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I'd hate to jinx myself but... after a month and a half of seeing a naprapath and following her exercise and nutrition regimen (mostly), I am starting to see some results. (The chiropractor has helped, too, as the shooting pain alternating with numbness/tingling that goes down my R forearm is probably, as he suggested, at least neck-vertebrae-nerve related (if not wholly to blame, which is his hypothesis, but I'm going to go with "major contributory factor").
I kind of thought the naprapath was, well, overselling the fruit-veg smoothie thing. Not that I thought she was lying, I just thought "It can't be THAT much of a difference, and I already eat those foods, anyway!") What can I say, I'm a skeptic at heart.
The idea that I'd have a spare $400 laying around to buy a Vitamix just for fruit/veg smoothies (when I'm still paying off radiology, doctor visits, and PT from December when I had shitty market place insurance with a $5000 deductible) was a no-go.
But I lucked into a "personal drink mixer" for $14.99 on sale while it was a temporary offering at my local Aldi's, put in my path by the universe/God/whatever about 1.5 weeks after she said I ought to start doing this and I investigated the cost of Vitamix, Ninja and the other one, and was like, "There's no way, not with the bills from December and the new bills from January/February."
( Read more... )
But after 2 weeks of daily organic kale/mango or kale/mixed cherries, I felt so. much. BETTER. it was actually shocking how much better I felt. My mood improved a lot, which surprised the hell out of me. I was just hoping for a decrease in pain/inflammation. And I really didn't understand why the organic kale/spinach and avocados weren't doing the trick when I was eating them almost daily in salads. Apparently, blending the hell out of them into a smoothie and then drinking them helps you get more out of them! Who knew? Not me... not until recently.
I still haven't added the protein powder, but just the fruit/veg (and turmeric and Emergen-C) smoothies daily, combined with naprapathic manipulation every 2 weeks and weekly (or every 2 week) chiropractor visits has reduced the shooting pain &/or tingling/numbness from 15-20 x day to 2-5 x a day.
So excited! I actually have the energy to take the dog on long walks after I get home from work now, instead of just a 5 minute walk and then collapse on the couch after we get back (followed by letting him out on a 20' lead from my front porch).
( Read more... )
It does not escape me that I, a Registered Nurse and representative of modern western conventional medicine, have been helped far more by "alternative medicine" than by conventional medicine.
OTOH, my new insurance through work with the lower deductible ($1,400 rather than $5,000 -- or the $6,000 my shitty marketplace plan was moving to) does not pay for "alternative medicine," so it's taking kind of a large chunk of money out of my life. But I don't go out much, and when I do, it's usually over to someone else's house or having them over to mine (less often), so it's not like I can't swing it, for the most part.
So this is what I make in the morning, EVERY morning:
fill personal drink cup with 1/2 organic baby kale OR organic baby spinach
fill with 1/2 organic defrosted frozen mango/mixed organic cherries
dump in 1 envelope of orange or berry flavored Emergen-C
add 1 teaspoon organic turmeric
fill 2/3 to 3/4 with unsweetened almond milk
blend
drink
I add no sweetener (the Emergen-C is sweetened -- it *says* with "fructose" but I'm not sure if that's really fructorse or HFCS (since food makers are now allowed to call HFCS "fructose")).
Sometimes I'll mix the mangoes and cherries together. Sometimes I'll use a banana or apple instead. Occasionally I've used celery instead of kale or spinach, just for variety and celery is supposed to be anti-inflammatory, too.
Every day, day by day, it's been helping.
Even if I'm only at 55-65% of my functioning -- hey, I was only at about 25-35% function two months ago, constantly in pain, and with no energy, barely able to drag myself to work and drag myself home. I had practically stopped socializing (except for phone convos, texting, and email).
This is so much better.
\o/
I kind of thought the naprapath was, well, overselling the fruit-veg smoothie thing. Not that I thought she was lying, I just thought "It can't be THAT much of a difference, and I already eat those foods, anyway!") What can I say, I'm a skeptic at heart.
The idea that I'd have a spare $400 laying around to buy a Vitamix just for fruit/veg smoothies (when I'm still paying off radiology, doctor visits, and PT from December when I had shitty market place insurance with a $5000 deductible) was a no-go.
But I lucked into a "personal drink mixer" for $14.99 on sale while it was a temporary offering at my local Aldi's, put in my path by the universe/God/whatever about 1.5 weeks after she said I ought to start doing this and I investigated the cost of Vitamix, Ninja and the other one, and was like, "There's no way, not with the bills from December and the new bills from January/February."
( Read more... )
But after 2 weeks of daily organic kale/mango or kale/mixed cherries, I felt so. much. BETTER. it was actually shocking how much better I felt. My mood improved a lot, which surprised the hell out of me. I was just hoping for a decrease in pain/inflammation. And I really didn't understand why the organic kale/spinach and avocados weren't doing the trick when I was eating them almost daily in salads. Apparently, blending the hell out of them into a smoothie and then drinking them helps you get more out of them! Who knew? Not me... not until recently.
I still haven't added the protein powder, but just the fruit/veg (and turmeric and Emergen-C) smoothies daily, combined with naprapathic manipulation every 2 weeks and weekly (or every 2 week) chiropractor visits has reduced the shooting pain &/or tingling/numbness from 15-20 x day to 2-5 x a day.
So excited! I actually have the energy to take the dog on long walks after I get home from work now, instead of just a 5 minute walk and then collapse on the couch after we get back (followed by letting him out on a 20' lead from my front porch).
( Read more... )
It does not escape me that I, a Registered Nurse and representative of modern western conventional medicine, have been helped far more by "alternative medicine" than by conventional medicine.
OTOH, my new insurance through work with the lower deductible ($1,400 rather than $5,000 -- or the $6,000 my shitty marketplace plan was moving to) does not pay for "alternative medicine," so it's taking kind of a large chunk of money out of my life. But I don't go out much, and when I do, it's usually over to someone else's house or having them over to mine (less often), so it's not like I can't swing it, for the most part.
So this is what I make in the morning, EVERY morning:
fill personal drink cup with 1/2 organic baby kale OR organic baby spinach
fill with 1/2 organic defrosted frozen mango/mixed organic cherries
dump in 1 envelope of orange or berry flavored Emergen-C
add 1 teaspoon organic turmeric
fill 2/3 to 3/4 with unsweetened almond milk
blend
drink
I add no sweetener (the Emergen-C is sweetened -- it *says* with "fructose" but I'm not sure if that's really fructorse or HFCS (since food makers are now allowed to call HFCS "fructose")).
Sometimes I'll mix the mangoes and cherries together. Sometimes I'll use a banana or apple instead. Occasionally I've used celery instead of kale or spinach, just for variety and celery is supposed to be anti-inflammatory, too.
Every day, day by day, it's been helping.
Even if I'm only at 55-65% of my functioning -- hey, I was only at about 25-35% function two months ago, constantly in pain, and with no energy, barely able to drag myself to work and drag myself home. I had practically stopped socializing (except for phone convos, texting, and email).
This is so much better.
\o/
