Letters from Wetville

Just like pharmaceutical drugs, vitamin supplements are never guaranteed miracle cures.  I've a documented propensity for developing immune dysfunction symptoms which doctors have no idea what to do about, and I've spent a lot of time successfully dealing with these symptoms by alternative means.  I've no longer got arthritis and or bells palsy.  I've reduced my hyperthyroid symptoms significantly, but there is still a big bulge of a goiter on/in my neck.  This year, taking a multivitamin with no iodine (generally counterindicated for hyperthyroid persons) and no iron (no good for haemochromatosis persons) twice a day, every day, has made a HUGE positive difference to my general health.  I've had only one mild cold this year! Tonight I thought I'd document what hasn't worked for me.  Mostly because I've trawled the net many a night looking for information which isn't there.  Here's one story.  Vitamin C is supposed to be bad for haemochromatosi...

I loved The Rosie Project .  I probably need (*need*) more Rosie Projects in my life. Look at the cover, even.  I don't read deliberate comedy very often.  But I giggled, properly giggled, my way through this.  It's a better tonic than vitamin C.  I also went to Christchurch and had a minor spending spree - two lovely bras and a beautiful scarf later, I closed my wallet for all but food and petrol expenses.  I went driving out at Greenpark (near Lincoln and Tai Tapu) and looked down behind Greenpark School.  It is going to close at the end of this year, but it was here that my Grandma began her formal schooling, and it was in a paddock at the back of the school that she tethered the pony which her father bought for her to ride to school (taking her younger brother with her). Then I went to Tai Tapu and played lady lunching.  Nice gf roulade (yes I mentioned food, AND gf - it may get worse as the blogpost continues) and I got great value o...

It's a kitchen post!  Not had one of those in a long time... Blueberry kefir smoothie Whizz together: milk kefir  blueberries (mine are from frozen) chia seeds chocolate Drink.  I'm drinking it every night. I'm still reading about copper, and haemochromatosis, and zinc absorption and how it all fits together.  So much to learn, but it's worth it.  Every time I've had a major illness, it's turned out to be linked to immune function, and I've learnt a lot as I regain control over my life and health.  Copper is my current biggest learning curve.

It's definitely tricky to be back at work while experiencing hyperthyroid symptoms.  Racing heart, anxiousness, irritability and a difficulty dealing with many things happening at once are all things I would like to farewell at the first available opportunity. Cue more googling, thinking, and monitoring how I react to different supplements and situations.  What is the relationship between haemochromatosis and thyroid health?  Welll. Well well well. I thought this story of a nutritional approach to hyperthyroidism was interesting. What supresses copper?  High levels of iron. Well well well.  I've ordered some copper supplements as so much of what I've read tonight (I've not linked to all of it as it is bedtime) resonates with my own symptom profile.  I cannot perceive of any harm in trying out some copper supplementation. On Monday I go over the hill for a nuclear imaging scan, and I hope (it's not explicit in the letter) that I get to see an end...

I realise that I do indeed have a privileged first world 1.5 income household with food, warmth and shelter pretty much guaranteed so long as I don't develop a gambling habit.  No one hits me, I'm married to a wonderful person, the kids are healthy and lovely and are enjoying and progressing at school.  On the big scale, it's all pretty hunky dory. If we could zoom in though, I want to write about my recent strategies to manage stress and get my nutrition intake back on track.  At my work, it is absolutely the most busy and pressured time of the year at the moment.  I'm at work what seems like all the time, despite being paid to be at work half of the time.  It will pass and the pressure will, I hope, ease off significantly in a fortnight or so. I've been losing massive amounts of sleep, which no one has ever been able to convince me is an optimal way to live.  Some nights I've been awake for hours in the wee hours of the morning when I don't even have ...

Slippery elm, as a little googling will tell you, is a herb made of the inner bark of a tree (a particular one, but I don't remember what it is called) which makes a mucilage with water which is soothing ones innards.  Laksmi recommended it for Fionn a couple of months ago.  Since then, we've added it to the porridge Monday - Friday.  A couple of times in the last month I have seen the early signs of an imminent asthma attack, particular kind of sensitive, tearful, dark under the eyes and tired than would reasonably be expected which is a typical precursor to an asthma attack for Fionn.  But asthma hasn't resulted.  The slippery elm is the only different thing we have been doing.  So I'm inclined to carry on with it. Brighid, who has endless sore tummies, and myself, who is the grumpiest person this side of Arthurs Pass who also has a sore chest from/causing coughing, do not like porridge.  So I set out to find a way to get slippery elm into us....

What would it look like if I wiped $1000 worth of expenditure from our household per fortnight?  It might not smell or sound much different, but I'd wager it would taste different. I'm very fortunate in that I'm making a choice to embark on this project.  It must seem extremely privileged to people who have been laid off or made redundant.  'Redundancy' implies some kind of financial compensation for the loss of employment, but it is also a horrible word in its implication that a person is merely a unit of labour, of no persisting value. When I was at home with young babies, particularly the second time round when we also had a mortgage to service, I spent a lot of time both saving money and reading about ways to save money.  I'm okay at it rather than exceptionally good. The short answer to saving money is not to spend it.  Almost as short is 'don't get unlucky'.  Don't lose your job, or get sick.  Don't buy a dud car or a house with u...

Turmeric.  It relieves inflammation and it chelates iron and there are plenty of high quality scientific studies showing this.  As a magical substance, it sure beats rain dancing, and is more useful.  This afternoon I was in whipping up a storm in the kitchen in preparation for term time (storms in my kitchen often look more like mess than completed food items).  I'd made some chocolate brownie and was contemplating pumpkin muffins.  Then it occurred to me that I could slip some turmeric in.  This, with approximate measures for the spices as I simply tipped them from the packet, is what I made: 2 C self raising flour 3/4 C sugar 75g butter, melted 3/4 C milk 1 egg 3 small-medium pieces of roast pumpkin (which I didn't think to weigh) 1 Tablespoon cream cheese 1 teaspoon each of powdered ginger, cumin, turmeric & cinnamon black pepper Mix flour, spices and sugar into a bowl.  Melt butter.  Beat egg.  Mix egg, butter and milk....

When everyone is home and it is term time, I crave silence in the evenings.  I've been immersed in noise all day.  Having no television suits me fine as in the evening I prefer to read, sew, knit or read or write online.  Tonight, after a quiet day to myself, I have a different set up.  I have set FH's computer up to stream Radio Four live while I knit/read/write online.  Just fifteen more minutes to Womans Hour. Today: 1. I thought I would sew all through these solo days, but it turns out I want to read and think. 2. I went to see Laksmi, my treasured complementary therapist.  She did some visceral manipulation work while we talked at length about haemochromatosis, food, symptoms and next steps.  She strongly encouraged me to be more assertive with my doctor. 3. Inspired by Laksmi's pep talk, I made another attempt to get an appointment with a locum who FH recommended.  Wonder of all magical wonders, I got an appointment today.  TODAY...

I've just rewatched Terry Wahl's TED presentation on mitochondria .  Terry Wahl is a doctor who developed Multiple Sclerosis and deteriorated to the point of being unable to walk.  She embarked on her own research into MS, delving deeper and deeper into what is known about mitochondria, and developed an eating programme which restored her to active health.  Now she campaigns the cause of vegetables, lots and lots and lots of vegetables.  I've read about her before and found her story interesting and inspiring.  I often think the focus in the media healthwise is far too much on what we shouldn't eat, to the neglect of the things which are very good to eat.  Instead of bemoaning KFC and proposing fat taxes, I wish that souvlaki bars were more widespread.  The proportion of veges to carbohydrate (plus the sheer yumminess factor) of a souvlaki is way way better than a KFC dinner box or a parcel of takeaways fish and chips.  In my experience, bought fo...

In my last post, I outlined the options and my preferences in my quest to lower my iron stores while I wait for an appointment with a doctor with the knowledge to supervise a phlebotomy regime.  Two days later and I've got more things to think about. 1. Green tea.   The advantages of drinking lots of green tea for a medicinal purpose are that it is cheap, easy to make, and can even be bought when out for lunch or dinner.  The disadvantage for me, I was noticing rather clearly today, is that drinking 3-4 cups of green tea per day is a lot more caffeine than I normally drink, and I've been getting tetchy headaches and restless legs/muscle spasms.  When I found myself craving chocolate this afternoon, it all began to add up to the possibility that the green tea was chelating out magnesium as well as iron.  I've learnt from past experience to look after my magnesium levels.  Next time I got near the computer, I did some research and sure enough, the tannins ...

I collected my blood results and sure enough, two of the readings considered significant for iron overload are outside the 'normal' range (transferrin and iron saturation).  Today I rang the medical centre to request an appointment with a doctor with some experience with haemochromatosis.  If I'm going to have regular phlebotomy, I would like to be under the care of someone able to interpret the blood results and with a clear picture of what needs to happen and how frequently.  Even in the days of bloodletting with leeches, I'm guessing people preferred to have some guiding expertise and supervision for the process.  It wasn't possible for the nurse to be sure of who had the requisite knowledge and experience, but I now have an appointment in five weeks' time with the doctor with the best reputation at the practice.  The blood bank doesn't visit Wetville in winter as the risks of having a full van of blood and not being able to get it back over the hill t...

One of my favourite pastimes is learning about achieving good health through natural remedies.  I like working out what is wrong and then finding out what can be done food-or-herb wise to increase the postive health outcome likelihood.  Last Friday I got a blood test.  I went to see the locum doctor and explained about haemochromatosis and requested that, given it was 15 years since my last bloods specifically testing ferritin et al levels, I get tested.  Unfortunately, the locum seemed to know nothing about haemochromatosis, and didn't even seem to have much of a database to look up for more information.  If I'd known that I was going to be dictating which tests to ask for, I'd have looked them up and written them down before I went to the doctor.  So I later worked out that some tests are missing on the lab form, but hopefully what is ordered will tell us something useful (Who am I kidding?  Tell me something useful).  The doctor ordered some o...

Sushi salad.  Last night I was tired.  We still needed to eat.  Takeaways were not an option.  I put the wrong kind of rice in the pot so no basmati rice with fish and veg after all.  So I made the sushi rice as I usually would for sushi, then cooked the terakihi in butter/oil/ginger/lemon thyme/lemon juice and with broccoli, then tipped the whole lot into a bowl with the rice and added grated carrot and avocado.  I also added broken up nori into the rice before the fish went in, but I needed to have crumbled it up into much smaller pieces.  It tasted good.  I would do it again. Baked fish.  Tonight I was tired.  It took every last ounce of discipline to start cooking dinner and not go blow money on takeaways and wine.  I tried out Annabel Langbein's baked fish with almond sauce and it was good.  Almonds are fantastic sources of magnesium and calcium but no one apart from me really wants to just eat them raw, alo...

Today I made lentil and feta salad for lunch.  I soaked the puy lentils with a little apple cider vinegar overnight, then I boiled them til they were soft this morning.  Then I sauteed onions, ginger, turmeric, cumin, crushed coriander seeds and kale in olive oil and butter and then added the lentils and mixed it all up.  Then I added lots of chopped fresh coriander, salt and pepper and diced feta cheese.  It was good, and nutritious and filling.  Next time I need to make a bigger batch as that was enough to feed FH and I for lunch.  It also made a pile of dishes. Then I blinked five times, went to work, school pickup, ballet and the optometrist and it was time for another meal.  We have heaps of eggs at the moment and no money until pay day tomorrow, so it had to be an egg meal and the children were pleading to never have quiche again, or at least not tonight.  So I parboiled 4 spuds which I had chopped into rough cubes.  Then I sauteed on...

One of my favourite obsessions is foods for good health.  I do have to remind myself (often) that reading about good foods will not give me the benefits; I need to actually eat them.  I've kept up our home made food commitment, even though I gave up reporting on it daily.  Last week we had bought fish and chips one night and one morning I took asthma boy into town for morning tea after he came to work with me but beyond that we've been very good.  Asthma boy has made a very good recovery.  I'm not sure if it is pure good luck that he is responsible about listening to his body or if I can take some credit for the work I've put in feeding him well and explaining the food choices we make.  I seem to have my family in the rhythm of taking fish oil and cod liver oil each day and we are still using the flax seed oil topically on Fionn's eczema (which flared up with the asthma). I've been finding red meat a bit heavy lately and as I wait for a doctor's appointm...

Can I just shout from the rooftops that Brighid, my daughter who has rather limited likes at dinner time, likes brussels sprouts?  So did everyone tonight (I cut the base off, scored a cross from the base, steamed them and then added some butter). In other non-news and perhaps eventually some actual news, I have something called a chalazion in my eyelid.  I've been pronouncing it with a french style, which makes it feel a little less unappealing.  My first encounter with the optometrist was somewhat unsuccessful, as he wrote a referral to the DHB and they weren't the slightest bit interested.  The optometrist then wrote a script for steroids, and given the time I've spent reading up on steroids (mostly in relation to my son's eczema) and my evaluation (the optometrist's seemed to be rather similar) of the likelihood of success with a skin thinning lotion, I'm not the slightest bit interested in putting steroid cream on my eyelid. I've been doing h...

There are photos of today below, wearing some things I made (grey t-shirt with stars print on it plus aqua-blue cardigan which looks and feels rather like a short dressing gown).  My hair is not brushed.  Joining the Me Made May'12 challenge was a commitment to wearing home made clothes, not to brushing my hair on Saturday morning. Today's new adventure was making ginger compresses for Fionn's chest.  He does seem to be improving, and now I know why I bought such a large piece of ginger in the groceries.  Sometimes I get frustrated that my kids continue to get sick despite all my efforts to feed and water and clothe and shelter them to good health.  But it is timely at that point, I tell myself, to remember that on both sides of their genetic inheritance, relatives died young of asthma and breathing/chesty/lung complaints, so getting it down to a few bouts per year is a success. Also, I have and had a head cold.  I wouldn't describe that as an adventure...

I don't find it difficult to set goals for my performance review in my paid job.  There is a process by which these are set and someone evaluates whether I've met them and about 8000 pieces of paperwork are created for this purpose. I've got goals for my at home job as well, though only my family can assess whether they are being met and we tend to make decisions and responses about that together (without any paperwork).  My main goal relates to the health of my family.  As the weather turns markedly colder, I'm glad we've been supplementing with cod liver oil each day.  My dad has horrific memories of being made to drink this stuff, but a) the version we get from John Appleton's doesn't taste so bad and b) the vitamins A and D which it contains are totally worth any icky taste.  As the sniffles and snuffles announced themselves right on cue with the storm last night, I pulled out the zinc mixture and made it up with 'pink ink'.  Other people may...

More fun on the sickness front. Last night Brighid came down with a raging urinary tract infection. The emergent signs had been there last week and the vomiting lurgy didn't help in terms of the need to flush out any bacteria before it got a hold. So. Late on Holy Thursday in a small town with no pharmacy and likely no emergency medical clinic for days and she is screaming and squealing in pain. What have I learnt since 2006 when Fionn had just such an infection? Back then, I didn't know anything about UTIs and yet I have never before or since seen my son in such pain. We took him to the doctor and I've never appreciated antibiotics so much. But antibiotics weren't an option last night. Even had I chosen to take her to A & E, they would have focused on making her comfortable, which translates to giving her what I consider to be horrific doses of paracetomol and ibuprufen, and not had the abx to hand out. A big learning curve in recent years for me has been t...