4-18-12 Healthy can be yummy and beautiful!

New Beginning, I hope

My daughter and I have decided to do a 365 project. Take a photo a day and post it. Kind of like an art journal, I guess. Since I rarely do anything with my blog I decided to give it a try and see if I could even take one photo every day. Next post begins my 356 photo project.

Stem Cell Snake Oil

So the article I wrote about yesterday wasn't visible to most people at the link provided. I tried a number of solutions, but nothing seemed to work well and then it finally occurred to me this morning--just post the article in another blog post! Okay, so there are moments when dense-ness settles into my brain. So here is the article written by a woman who got caught up in a stem cell scam. For those of you who are youngsters and don't understand the reference to "snake oil" that is what they used to sell to unsuspecting people many moons ago--even before my mom was born and that's a whole lot of moons! 

Just Keep On Keeping on!

(94) TARLOV CYST DISEASE AWARENESS:


'via Blog this'

I have no idea if this article I just read on my TC Disease Awareness group will post. It is about a woman who had a very bad accident and spinal injury. They were able to repair much of the damage and she had 10 more years of an active life and embraced those years. Then the neurological pain came back and there was nothing to be done, so she resorted to one of the many scams about stem cell treatment.

After reading the article these are some of my rambling thoughts.

Spoon Theory--What is it like to live with Chronic Pain

My best friend and I were in the diner, talking. As usual, it was very late and we were eating French fries with gravy. Like normal girls our age, we spent a lot of time in the diner while in college, and most of the time we spent talking about boys, music or trivial things, that seemed very important at the time. We never got serious about anything in particular and spent most of our time laughing. 
As I went to take some of my medicine with a snack as I usually did, she watched me with an awkward kind of stare, instead of continuing the conversation. She then asked me out of the blue what it felt like to have Lupus and be sick. I was shocked not only because she asked the random question, but also because I assumed she knew all there was to know about Lupus. She came to doctors with me, she saw me walk with a cane, and throw up in the bathroom. She had seen me cry in pain, what else was there to know? 

Elliot Krane: The mystery of chronic pain | Video on TED.com

I watched this video this morning and though it superb. When us chronic pain (CP) people go to our doctors we don't get much information from them. If we are truly fortunate, we get some compassion and some understanding, but not much information on what is happening in our bodies. I don't know about other people with CP, and I get a bit freaked out some times because weird things happen to my body. They are weird because I cannot figure out why what is happening, is happening! Some of what happens is perceived as pain and some of what happens is perceived as muscles being strained or twisted or turned, toes feeling like they are out of their joints, knees feeling like they have been pulled out of joint and then released...the list goes on. This video helps to describe what nerve pain can feel like and what goes on in the brain to make the body feel those weird feelings.

 

I hope this helps not only confused and depressed CP people, but also their families. Families and friends who are truly supportive are an irreplaceable gift!

To Be or Not to be Broken—this is the question

 Some things simply cannot be fixed. This is a sad fact and yet a fact it is.

Or is it? Is it sad? I don’t know because happy versus sad depends entirely upon one’s perspective.

I’ve had some email conversation recently and those conversations have provoked many thoughts about my “condition”. My Tarlov Cysts (TC), as they are called. I’ve spent over a year now with TC and gone through a gambit of feelings and emotions. At this point in my life, those feelings and emotions are beginning to gel into a ….Philosophy, I suppose. You know that quote we hear time and time again—“these are the times that try men’s souls”? Interestingly enough a somewhat removed relative of mine said this, Thomas Paine. If I remember right, Thomas Paine was in a branch of my family that went elsewhere. My mom would have to explain how that works ‘cause I sure don’t know.

There isn’t a person alive who does not drop in and out of times that try, or test as I think of it, our souls. I don’t know why this is. I only know testing is a part of life. I suspect testing is a part of life because it forces us to grow and move forward. We gain strength, insight and wisdom from these times. I suspect these times have to do with the survival of the “fittest” philosophy. The where and whys of this really depend on one’s perspective.

And there is it again—one’s perspective. Life is all about perspective.

I have a dear friend and we email fairly regularly. She wrote that she wished she could fix what was broken so I could have a pain-free life. My first response, my gut response to this was “I’m not broken”. My response took me by surprise, so I stopped and cogitated upon it.

I live with chronic pain. This is a fact. Most people I’ve met, including myself once upon a time, look upon this as being broken. And from one perspective I am broken. And yet from another perspective I am not broken and even if I were—some things simply cannot be “fixed”.

I ran across this video last week of Nic Vujicic.

He was born without arms or legs. Is he broken? He doesn’t think seem to think he is. He found a way to find joy in his life even though he was born into a condition that would qualify as “…tried men’s souls.” I can’t even begin to imagine his life. I admire this man. I admire that he shares his love and inspiration with so many people. We need people like this to share how they find a way to step beyond adversity. His way is Christianity. There are many ways, though.

As many ways as there are people to find them.

And here we come to another email conversation I had recently. You see, each person has to find their own way. Each person has to stumble upon the concept that works for them. And it could be anything that suddenly turns on the light bulb. And I believe we have many times in our lives that we have to find our way through the muck and the mire. Times where we struggle to find the concepts that work for us because we change and as we change, we must step back and re-think our “philosophy” of life.

My philosophy of life is a conglomeration of bits and piece, which come from reading, study, thinking and attending in the University of Hard Knocks. I paste these bits and pieces onto the post-it note of my brain and eventually those notes come together and form a philosophy. What heads up my philosophy is “bloom where you are planted,” a phrase I heard years ago from Dr. Phil. When I heard it I had the light bulb turn on, or as we say these days—a V-8 moment. I slapped my forehead and said, “Well, duh Teri.”  My life began moving forward from that moment on.

I wanted to share my insight with everyone. It was so simple! Difficult to put into practice, yes; and yet the idea, the concept was utterly simple. Of course, few people actually “got” what I was saying. Yes, intellectually anyone can look at that phrase and know what it means and yet can they actually make it work for them? Does it turn on that light bulb and make them slap their forehead and say, “duh”? Not for the most part. And that is because:

There are as many ways as there are people to find them.

Does blooming where I am planted make the pain go away? No. It simply helps me understand that I am not broken. There is so much more to me than chronic pain.

I put the question before you—what is your philosophy of life? Where did it come from? What does it provide you with? How do you use it in your life? And probably the most important question is—Is it working for you?