Here is the cause of diabetes mellitus who are not suspected

Causes of diabetes mellitus - Diabetes mellitus is a disease caused due to high blood sugar in our body. When someone eat rice or carbohydrates in the blood then there will be a lot of sugar, normal pancreas will produce the hormone insulin to carry the glucose into the cell and processed into energy. Patients with diabetes mellitus usually have problems in the production of the hormone insulin so the sugar can not be processed and cause a buildup of sugar in the blood. Normal blood sugar level is 70-110 mg / liter if more than that then you are affected by diabetes mellitus. Usually people affected by diabetes mellitus was aged about 30 years old but many younger people having this disease.
So what are the causes of diabetes mellitus is this? The following discussion
1. Lack of insulin levels are caused by a virus as well as the lack of balanced nutrition while still a child - child
2. Effect of genetic or hereditary. People who have a father or a mother with diabetes, the child would potentially suffer from diabetes mellitus ini.Maka careful - careful if your family there is a history of diabetes.
3. The occurrence of obesity. Obesity or overweight also lead to diabetes mellitus. Then keep your weight in order to remain normal.
4. Effect of pregnancy. Pregnant women are prone to diabetes due to a lack of insulin in the blood.
5. The amount of toxins that enter the body inhibits the pancreas to produce insulin.

Well whatever - typical characteristics of people affected by diabetes mellitus?
1. Have blood sugar levels over 160-180 mg / l, so many urine sugar was mixed with sugar.
2. The occurrence of polyuria due to the virgin sugar high pressure.
3. Experiencing excessive thirst due to sugar absorbing other bodily fluids.
4. The ability to see something to be greatly reduced, easy dizziness and nausea - nausea.
5. Experiencing weight loss drastically.
Thus the cause of diabetes mellitus, we ought to know and pass it on to others who may be able to provide benefits

Fruit is best for diabetics

Fruit for diabetics - For some people with diabetes stop eating fruits fearing her blood sugar rose padalah many important pieces of content such as vitamins, minerals and fiber fitokima. Fruit - fruit also has a sucrose sugar that is good for the body. What must be considered is the glycemic index of fruit was sendiri.Sebaiknya eat fruit that has a low glikemiks index is below 50. glikemiks index is a measure of how quickly a food berkabohidrat converted by the body into blood glucose. The more indexes glikemiks then the better for diabetics.
Fruit for diabetes
Fruit for diabetics. photo: diabetesandtheheart (dot) com
Here is a list of fruits good for diabetics which they consume:
1. Kiwifruit
Kiwi fruit is good for diabetics because it can help control blood sugar. In addition to the many benefits of a kiwi fruit such as preventing asthma, prevent obesity, prevent heart disease and protect our DNA from mutasi.Kandungan vitamin C in kiwifruit claimed more than oranges.
2. Pears
Number of Dair pear glycemic index is only 38 so it's good for diabetics. There are various types of fruit such as pears Chinese pears, but in general all the pear good for diabetics to lower blood sugar levels. Pears also will help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, boost immunity and can be andtioksidan.
3. Cherries
Cherries have a very low glikemiks index is only 22saja. Cery contained in fruit anthocyanins which causes the fruit is red and a role in lowering blood sugar levels and increase insulin production of the pancreas by 50%.
4.Jeruk
The content of the index glikemiks of citrus fruit is only 48. In addition, in it has a high enough fiber Serva vitamin C are the same - the same role in the development of lowering blood sugar levels.
5. Berries
This fruit may be somewhat difficult to find in Indonesia but daiantara all turns berry fruit has a very low glycemic index and fiber in it helps the absorption of sucrose until the blood sugar level can be controlled.
6. Fruit grapefruit
Grapefruit has a taste that is not too sweet so this fruit only has a glycemic index naringengin 25. The content of flavonoids in grapefruit can help balance sugar levels in the blood. For those who are affected by diabetes should eat the fruit is 1 or 2 pieces each day so that the risk of type 2 diabetes is reduced.
7. Apples
So much the content of apples that are beneficial to our bodies start of vitamin C, fiber, antioxidants and pectin in apple skin. Pectin itself serves for detoxification of toxins in the body. Galacturonic acid content in apples is effective in lowering insulin requirements by up to 35%. The glycemic index of apples is 38.
Thus 7 pieces for diabetics, which should be consumed. Hopefully with fruit - hence diabetes can be reduced. Hopefully useful and also read the previous article.

Recognize Diabetes And How Much More With Herbal Remedies 2

Old Year

Herbal Medicine and Medicinal Plants Diabetes Diabetes Can You Find Your Around
For those of you who suffer from diabetes, either type 1, type 2, gestational mauoun course of treatment is needed, especially to make you feel good in the state every day. Actually, it is very rare for people with diabetes is to get rid of the disease, especially when it is of type 1 and 2. However, this does not mean the treatment is not necessary. Even if the treatment you are doing well and regularly, could eventually youwill recover from this disease.
Although today there are quite a lot of medical treatment options on offer, the real choice in herbal medicine is necessary for you to consider given the low harmful side effects that may happen to you even could lead to the emergence of new diseases in your body. Fortunately, there are enough options that herbal remedies can AndaAndalkan in tackling diabetes. It is even better because the actual herbal medicines are very likely to be found are found around you either in the yard of the house, on the market, and also supermarkets that sell spices are complete. Herbail drugs also can still be used alongside insulin injections, if you are familiar with these injections, because sfifatnya natural.
Here are some examples of herbal remedies that you can use to cope with diabetes and the symptoms they cause:
- Noni Fruit: This fruit is long since known as super fruit that can be relied upon to treat various diseases in the human body, one of which is diabetes. This fruit has been shown to be quite effective in lowering the blood sugar levels in diabetics as well as have the ability to improve insulin receptors in the body and also of beta cells in the pancreas that normally does not work perfectly. One other thing you should know is that the noni fruit is now also available in the form of herbal juice ready for consumption. Although this juice may be said memunyai price is quite expensive, many people have already proven cured of diabetes by drinking this juice on a regular basis in accordance with the recommended dosage.
- Noni Fruit: If by chance you can not afford to buy noni fruit juice, in fact there is an alternative that is much more affordable, the noni fruit. Fruit is actually still a brother of the noni fruit also has a natural ability to improve insulin-producing cells in the body are damaged. How to consume this fruit is also quite easy. You only need to take two fresh noni fruit and memarutnya and squeeze out the water. Noni juice is what should you drink as a way of tackling diabetes. Because noni tree also is not difficult to obtain and are also grown, it is better if you plant noni tree in your yard so you can pick the fruit at any time you need.
- Fruit Mahkota Dewa: Besides known as herbal ingredients that can be used as an attempt to lower blood sugar levels, Phaleria was also known to have other health benefits such as anti-inflammatory drugs, diarrhea, and skin disease drug. To overcome tingginy blood sugar levels, this fruit can be sliced ??and brewed in a glass of hot water and drunk when the content in the fruit blend with water. For maximum results, this herbal concoction is quite advisable to drink as much as two or three times each day. Because of this it is better if you plant fruit trees in your yard.
- Brotowali: Since long, the herb that is often used to treat diabetes. In addition, this herbal remedy is also quite effective in lowering the heat as well as for pain relief. How to consume this herbah plants to cope with diabetes is to boil brotowali 6 cm chopped quite finely into three glasses of water. Typically, these herbs can lower blood sugar levels better if the cat's whiskers leaves and bitter leaf are also added to the stew. This herbal medicine should be taken after meals.
- Leaf Aloe Vera: Maybe this one herbal remedy that is not enough known to be able to cope with diabetes. However, the actual aloe leaf did get used to it. The trick is to boil a piece of leaf aloe vera into three glasses of water until the water becomes about 1 ½ cups only. Just like brotowali stew, stew Aloe vera also should be taken after meals.

- Fruit Pare: This fruit is tasted very bitter but has a unique ability to stimulate beta cells found in the pancreas to be able to produce insulin naturally. For best results, you should pare blended meat and drunk directly. However, you can also boil the flesh of the fruit into the water and then drink the cooking water.
- Green Tea: When compared with other types of tea, especially black tea is more often drunk by the people of Indonesia, green tea has health benefits much more. In addition to a fairly high antioxidant content and can be used to combat a variety of diseases, this tea is also known to have great benefits for beauty. In addition, of course, the main benefit of green tea which will be discussed in this article are the benefits associated with a way to manage diabetes of any type.
Green tea can be used to treat diabetes because it can stimulate the formation of the hormone insulin in the human body. Nowadays green tea is quite easy to find and the price is also quite affordable. Therefore, it is better if you build the habit of drinking green tea in everyday life rather than just taking it to cope with diabetes alone. In fact, if you actually have not been infected by this malicious penyakir, you can also make a habit of drinking green tea for prevention so that later you will not be affected by this blood sugar disease.
- Cinnamon: herbal ingredients this one not only has a distinctive aroma that is quite tasty but also quite effective in counteracting radical bebsa thus also be used to treat one disease that we discussed in this article. How to use herbs that can be found easily on our Mother Earth is also quite easy, you just need to add cinnamon powder into your food and water daily. However, you need to remember that jumalh powder is added also should not be too much because it may cause side effects or make the taste of food and beverages you become unwell.
- Soursop Leaf: One more example of natural herbal ingredients that can AndaAndalkan in overcoming diabetes is the soursop leaves. Actually, the leaves of this herb can also be used to treat many types of other diseases, including also a disease that is deadly, namely cancer. In an effort to overcome diabetes, how to process daunsirsak is to make herbal potions that you can drink every day. The trick is to boil 15 soursop leaves mixed with 7 lmbar red betel leaves into the water that the amount of approximately two glasses. Boiling water should be made to the sheer number of remaining roughly only one cup of coffee.
Things That Can Be Done To Prevent Diabetes
For those of you who are still healthy and not suffering from diabetes, in addition to be grateful for the health you should also find out more about some of the things you can do to prevent the onset of diabetes. Actually, the prevention of this disease is quite easy to do because the main thing is to uphold a healthy lifestyle. For a more specific form of prevention, the first thing you can do is get used to always eat healthy foods that are not only low in calories but low in fat. In addition, you also can try to do physical activity in the form of exercise that is most appropriate for ana do regularly. The last thing you can do to prevent this disease is to always try to keep your weight at an ideal level. All means of prevention is easy to do as long as you have a strong intention to live a healthy life and away from diabetes. Good luck!

Recognize Diabetes And How Much More With Herbal Remedies 1

Diabetes is one disease that could be harmful to anyone, because there are two different types of this disease, which is also known as blood sugar disease or diabetes. The first type is type 1 diabetes who may suffer from the children and the second is type 2 diabetes who may suffer from children and when fully grown. Actually, there is one more type of diabetes that only affects women who are pregnant, namely gestational diabetes, but we're not just going to be a lot of talk about diabetes type one and two of them here.
What is that Type 1 Diabetes (diabetes mellitus), Type 2 and Gestational Type
Just as already mentioned earlier, there are three different types of diabetes. For those of you who are still quite unfamiliar with this blood sugar disease, you may have difficulty in knowing each type of the disease. Therefore, the following brief description of each type of the disease:
- Type 1 diabetes (Diabetes Mellitus): Disease level 1 diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus can indeed suffered since was a child. The cause is due to abnormalities that occur in the immune system that causes the immune system actually attacks the insulin hormone the body needs to process and convert the sugars in the blood known as the glucose into energy. As a result of the attack the insulin hormone is very low or even no kadarhormon insulin in the body. In the end, having the blood sugar content is high enough and the direction of this condition known as diabetes.
- Diabetes Type 2: In contrast with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes known as advanced diabetes and can suffer from children or adults. It is the cause of the emergence of diabetes that this one is the nature of some of the body's cells are resistant to insulin. As a result, the pancreas where insulin is produced the body can not produce enough insulin to the amount normally needed by the body. It also causes high levels of sugar in the blood or diabetes. This disease can appear suddenly in our bodies, whereas before we were never diagnosed as having the disease, due to several factors. Some of them are too much consumption of fatty foods and too passive habits and lack of exercise.
- Gestational Diabetes: A third type of diabetes is gestational diabetes suffered by women in general and pregnant women. Actually, this type of diabetes disease not only affects pregnant women. Only pregnant women with certain conditions who usually suffer from this type of diabetes. During pregnancy, there is a certain type of hormone that is formed by the placenta with the purpose to sustain the pregnancy itself. The presence of these hormones make the body's cells become more resistant to insulin terhada. For pregnant women the situation is normal and healthy, this will not be a problem because it is usually the pancreas organ in the body's natural response will provide a way to produce more insulin. However, for pregnant women with certain conditions, the pancreas does not give the same response that the body eventually insulin deficiency.
Characteristics of Diabetes The Worth To Know
Once you know more about juh three types of diabetes, it's time you recognize more of the characteristics that can be seen from diabetics. Just like the type that is different, cri-the hallmark of diabetes is also quite different according to the type. All these characteristics will be summarized briefly below:

- The characteristics of type 1 diabetes: frequent fatigue due to lack of energy in the body, frequent urination due to high levels of glucose in the virgin, often feel thirsty because of the amount of fluid that is secreted by the body, weight continues to decline despite a normal appetite.
If sufferers of this disease are children, these characteristics are usually quite difficult to see because it is often misconstrued as a characteristic of other illnesses, especially the flu. Because of this parents should be careful in interpreting the emergence of the characteristics mentioned above.
- The characteristics of type 2 diabetes: frequent tingling, very difficult to heal wounds and even to rot and ended in pengamputasian affected body part injured, weight continued to decline drastically.
Although the characteristics of this type of diabetes is one sounds more sinister than the traits found in type 1 diabetes, the disease actually it is very likely to be prevented memounyai even greater possibility to be cured.
- The characteristics of gestational diabetes: Infections of the vagina which can also be a fungal infection, disruption of hormone function that actually caused less smooth flow of blood to the body, a wide range of reproductive disorders due to imbalance of hormones, cholesterol levels high enough.

Diabetes Symptoms and How to Treat Diabetes

Diabetes Symptoms and How to Treat Diabetes. Have you ever seen people who suffer from diabetes or diabetes? Of course it when they see people affected by this disease, it creeps yes. Because the strangeness of this disease gnawing meat on our bodies. And in fact, there are people with diabetes to one of its organs amputated because it is difficult to cure.

Caring for people affected by diabetes necessary knowledge in order not wrong. How to treat diabetic themselves need patience, because sometimes in the center of diabetic wounds caused this terrible stored larvae, which eat the flesh and skin. Patience and diligence necessary for the nurse.

Diabetes Symptoms and How to Treat Diabetes

Diabetes or diabetes or diabetes is insulin system disorders due to excess levels of glucose in the blood. There are two types of diabetes, ie diabetes type 1 and type 2.

Type 2 diabetes affects people over the age of 35 years and over. As well as other diseases, the disease is also not attack old age, the age of 25 and even 20 years, sometimes there are affected by diabetes. Of course this does not escape the impact of the food consumed, regardless of health. Besides that lack of exercise also be one reason for the emergence of this disease.
Disease Causes of diabetes or sugar
Knowing the cause of a disease is very important, especially diabetes. Because without knowing the cause, it is feared that this disease will not feel indifferent to an unhealthy lifestyle, especially about food. Though eating a source of major cause of all disease. To that end, consider the causes of diabetes below:

    Sweet tea
    Fried
    Like snacking, can also cause diabetes because sometimes sugary snack.
    Lack of sleep. Research experts from the University of Chicago revealed that lack of sleep for 3 days resulting in the body's ability to process glucose declined rapidly. That is, the risk of diabetes increases.
    Lazy physical activity. As often ride motorcycles everywhere. Keep your body every day can move, such as walking and running.
    Often stress. When stress comes, the body will increase production of the hormones epinephrine and cortisol blood sugar to rise and there are reserves of energy to move. Our bodies are designed so that for a good purpose. However, if high blood sugar continues triggered by prolonged stress with no way out, is tantamount to suicide slowly.

Cigarette addiction

Symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus
Such as the above, that the diabetes is divided into two, namely type 1 and type two. As well as the symptoms, therefore we first identify the symptoms of type 1 was how and symptoms of type 2 was how.

Recognize the symptoms of type 1 diabetes mellitus that occurs in children is not always easy because the symptoms are often mistaken for the flu. Besides the symptoms sometimes appear until the disease is quite a long walk. Children with type 1 diabetes usually have early symptoms as follows:

1. Frequent urination. This occurs because the kidneys want to clean up the excess glucose in the blood circulation. Children become more frequent urination and in large numbers. Bedwetting can also be a symptom of diabetes, especially if previous children never wet. So parents must be vigilant.

2. Often Haus and Drink Plenty. These symptoms are very hard to know. Not much different from the thirsty. Though these symptoms only for children outside full of activities, but it is thirsty. Because much fluid is removed, the child becomes easy thirsty.

3. Weight Descending. The body is no longer able to process glucose for energy and begin to break down muscle and fat reserves to produce energy for cells that hungry. Therefore even though the child's appetite normal weight but tough climb.

4. Easily tired. Children looked fatigue because the body is unable to process glucose for energy.

Symptoms of type 2 diabetes mellitus
Type 2 diabetes is the most common type, can occur at any age and are often preventable. Among the symptoms of type 2 diabetes are:

    Lose weight quickly. This is not caused by a successful diet, but more because the pancreas starts to break down. The pancreas has the task of producing insulin which is used to process glucose into energy. Because the pancreas in diabetics fail to process sugar into energy, then there is insulin resistance. As a result, the weight of the body will continue to shrink.
    Tingling frequently. These symptoms occur because of damaged blood vessels, so that blood flow in the nerve endings was reduced.
    If the wounds are difficult to heal. This is another effect of damage to blood vessels and nerves in addition to tingling. This damage results in diabetic patients do not feel pain when injured. They even sometimes unknowingly hurt.

Treating diabetes
Tips on How to treat diabetes or quite diverse. For severe, may be taken to the doctor because it needs serious handling, such as foot ulcers filled with larvae, hands, neck, and so on. Essentially the patient if the patient is considered severe enough, then wound it needs treatment from a doctor.

And sometimes, diabetes medications is also a bit strange, like eating or drinking gratus cork fish oil that has been filtered. Surely it is not a pharmaceutical drug medicine, but traditional medicine diabetes which had never been a patient mengalam traditional herb cure by drinking it.

A difficult decision

We left last Saturday on a two week family vacation. We returned this morning. Why? Because I am done putting up with my sister's crap. She has made much of my life miserable. How? Let me count the ways.

In junior high or high school, back when I was experimenting with make up, one day I got to the bus stop with her and evidently had a bit of eye shadow on my nose. Did she say something to me? No, instead she got everyone else at the bus stop to make fun of me and then after school complained to my mother that I embarrassed her in public. Yes this was a long time ago but this is an example of the kind of thing I grew up with.

I asked her once to give me to give a ride to an appointment that I could not miss. I also had surgical drains in and couldn't drive. Could she get me there on time? No. And when I called her constantly to find out when she would be there to pick me up, thinking I might need to drive myself when I shouldn't, she didn't pick up my call because she was yakking with a friend and just kept ignoring my calls. I have never asked her to drive me to a single medical appointment since. I will take a cab or a bus before asking her again.

When she was my maid of honor (because she is my sister I asked her), she called me about three weeks before the wedding asking wasn't she supposed to help me with invitations or anything. I hadn't asked her to do that because I couldn't depend on her to help.

She is chronically late for everything. Nothing like showing up for Thanksgiving dinner two hours late with no good reason. And not answering the phone when I call her to ask when she will be there. Or telling me she is on the way, when she hasn't left. She does all those things to me regularly, when I bother to have contact with her now. She doesn't reply to emails, texts, and voice mails and then whines when she didn't know about something. I think she does this to a lot of people sometimes but to me all the time.

Last weekend the first night of our vacation, the five of us went out to dinner - me, my husband, my sister, and my parents. My husband and I went first got a table because they didn't take reservations and we didn't want my parents to have to stand around waiting for a table. I called my sister to see where she and my parents were. The first time I called she ignored my questions and wouldn't give me an answer. The second time she just read the names of the signs that they were going by (why that was supposed to be helpful I have no idea). The third call she again ignored my questions and wouldn't tell me where they were. I hung up.

Yesterday became the last straw because I just cant take it any more. We were on a family vacation and each of the three of us, my brother included, were paying for food and taking turns cooking each night. She had to go back to work for a couple of days and came back Wednesday night. Last night I asked her if she was going to cook dinner one night and she said something along the lines of 'she wasn't sure'. Then she pouted in her room while the rest of us were eating dinner because I got mad at her for picking on my mother all the time. My brother asked her to apologize to me for the way she acted, last night and other times. She rolled her eyes and seemed appalled that she needed to apologize at all. I was done.

I would have left last night but since I had wine with dinner I was not going to drive a car. We got up and left by 5am to avoid the worst of Boston traffic. My father talked to me and asked me not to leave because its family. I hate to disappoint anyone but she doesn't treat me like family. This morning my brother got up to say good bye. My sister also got up and asked me not to leave, after the cars were packed, and I told her she should have treated me better for the last twenty years - actually I should have said for my whole life. I don't think she really thought I would leave.

It was a difficult decision but I really do not have time in my life to put up with anyone's crap. And I don't have to worry about her reading my blog because I don't think she even knows I have a blog. The only family member who actually reads my blog is my mother and I think she hasn't been reading it as frequently.

I reread this and wonder am I wrong? Am I making a big deal out of  nothing? Is it wrong to expect cordial relations with family members? Is it wrong to expect messages not to be ignored? Is it wrong to expect some sort of punctuality at get-togethers? Is it wrong to expect respect for others?

Taking charge once again and chaos

I usually go along with the flow of medical care and go to my appointments like a good girl. But every so often I take a step back and make some changes.

When my therapist retired at the end of last year, I switched to a new one who I didn't like. Then I switched to another. I really don't like her and find her pretty useless to me. So I think she is getting the ax when I see her next week.

She also sent me to a fibromyalgia support group, one of the most useless meetings I have ever been to. I will be opting out of that as well. One of my big reasons is that I feel I get no support from it. And as its an official 'group' at the hospital, I have a $20 co-pay every time I go. I sometimes go to the breast cancer support group at the hospital and there is no co-pay so I have no idea why I have to pay for this one. But not any more.

Right now I have enough going on with out wasting time and money on useless meetings. Our house is a disaster right now. The only things in the living room are a sofa, a sideboard, two lamps and the tv on a tv stand. Everything else is stuffed into another room. The master bedroom is empty of everything but two dressers. We are sleeping on the mattress and box spring in the guest room which is packed full of boxes and other stuff. The kitchen is also a mess. This is all because we are having the walls painted. We hope they will be done today so we can put everything back tomorrow.

The exterior paint is being touched up. We had it painted nine years ago with a 'lifetime' paint that hasn't lasted. The manufacturer is providing new paint free of charge that was supposed to arrive Tuesday. I called yesterday and found out he 'forgot' to ship it. He swears he would ship it yesterday so we should have it next Thursday (it comes from British Columbia). I will be on the phone with him later today to make sure it shipped. Now it looks like the house will be painted the day before it goes on the market on 10/15. 

I don't need any more stress. Grrr.

House selling and buying

So life is rolling along as we try to get our house ready to put on the market but we also need to find a new place to live. We have finally decided the house will go on the market Oct 16 and have two days of open houses.

We keep house hunting as well and finding houses we like but we can't put in an offer until we have our house on the market. If we do no one will accept our offer without a kick out clause (meaning they can accept other offers and ditch ours in the meantime). But we are trying to be good sellers and are house hunting because our realtors tell us to. 

Its just aggravating. However we have decided what we want in a new house. The real answers are: one floor living as much as possible, lots of storage, and a fire place and garage. Plus in our price range and near enough to my husband's job. Nothing complicated or fancy. A newer kitchen and bathrooms and no wall paper would be nice. But we can be flexible. They are all blurring together. 

In the meantime, we just pack and 'negotiate' with each other - mostly 'do you remember the house with the whatchamacallit?' The answer is always 'no, which one was that'. Maybe someday we will find one that is memorable and we can actually remember it.

There's basil in my coffee and other worries

If there is one thing I have learned over the past eight years of health crap is to roll with the punches. I need to deal with what I can and learn to cope with the rest. I try to keep my life on an even keel as much as possible. I usually do unless 'something' happens.

I don't have the energy to go overboard at any little thing. I need to save my strength to cope with it all and not lose my sanity, or anything else important. Because I have no way of telling what could be next.

It has been more than eight years of medical crap. Ten years ago I had a hysterectomy and then 18 months later breast cancer and so much more since. But I think I am doing okay these days, although some may disagree.

My latest health aggravation is my knee. Not being a candidate for knee surgery has put a damper on my hopes for life without a knee brace. And my knee isn't bad enough so I could have a knee replacement - but I have always believed there is no reason to have one of those unless absolutely necessary. And Its not necessary. But I will whine bitch about it to my therapist and rheumatologist and see if any solutions come along. Or medical research comes up with a new way to fix it.

And life goes on. I will cope and move on.

This morning while making coffee way too early, I thought I grabbed the bag of mulling spices so I could throw a few in to the coffee grinder to add some flavor to the coffee. Nope, it was basil. I tried to pull most of it out but there is a hint of basil in it. But its not bad. I can deal with it.

I've been busy

For the past month or so, I have been very busy. And for the past week I have been very very busy. The big project has been moving. Thursday we saw a house we really liked on paper but in reality it had too many problems. We also saw a house that was too big for us, a house that was a bit too expensive, and a house that simply needed more work than we wanted to do.

Friday we found another house on line that we really liked. Our realtor even went to see it Friday afternoon and they said we needed to act fast. My husband went to see the house on Saturday morning (I was unavailable) and liked it a lot. We made an offer, only to find out someone else had already made an offer that was accepted.

Sunday we went to see more houses, only to find one that we really liked on paper had an in ground swimming pool, something we don't want. And we saw a couple more but either they were too big, too small, to much money or needed more work. We decided to go back to the one we really liked that was too expensive and decided to make an offer. We now have to wait to find out. As the house hunting roller coaster continues.

After the house price, the biggest issue in house hunting is my husband's commute. The second biggest issue is to make sure we have a house that is mostly one floor living as the expected decline in my health will continue. This all makes me feel even older. I am too young to look for one floor living.

But I've been busy. I promise to get back to regular blogging. As pinktober continues.

Spoon Theory (Or How Many Spoons Is That Worth To Me?)

Do you know about the spoon theory? No, its not something you learned in high school physics and since forgot. Its about life with a chronic illness. Christine Miserandino over at "But You Don't Look Sick".

This has come up in a couple other blogs recently and someone emailed me about it earlier this week. You can read the entire theory here but to summarize (poorly):

If you are healthy, you have an unlimited supply for spoons to get you through the day. As you start your day each task costs one spoon. This includes taking a shower, getting dressed, making breakfast, standing in line at the coffee shop, taking the stairs instead of the elevator up to your office, working straight out all morning, going to lunch, etc.  Each task is a spoon.

But if you have a chronic illness you start your day with a set supply of spoons. Probably about 12. If you do too much you will run out of spoons very early in the day. If you use up too many spoons, you might have fewer spoons the next day. Or if you run out of spoons, you need to spend the rest of the day resting/recovering.

This is my life now. Every day I need to evaluate what I am going to do for the day and figure out how to  use my spoons. I look at as 'how many spoons is that worth to me'. I have the list of what I want to do and what I need to do and evaluate my spoon count.

I had a very stressful, terrible day yesterday (thanks to bankers) and I didn't sleep well so my spoon count is bit low. I want to go to the gym, make four pies, and clean up for my brother's arrival with his four kids late this evening. I will be napping by 3pm.

I will rest for a bit longer this morning and attempt to go to the gym. Once I come home, I can make a pie and take a nap while it bakes. And repeat as needed.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving which means lots of stuff to do, stretching out of spoons, and splitting what I want vs what I must do. I need to get as much rest as I can today. Each choice will require me to evaluate how many spoons each is worth to me.

And how am I doing?

I blogged about my difficult decision. I blogged about our new cats. I haven't blogged about me.

Honestly, I am not doing that great. I have been exhausted for a while. On vacation I would sleep a lot and was feeling caught up on sleep. Since coming home, I have been exhausted. After two nights in our bed, I have slept well but am still exhausted. I woke up a while ago and am still in bed and will probably go back to sleep.

My knee is a clear source of stress. It has a tendency to give way, even while wearing a brace, which is not fun. I start PT next week and will see how it goes. I plan to talk to the physical therapist about my knee giving way before I call my doctor back. Its not making me happy.

I am also feeling emotionally drained. It was a big effort to leave our long planned vacation. My first thought on driving home was to call my therapist and get in to see her. But I am not sure of my schedule this week and I have an appointment in a couple weeks anyway. Maybe I just need to go into emotional hiding for a bit and lick my wounds for a few days.

In some ways its a bit of relief that I stood my ground and left. Everything is now out in the open.

I need a nap. Bye.

Stress + anxiety = anxiety + stress

The past week has been filled with stress and anxiety, no matter how you look at it.

Gilda's Club Seattle asked, and I offered to give an interview when Mutual of Omaha's AHA Moment van was in Seattle on Tuesday. If you've not seen these commercials, check out the site. (I don't know when or if my interview will be broadcast, but will try to post if they tell me.)

At first I thought I'd talk about cancer. Then I thought I'd talk about my cousin E, who died last week at the age of 90+. I asked Rik to quickly email me a photo, since the email reminder said to bring something along. But they meant something to hold in my hand, not a digital image. Then I changed my mind again. Everyone has a loss to share. What would make E's death my AHA Moment more powerful than my living with metastatic cancer?

With Anna Gottlieb, founder and executive director of Gilda's Club Seattle

A gift from Mutual of Omaha - my very own clapboard

In the end I talked about my cancer, how long it had been in my life. Mostly I spoke about how my recent knowledge of the US government's lack of funding of all research into all metastatic cancers via the National Cancer Institute indicates how little the lives of our citizens seem to matter to our government. The interviewer didn't seem to care for this topic much, but I got very passionate about it. It was a bit of a stress-filled morning.

On Tuesday afternoon I saw my specialty dentist about the ache in my jaw and numbness in my chin. She took x-rays but nothing showed up, as nothing had shown up on the recent CT of the right side of my jaw. My anxiety continued to build, as this could mean anything from TMJ to increased activity in the BRONJ spot in my jaw, to more active brain mets. Or anything else. And it hurt to open my mouth and eat.

Thursday brought my weekly support group plus a visit with Dr G. The usual mixed bag of possibilities opened up yet again. Stress. Rik told Dr G he thinks I've been mixing up my conversation recently. I told Dr G about my issues with typos and not being able to think of the proper word in a sentence (I call this "my feeling stupid"). These symptoms, plus the mouth/jaw and chin pain, could indeed mean anything. Combined with the rise in my tumor markers, Dr G decided I should start Taxol within 24-48 hours, and schedule another brain MRI soon. I had a brain MRI on June 10th, which revealed nothing unusual. Dr G also said I should start raloxifine, an estrogen blocker which somehow I'd never had.

The terrible traffic for the stupid Seafair activities in town caused many of the patients scheduled before me to arrive late. Therefore we waited two and a half hours to see Dr G, spent an hour with him, walked over to the hospital to fill the scrip for raloxifine, and didn't get home until almost 7 pm.

More stress, more anxiety.

On Friday the Swedish Cancer Institute squeezed me in for my first dose of Taxol. I felt okay on Friday afternoon, but took a nap anyway. New drug, a nap is in order. I should get the Taxol once a week for three weeks, then take a week off. This lower dose also should be more tolerable.

On Saturday it was so very hot here that I took a five hour nap with the air conditioner. This was definitely the summer for such a purchase. I have a brain MRI scheduled for this week, as approved by my health insurance company. We'll see what that reveals. At least my jaw hurts less

Finally, today my dear friends D and C came over for brunch. While we were catching up with one another, I truly had an AHA moment: I realized that the stress and anxiety of the past week could easily have caused some of the symptoms I was so worried about. The typos, the conversational idiosyncrasies and worries about new pain might have all converged to cause me more worry and nervousness.

I actually have tolerated the Taxol very well so far, with minimal side effects except my naps. I hope this means that my trip to see my family on the east coast will come off as planned. Plus I hope this means less stress now that I have a plan. This who know me, know that I excel at planning.

Stress

I hate stress. I haven't been getting a lot of sleep recently. Why? Stress. We are house hunting. We actually have sold our house and have just over two months, preferably less, before we have to be out of our house. And today starts craft show season where I am busy every weekend now through mid December.

And house hunting is no fun. We sold our house quite quickly. We haven't found a house to buy. Well we have made several offers - we lost the first tone because they misled us and let us think they had other offers in. Then they wanted to keep taking other offers until we sold our house. The next house had an accepted offer in by the time we got ours in - two days after it went on the market. The third house seller actually went with another offer, even though we think ours was higher.

Last weekend we thought we found 'the' house. We made an offer which was accepted. We had a home inspection and found that house has so many problems its barely livable. The minor stuff mold in the attic, failing lolly columns which support the first floor, and a completely rotted out back wall that needs to be replaced. All are significant safety issues so we said no. (And now the house is back on the market with no mention of any of the issues.)

Yesterday we found another house. We are making an offer. We have our fingers crossed. And the stress goes on.

At least its not medical stress. Well there is some of that as well as my knee doctor has told me I am not a good candidate for ACL repair surgery because of my RA. We are in 'wait and see'  mode for another few months.

Research hope and hopes dashed

I do follow the latest breast cancer, thyroid cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia medical research. Some inner child is waiting for the cure to all of these ailments. I have learned a great deal about these ailments through reading the advances and get hope that some day a cure will be there. I also welcome the access to medical and other research across the board.

When I was first diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 1981, if I wanted to find information I had to go to a university's research library and read medical text books. It was confusing to say the least. In those days research was left to scientists and published in technical journals that were dense and textbooks for those learning the science or medicine that were no easy read.

Times have changed and I can find research every where. I can browse scientific journals online, set up Google alerts to send me the latest news, review the disease information on association websites, and have access to advances as soon as they are announced. However they all seem to be followed with the disclaimers 'more research is needed' and 'FDA approval is 5-7 years away'. Which can be frustrating, to say the least.

Every so often, I read some research that makes me wonder if I am over thinking, and perhaps the rest of us are too. I read this article on the impact of stress hormones on breast cancer recurrence or progression due to treatment resistance. It starts out by saying progesterone may stimulate that growth of cells that make cancer resistant to estrogen based treatments. Then it goes on to talk about the role of CK5 and goes on from there...

I admit it, I got lost. My breast cancer was ER-/PR- so do I have to worry about this at all? Well once I read it three times, I figured it out and could follow along.

But it made me wonder (which can be a bad thing), should I try to NOT follow all this research? Am I over thinking the hope that there is a cure out there? Should I leave this research to the scientists and not get myself bogged down in the details? I mean I do get the sense of hope from all the research that some day that cure will show up.

But is it worth letting myself get excited about the potential in the research and then get let down by the fact that the ending is 'more research is needed' and 'FDA approval is 5-10 years away'. Am I contributing to my own emotional medical roller coaster by trying to follow the advances and ensuing waiting?

A big part of any medical ailment is the emotional roller coaster that becomes part of your life after diagnosis. Learning how to cope with the roller coaster can be very difficult. And am I aggravating my own stress levels by accessing all this research? I will have to do some more thinking on this.

Blocking out life

Sometimes I feel I need to ignore life and the rest of the world and focus on my ever growing list of ailments. Its not that I want to, its that sometimes my body insists on being the focus. Like the past few days. And probably the next few days.

I have many other things I would like to do but I have to focus on my health. I will fit in other 'stuff' around my health crap. And it really is crap right now.

I have a feeling I did some damage to my knee, how much I will learn more on Wednesday. It hasn't been contributing basic things like flexibility and stability to the rest of my body for the past few days. This means I can't go to the gym. Actually I don't dare go to the gym. But I really want to go. I think exercise will help me deal with stress. And I have blood work this week as well as two other doctor appointments. Right now I am getting blood work done every two weeks.

I also broke down and succumbed to pressure from my new therapist to try the new fibromyalgia support group. I did point out that I do have multiple ailments and fibromyalgia is one of the less challenging ones to me at this point. I mean its there. It causes me pain, fatigue, and, my favorite, insomnia. It isn't progressively causing damage to my body or lurking in the background, threatening to recur like some of the others.

I was told that the fibromyalgia group should help provide 'coping' strategies. I agreed to go once to see if these 'coping' strategies are really covered and potentially show any benefit for me. But my cynical self doubts that.

I am just stressed, anxious, in pain, tired, and a few other things so life isn't as much fun right now. Call me a cranky cynic right now.

Big changes

So what do unhealthy people do when they have spare time? They pack up their house and move. Yes we are moving. There are lots of benefits for us in moving. We can cut our monthly expenses in half. I can consider stop working. I can get more rest.

I just have to survive packing and moving.

We have been discussing this for a while. We bought this house when I was healthy and working full time in Boston and commuting by public transportation. As my health has tanked, there is no reason to believe I will ever be going back into Boston daily. If we move 10 miles or so away, we can save big time.

In the meantime, we are packing, house hunting, packing, preparing our house, packing, and packing. These are all things that healthy bodies are capable of but my not quite so healthy body doesn't like any of it. And my mind never likes change either.