Okay, I admit it. I'm a backslider. My life gets chaotic and crazy and the first thing I do is eat out with my family. Not only is it financially expensive (and the money spent may even be enough to purchase health food store groceries including farm raised beef, free range poultry and eggs, and organic produce) but it wreaks havoc on my health and that of my family - at least I think it does.
I have been interested in health food since my youth and marriage in the 1970s. I met an older (ten years of so) woman at the church we attended, Judy Couvillion, who made her own fruit roll ups for her children. Since I made my own sprouts for a while in those days and had played with making my own yogurt from purchased cultures, sour dough breads, Hermann cake (wonderful!), etc. she became someone I liked and admired.
There was a nice tiny health food store in the town I lived in with my new husband on MacArthur Drive. Those were nice days. Eventually as all things do, those nice days ended. We grew older, moved away. Today, I find myself at midlife, haven't seen or spoken to Judy in hummm, at least twenty years. Wonder where she and her lovely family are. I miss them and their friendship. De Colores Judy.
At any rate, those were lovely warm and slower paced days for a while and I was in a much better place health wise. Today, my health leaves a lot to be desired. I am in a process of metamorphosis. At least in the planning stages. I have finally realized that I simply cannot continue doing as I have always done because as Doug Kaufman says, "If you do what you've always done, you will get what you've always got!"
I am tired of that old story, so now it is time to finally do something different and change my story. But first I must explain what I've always done.
I have always done what the medical doctors have said to do. I have always followed their treatment plans and taken their prescriptions. And, through the years, I have found my health to have always gotten worse! Oh, for a while the initial problems appeared to improve, but I began having newer and more complicated problems which were never connected to the prescription medications! Today, I am connecting those dots.
I found that my health issues, at least according to the lists of side effects that I've down-loaded from RXList.com, and read from the literature provided with prescriptions and recently re-read, have lengthy lists of side effects that I have suffered from for years. I don't know if I could prove that the medicines are the cause of my misery, I don't care if anyone believes me or not, I believe that they are the direct causes or at least set into motion events leading to the health impairments.
I have dillied and dallied all my adult life with health food stores and foods. I've never made a commitment to live a health food lifestyle and there are so many many reasons for not making that commitment, time, money, lack of appreciation of it by my husband and family and friends, lack of convenience, scarcity of health food products where I live, etc. But today, I think the last straw has broken. During my recent winter illnesses--sinusitis, bronchitis, pneumonia--I endured three rounds of powerful antibiotics. Today, the conditions are improved but not gone, but in addition to the original maladies for which I was prescribed these poisons, I now have several other disturbing conditions to try to heal and somehow, they are very disturbing to my peace of mind and health.
I have followed in an on-again and off-again manner the Doug Kaufman health news program, originally "YOUR HEALTH" now "KNOW THE CAUSE" for the last few years. Actually, I have probably listened to him less than ten times a year, but what he says has always been in the back of my mind. I have purchased one of his books about the fungus link, and hope to check the others out of my local library and read them as well. I decided to follow his blog and became his fan on face-book.
Another health site I've follow for years is Mercola.com where I have learned astonishing information about medical news and research. These two men, Doug Kaufman and Joseph Mercola and their educational and informational sites have galvanized me to find a local health practitioner, accepted by our health insurance of course, with whom I can work to reduce the damages to my health that I have already endured and to overcome as much as I can the years of bad medical care I have had. This because when I called my physician to let him know of a problem that developed, I was told he was not aware of that being a side effect of the medication. Goodbye. So I stewed a week, and researched said medication then emailed my physician. Said, I was surprised he did not know of the side effect. He merely e-mailed me back saying, "That is the first I've heard of that in 10 years of prescribing that medication." I did not receive an apology nor an appointment to return and try to learn what we could do to stop the side effects, I am still most annoyed, and hence the notion has come to me to attempt to take my health care into my own hands; which means finding a physician more interested in my health and one willing to work together with me on my project, my health.
Both of these health sites can be found in my blog list. Please go and read for yourselves. At the least, you will find a useful tool.
Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I just wonder how long it will be.
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