More Blah, blah, blah

Thank you for all your kind comments on the previous two posts. They do mean so much to me.

Duane has kind of been in a grumpy mood on & off for the past couple of days. I can't seem to do anything about it. I got tired of it today & sent him across the street to "play" with a neighbor who is building something.

I received a lovely massage from good friend David last night. He has never formally trained, but he is very good. I know some women don't like to be massaged by a man, but, frankly i love it. David's hands are so large & gentle that i can't help but relax when he works on me.

The rash is so much worse. It is very angry & red & painful. I've tried nearly everything possible to treat it (or at least i feel i tried everything known to man) & nothing seems to help much. It is painful to have anything touching it - it obviously is in a spot that does not get massaged! The underwires of my bra are killing me, but it is just as painful without that item of clothing. My next step is to brew some stinging nettle tea, drink that & put the tea bags in the freezer to apply as compresses later.

It did occur to me that i may be getting unknown gluten from the vitamin D i use (will have to check into this) or possibly at dinner Wednesday night. I went to Pickup Stix & ordered a vegetable bowl. Rice & veggies, & shrimp (i still sometimes eat sea food). But it had a teriyaki sauce on it & i realized later that if that sauce was made with soy sauce it had gluten for most soy sauces are made with soy & wheat & i know the one at Pickup Stix is made with wheat. I'm not used to needing to be that careful about gluten.

Over all, however, i'm thankful for this wake up call. I wasn't being that careful before & this is making it clear to me that it is time to be vigilant about going GF.

Duane bought me the cutest guitar. I'll have to take a picture of it. It arrived yesterday. It is an odd shape.

A couple of months ago we were at a neighbor's garage sale. He is a musician. He had a couple of guitars for sale & one was the most beautiful acoustic guitar. I fell in love with it, but he wanted $200, & i just wasn't sure about that as i don't play & was concerned that we'd spend the money & then i'd never use it. So Duane ordered this one for me to see if i can learn & will use it. I'm assuming that if i do utilize it, that at a later point i'd get one that is more "normal." I love to sing, but don't know much. I used to, auld lang syne, play the violin tho i don't remember that at all. I also took piano & voice lessons, & can do passably with the piano. Not well. Sis #3 is the pianist in our family.

Part of Duane's less than good mood may be that i've not done much with the guitar yet. But i don't really know what to do with it! I need a couple of basic lessons.

I'm knitting a scarf with the yarn left over from the baby blanket i made. And i bought some more, deciding i'll make a hat, too. I've used circular knitting needles before to do regular knitting, but this is the first time i've done a seamless project. I don't know if i'm doing it right. To make it come out properly it seems i have to do the stitches backwards to what i'm used to. I'll take pics of them before long, too. I'm knitting the scarf tightly on size 2 knitting needles. I'm finding that the yarn is not so soft when knitted tightly as it was when i used a larger needle.

I had another dream last night of feeling unheard, unimportant, out of control. I didn't remember it very well even when i woke, & because i didn't write it down i don't remember it much at all now. But i felt, again, frustrated & as if i had no control over circumstances.

And i woke to about 2 hours of steady rain this AM. I had no control over that, either! Not that i'm complaining. Summer rain is unusual here, but always welcome. But we'd planned to buy some wood today & i didn't want to buy it wet. Our hardware stores here do not have warehouses. The wood is stored in the open. I wasn't planning to paint today either (it is on the list for next week) but painting was out of the question, too. It has been off & on cloudy today. Right now the sun is lovely, but they warn we may get "heavy storms" later with warning for possible flash flooding.

Because it was mentioned in a comment before ( :) Alane), here is a list of the things i usually do to try to keep myself healthy:

I get a chiropractic adjustment at least twice a month, & sometimes once a week.

I get acupuncture regularly (haven't been so good about this recently, but i do try to get in twice a month).

I get CranioSacral work done regularly (usually once a month to once every 6 weeks, it is rather pricey).

I do see a therapist (John) about once a month.

I do utilize EFT (emotional freedom technique) to handle stress & other issues; i also teach it to clients whom i feel would benefit, if they are interested.

I get an occasional massage.

I do take supplements that i feel might help & the docs i work with feel are appropriate.

I try to eat a mostly organic, vegetarian (pescitarian actually) diet.

When appropriate, i order & run diagnostic lab tests (you can order these yourself in most states).

And, at this point i'm considering trying to find someone who is good at holistic work to contract with me & give advice. Both a nurse practitioner & an endocrinologist have been recommended. I haven't decided yet.

I do carry insurance that would be useful if i'm in a car accident or something catastrophic. We dropped my HMO insurance a couple years ago as we were paying a lot of money for it & it didn't cover any of the above listed items, so we were paying double, as far as i was concerned. What really blew me away was that the HMO wouldn't cover a basic physical for me because it was for work. I didn't see this doc any other time of the year, i was paying $350/month for HMO coverage, & i STILL had to pay $200 for a work physical.

I'm not a very big proponent of insurance, except catastrophic coverage. I think it would work better as a capitalist system, health savings account style, so that the PATIENT, not doc, not ins, not gov't, the PATIENT makes the decisions on how his/her money will be spent. But of course, the person has to educate themselves & take responsibility then, & that is an uphill battle in our society.

I could go on & on on this. I do agree that it is unfair that there are folks who can't get coverage, etc. I don't know the answer to that one, i wish i did. But i don't think our gov't - which has already proved it can't handle money well - should be involved in a universal plan for all US citizens. I think that is a recipe for disaster.

Wow, that issue certainly has a lot of folks heated up. I agree that the fear mongers need to be . . . .what - silenced, stopped, ??? That sounds harsh but we don't need any additional panic. Much of the heat of this debate has come from folks who prey on the fears of others to make this a hot topic. I do not wish to do that. I just simply don't believe that the folks "we" have elected to represent us show the ability to manage such an elephantine plan.

I've tried to make myself shut up four times now, it is time to stop!

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