rsdcrpsfire

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Kratom Testimonial

Please support product safety regulations and the Kratom Consumer Protection Act instead of banning and criminalizing Kratom. 2016 was my rise and fall. I was at the height of my volunteer advocacy career. I had also fallen to rock bottom when my prescribed medications were denied or delayed on a regular basis by my workers compensation carrier. I had been with my Pain Management Doctor for 12…

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CRPS - A Balancing Act

CRPS – A Balancing Act

It’s NERVEmber! November is Nerve pain awareness and Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy/Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Awareness month. I attended the iPain Summit yesterday which was streaming live from their Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/iPainFoundation https://internationalpain.org/ I enjoyed. Yesterday was the 5 year anniversary to my husband’s 3rd heart attack, the 4th was 11 months…

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Forward in Faith

These months have anniversary affects attached for me and so managing depression can be a little harder than other times of the year. Everything from unborn children loss to my husband’s several heart attacks to leaving advocacy, abandoned by my pain management specialist, denied care, suicide holds, death, so much more. I just pray that nothing else happens as I move through the seasons. I’m…

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Simply Stable

It remains difficult to manage life with so many illnesses. It does! I often refer to myself as “stable”. It’s the best term I have to describe “not suicidal.” Stable is a good thing! Even when the struggle is heavy. Yes, indeed, its a good thing. Few people can relate to physical pain so intense that you lose your mind. Most can only relate to their own level of severe and thats perfectly…

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Made it to Georgia for Mama

My dad had just died a couple of weeks before. He passed away at home on Memorial Day. My mama was critical in ICU again, and not expected to make it. I hadn’t been able to reach Dad in time, nor attend his funeral. My Auntie, who was also my God Mother, was both holding on and passing away at the same time. My brother in law sent me a ticket that would leave Sacramento June 28th, 2022. I had…

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Father's Day - 2 Daddy's in Heaven

Father’s Day – 2 Daddy’s in Heaven

My Dad passed away at home on Memorial Day. It seemed fitting, as many said, for a Vietnam Hero and wounded warrior. When I wrote last he had just been diagnosed with cancer during a 9 day hospital stay. 2 days before Mother’s Day he was taken back for a mild heart attack. On Mother’s Day, my mom who was at the hospital with him had a severe heart attack and was rushed to the cath lab…

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Heartache and Happiness

In just the last few weeks both my auntie, who’s also my God Mother, and my Dad, my second dad, has been diagnosed with cancer. My aunts came quickly. Confirmation that is. Metastasized full body. Seemingly quickly, I should say, it’s been there spreading to get to stage 4 like this. Doctors dismissed her complaints as whining. She’s on hospice at this time, and is declining rapidly. We just…

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Former smoker

There’s hardly anything left to change about myself anymore. Evolve is all thats left. About 6 weeks ago, I decided it was time to stop smoking. I know, I know, bad habit. I had ceased smoking for over a year about a decade ago, and again for more than half a year in the same few years. I used Chantix, yet that wasn’t an option this time. If I could get through the last 6 years without…

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Binaural Beats for Pain, Stress, Anxiety, and Depression

It can be difficult to manage stress and anxiety with chronic and intractable illnesses. I’ve been practicing stress reduction for decades now, yet I’ve not mastered it, entirely. Medication, deep breathing, shifting focus, distraction, so much more. I’ve done well to keep myself from any type of mental breakdowns since the major ones that had occurred. It’s a constant challenge to stay on top…

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Cat's Claw | uña de gato

Cat’s Claw | uña de gato

I previously mentioned Cat’s Claw. This is a starting point which may be of interest to you. In regards to my CRPS and other chronic illnesses, I’ve found that Cat’s Claw offers a wide array of benefits. Some of the information claims cures, I’ll not claim a cure because it’s offensive to some who’ve been deemed and diagnosed incurable by western medicine. To me, incurable implies the medical…

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Always More

Is “always more” negative or just truthful? It’s a matter of perspective, I suppose. It’s truthful for all of us. My physical fumble is still in progress and I’m managing that as well as I can. I’ve mentioned over the years that we didn’t have hot running water for 7 years. On Halloween 2020 it was finally fixed. The week before Christmas it took a dump again. We didn’t notice there was a…

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3 years alcohol free

It’s taken nearly 3 months for my shoulder to heal again. This situation had begun about a week prior to my blog post Ball Therapy in November. I continued on with my music movement therapy the best that I could. I had to remove the weights from my routine for the most part. I did try to resume twice. A mistake both times, yet no one can say I didn’t try, try, try again. I did! I should have…

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Gohl Method

I’ve referred to MLT dozens of times over the years. MLT is Manual Ligament Therapy. The therapies and protocols are what I’ve used to maintain my comorbidities. Now that video demonstrations are available it’s easier for me to recall some of what I learned, yet had also forgotten. What I mean by forgotten is the specifics to certain movements and stretches. Spinal pain had been creeping up.…

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2021 Reflections

Much of this year has been that of carry overs. In January, I celebrated 2 years of sobriety from alcohol. March will be 2 years of attending my Church on Facebook Live. I haven’t missed a day. I’ve attended once in person and that was just a couple of months ago. I’m at 557 consecutive days of Spanish. 2 years will be here soon enough. I started low carbs this March, and in August, Music…

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Ball Therapy

In my previous post I mentioned shoulder pain. I wanted to share what relieved me of much of it last evening. My chronic illness tool box is full of little helpers such as this. When I underwent Manual Ligament Therapy 5 years ago, I had learned to utilize a tennis ball on my belly, and painful areas. Later, I also started using a dog toy. It’s a ball on a rope with a tug handle. There were…

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CRPS and Self-Healing

I’ve mentioned doing low carbs and incorporating physical movement into my daily routine. I had gone 12 consecutive days with an average of 14 minutes of continuous weight bearing activity. My fit bit actually recorded some of these days as aerobic workouts in addition to active minutes. In order to reach “active minutes” I need to move for 10 non stop minutes. I recieved my fit bit October…

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Oil of Oregano and Burdock Root - Natural Cold and Flu Help.

Oil of Oregano and Burdock Root – Natural Cold and Flu Help.

It’s cold and flu season with SARS 2 still making its rounds. My husband and I hadn’t been sick since fall/winter 2017/18 and that was a doozy lasting months. After we recovered is when we began taking Oil of Oregano. As an herbal supplement, oil of oregano is known for its antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. It contains several potentially healing compounds, such as:…