Natural Parenting

The Myth – Part 2

In the bottom of my last post, I gave a brief history of my first hospital experience. I’d like to talk about that a little more real quickly.

In the 3 months prior to my first visit to the emergency room, I was feeling pretty lousy. I was experiencing what I can only describe as an intense pressure in my chest. Migraines plagued my everyday life, and I frequently had a burning sensation in my stomach. I also had a weird copper taste in my mouth most of the time. I felt like I was falling apart.

That is what caused me to go to the emergency room in the first place. (It wasn’t an emergency, but I had no money or health insurance, and that was my only option.) As I mentioned earlier, they ended up sending me home with nothing more than a $200 bill.

Now, back to the story…

We got to the hospital in Dallas, and we sat around for hours on end, surrounded by sick people, and drug addicts begging to be prescribed some painkillers. When I was finally seen, I described my symptoms and they began a series of tests. After a pap-smear, fecal sample, H. pylori test, and an x-ray, they still didn’t know definitively what was wrong with me. Finally, they had me drink this white “numbing” liquid. It made my stomach feel somewhat better, so they concluded that what I had was a stomach ulcer.

They sent me home with the recommendation to take Zantac 75mg. So, that’s what I did. After a month or so, I wasn’t seeing any results, so I decided to double the dosage. I was now in with the big dogs, taking Zantac 150mg.

Raising the milligrams did help initially, but not as well as I would have hoped. It allowed me to cope with life, but I still wasn’t feeling as well as I knew a 17 year old should.

Right before the new year, some good friends invited us to stay with them, because they knew we were in a rut. (Thank God for them!) Soon after moving in with them, I got some advice from a stranger at a restaurant. He suggested that I switch to taking Prilosec, as that turned out being more successful for him than Zantac. I did just that, and ended up feeling a hundred times better.

Unfortunately, though, I became dependent on it. (Like everyone does.) My stomach no longer knew how to function without it. I remember running out for a couple of days once, and my stomach never hurt so much in my life. It was way over producing acid, because it had adapted to the drug, and without it, it didn’t function correctly. I had inadvertently destroyed my stomach’s natural ability to heal itself. My solution? Take more Prilosec, of course.

Fairly quickly I started to realize that what I was doing just didn’t make sense. There had to be another way. We started eating better, and I realized that when I ate certain foods, like beef for instance, my stomach problems would return. Soon, the connection between my health and the food I was eating started to form in my mind, and before long, I was convinced that I had to stop drugging myself with Prilosec.

I started trying to wean myself off of Prilosec, but it was really difficult. I would take the full dose 1 day, and 1/2 a dose the next. I did that for awhile, but then switched to only every other day, but couldn’t take less than that without feeling the pain. My body was unhealthy, and unable to fix what was wrong with it. I knew I needed to do something to help my body do it’s job.

I researched like crazy, and came across the subject of fasting multiple times. After talking with Patrick about it, we decided to do a fast. We ended up settling on a 5 day fasting program, which required that we eat no food whatsoever. I also decided to go without my Prilosec for those 5 days, which was quite a risk for me.

I can’t even describe to you how wonderful that experience was.

During those 5 days, I felt sickly (detox), but really great at the same time. I could feel my body healing itself, and it was the first time I had ever consciously thought about how my body was functioning. It was eye opening. The most amazing part was that after those 5 days, my acid reflux was gone. The stomach burning was gone. The migraines were gone. I was my old self again, only a lot smarter and healthier.

The myth had been dispelled. Prilosec, Tums, and Zantac were not cures. They were simply symptom disguisers. The commercials look so appealing. They show people eating donuts, drinking beer, and having a grand ol’ time, all because they popped their morning Prilosec. They claim that you will never suffer from indigestion again, and all this other nonsense. What they don’t tell you is that you have to take them for the rest of your lives, and that you are destroying your stomach’s natural healing abilities in the process.

People buy into this lie everyday, thinking they are just doing what they are supposed to by taking the medicines. They want an easy out, of course, but I truly feel that most people have no idea that what they’re doing actually may be harming them. I know I didn’t. Sure, I was depressed at the prospect of having to take a pill for the rest of my life, but I figured that it was just a part of life. It doesn’t have to be, though!

Now, whenever I feel a little indigestion coming on, I either fast, or eat raw for a day or so. Juicing is a particuarly quick solution, and always cures it for me. By doing one of those things, I am allowing my body to focus on the problems inside, instead of having to use all it’s energy on digesting and getting rid of toxic food, and with juicing, I’m also supplying my body with readily available nutrients that are alive and fresh.

Think about it, we are constantly eating acid forming foods, and hardly any that are alkalizing (mainly raw fruits/veggies). It’s no wonder that we have indigestion and GERD. (Gastro-Intestinal Reflux Disease) There is no easy way out. We must start eating better, or else we’re doomed to pop pills for the rest of our short lives.

The systems of the body are so complex and intelligent, but we don’t give them nearly enough credit. (God did create them!) Our bodies have everything they need to cure themselves, if we’ll just give them a chance to.

If you are suffering from stomach acid problems, I beg you to try juice feasting, or fasting with just water. I can almost guarantee it will change you. It sure did me.

The Prilosec, Zantac, And Tums Myth

Originally, I was going to make this a short and sweet type post, but after reviewing the story in my head, I realized that I really need to explain my experience thoroughly. Therefore, I’ve decided to make this a series, although I’m not yet sure how many posts it will include.

Years ago, at the ripe age of 17, I enjoyed marijuana occasionally. (I wasn’t addicted or anything, I just smoked every day, sometimes twice.) I liked it because it made me act silly, and it relieved my stress. (We’ll get to what I was stressed about at a later time.)

I didn’t really consider it to be a problem, but as my usage rapidly increased, I started to realize that I was turning into someone that I didn’t like. That didn’t stop me from continuing the terrible habit, though, I just gradually slipped further and further into a hole that I couldn’t climb out of.

After nearly a year of living the “party every night” lifestyle, I was in shambles. Patrick and my relationship was nearly non-existent, despite us living together, and my health was deteriorating quickly. At the time, we didn’t know that living off of one Taco Bell burrito per day would be bad for our bodies. Unfortunately, it was.

We got evicted from our first apartment, and only paid the rent on our 2nd a couple of times. We were blessed to have a lenient landlord who let us stay for a couple months without paying. That didn’t fix our electricity problem, though. We were in the dark for 2 months.

We began rarely showering, as the water was too cold, especially since the winter months were approaching. (End of 2005) Neither of us had a job, and we basically lived off of nothing, don’t ask me how. We literally had an extension cord running from our neighbors house just so we could have a lamp plugged in. Somehow, through all of it, we continued to find ways to smoke pot.

Around Christmas, Patrick and I, one way or another, got some money together to eat a few beef tacos. (You know, that kind that they sell at those Mexican food stands, with the cilantro and raw onions.) They were delicious, and the best meal we had eaten in a long time. We went straight home after eating, and within a few minutes, I thought I was going to die. My throat was on fire, and I had this terrible aching pain in my stomach. I started vomiting like crazy, and even threw up a little blood. We got in the car and drove to the emergency room…

To Be Continued…

(Previously, I had made a trip to a hospital in Fort Worth, but after waiting for 12 hours to see a doctor, they told me that the burning in my stomach was nothing, and that I should just take some Tums. Obviously, at that point the pain was a lot less severe, but the antacids still didn’t end up solving my problem. The next time we drove to Dallas, in hopes of getting some real help. You must remember, though, that I was completely uneducated about anything related to the body or disease. I don’t even think I knew what indigestion was, at the time, I just knew that I needed someone or something to fix me.)

Axel Needs More Underwear!

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love cloth diapers. We’ve had an amazing experience with prefolds, and we are a lot less broke because of them. Now, though, we’ve become spoiled.

A while back we decided that Axel was doing well enough with EC (elimination communication) to start wearing underwear. Or, at least, something similar to training pants, with a little padding. Sad thing was that the cheapest “baby” training underpants I could find were $4 a pair! There was no way I was paying that. My really nice prefolds were only about $2.50 each, so it didn’t make sense to spend that kind of money on tiny underwear.

Patrick had the great idea to buy some regular undies, and sew cut up cloth dipes into them. We went to Walmart to buy the whitey tighties, but the smallest size we could find was 4t. We bought them anyway, figuring we could probably shrink them pretty good in the dryer. After successfully shrinking them, we cut up some prefolds into thirds, and went to a friend’s house to use her sewing machine. That’s when the problems started.

The thing is, I had never used a sewing machine, and had to be taught how to use it in roughly 15 minutes. Needless to say, I must not have been the best student, because that stupid little wheel thingy at the bottom kept falling off, and my needle kept losing it’s thread. I spent so much time and energy trying to sew those darn things, but after 3 hours of frustration, I gave up. I wasn’t a complete failure, as I did end up with 9 pairs completely finished. Granted, they look terrible, but they serve their purpose well enough.

The sewing episode took place about 6-8 weeks ago, and we haven’t touched the subject since. My husband is starting to get really annoyed with the the bulky prefolds. The underwear are so much easier because you don’t have to worry about snappis, or finding a place to lay Axel down to put on his diaper. You can just pull the things on and off in a few seconds. Plus, Patrick loves walking Axel, and the prefolds make it harder for him to do so comfortably. (By “walking”, I mean holding Axel’s hands while he walks.)

Anyway, point being is that I need to get to another sewing machine and finish these things! Having the remaining 10 pair finished would make a world of difference, especially since Patrick does whatever he can to avoid using the prefolds, even if that means washing the underwear twice as much. (Which is ridiculous!)

So, my official New Year’s resolution is to have the underwear done before the new year. That’s ironic.

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Also, just FYI, these homemade training pants are really inexpensive. We bought a pack of 6 undies at Walmart for about $5, and then we cut up our newborn prefolds into 3 pieces, and seamed the edges closed. Those prefolds were about $2 each, so, divide that by 3 and add it to the underwear cost. In the end, they came out to be about $1.35 each. A good deal, if you ask me, and so worth the effort!

Texas Christmas Surprise

Wow.

It’s been quite an eventful past couple of days. Christmas is lots of fun, but as I discover more and more each year, it is a very hectic/stressful holiday. There’s plenty of relatives to visit, gifts to buy, and sleep to “not” get. (So much for Patrick catching up on the Zzz’s over his work break!)

The night before Christmas we ended up staying up all night, and I mean literally, all night. (We went to sleep at 10am, and woke up at 11!) We were baking cooking, stretching taffy, and sugar coating pecans. I was a zombie at my mother in laws house. We survived, though. We did a lot of the same old stuff we do every year. (Eat, open gifts, hug each other, read the Christmas story, etc…)

Something rather exciting and unordinary did happen, though, that I simply must share. We had a white Christmas! Texas actually got some snow, for once! Technically, it fell on the day before, but Christmas Eve was good enough, especially considering we didn’t think we were getting any at all! We ended up with about 3 inches of fluffy white goodness. Patrick and I went completely nuts, and decided to do something crazy and spontaneous. We made snow angels…

…in our bathing suits.

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That’s Patrick’s, “oh my gosh, this is freaking cold,” face.

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I swear I made a snow angel, too! Unfortunately, the angle was terrible and inappropriate for public viewing, forcing me to post a typical posing shot. Funny thing is, I actually went outside a second time in an awful attempt to get a better snow angel picture. No such luck, I guess. (Now that I think about it, it’s not that funny.)

You know, they say that once a person eats 100% raw food, they are more capable of withstanding extreme temperatures. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do now know that the opposite is true… we don’t eat all raw, and we almost froze to death! I’ll have to remember that for future reference.

Poor little Axel, I’m sure he thinks his parents are nut cases.

But you know, maybe we are.

Cheap Christmas Presents

This year we are trying to be as frugal as possible, without having to skip “gift giving” all together. We are going to bake. Or, should I say, boil, as we’re actually going to be making candy. Taffy is our specialty. (We’ve made it a whopping two times!) We are going to make banana, peppermint, cinnamon, and possibly butterscotch, if we can find some flavoring for it. We are planning on wrapping them individually, just like you see in the stores.

We’ll start early tomorrow morning, because it’s bound to take us all day to prepare, cook, cool, stretch, and wrap all of it. I am so excited!

As it turns out, taffy isn’t as difficult to make as most people make it out to be. The key is having a good candy thermometer, and placing it deep enough in the mixture to get a good temperature read while cooking. I suppose that once you’ve gotten the hang of it, you might be able to just eyeball it, but I’m no where near that talented yet. I’ll get there, I’ll get there.

The last time we made it, it turned out so delicious, that I had to actually tell Patrick to bring it with him to work, because I knew that if I was alone with it at home all day, I would eat it all. Isn’t that pathetic?

Here’s how it’s done:

3 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cup light corn syrup
4 tablespoons butter (I use coconut oil, or soy free Earth Balance)
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla or other flavoring

Combine the sugar, water, corn syrup, and salt in a large saucepan. Stir until boiling, and wash down any undissolved sugar from the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water. Add the butter (or substitue) and continue boiling without stirring until the candy thermometer registers 256 to 264 degrees. (I like mine around 260)

The lower temperature will give a chewier taffy, and the higher heat a more brittle product. Turn out on a marble slab or large platter or pan that has been oiled well with oil. (I use coconut oil for this, as well) A few drops of food coloring can also be added to the top of the candy now, but I’d skip this unless you are giving it as a gift, and want it to look fancier. (Don’t need the extra dye!)

The edge of the taffy will cool fairly quickly, and when it can be comfortably touched with well-oiled fingers, turn it inward to form a mass. (Taffy is ready to pull as soon as it can be handled, which is usually sooner than expected.) Grease your fingers and hands WELL! You’ll probably like the flavor of butter for this, although margarine or oil can be used. Take the warm, flowing candy up with the fingertips and pull out about 12 inches at first. Quickly turn the candy back from the fingertips of one hand to the other hand, then catch the center and again pull, always with the tips of your fingers. (Just like the machine does at SixFlags!) This incorporates air in the mixture and gives it the typical, fluffy texture.

When the taffy is very hard to pull and will hold its shape if laid out on the marble slab or pan, it is ready to break off into pieces, but it preferably should be cut with greased scissors. If making several colors of taffy, you may pull each out until thin and then twist them together. For a completely round candy, like a peppermint candystick or cane, roll this twisted mixture on the marble slab to make it even. (If you are trying to make candy canes, make sure you cook the candy to the higher temperature, so it’s harder.) Store taffy in airtight containers, such as cookie tins, between sheets of wax paper or foil, for any moisture in the air will make it quite sticky. It is for this reason that taffy is generally sold with the pieces wrapped individually.

To make Salt Water Taffy add 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt to the recipe.

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