Morgellons!

This is just what I was afraid of. Should have known petitioning and a letter-writing campaign wouldn't have such immediate results.

A few of you heard my story about the customer with the parasites under her skin that wouldn't respond to prescription treatments. The doctors had "never seen anything quite like it." Well, I was catching up on my Natalie Dee the other day and came across this comic:

"What's Morgellons?" I wondered...
A search led me to this website, which told me that Morgellons is a chronic infectious disease of unknown origin. Symptoms include "itching, biting and crawling sensations, “filaments” or fibers which emerge from the skin, skin lesions which range from minor to disfiguring, joint pain, debilitating fatigue, changes in cognition, memory loss, mood disturbance and serious neurological manifestations." The disease has been brushed off for years as delusional parasitosis. This is what the "fibers" look like magnified:

  After extensive tests on the fibers, "scientists, including a police forensics team drew a blank as to their origin, despite comparing them to more than 90,000 organic compounds. Meanwhile, at the State University of New York, Vitaly Citovsky, professor of biochemistry and cell biology, found that the lesions of Morgellons patients test positively for the presence of agrobacterium, a bacterium used in the commercial production of genetically modified food – but not normally found in skin sores."

FREAKY.

So I wonder if the parasite customer has Morgellons disease. No good.

On a lighter note, this is the reason I want to learn to embroider:

Yes, Christopher Walken. More cowbell.

Easter weekend.

It was lovely.
Egg dye & hunt with my parents.
Garden party with Shelly, Adrianna, and Mama Kathleen.
Word games & Scrabble.
Home town grocery shopping.
Native American things & coffee.
Yep.

Thursday mornings are now devoted entirely to housekeeping and working on projects since I don't go to work until eleven. I'm as happy about this productiveness as I am about SPRING.

I finally experimented with the detox foot patches. Here's what I've concluded: the patches turn brown/black when your feet sweat on them...the color is not caused by the removal of toxins. The patches turn the same color when held under the tap. But I don't think this necessarily means that they aren't capable of removing toxins from your body since sweating can play a pretty big role in the detoxification process. I didn't feel any different after using the patches, but I wasn't ailing to begin with. So the color change doesn't equal toxicity, but the patches work for a lot of people...just like the gunk in an ear candle isn't earwax, but tons of people swear by the candling process. (Internet research tells me that apparently some detox pads are complete hoaxes. Make sure your detox foot pad has some or all of the following chemicals: chitin, chitosan, vitamin C, silica, starch, and eucalyptus oil. Lengthier explanation here.)

If you need a new age hooey mythbuster, I'm your woman. Or guinea pig.

Dolphin slaughter, psoriasis, and a couple of recipes.

Love animals? Looking for a tear-jerker? Watch The Cove!

It's currently in first place as my biggest cry of the year and probably won't be beaten unless someone I know and love dies...or something tragic happens on LOST. You can help with the dolphin-savings here.

I'd always wanted to do one of those touristy "swim with the dolphin" things, but not after finding out how crummy the dolphin industry is. Summary: Dudes capture a bunch of potential Flippers in a beautiful cove. Trainers come from around the world once a year to pick out the prettiest little dolphins to take back home to Sea World-ish places, paying the fishermen $150,000 per trainee...and shortly thereafter the un-chosen dolphins get harpooned to death.  Although I would personally never choose to eat a dolphin for dinner, I'm not opposed to the thought of someone else eating a dolphin for dinner...but I am greatly opposed to any method of killing one's dinner that isn't quick and to the point. It's not at all nice to torture your dinner before you eat it. Keep it humane. (Or...you  know...as humane as slaughter can be.)

Now, on to more encouraging things!

A customer with psoriasis came in yesterday with a success story: for years his hands had been so psoriasis-y that he'd had to wear gloves at all times to keep his oozy scabs from getting all over everything. He'd tried every medication available, but nothing helped. A nutritionist suggested he take 50 mg of zinc each day, in addition to a good multivitamin and also cut out all breads and processed starches and sweets from his diet. After a week of doing this he is glove and pain free and the psoriasis is almost entirely gone. Yay for that guy! I love hearing natural remedy success stories and plan to start posting more of them on here. It's amazing what the simplest of changes can do for a person's health.

Next up, a fat-busting smoothie recipe from Dr. Oz!
In a blender combine the following:
     1 c. juice (I used Naked Gold Machine)
     1/2 a banana or 3/4 c. berries (I substituted more Naked juice)
     2 Tbs. whey powder (I substituted rice protein powder)
     2 Tbs. ground flaxseed
     1 Tbs. ground psyllium husk
     1 Tbs. chia seeds
     1 Tbs. wheat germ
     600 mg. fish oil (I used 1 Tbs. flax oil instead)

This might just be my new breakfast of choice. I had one for breakfast and I still have plenty of energy. Crazy. Even on good days I tend to feel like a sloth.

And finally, an almost healthy desert recipe, courtesy of Abi:
Melt 1/3 cup brown rice syrup and 1/3 cup peanut butter on the stove. Remove from heat.
Add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix in 3 cups brown rice crisp cereal and 1/2 cup chocolate chips.
Chill. Devour. Mmmm. It's the healthiest dessert I've found that Marvin actually likes. Pretty pitiful...but it's a start.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I plan on sitting here being freaked out that last night I was running around outside in shorts and a t-shirt, and now I need mittens and a thermal underwear to be comfortable outdoors. This is too much climate change for a twenty-four hour time period!

Love,
Sarah

I haven't felt like this since '99.

I don't remember how to sleep.
Last weekend was phenomenal.
I adore my family.
I beat my mama at Scrabble for the first time in my life.
My heartiest laugh of the year was shared with my dad.
2010 needs more coffee and conversation and quiche and attention deficit strolls with Adrianna.
I've been listening to Placebo. And Shakira.
About the video for She Wolf: Is that a glittery birth canal? I'm convinced it is and would like to put in a request for a glam birth canal and sweet contortionist skills! Or at least rhythm and belly dancing lessons.
We're thinking about changing Mr. Eko's name to Rainman. I'm sure you can guess why.
The latest episode of LOST left me with one fist in the air, mouthing the word, "WAAAAAARRRRR!"
It's detox time. Hello fruit and tea.
I know I've said it before, but life is so good. But I've really got to work on this sleep disorder.

It's almost February already?!?

I just read that the Center for Science in the Public Interest has suggest taxing soft drinks by the ounce and using the profits to improve meals in public schools. Excellent idea, I think.

In honor of the sleet and snow and bitter cold, I am wearing the snowman pajamas my mama made for me years ago. I plan to wear them until the accumulation melts. All of it. I might even wear them until spring. Constantly. Or at least for the entirety of my four day weekend. The only plans I have for this four day weekend are to read, watch movies, write letters, and finish projects that are scattered about. And eat a lot, of course.

I've actually written four letters already this week. I just don't know when I'll get around to mailing them. Lazy.

Two disappointing things I've recently learned after doing a bit of research:
1) John Wayne did not have forty pounds of impacted fecal matter in his colon.
2) Ear candles do not suck wax buildup out of your ears.

The next two health-related things I want to look into are bee pollen and those foot patches that allegedly detox your body. These two just sound too good to be true.

Two. Too. To.

Watch Umberto D. if you have the chance. It's a good 'n.

The brightside.

I kind of like it when I loan Marvin the car and he forgets to pick me up from work, but only because his "apology" is typically in the form of Chinese food. Usually he doesn't forget me...just loses track of time while playing video games and doesn't hear the phone ring when I call him because of the noise canceling headphones I've already griped about in another post. It's convenient that he forgot me today - I need to load up on all the nutrient poor foods that I can before Tuesday rolls around. Tuesday will be day one of a week (or more) of raw vegan food. My raw foodist customers always have the most amazing conversion stories...so I'm gonna give it a try. After that week I'm hoping to stay 100% vegan...and 70+% raw. This will be a big deal for a sugar and carboholic. A very big deal. Even a week of it will be a big deal. HUGE, even! Wish me luck. And wish Marvin even more luck. He's shooting for a week of raw eating too, and the only vegetable that boy likes is the potato. And even the potato has to be either deep fried or smothered with butter and cheese. Oy.

I was curious about what the Freaks and Geeks kids looked like as adults so I did some research and found this (d'awwww):

And this (yowza!):


And this photo of the girl that played Cindy Sanders...the wholesome cheerleader:

These findings made my day.