Don't just do as I say!

I have many people who ask me what I do for my chronic pain so I just share with them as to what I am doing. After I share, sometimes I get a,'so what supplement was that again?" or 'what brand of supplement do you take?' or 'where do you get that?' who do I go to for a physical therapy? Not the right questions to be asking.

I am probably speaking to the choir here as most people will not be reading this blog unless they are already taking charge of their own health. However, because the system does not encourage independent thinking, it bears repeating, if we don't take responsibility of those things only we control, we can not expect to be our healthiest. As more and more people are finding that Healthcare goes far beyond the reached of their favorite primary care physician, clinic or hospital, they are seeking other avenues of information. This is good. However, we always want to make sure that we double, triple check our sources for reliability.

Only we control what we put in our mouths. Only we control the bad habits we might have like smoking, staying up all night, saying yes or no to a bit of exercise and have a support system to help us make good decisions.

What I am getting at here is that just because this and that has helped someone(even me, as a nurse with 25 years of knowledge and experience), everyone needs to do their own research. Never, ever, ever do something, exercise, diet change, or take a supplement, just because someone else did it and it helped them. That should be part of the decision tree, yes, but not the whole ball of wax so to speak.

Being healthy can be as simple and as complicated as a person wants to make it. Eat only whole foods or don't eat processed foods. Take a walk to relax or have to go to the gym which you hate. I or anyone else who blogs, teaches, shares, informs, etc, can only share their experiences and of course research. However when it comes to lifestyle, so much of the research is flawed. It really takes dedication and determination to figure out when someone is just selling a product and when they are sharing their truth.

I feel like I am just rambling. If I ever recommend a product with this blog, It will be because I truly believe in the product. If I make any money off of you buying it, I will let you know. So far, I have not gotten to where I make any money with this blog. I do hope to change that in the near future, as a writer has to make a living. But I hope never to have that be the main thing this blog is about.

Merry Christmas and wishing you all a healthy new year!

Until next time,

Healthbug

Determination with chronic pain.

Hi,

Just wanted to make a post that deals with the need for serious determination when dealing with chronic pain. A lot of people with chronic pain look only for effective pain relief, and that is OK as far as it goes. Isn't that really the goal, somehow, some way, getting pain relief?

Yes and no, the yes, I want pain relief, but not entirely the only result I want. I want healing also. So I continue to try anything and everything that seems to promise help. Diet adjustments to eliminate inflammation, nutrients to help my body heal, physical therapy to strengthen my bones and muscles.

It takes a lot of determination to keep researching and trying new things. Persistence is the name of the game. Going sugar free had been the best thing so far, that I have done. Not easy but definitely worth it. Of course I have to keep reminding myself of the pain the sugar causes. I've also found that once I was off of sugar for 1 week, I could tell if anything else was causing me inflammation and thus more pain. Corn, was one of those that popped up.

I have supplemented with D3 20,000IU for the last two weeks and that has helped with pain reduction and feeling less stiff. Today I reduced that amount to 10,000IU and will take this amount for 10 weeks then take 5,000 IU for the rest of the year. This is a protocol I came up with form my research. You will need to do your own research to determine home much or even if you would like to try this.

I also have supplemented with NAC (n acetyl-cysteine) methy B-12 and methylated Folate for about 3 months now and have not really found any pain relief from that protocol. So I will probably stop these supplements and see what happens. Sometimes it is when you stop a supplement that you find out it really was helping just in such a suttle way that you don't notice until you stop and the benefits go away.

I am also using some magnetic insoles I picked up for cheap at Natural Grocers. I wear them in my work shoes and I do see some pain relief also with them.

My physical therapy seems to be helping some with my muscle strengthening but not as much as I would like. Perhaps I need to just walk more. And this I will do as the pain allows.

As I said, determination and persistence is the name of the game when trying to get to the bottom of chronic pain. My next addition will be hyaluronic acid that I plan to add as soon as I get enough to start taking 3 doses a day for at least a week. It is expensive so I am ordering it online to get enough to give it a good try. My research indicates that it may help with bone and ligament repair. I good to try any supplement that appears like it will do no harm.

Does it get expensive? Truthfully, yes. However, I view it as less expensive than surgery and with just as much a chance of helping me with the help being much more holistic and beneficial in the long run. I am all in for the long run and not just the temporary relief. Research, research, research! Try, observe results, try again.

I know that now that I am off of sugar, I have gone back to some of the things I have tried previously to see if maybe the benefits of those earlier tries were overshadowed by the sugar inflammation pain.
It never hurts to renew and refresh your mind as to what kind of helped in the past too as those things may be more helpful now with the new regimen you are on. My opinion only.

Yes I am stubborn and will keep working at addressing my pain in as healthy way as I can. Yes and most likely unconventional way. So be it.

Each to their own journey. I am just sharing my journey with the hope there might be some little something there that might help other people with chronic pain out even if it is just a little bit.

At present I am watching the iThrive docu-series that documents Jon McMahon's journey of weight loss. While I disagree with much of their "expert's" opinions, I do very much agree with one of their main points which is that we have control of what we eat and what we eat does hugely affect our
health! It is very encouraging to make the dietary changes you need to make to get and stay healthy. What that dies might consist of, once again, in my opinion is no flour, sugar or anything processed. Organic as much as possible. The rest is up for debate and debate the experts do.

Well till next time. Strive to be happy, healthy and wise. Take charge of your own health as much as possible  and have a happy Thanksgiving!

Healthbug

The pain of chronic pain!

I am struggling. I am sure anyone with chronic pain struggles with discouragement. I am also struggling with self image and self esteem. My pain shows and there is nothing I can do about that. I walk with a definite limp/hitch in my step. My right hip and right knee are painful with walking and sometimes just standing still for a length of time (as in when I am working in the kitchen or worse stopped at work to chat with a patient). The pain increases significantly.

I even had a patient ask me 'how long have you been crippled'! I have never considered myself crippled. Geez. Very depressing! Getting up and sitting down are difficult for me. I used to be an athlete. I ran 3-9 miles a day in high school. Had 5 children and was always very active with them. When my children left home I continued to be active. About 15 years ago my right knee started hurting once in awhile. And once in awhile it was bad enough I sought help from a chiropractor who said my knee was fine, adjusted my hips and off I went feeling better. The frequency of my pain increased with frequency and intensity to the point where about 10 years ago I began to experience pain every day. I began seeking answers.

I am unable to take any of the opioids, they make me deathly sick. I would rather be in pain. So I sought PT, therapeutic massage, chiropractic, supplements, ND's, DO's, Orthopedic advice and at present I am going to a special kind of Physical therapy called restorative muscle balancing. I had prolozone therapy and stem cell therapy. I've taken Ibuprofen 400-800mg experementing with combining the ibuprofen with some tylenol. Everything helps for a little while but nothing seems to help for the long term. My present supplement program consists of NAC three times a day, methyl folate once a day and methyl cobalimine B-12 once a day and just a week ago I started taking the collagen chews with  Hyluronic acid for bone support once a day.

At what point will I feel better? Is that never? I do try to compensate for and deal with the pain in healthy ways. I distract, I also do mega research on how to address the underlying cause of my pain.

Pain, depression and discouragement serve as an impetus to research deeper, more intense and revisit some research. I use my discouragement to spur me to renew my search for answers! I seek out new research and revisit old. Just this last week I took a hard honest look at my diet and found I had let some processed foods and sugar sneak back into my daily eating so I stopped eating sugar and once again removed processed foods from my diet! I do feel better without the sugar.

I revisited Acupressure  and trigger point therapy! I have started doing acupressure on key points and I seem to be finding some pain relief. I also researched cobblestone walking. The internet has sure made research so much easier. Thank goodness. I don't have cobblestones to walk on but I do have a wooden roller I can use to massage my feet!

My point with this post is to encourage. I know chronic pain is discouraging! There may be no answer but you will never know if you do not look. I refuse to say there is nothing I can do about my pain. There is a lot I can do! Most of it take effort on my part and I constantly have to battle wanting a one pill solution. Dealing with chronic pain and health issues is a multifaceted adventure. 

Till next time. Keep your chin up and never give up!

Healthbug

Brief AARP Article Review!

The following in a  post I was working on ....... well you can see, two years ago September of 2016. However, upon reviewing what I had written, I found it good and noteworthy, so I am going to post  what I did review. I hope you enjoy my viewpoints.

 

9/18/2016

Today I would like to review an article I read in the AARP Bulletin Dated September 2016. Yup, That means it is totally current, mainstream and legit, right?

Well lets just take a look at it first before making decisions. The title of the article is “How the Healthcare System can Harm You’.  (front page title) Then on the article page in large bold letters 12 WAYS THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM MAY BE HARMING YOU.  Well that doesn’t sound good. Can we believe this. Let me clarify, as a nurse, I find the system of care to be miss named, more correctly it should be disease care, or disease management.  If you are reading this, I am thinking you somewhat agree with me.

Why should we even read such things, right, because all it does is put fear in our hearts and leaves us not knowing what to do. After all, Isn’t this is the only care system that we have? Not true. There is a growing number of practitioners who approach your health with a preventative, core issue, healing modality. These Practitioners are MD’s, ND’s, DC’s and Holistic nurses like myself. At the core of all of those who practice in a more holistic, healthy, foundational way, not just disease management but healing and health prevention, is you. Did I say that loud enough? YOU! You are at the core of your health! There is no argument here. Ask any practitioner and they will tell you that they are limited by the client’s (plug in patient here) ability to understand what needs to be done and will follow through with the lifestyle changes that need to happen for them to obtain/maintain improved health.

So knowledge is king here. Reading an article like this can open your eyes to what happens when you don’t take your health seriously.

1.     Wrong Diagnosis-

According to this article, 10% if patient’s deaths and up to 17 percent of all episodes of preventable harm in hospitals are possibly due to errors in diagnosis. It seems the recipe way of diagnosing is not all that valid.  The take charge of your health perspective: Know what the Doc is thinking and if the shoe doesn’t fit, let him know about it. Always, always, always have another family, friend, person there to help you think all this through. If you don’t protect your health no one else has the time to.

2.     Sloppy practices

OOPs, sorry, we cut off the wrong limb. Guess we’ll get it right the next time. Are you shuddering at this reality? You should be. We all should be. The article explains that in a recent study of 12 U.S. cities 45 percent of patients didn’t receive the recommended care for their condition. This happens, the article says, because “patients are complicated”. Where the article talks about people having A,B, C, and D disease to treat with the treatment of condition A conflicting with condition C and D.  That is the disease model of care take on the problem. The Integrative, Functional, holistic models of care address a person’s overall health issues. The “diseases” here that the article is talking about are nothing more than chronic health problems which are brought on by diet and lifestyle choices as well as environmental toxins.  Bottom line; if the root cause is never addressed, you will never reach a treatment that will help your body heal from all of you chronic illnesses. 

3.     Lax Hygiene

Folks, this is just the good ole wash your hands, keep things clean issue.  While there has been some great strides in decreasing diseases spread in the hospital, according to the article, patient’s still pick up an estimated 721,800 infections a years in health care setting! Their take, if you see one of your care givers(DR, RN) not wash their hands, say something to them. The Take Charge of your Health take is to STAY OUT OF HOSPITALS AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. Again, take a buddy with you if you have to be there for some reason.

4.     Poor communication

Yet another reason to stay out of the hospital if you can. It is near impossible to not loose information from nursing shift to shift report and from change of DR to DR. Don’t hesitate to fill in you care giver if it appears they are not treating you appropriately.

5.     Dismal discharge Planning

Understanding what to do after discharge . Making sure the discharged patient understand what to do after discharge can be fatal for the patient. Make sure you are sent home with instructions that address all your questions. If it is written down you will be able to refer to it if you forget what you were told. And do not be afraid to call the provider of care if you do have a question that was not addressed in the instructions.

The following key issues were covered in this article but I no longer know where the article is. Please note, the above information and comments are still relevant today Oct. 1, 2018. Not much has improved. The system is trying, but as with any large system, there are problems and that is why I always promote taking charge of your own health. Being responsible for yourself, your diet, lifestyle, medications, medical treatments! Sounds like a big undertaking, and it is, but oh so worth the effort. Without our health life can be miserable. Once lost, health is hard to regain. And even with our best efforts, we can still deal with some pretty daunting health issues.

 

6.     Drug Blunders

7.     Knowledge Gaps

8.     Dangerous Doctors

9.     Buried information

10. An Out-paitent Black hole

11. Small thinking

12. Clinician Burnout.

If I can find the AARP article I will finish my review of it. Until then, this gives than, this gives a small insight into one nurses viewpoint of the first 5 key issues of the article.

See you next week! Thank you for reading my blog.

Healthbug

Supplements and Chronic Pain

This has been a hard post to write. The subject of vitamins and supplements is huge. Just as with diet, what we put in our mouth and thus our bodies, does affect every part of our health!

 If you think the foregoing statement is not true, just try eating only protein, sugar, or ..... well anything single food for even a few days. It is a safe bet that you will feel the affects of whatever mono diet you are eating.

 One item to note is that any diet, supplement or vitamin regimen must be followed for at least 3 months to be able to tell if the new regimen is of any benefit! I know three months should like a long time, but less that that is usually really not enough time to tell anything. You don’t want to waste your efforts!

There are always exceptions to the above, when I stopped eating anything with aspartame! was able to tell within 1 week that I felt a lot better without it and a lot worse when I ate anything with aspartame in it!  

The only time I would quit a regimen before the 3 months is when I felt much worse after starting the diet or supplement. Then, of course I stopped immediately.

I have determined I cannot take Alpha Lipoic Acid on an empty stomach after only 3 doses.  I just seems to explode in my stomach about 5-10 minutes after I take it and causes severe stomach pain. Use your common sense when trying new supplements. 

MSM helped my sleep tremendously. With better sleep, I have a better chance of healing my bones, muscles, etc. Vitamin C is my good all around go to vitamin for preventing and staving off infection and  general all around feeling good vitamin. However, MSM did not help directly with my pain.

I have tried many supplements and vitamins to aid with my pain. Most have not yielded the results I wanted which was some good pain relief. I seek supplements that will heal versus supplements that will cover up the symptoms. 

Dr Sherry Rogers has written many books about taking charge of your own health and give numerous suggestions as what to do in the various situations. Her book on chronic pain is chock full of suggestions. Of course, you will need to try each supplement one at a time, otherwise you will not know what it was that made things better or worse as the case may be. 

To be honest, I have not found any supplement (yet) that helped much with my pain. I have tried MSM, curcumin, turmeric, glucosamine, chondroitin.  What I have found the most helpful is the not eating something. Like not eating anything with aspartame, not eating sugar,  not eating anything with high fructose corn syrup. 

My supplement regimen now consists of NAC (N Acetyl Cysteine) one, three times a day. Methyl-folate 1 a day and methyl B-12 one a day. As I suggested, I am giving it a 3 month’s trial. This regimen was suggested to me by Dr Neil Rawlins who practices in Richland, Wasington. I have been taking these supplements for one month. Hows it going so far? I don't see a down side ans it no negative side effects. I do think they are helping, but in all reality, it is just too soon to tell. Some changes are so subtle that I keep a log of how my pain is doing so that I can look back and note more objectively whether my pain is better. The placebo effect can sometime convince myself something is helping when, in the long run it is only a brief, in my mind, so to speak. I’ll let you know.

So until next time, be healthy, never give up looking for your health answers! You are your best health advocate and only you know you like you do.:-}

Healthbug

The Food Aspect of Chronic Pain

My previous post was about all the physical things I have done (or the majority of them) to decrease the chronic pain I have had. This post, I will share what I have done, food wise, to decrease my pain.

You can read all over the internet how people with arthritis, osteoporosis, etc, should avoid nightshades. Bummer for me because nightshades are a group of foods that I am most fond of. Eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes are all members of the nightshade family. So what to do? I decided a couple weeks, even a couple of months without these foods would be worth it if I received even some pain relief. Those of you with chronic pain will try just about anything that with that even suggest it might help to relieve pain!

I went not just a few weeks, but 6 months without my favorite foods, each day hoping that would be the day that I would begin to feel some pain relief. Sad to say, but that did not happen. Absolutely no pain relief from eliminating these foods from my diet! I am not sorry I tried this alteration in my diet. Now I know for sure that elimination does not help. However, there are some people who do receive pain relief by eliminating the nightshades. In my opinion it is very worth a trial run of elimination.

So carry on. one of the most helpful foods I've eliminated that does help with pain relief is sugar! Wow! I can tell when I eat something with sugar in it! I do in fact have increased pain. In fact sugar and high fructose corn syrup both add to my pain! So I eliminate them as much as possible.

Aspartame, and any derivative there of, causes me to have a ton of pain. I experience deep bone pain when I have even the smallest amount of aspartame in my diet. This is one additive I tell anyone that will listen, to avoid at all cost. I have heard neurologists tell nurses that aspartame is a neuro-toxin. Many people are skeptical when I share this, however, those that have decided that they could do without aspartame for a week just to see if they felt better, have found that they, in fact, do feel better.
 Aspartame symptoms that other people experience are, head aches, bone pain, muscle pain and uncontrolled shaking. If fact some people who are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease are really experiencing the affects of aspartame!

I continue to try to be vigilant about what I eat and how it affects how I feel. That is all part of taking responsibility for myself, my health and my life.  I also try supplements that promise pain relief. This will be the subject of my next post. Until then, be in good health!

Thanks for reading my blog.

Healthbug

Chronic Pain Update

What is chronic pain? Any pain you've had more than 3-4 months. Pain you have had for years is, of course, chronic pain. Anyone who has chronic pain or has had chronic pain knows how energy zapping this can be. My suggestion is to never give up trying to find the root cause. Even when you know it is due to degeneration of a joint, there are still healing modalities that may help your body heal these joints. Oh, I know "they" say "joints don't heal" but I don't buy into that thinking. If you do, the best thing you can do is get that joint replaced as soon as you can afford to. For me, and I believe, many others, any part of our body can heal if it gets the right nutrients, exercise, blood flow,  muscle balance, whatever, to heal. Don't get me wrong, I am not against joint replacements, they are a great thing, but for me they are the absolute last resort. Thankfully, many others think the same or there would not be so many alternatives out there to choose from these days.

I promised to fill in the gap from 2013 to present 2018. In the exercise/physical realm I tried a packaged program that is sold through chiropractic's offices that include: Chiropractic adjustments, therapeutic massage, and physical therapy. This help a little bit for a little while. Then I went to a wonderful Physical Therapist, Eric-who graciously saw me in his home as he usually does not take private clients. Eric kept me going so that I could work in a busy ER. I even kept going after I moved on for about 6 months. The hassle of traveling so far to a therapist became too much and also the benefits I gained from the exercises peaked at a level still not acceptable for me.

During this time frame I tried prolo therapy injections in both my right hip and right knee. After 11 injections in both, I and the Dr concluded that they were not going to help. I was referred to a clinic that does stem cell injections to the tune of $10,000. "gasp". No, I can't afford that but was able to find a facility that would do the injections for $2,000 and injection. Expensive, but if it worked it would be far less than surgery. Six week post injections and no improvement. Huge disappointment  here, as you might expect. What now? A specialist that said I have nothing wrong with my knee per x-ray and MRI and Avascular necrosis (AVN) in my right hip! Say what? That's a nasty sounding diagnosis. It means lack of blood flow to the joint/bone causing degeneration. Hmm.

On to Acupuncture, with Joel Dunning-Omaha, NE, goal- to open up the circulation in my hip and thus allow for healing nutrients to flow to that joint. 6-8 months into that modality and I added lymphatic drainage and therapeutic massage which was done by the Acupuncturist's wife, Theresa. Another 2-3 months and I was feeling discouraged so asked for a referral to a Chiropractor or someone else and was referred to John Macy in Omaha, NE. Two appointments with John and I felt I had some hope of better pain relief! At my second appointment with John he referred me to the Hruska Clinic in Lincoln, NE.

I Promptly made an appointment with Jason at the Hruska Clinic (Restorative therapy which uses Postural Restoration). I am now 2 appointments into this therapy which involves assessment by a trained individual and then exercises that help to restore muscles balance. This therapy is powerful, and so far I am encouraged. In fact yesterday I was able to walk with absolutely no pain! Plus my right leg felt much stronger! Yeah for exercises that are working those muscles.

Here's a thought for those thinking of joint replacement, if your posture and muscle balance is out of whack and doesn't get fixed before a joint replacement, most likely you will have the same problem/pain after the joint replacement. Just a thought.

Along with the Physical Therapy, I have tried changing up my diet in many ways to see if that would help. Without addressing diet, I believe, you are only touching one of the root causes. Diet is a huge subject and I have tried numerous diets and supplements to achieve pain relief. This is too much for this one post so I will leave that to next time.

Thank you for reading this, I hope you have a great day!

Till next time, Healthbug

Pain! A Review

Hi,
Oh my gosh!!! I have finally been able to access my blog! What a frustrating struggle. I am going to post this article I had in my drafts. A huge update needs to be added but am so excited I am finally able to access my blog that I wanted to post something right away so I am going with this. Update to come soon.....Promise!
I think pain is one of the most frequent reasons people seek medical help. Pain is a symptom. Something that should not be ignored! In the ER it is one of the things that will get you bumped to the front of the line about as quick as anything.

So what can I say about pain that most people don't know? Before you seek professional attention, or as you are going to seek professional attention answer these questions. When did it start? Was it horrible pain from the start or did it gradually get worse? What does it feel like? sharp, dull, tingly, burning, stabbing, cramping? Does it radiate anywhere? That means does the pain start in one area of your body and move to another area? What were you doing just before the pain started? Maybe you have had the pain a lot longer than you think. We all seem to put minor pain out of our mind and keep going.

Pain is a signal. It is your body's way of saying, "Hey, you, there is something not right here!" It could be something you ate, a movement you performed that injured something, or an organ not functioning as it should. Pain should never be ignored. Your body is telling you something.

In reality, chronic pain is the hardest to deal with. As that low grade chronic pain becomes louder and louder, you eventually have to begin to listen to it. What to do? I have been dealing with Chronic right knee and hip pain for years. It may have started years ago when I had a bicycle accident and injured my right knee. I have dealt with it as it has gotten severe throughout the years with chiropractic care which has taken the pain away. Since I am such a do it your-selfer, I've done trigger point therapy, which worked for a time, Chiropractic with physical therapy and therapeutic massage, to any and all nutritional avenues I could think of. Most alleviated some of the pain for awhile. As long as I was doing whatever therapy. None alleviated the pain completely. About 6 years ago this pain became more or less constant and with any amount of walking, I was in a lot of pain. Now I don't do pain medication much at all because I know it just masks the pain that we need to be paying attention to. However, I must admit to taking some Ibuprofen every once in awhile when I just couldn't stand the pain.

Sounds a bit pathetic. I am doing everything I knew how to do. I've been to acupuncturists, chiropractors, had an X-ray that showed I have degeneration in that right hip. I don't take that as the last word. I know my body can heal. My right knee was more painful than my hip but after expert examination, it seemed to have nothing wrong with it but maybe slightly stretched ligaments. Other than that the pain in my knee, I was told was from compensating for the misplacement of my hip.I spent $350 on orthoutics. OK so maybe they helped a bit. But nothing helped enough for me to get on with the living of my life without chronic pain.

Comes now the search for something else. I am working from the inside out with nutritional supplements recommended by a thorough hair analysis and still looking for the answer. Pain Free Living by Pete Escogue. Pete is a postural therapist. I had never heard of such a person. But there you have it. That is why I will never claim to know it all. There is so much out there that even with my constant research I am still running into something new to me. So Pete has been doing his thing for 30 plus years and has clinics all over the world and the US. I got myself his book and started reading. On the face, it sure does make sense that your posture can make or break you. Give you pain or give you relief.

Update, I was seen by an Escogue practitioner who did an analysis of my posture and gave me exercises to do. They helped, like all else, a little. This is something I would encourage anyone dealing with chronic pain to consider. While it has not solved my issue, it shows promise to at least help.

Just 6 weeks ago I had Prolo injections on my right hip and knee with quite a bit of help with the pain, especially in the beginning. However now I am back to hurting quite a bit.

Main thing here is to Keep searching for the underlying cause of that pain! My pain update coming soon. This was written 2013 so a lot has happened since I initially wrote this.

Till later,
Healthbug