities that I've read about... it has MAJOR antioxidants, and I am including a page, out of many I found through just a search about some of those qualities. Now whether buying the "loose tea leaves" would be better, I have no clue, but I tried it this morning and I also really LIKED the taste of it... 

so that is a plus for me, and I am NOT a huge coffee drinker, and after about a cup if that much, I am really unable to drink much coffee... so this really helps to give me another choice that is "warm" during the cold months, PLUS if it gives more FOCUS, I NEED TO DRINK GALLON OF IT A DAY! 

AND then the other "health benefits" are really many... so it is called "Matcha Green Tea" and I hope you find the story about it as interesting as I did....


*by the way the 1st one I posted was of course also "selling" it, so I've tried to find a couple of places that talk about the "tea" rather than trying to sell it to you....

I am NOT "pushing" any "one" brand, I just happened to have found it locally by Lipton, so that is what I bought. I wanted to find out more before I decided to feel like I needed it form some type of opinion and decide how I liked the taste before seeing if a "more expensive" or different brand would be any better. 







Thursday, December 7, 2017

Is there a way to "combine" all of "Life & Stresses" & also "stay somewhat healthy, especially with chronic health issues and chronic pain problems

I've been it seems almost "lost" this entire year of 2017. It seems the "less" I think I may have to do and take care of, the MORE I find is "hitting me" in my pocket book, with my health, and in my trials of getting back to the basics. Which for me is my blog, my social media in some ways, and in my writing...


My blog, as well as my writing, and posts in Facebook, Twitter, my daily newspaper, and so forth are "crucial" I feel to keep myself "out there" working somehow on them, yet between doctor's visits, tests, health problems that arise suddenly, trying to recover from an extremely complicated cervical neck surgery from last April, I feel as if I am "drowning" and treading water to keep afloat.

After last year about this time, the tragedy of my fall that led to 2 fractures of my right hip, a total of 31 days of surgery and inpatient physical therapy to be able to walk on it, and then months of recuperating at home, I felt like most of my year has been taken over once again by my own health issues.

In 2016, when Mom became suddenly so ill, with Lewy Bodies Dementia, and I spent all of that year taking care of her, then her passing away a year ago in July, that things although never being the same may "calm" down somewhat where I could get more quality time in to my own projects, from this blog, to more advocacy work, to getting down to truly finishing and having my 3rd book published. Once again I feel as if I have "failed" myself, and in many ways failed my readers.

It was a great loss of my Mom, and then after I fell and spent so much time as an inpatient, and the loss of my dear sweet "Bub's" loss, because he "mourned" himself to death because of me not able to be home.

I swore that night he laid in my bed with my at the rehab hospital never again would I allow anything to "part me" from my fur babies. They will be able to come and see my as they should if again I cannot be home with them.

I am so fortunate to have Peanut, who was so little at the time, and now my sweet, sweet Bella Doxie, who just turned 4 months old on the 2nd of this month and the both of them are the LIGHTS in my heart and life that give me the courage to get up each morning and try to "seize" the day ahead. Yet I have now such a fear of losing one of them, or something happening to me, that I am in fear on some days, just leaving to run errands or pick up things from the market.

I've been fighting my own battle about this ordeal over the Opioid Issues. I was in a "meeting" online and on the phone last night with one of my advocacy groups about that subject. The thing I found interesting is that there were many questions being added to the list as we listened to the speaker, yet one of my POST QUESTIONS was the very 1st that was brought up.

How do you "try and avoid Opioid therapy" for a person who has "multiple health problems"? For instance, take my example. I have osteoarthritis, RA, Lupus, Osteoporosis, Chronic issues of degeneration in my neck and lumbar spine. I've had 2 heart attacks, MULTIPLE SURGERIES especially JOINT surgeries, & I STILL have chronic pain daily. Now of course, I try to do other things to help the pain, that is why the surgeries rather than allowing joints to become totally incapacitating, but hernia surgery, bladder surgery, my neck that now is so "eaten away" by osteoporosis that I face a "total fusion" with "equipment" IF the GRAFTS do not Heal and harden the way they should,

I have to be diligent in taking my other medications for some of the health problems, for my heart, for the Lupus, for the RA, for the osteoporosis, then there are meds for the other health related problems I have. YET, due to "some" of my health issues, I am NOT able to take NAIDS for instance. I have severe GERD plus after a heart attack, you should not use NSAIDS.

I do my exercises, I am NOT one to sit around and cry, whine, and be "still" just because I hurt. But, I do also know that some of the "other forms of ways to help chronic pain" would cause  me to have further problems, and/or pain

I've tried just about any and every other type of "chronic pain" alternatives there are. I've been through injections into my spine and joints, I've had one hand repaired my carpal tunnel, many of the surgeries were to "repair" issues that were causing me pain. But PT, (Physical Therapy) has really never worked much for me, other than with the hip fracture, always made me hurt worse, than before I had the PT. I've had my occipital nerves in my neck injected for migraines.  And I have to say, Yoga, Tai Chi, Chiropractic techniques, other forms of stretching, exercises, swimming, and acupuncture WORK for some people!

But, when you have a "complicated complex patient" that has several different problems that can cause severe daily chronic pain, most of us do have to have some type of Opioid medication in order for us to "live our lives with some kind of quality"..

I've used that phrase often since I began my quest for answers about chronic pain, "quality of life".... and when I look back to just not that many years ago, even when I was in my teen's... and as far back as I can recall... Even "Adults" in my family and surroundings in my home town were not "plagued" with the severe illnesses and chronic severity of pain, that so MANY of us NOW have to live with!

I've questioned that now for a long while... "Why"?? is it that many of the horrible illnesses we see now, just were extremely "rare"... you didn't hear of so many with Lupus, RA, or the other number of autoimmune illnesses. Fibromyalgia is yet another that was very rare.

What was it about their lives back then that either kept them "healthier", or led them to "not endure pain" like many these days'.. was it diet, was it because they did work harder physically and less sitting around and enduring the mental hardships of computers, and complicated times we live in now? Is it because they grew much of their own food, they ate many things that we would consider "bad" for us today, they grew their own "animals", most of their grains, or bought them locally from a small grocer, they had milk from their own cows, that they made cottage cheese, or other milk products with, they had "fresh" eggs, and then chickens that were not full of hormones or other things to cause them to "produce or grow quicker".... everything was more of a natural stance. From the clothing they made from flour sacks, to the corn, cotton, plums, peaches, tomatoes, and other vegetables they grew. They had hogs they killed and cows... nothing or very little came from a "store" or from "mass production".., and the LAND at that time was not COVERED IN CONCRETE AND GLASS... plastic was probably very rare... there were few "cars" and they walked to the town, or doctor if there was one, or the doctor made a house call if he could. Medications were not all that "manufactured" but they used natural things, what we now call "home remedies" or old "folk remedies"... well those remedies kept them living, and not experiencing the cancers, and afflictions we see in this day and age.

As I sum this post up, I would call it a time that life was more simple, not complex, you had what you had, and were happy with it.... you didn't try to life "above and beyond" their means, and the neighbors a mile or two away, were good neighbors, that helped in the fields, helped build barns, and houses.... and when you had an orange, apple, and a small toy in your stocking for Christmas morning, life was GOOD!!!!!!