Appreciate good health!

oh, man.  I've been in the midst of battling the flu for 2 weeks!  Hopefully this goes away soon!

In other news: I decided late last year (in keeping with my one-word resolution tradition) that my word for 2013 is: APPRECIATE.  So here's to not taking health for granted.

More to come.  I'm a bit behind in posts.

my smoovy

So I have a new breakfast habit, which Fiona refers to as my "smoovy".  It started with my raiding our freezer downstairs and discovering that we still had last summer's strawberries to gobble through before June comes and we go picking again (wearing fleece, as with most years, but I digress...). 

I also started seeing a naturopath to figure out my headaches, my low energy, my sinus issues, my "funk" basically.  She asked about my diet, which sometimes includes a smoovy in the morning - of yogurt, fruit, and flax seeds.  She gave me a few more ingredients to toss into the blender: a handful of greens for my lack of morning energy; protein powder for that little extra boost; oils, such as coconut oil, flax oil, or just some avocado to combat my dehydration (which often leads to headaches); and my favorite ingredient: maca.  What the heck is maca? According to the packaging of the dried powdery stuff, maca is a plant native to the Andes that is claimed to have been used by Incan warriors for stamina and *wink wink* stamina.  So it is my new secret ingredient, much discussed and giggled over during our Girls Weekend a few weeks ago, when I was still experimenting with my new recipe.  I think everyone quietly liked the added oomph - although, and forgive me for sounding so Portland, but I only wish I could get it locally grown. 

And the verdict?  The oils are definitely making a dent in my overall dry constitution.  The protein and maca are contributing to lower morning fatigue, but generally fatigue still ebbs and flows - I bet having three small children has something to do with that.  It is muddy and sometimes the color of moss.  But I've got the whole family in love with my smoovy (well, the kids don't get maca).  Overall, mmm... my smoovy is a hit!

cotton

Feeling like my head is full of cotton... my sinus infection took a turn for the worst when my ear drum ruptured last night.  Should take a few weeks to repair, according to the doctor.  Ugh!  and also, What?  I am having trouble hearing.

To top it off, the end of May seems more like March!  It won't stop raining here!  I want to post some photos of our backyard and all of the work we put into it, but we're not exactly outside enjoying it.  So onto more sewing. and blogging. and hopefully checking things off of lists.

post-op

I recently had some surgery (four days ago).  It was fairly minor, as far as surgeries go.  But anyway, coming from off my cloud of Vicodin, I'm realizing two things:

1. Family members don't think that any surgery is minor.  All procedural dates and times must be shared repeatedly.  Enough said.
2. If you're ever in the hospital for one thing, like having a biopsy or delivering a child, tough luck if you're suffering from a separate ailment...  

This last point deserves some explanation.  When I delivered Dean, the following day he scratched the cornea of my eye with his little baby fingernails.  My eye was in so much pain, and all the nurses in the maternity ward could do is give me some cream and an eye patch.  They had no idea what to do with me, because I needed care that had nothing to do with opstetrics or breastfeeding.  They didn't even know it was a scratched cornea.  Matthew and I joked that for Halloween (Dean was an October baby), I'd go as a pirate and he'd be my baby parrot.  It wasn't until a full 24-hours later when the pediatrician came to check on the baby, that I begged him to look at my eye and tell me what was wrong.  He recommended not using cream, which would make it worse, but just some saline drops.  Why in the world the maternity ward nurses couldn't figure that out, I am not sure.  We had even suggested early on that they ask people in the ER for help.  But I digress...


Fast forward to four days ago.  I went in for a biopsy, but unfortunately I was suffering from a simultaneous sinus infection.  I complained, because I'd had nothing to eat or drink, and combined with the sinus infection I was suffering a massive headache.  I have a bad history of migraines, and this one was coming on super strong.  And what did they give me for the pain?  Morphine.  Not what I normally take for headaches.  Is this a commentary on the total compartmentalization of the medical profession or the tendency to treat the symptom, not the cause? 

I recently attended a quick seminar on the "Three Pillars of Optimal Health", given by a doctor who practices naturopathic medicine.  He focuses mainly on elimination, reintroduction and stress reduction, and he also talked about a few basic principles:

• Find and treat causes of symptoms (not symptoms)
• Symptoms are the clues and not the problems to cover up.
• Avoid suppression
• Bodies are good at being healthy, if we stay out of their way.

I am thinking of diving into this a little further soon, as my sinus infection does not seem to want to go away - the morphine didn't exactly cure me.  Arrrrrr.....