Christmas & the Fairy-God Mother's Wand

Fairy-Godmother’s Wand

It was December, the hospital was festive, decorated with a huge Christmas tree with shiny red ornaments and elegant red velvet bows. Pots of Poinsettias decorated the counters. Outside it was snowing. I fought back my anxiety, felt my racing pulse and the lump inside my heart as I walked through the corridor toward the elevators to visit my husband who was critically ill. He had coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, and was fighting to recover from surgery for kidney cancer. The surgeon had hoped to remove the cancer from the kidney, but because of the cancer mass, had to remove the kidney. Now, my husband was on dialysis.
Wanting to do absolutely anything I could do to cheer my husband, I held my battery operated fairy-godmother’s wand in my hand. I had bought it at a costume shop for Halloween. I figured everyone could use a fairy godmother’s wand, especially one with twinkling lights. Then, in front of me was a tall gorgeous young woman with long flowing blond hair, dressed in white clothing. She looked like an angel. As we stepped inside the elevator, I sensed her sadness and gently asked, “Do you need a fairy-godmother’s wand?” as I waved the blinking wand toward her.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as she nodded in the affirmative. As we stepped off the elevator I reached out to comfort her and listen. She had two small children and was going through a traumatic divorce. Her mother was in the hospital for kidney failure and had been waiting for a transplant for five years, This was just one of her many crisis visits to the hospital. “My mother is tired of fighting for her life. She wants to give up—go off dialysis—and die, but she just turned fifty. My father is dead—I don’t want to lose my mother too.. I feel so hopeless.”
I put my arms around her as she sobbed. She wiped her tears with a tissue. “Would you like to take my fairy-godmother’s wand?” I asked. “You can return it to my husband’s room later this evening.”
Several hours later my husband was delighted and surprised to see a beautiful “angel” with long blond hair tumbling down her shoulders walk into his room. She was carrying the flashing fairy-god-mother’s wand. After greeting my husband, she asked how he was feeling. “This was wonderful,” she said, as she handed me the wand. “Mother loved the wand. She even laughed. We took turns waving it around the room and granting wishes for the nurses who were coming in and out. She granted me wishes—I waved wishes over her head, and we giggled. Mother now has hope and the will to live.”
That moment gave my husband hope and he lived four more years.
Patty Butts

Tips on Flu

I received these tips from my chiropractor, Galen Birdsley.
Since the Flu season is here, I thought it would be wise to give you some tips on how to stay healthy along with some tips to help you if you get exposed to someone with the flu.

Tips on How to Stay Healthy:

1. Get enough rest everyday
2. Exercise regularly
3. Eat a healthy diet - Avoid sweets - viruses thrive on sugar
4. Keep good hygiene - wash your hands often
5. Get regular chiropractic care - it helps stimulate the immune system

If you have been exposed to the flu, what do you do?

Doctors say that it takes 2-3 days for the flu virus to multiple in your nose and throat to cause symptoms.

Tips to help eliminate the virus after exposure:

1. Wash your hands immediately
2. Gargle with GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract) 2-3 times per day (3-4 drops in water)
3. Use GSE Nasal Spray 2-3 times a day
4. 4. If you don't have GSE, gargle with salt water and use a saline nasal spray

GSE is a great anti-viral and anti-bacterial. I've been using and recommending it for years. I carry the following GSE products:

GSE Extract (drops)
GSE Nasal Spray
GSE Ear Drops
Nutribiotic Lotion
Nutribiotic Toothpaste

Patty's Comments. I use grapefruit seed extract all of the time. Other recommendations to strengthen the immune system and fight off flu are Olive leaf, Vitamin D 3, Pycnognel, Grapeseed extract, DMG (dimethylglcine), selenium, Zinc (with food and not to exceed 80 mg daily), Vitamin E, and colustrum.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Hypoglycemia

Obsessive compulsive Disorder (OCD) can be treated without drugs. In an article by Juririan Plesman, who describes the cause of OCD by excess secretion of adrenaline, the fight/flight hormone. Adrenaline is also the hormone that in case of danger you cannot take your eyes away from the enemy (tiger). Thus it forces you to focus on things. Hence excess adrenaline production can result in obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors of the kind of "making sure behavior",like making sure the door is closed, making sure that you stay away from germs, washing your hands over and over again, obsession with cleanliness, or symptoms of perfectionism.

OCD can be described as a cluster of symptoms that compels a person to act or think in repetitive ways. The person may be afflicted with compulsive thoughts or possessed with fear of contamination. Others are compelled to make sure that water taps have been properly closed or things are in their correct place.
Being suddenly bombarded with stress hormones - such as cortisol and adrenaline - the mind appears to create images and ideas that fit the strange inner experience of panic and fear. The activation of the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) by adrenaline prepares your body for strenuous action in face of danger in the environment. But if the SNS is activated by an internal biological mechanism due to a biological disorder, there is no external enemy or stimulus. So you have to make one up to give you some sort of rational explanation of why you feel the way you do.
OCD is a sub-class of anxiety attacks. Both OCD and anxiety attacks are marked by excess adrenaline production.
This can also be tested with a paper-and-pencil test such as The Nutrition-Behavior Inventory questionnaire
(NBI) or the The Hypo Quizz.
The real question is why is the body overproducing adrenaline and at the wrong time and circumstances?
The answer lies in the function of adrenaline. Adrenaline apart from being a fight/flight hormone is also a hormone that converts sugar stores in the body (glycogen) into glucose. Glucose is the brain's major source of energy. It requires about 70% of glucose to fuel the biochemical machinery of brain cells. Without that energy brain cells will soon die. Thus whenever the brain senses energy starvation it will trigger the release of adrenaline so as to feed the brain again with energy.
The next question is: why is the brain starved of energy with all that sugar being consumed in our society? The reason is that a person may have a physical disorder that prevents the conversion of sugar sources in food (carbohydrates) into biological energy called ATP. That energy is essential in the production of feel good (relaxing) neuro-chemicals, such as serotonin. Without it we will feel anxious, insecure, in danger
and panicky without knowing why.
This is usually the case when a person suffers from Insulin Resistance. Insulin Resistance is usually associated with the development of Diabetes Type II. Most doctors can test this, but they appear to have problems testing for pre-diabetic insulin resistance, because they have not been trained for this. We have a test for hypoglycemia at our web site. The Hypo Quizz.
This condition is called "The Hypoglycemic Syndrome" which is characterized by unstable blood sugar levels, going up and down. Unstable blood sugar levels, due to insulin resistance, cause the body to release stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. Whenever there is a sudden drop in brain sugar levels, adrenaline kicks in to attempt the redress the imbalance.
We have an explanation how excess adrenaline can cause OCD. The solution is to go on a hypoglycemic diet, which is similar to a diabetic diet. It normalizes blood sugar levels, and stops the brain from producing stress hormones.
According to Dr. Carl Pfieffer, M.D. and research Psychiatrist who reversed mental illness by using nutrition, many vitamins and minerals are involved in glucose metabolism. Namely, Vitamin C, B complex vitamins, calcium, magnesium, zinc. Chromium, manganese, potassium and phosphorous.
Dr Pfieffer, also states that adrenaline and glucocortoid hormones trigger the pancreas to secrete glucagons, which, in turn, promotes the conversion of glycogen to glucose in the liver. The liberated glucose is then released from the liver into the bloodstream and this contributes to hypoglycemia. It can be a vicious circle.
An alkaline diet can help prevent hypoglycemia.
Fish oil can also help OCD.

Books and Workbooks to Help Eliminate OCD

“The OCD Workbook,” is an excellent resource to help those with OCD. It includes self-assessment, intervention strategy, how to help yourself, success stories of others, breaking free, changing your faulty beliefs and more. The book is by Bruce M. Hyman, Ph.D. and Cherry Pedrick, RN

“Brain Lock-Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior,” by Jeffrey Schwartz, MD.

Chronic Fatigue is not death but it takes your life away.

“My journey with Chronic Fatigue began 17 years ago when I was diagnosed with CFIDS and Fibromyalgia. I was so ill my doctor wanted to give me medical disability. After four years of agony, I finally said to my doctor, “I either want to get better or I want to die.

Since then, I have recovered even though the Center for Disease Control says there is no cure. I drastically changed my diet, finished a doctoral degree in Holistic Nutrition and have more energy than I did 30 years ago. My passion now is to educate others and give them hope for recovery.

My doctoral dissertation explored the results of an alkaline diet on patients who had significant disability and pain from CFIDS/FMS. All of them experienced significant improvement in their symptoms after changing from the traditional American diet to an alkaline diet and were able to resume normal activities. They had outstanding improvement in the reduction and elimination of symptoms. All experienced excellent to good improvement in decreased muscle and joint pain. A hundred percent of participants had improvement in 13 out of 16 symptoms.”

In my case, candida was a major contributor to my chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. Most people I have worked with who have CFIDS and FMS have candida, but candida does not show up in normal blood tests. A taurtaric acid test can usually determine candida.

Check my older and even beginning blogs for more on Chronic Fatigue.

Crisis Lines

If you feel suicidal or very depressed call your local crisis line number. If you have plans to commit suicide call 911 or have someone take you to your local emergency room. Almost every large city has a crisis line number.
1-800-SUICIDE / 1-800-784-2433. 1-800-273-TALK / 1-800-273-8255. You can also pull up SuicideHotlines.com and on the bottom of the site it lists hot lines in your state.
Suicidal thoughts usually last only a short time, sometimes minutes or a few hours. Now is not forever.
Be with friends, family or a neighbor.
Hug a puppy.
Sing.
Dance.
Sometimes drinking a tiny bit of salt water can help. One-fourth teaspoon to 6 ounces of water.
Pinch your nose. Alternate pinching the nose as you breath, right breathe, pinch,left nose pinch, breathe, and continue.
Try deep breathing.


Raising Serotonin Levels

Say “Cheese,” use your smile muscles. The brain can’t tell the difference between a real smile and a phony smile. Smiling and laughing both raise serotonin levels.

Walk in the sunshine or on a cloudy day get a sun tan.

Exercise-walk, swim, dance, jog, biking, jump on a mini trampoline, do Thai Chi or yoga.

Help Eliminate Depression by:

Expressing Gratitude. Write down five things you are grateful for each day.

Help Others

Positive Affirmations: download at www.healingyourspirit.com. "Thanks God (or higher power) for helping me through this," say this over and over.

Journaling: Write down your feelings and write about the things that are causing you stress or depression. Consider rewriting your situation as you would like it to be.

Books: Defeating Depression & Beating the Blues by Webb
"Depression Free for Life," by Gary Null
Attitude of Gratitude
"What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Depression." Michael B. Schachter, M.D.
For every problem under the sun,
There is a remedy or there is none.
If there be one hurry and find it—
If there be none, never mind it.

“If we realize that what we think about becomes our reality, we become very careful about what we think about.” Wayne Dyer


You cannot keep the birds of sadness
From flying over your head
But you can keep them from
Nesting in your hair.

We are Powerful Beyond Measure

Nelson Mandella was quoting Williams in his second inaugural address.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are more powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous. Actually who are you not to be? You are a Child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the Glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us, it's in everyone. As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Were you able to work when you had chronic fatigue?

This is the question I was asked this morning.
Patty's answer: I have recovered from Chronic Fatigue but was able to work--just barely. I had to take medical leave for several months after my last husband died. My doctor wanted to give me medical disablity when he discovered I had CFIDS because I was so ill, but I wouldn't take it. Most days I felt like I had the drop=dead flu. My husband was seriously ill and on dialysis and had no insurance. I had to work, we needed the inusurance. However, in reality I was too exhausted to work. I don't know how I did it. I would go home and flop on the bed and not get up until morning when I had to drag myself out of bed. I slept all weekend. I could never accept that I would have chronic fatigue forever. I had to find a way to get better. I went from doctor to doctor, prayed and prayed, and finally found a doctor who discovered I had candida. That was the beginning of my recovery. Other older blogs explains a little bit about how I recovered. Going to work everyday was like beating a dead horse or dragging one behind me. There was no hurry in me. Still, I was a school counselor and could sit down and counsel students. If I was talking to a teacher or student in the hall, I would lean against the wall. Summers were my refuge, but they were not long enough.